Book excerpt: Fifty years after the publication of Robert the Rose Horse comes Joan Heilbroner's second Beginner Book--A Pet Named Sneaker, with illustrations by Pascal Lemaitre. A madcap tale reminiscent of The Cat in the Hat, Go, Dog. Go , and A Fish Out of Water, Sneaker is the story of a pet-store snake who longs for a real home. When he is finally adopted by Pete--a young boy charmed by Sneaker's uncanny ability to twist himself into different shapes--Sneaker not only proves himself a good pet, but proves to be a good student (sneaking into school with Pete and learning to read and write); a good citizen (saving a drowing toddler at a community pool); and a goodwill ambassador for the entire animal kingdom (inspiring the community to open the pool to all animals) With delightfully understated, wickedly funny illustrations by Pascal Lemaitre, this is a fantastic, funny book that will sneakily get beginning readers reading on their own Originally created by Dr. Seuss, Beginner Books encourage children to read all by themselves, with simple words and illustrations that give clues to their meaning.