Erica's Elephant, by Sylvia Bishop

An elephant shows up on a Practical Girl's doorstep, and together they discover the true meaning (and responsibility) of friendship.

This book has a couple of core themes. One is the importance of personal autonomy, over and above material needs. It's quite adamant about the importance of respect for personhood, and how aggressively bad our institutions are at respecting or even NOTICING the autonomy and personhood of various non-powerful groups.

Secondly, and relatedly, this book is a damning indictment of the bureaucratic state, up there with a Hayek or a Friedman in showing how

1) the state doesn't have the relevant information to make good decisions on behalf of society,
2) bureaucrats develop their own interests and self-perpetuate bureaucracies that morph to serve the bureaucrats own ends (and employment), not the public good, 3) the greatest danger is when business and government begin colluding, often via licensing requirements and other means of administrative control, dressed up in pro-social sophistry but ultimately just grabs at power, and
4) any and every law and regulation is ultimately backed up by the threat of violence.

Great book, quick read but highly thought provoking, highly recommend it.

p.s. this is technically a children's book but everything I said about it is also accurate