Capyboppy Paperback – Illustrated, April 29, 1985

Found Capyboppy fascinating. This is based on a true story of the capybara Bill Peet's son got as a pet. Capyboppy was first published in 1966. I am glad it is still in print at a time when capybaras are suddenly very popular. The interior illustrations are black and white. Looks like they were drawn with graphite pencils. Peet was, at this point, a former Disney animator, his illustration have great verve. The illustrations remind me of the work of Robert Lawson or Robert McCloskey.Spoiler Alert: If you are reading this to a very young child, you might want to read ahead to page 44. The capybara bites Tommy, the neighbor boy, so hard that the boy's scalp bleeds. In today's world of publishing this passage would not likely see print. I found it surprising and remarkable and believable. Personally, I think it is O.K. to edit a portion of a story if you are reading it aloud to a young child. The child old enough to read Capyboppy on their own will be able to handle this somewhat violent plot twist.

I am so glad this book is still in print! With all its great drawings, too! This book is written with the kind of joyful verve that I find to be so wonderfully characteristic of scientists - I mean the "natural scientists" who study the fascinating world of nature, be it biology, astronomy, geology, paleontology/evolution, ecology and paleo-ecology, oceanography ... the list of possible fields here is a joyfully long one. Anyone who thinks science is "dry" is missing a lot, and this book, written for children but very enjoyable for all ages, will very pleasantly help to cure them of that notion! Besides, how can one not want to read about a big, bouncy giant rodent so full of PERSONALITY! (As an aside, for those who have followed a long-standing controversy regarding the taxonomic classification of this small Order or Suborder, which also includes guinea pigs and porcupines, some scientists still do prefer the term Hystricomorpha to Rodentia. Go check it out, if you're curious!)

Unlike Bill Peet's usual wonderfully illustrated children's books about fictional animals, this one is an account of his family's real life experience when their son brought home a capybara, a huge South American rodent that was not meant to be a house pet. Same wonderful illustrations for kids to enjoy and with the always valuable lesson that wild animals are best left in the wild, no matter how cute they are when young. A good read on your own for upper elementary kids.

I borrowed this book from the library multiple times when my sons were young. They loved all of Bill Peet’s books, this one included. It’s completely different from the majority of his books, which are rhyming and about imaginary creatures. My boys still really liked this book - it captivated their imaginations to think about having such a pet in our backyard, and to see one of them at the zoo. This isn’t a book that they wanted me to read to them repeatedly, like the rhyming, imaginary books, but they enjoyed it occasionally. That makes it a good choice to have at my house: books that they want to read frequently, I want them to have at their house. But a book like this is fun to read sometimes when they spend the night with me.

I loved this book, reading it to my second graders decades ago! A beautiful true story, I always got a lump in my throat.

Great lessons in this book, combined with charmingly gentle humor Bill Peet, writer of Disney's Sword and the Stone, was so famous for. Good lesson for kids: don't get a high maintenance, wild animal for a pet if you are not prepared to take care of it properly, and research your pet to see if it's a fit for your family. Understand all that is involved. This is one of my favorite Bill Peet books. This is a very sweet book, and one of my children's favorites too.

Charming, true story about a family who kept a capybara as a pet.

The Adventures of Celeste the Cat: Celeste and the Giant HamsterWhen we got our pet capybara, Caplin Rous, this book served as a valuable guide for how to take care of a pet capybara. In many ways Caplin is very much like Capyboppy and in other ways he is quite different. It was hilarious when Caplin did something where he looked like one of the wonderful illustrations of Capyboppy in this book. We got him an inner tube just so we could see him sit in it. Turns out he loves that inner tube but we keep it in his pool.