Dog Friday Download

 The dog days of summer are still over a month away, but in Maine...we sort of have winter...a few days of spring sprinkled in with winter, and then BOOM, summer heat. It is tough for a Mainer to adjust, especially when a whole lot of us function best in the 60s. So, I am thinking since I love dogs and know an abundance of really fantastic books with dog characters, maybe I will start a new Dog Friday blog tradition? Today, three picture books.

 Ivan the Terrier is awesome, and the illustrations are better than watching a movie! Peter Catalanotto did both the words and the illustrations, so they communicate and support each other in a way not always possible with publisher picked illustrators. Next is Lauren Child's Who wants to be a Poodle, I don't. This is a treasure and another illustrated master piece. The presentation of this book is one of a kind. I have not come across anyone else who has this book in their collection and it is such a beauty! This is a bargain book on Amazon and sells for $6.80 in hardcover! It sure is a dog eat dog world in the publishing business.

Lastly, I leave you with Widget. A story about a dog who wants to fit in with a pack of cats, so he meows and soaks in the sun and scratches furniture to sharpen his claws. But when it is all said and done, Widget learns that being yourself is what makes you likable and important. That each of us have qualities that contribute to our community and world at large. This is a great model to use to discuss the inner and outer story, or summary vs. theme. The author is Lyn Rossiter McFarland and the illustrator is Jim McFarland. I just looked on Amazon (I swear I do not work for them- although I should) and learned that this team had written a sequel called Widget & the Puppy.

Please email me at carolvnull@gmail.com for a FREE COMMON CORE ELA Lesson: SUMMARY vs. THEME using the book WIDGET as the mentor text. I am trying to learn how to post a PDF in the meantime!