Matthea Harvey and Giselle Potter
Schwartz & Wade Books ($17.99)
Not even Gérard de Nerval’s pet lobster can rival Ruby Small’s pet glacier Cecil. Only the fertile and peripatetic mind of poet Matthea Harvey could cook up this children’s story of a recently calved glacier taking a shine to this normal little girl in a brown pinafore on a family trip to Norway. Ruby has had enough of eccentricity, what with the weirdness of her parents’ penchants (her father is a topiary gardener and her mother designs tiaras), and would much rather have a normal pet dog, but Cecil soldiers on and eventually proves his true devotion to Ruby. Gloriously illustrated by Giselle Potter, who manages to give a lump of ice personality, Harvey’s Cecil the Pet Glacier redefines what is normal or really should be normal: tolerance, acceptance, and unconditional love. With the threat of global warming looming, maybe all of us will need to adopt a glacier soon.