Loved this book! Read it to my 5-year-old and he was engrossed. I especially like that there are no "bad guys" and no violence. It's just a story about keeping a special creature secret so it stays safe from people who won't understand. I also like it because the protagonist is a resourceful girl (about 8 or 9 years old) with a younger brother (5 or 6) who is there for comic relief. Unfortunately, the movie version switched the role of the siblings so that the boy is the lead and older and the girl is marginal. So read the book--it's better than the Hollywood version, which apparently is based on the idea that boys are so much more suitable main characters that they will change the book for no other reason!