Tuesday, September 25, 2012

DOG GONE and WOOF WOOF













Title: The Stray Dog
Author:  Reiko Sasso Retold by Marc Simont
Illustrator:  Marc Simont
Published:  Harper Collins
Copyright:  2011
Pages: 32
Category:  Children/ Fictional Picture Book




Choosing this book was not hard at all. Working at McDonald's I see it all. Several of the customers are always feeding and trying to capture the stray dogs that come along. This book is a true story about a family who goes on a picnic one Saturday and meet a stray dog. The family falls in love with him and names him Willy. They couldn’t take him home because his family may be searching for him. The family thought about him so much; they forgot what they were doing. The next Saturday they went to the park looking for Willy, but he is being chased by a dogcatcher. After talking and convincing the dogcatcher he was their dog, Willy has a family to go home with. 

The illustrations are done in rich watercolor, but the pictures really tell the story to be honest. Some of the illustrations use facial expressions, like the father looking out the corner of his eyes, and the little boy holding his pants after taking the belt off. The text is on every page except four, the opening page of the bridge with the city skyline and the children claiming Willy. The illustrator used expressionist artistic style which makes the book more real life charm. 

I would recommend this book for first-third grade as a starter book because of the sight words. I would use this as an activity on how to spot a stray dog and what to do if one was found. Ask the children what would they do if they saw a stray dog. Because many kids love animals this would be a good read aloud book. This book is a 2002 Caldecott Honor book.



















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