Ten Kids, No Pets
Encyclopedia
Ten Kids, No Pets is a children's novel written by Ann M. Martin. She has also written a sequel entitled Eleven Kids, One Summer
.
The story begins with their move from a New York City
apartment to a New Jersey
farmhouse
. Each chapter deals with one child's views on how to adjust to their new home (like Woody's attempts to be a comedian like Woody Allen, Hardy wanting to be a detective like the Hardy boys, Hannah feeling left out of the family, Bainbridge struggling in vain to pull together a local kids' football team) and the collective attempts of the children to obtain a pet, despite how their parents argue with ten children, they should not have a pet.
The children finally win their battle to obtain a pet when their parents announce that they are breaking the rules and having an eleventh child (ruining their mother's image of a perfect staircase of children), which will be named Kelly or Keegan, depending on the gender (which ends up being a boy according to Eleven Kids, One Summer). Since their parents have broken the rules, their mother relents and allows them to get a dog. However, they change their minds when they find a stray kitten. Taking after their mother, they decide the cat "Zsa Zsa" or "Zuriel", the last names of the book of baby book, thus reversing their mother's system. The kids are thrilled about this.
Eleven Kids, One Summer
Eleven Kids, One Summer is a children's novel written by Ann M. Martin in 1991. It is the sequel to Ten Kids, No Pets.-Plot:...
.
Plot
The Rosso family has ten children, who were named using their incredibly organized mother's naming system, where the first child's name would be the first name of the A section of a book of baby names (the girls' section or the boys' section, depending on the gender), the second child by the second name of the B section of the book, and so on. As such, the ten children have been named Abigail (Abbie), Bainbridge, Calandra (Candy), Dagwood (Woody), Eberhard (Hardy), Faustine and Gardenia (Dinnie) (the twins), Hannah, Ira, and Janthina (Jan).The story begins with their move from a New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
apartment to a New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
farmhouse
Farmhouse
Farmhouse is a general term for the main house of a farm. It is a type of building or house which serves a residential purpose in a rural or agricultural setting. Most often, the surrounding environment will be a farm. Many farm houses are shaped like a T...
. Each chapter deals with one child's views on how to adjust to their new home (like Woody's attempts to be a comedian like Woody Allen, Hardy wanting to be a detective like the Hardy boys, Hannah feeling left out of the family, Bainbridge struggling in vain to pull together a local kids' football team) and the collective attempts of the children to obtain a pet, despite how their parents argue with ten children, they should not have a pet.
The children finally win their battle to obtain a pet when their parents announce that they are breaking the rules and having an eleventh child (ruining their mother's image of a perfect staircase of children), which will be named Kelly or Keegan, depending on the gender (which ends up being a boy according to Eleven Kids, One Summer). Since their parents have broken the rules, their mother relents and allows them to get a dog. However, they change their minds when they find a stray kitten. Taking after their mother, they decide the cat "Zsa Zsa" or "Zuriel", the last names of the book of baby book, thus reversing their mother's system. The kids are thrilled about this.