Max wants a pet, and a pet cloud seems way better than a cat, dog, or fish. A cloud is clean, quiet, and doesn't shed. How hard could it be to take care of a puffy cloud? Author Amanda Rawson Hill subtly blends lessons on responsibility, problem solving, and friendship with lots of humor for a unique approach to the typical pet story. The added science element provides the perfect combination of learning and fun in a picture book illustrated by Laia Arriols.
"This book uses comic illogic to show how difficult, but rewarding, getting and caring for a pet can be. In this case, the pet is a rescue cloud. Young Max has a mother who is absolutely opposed to his having a pet on account of noise, mess, and animal hair. In a delightful ludicrous leap, Max takes home a small, cheerful-looking cumulus cloud he finds wandering close to the ground, thinking he's found a completely noise-, mess-, and hair-free pet. But Fluffy has his own problems: he precipitates on the rug and runs away at the slightest puff of wind. When a big storm carries Fluffy away, Max and mom embark on a cross-country trek to find him, and incredibly, Fluffy blows in months later during Max's baseball game. The illustrations match the text's whimsy, with the boy's semicircles of hair repeated in the cloud and landscape. The "Rescue Clouds Ready for Adoption" section at book's end is a fun way to inform readers about other types of clouds."
