"Quirky dioramas illustrate this explication of pet care. Rudy's carefully composed scenes feature clever components and unexpected details, including felted figures, repurposed household objects, torn paper and objects from the natural world. . . . The illustrations, meanwhile, provide offbeat extensions of the simple text."
"What makes this book stand apart from the pack are Rudy’s squeal-inducing photographs of the quirky dioramas she has created with mouse figurines, miniature props, and backdrops in the form of evocative collages of textbook pages, leaves, stamps, acorns, and more...readers will practically die that these play sets aren’t for sale.... It’s whole gobs of fun watching the mice react with shocked, studious, or satisfied expressions, which will likely be mirrored by readers."
* "This ordinary pet book is transformed by Rudy's (The House That Mouse Built) beguiling handmade mice, which she poses and photographs in scenes made even more fetching with dozens of small props. That the pet-owners are small, pet-worthy mice is the source of many smiles. . . . The layout is spare and elegant, and the typography clear and understated. With lots to look at on each page, readers have the chance to imagine what life would be like on an entirely different scale."
"[S]nuggle up to I Wish I Had a Pet and revel in the world that Rudy has created. . . . Each spread is a marvel of a little mouse world where young children will want to explore all the details. Through these amazing scenes, Rudy offers wise advice about pet ownership. . . . It will be hard to resist the call for a pet after reading this treasure to your pet-starved youngster."
"Using found art and some handmade items, Rudy has created an imaginative world filled with mice and the pets they might make their own—or not. . . . This tale would be useful as a model for writing about the pets children want, and art teachers could make a lesson exposing children to using found objects in their work."
"Where you find children, there you will find pet owners—or at least children who aspire to have creatures all their own, which they double-triple swear they will take care of, promise! In "I Wish I Had a Pet". . . Maggie Rudy moves this familiar yearning from the human world to a hilarious series of photographed tableaux featuring felt-and-fabric mice so cunningly devised that they almost look real. . . . Ms. Rudy's narration emphasizes that pets require conscientious care and a certain amount of respect. . . . This sweet, visually detailed picture book would be ideal for a 3- to-7-year-old whose parents show signs of succumbing to a please-may-I-have-a-pet campaign."
"Fashionably dressed mice give advice about owning a pet. . . . The book features adorable photographic images of the mice with their own pets such as bumblebees, ladybugs, and butterflies."