Xerus Won't Allow It

An African ground squirrel of the genus Xerus. I used to love these books as a kid and was so excited to see them online! Now as an adult my dad and I still try to remember the names of all the animals and their personalities. I definately recommend this as an educational tool, and also something your kids will remember fondly even as adults.

I got 5 of the Sweet Pickles books as hand-me-downs, and posters at my middle school and high school reminded me of this wonderful 26-book series. I collected all 26 and later realized that they couldn't think of an animal beginning with X, so in order to have 26 animals for each letter of the alphabet, they took a squirrel and applied the name "Xerus" to it because(I think)one type of squirrel has Xerus in its latin name.

This was my favorite in the series (if I am thinking of the right one). I don't have the books anymore, but they are a very fond memory from my childhood. Xerus - I can't remember what he looks like! But, the story goes that Xerus is obsessed with everyone following the rules. He goes to the extreme of starting to post signs around town for everyone to follow. It gets way out of hand...there are signs everywhere! The signs start conflicting, such as "don't walk on the grass" and "don't walk on the sidewalk", so the other animals start getting very confused and upset with what they can and cannot do. In the end, the animals come over to Xerus' house and post this giant billboard outside his house that says something like "no more signs" or "no more rules".

I hope that I'm not the only one who remembers these Sweet Pickles book. This book was pretty entertaining as a child. There are 26 letters in the alphabet and for the Sweet Pickles series, each main character, an animal, represented a letter of the alphabet. "X" is for "xerus", but does anyone know what a xerus is?