Zack's Alligator

Zack's Alligator by Shirley Mozelle, illustrated by James Watts is the story a boy named Zack who recieves an alligator key chain in the mail and when he waters it the alligator begins to grow and comes to life. This story is an older book published by Harper & Row in 1989. It can be placed in the fantasy fiction genre. It is appropriate for children grades k-3.
Zack recieves a packages in the mail from his uncle Jim in the everglades of Florida. It is an alligator key chain that Zack is instructed to water. When Zack puts Bridget, the alligator in the sink she comes to life and quickly starts to grow. He has to move her to the bathtub soon because she grows too large for the sink. Bridget is a fun-loving but bossy alligator that takes Zack on an adventure. The make meatloaf surprise and go to the park. At the end of the story Bridget starts to shrink again and eventually shrinks back to down to key chain size. The story ends kind of abruptly with Zack promising to water Bridget again tomorrow and Bridget being happy to live in Zack's pocket.
This story is a fun way for kids to imagine what it would be like to have an exotic pet. However, it is a very unrealistic as the parents and other people in the story just sort of accept that this kid has an alligator that he got in the mail. I liked the story because of the imagination involved and also because of the pictures.
This story can be useful in a classroom when discussing manners. Bridget the Alligator is very bossy and messy and does not apologize or offer to help clean up her mess. I don't know how a child would feel, but I was left kind of hoping Zack would leave her as a key chain so she wouldn't cause anymore problems! This book is mostly a fun book for kids to read. There is a lot of text so kids could get more practice at reading than with smaller books. Overall this book is good, but not the best example of children's literature.