Socks by Beverly Cleary

★★★★★

Being as big a fan of Beverly Cleary as I am, I can't believe I hadn't read this one before. As it turns out, I think this book would be a good read not only for elementary school-aged kids, but also for first-time expectant parents, especially those with pets, and also parents who are expecting their second child (to gently remind them not to inadvertently neglect the first-born).

Socks is a cat who was adopted by a lovely couple. He had a happy life until the day the couple had their own baby. As the first-time parents fussed over their precious Charles William - with a certain amount of comical cluelessness that I recall from my own first days as a new parent! - poor Socks was ignored, overlooked, and actually relegated to the laundry room.

The good news is, there is a happy ending. But along the way, I really felt for Socks! Poor thing. He deserved better.

Ribsy (Henry Huggins #6) by Beverly Cleary

★★★★

I'm so sad to see the Henry Huggins series come to an end!

In this book, Ribsy gets lost, and we follow his adventures as he tries to find his way home. It reads kind of like Harry the Dirty Dog, in that the main character is a dog, and we see events from the dog's perspective.

This is a great book about Ribsy, but I did find that I missed Henry and Beezus and the other kids on Klickitat Street. Isabelle gave it 4 stars because she thought it was too exciting; she actually felt a lot of anxiety about whether or not and how Ribsy would get back to Henry. I had to repeatedly reassure her that Beverly Cleary wouldn't let Ribsy stay lost forever, and it was a bit of comfort, too, that she peeked ahead and saw an illustration of Henry and Ribsy together at the very end of the book.