A warm, endearing story about a little girl who comes to realize that parakeet is a wonderful pet after all. ( )

In this children’s book, the text teaches children to appreciate what they have. Two sisters, who go by the names of Ava and Arlie, enter to win a poem writing contest. This contest is held at a pet shop, “Mr. Noah’s Pet Shop”. If you win this contest, you are rewarded with a pet. The girls end up entering a poem about a dog, since they want one desperately, more Ava than Arlie. The girls impatiently waiting by the phone finally receive a phone call from Mr. Noah after a few weeks with the great news of being the contest winners. Jumping with joy, they wait on Mr. Noah who shows up at the door shortly after with a big brown box. It’s a bird in a cage! Arlie and their mother were ecstatic, Ava on the other hand, not so much. She didn’t want an “Old dumb bird” her mom then said to her “winners can’t be loser”. She then got used to Lucille, the bird, which was supposed to be the dog’s name. Ava grows a strong love for Lucille; she was happy they won her instead of a dog. The pictures in this book bring life to the storyline; the facial expressions and the mannerisms are exact. With the flip of each page, the illustrations are more enjoyable than the previous. The pictures set the mood and make you want to wonder what is yet to come. The author and illustrator in this book happen to be two different people, the author is Carie Best and the illustrator is Madeline Valentine. Best is a well-known award-winner in pictures books, she currently lives in West Brooke, Connecticut. Valentine is also the illustrator of “Albertine’s Got Talent” which is written by Shena Power. She graduated from Pratt Institute and lives in Brooklyn, New York.