Boy, Bird, and Dog

August 15, 2011

Boy has a small adventure in a tree house with Bird and Dog.

It involves ingenuity and determination, as Boy finds a way, with Bird's help, to get Dog up into the tree house, employing a pot and a rope and teamwork. It all happens with kindness and gratitude and mom's cookies. The story is told in the sparest of language, with a base of 47 different, frequently repeated words, arranged in the simplest of sentences. Although it is part of an early-reader series, it doesn't feel like a textbook primer, nor does it condescend to emergent readers. It reads smoothly with a clear plot, likable characters and an interesting setting. The text appears in large print at either the top or bottom of each page. McPhail's signature watercolor-and-ink illustrations are large scale with soft edges. The action and characters are well defined and appealing, and Boy's facial expressions depict his imaginative thought processes and exertions, as well as the joy of a successful outcome. Even Dog and Bird manage to convey appropriate emotions with just a slight change in the snout, beak or eyes, or angle of their bodies.

This one could work as a read-aloud, child to adult, with lots of pictorial details to notice and talk about. A sweet, gentle charmer. (Early reader. 4-7)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

November 1, 2011

PreS-Gr 1-These books deftly combine text and art to create a positive experience for new readers. They are larger than typical easy readers, leaving plenty of room for uncluttered, colorful cartoon illustrations and clear, large fonts. The sequencing of events in the uncomplicated plots leads to satisfying conclusions. In the first book, Bjorkman uses repetitive text and playful pictures to introduce appropriate behavior. "Dinosaurs don't run here" is demonstrated by a dismayed dinosaur in front of glassware falling from a china cabinet; opposite, "Dinosaurs do run here" shows two smiling creatures running through a playground. McPhail introduces the concept of up and down in the second title. "Boy saw Bird. Bird was up. Boy went up." When Dog wants to join them in the tree house but can't climb up, the boy comes down and solves the problem by hauling the pup up in a pail. And in Meisel's fun See Me Run, a game of follow the leader gets a pack of dogs running through mud and water and then stopping to dig up a big skeletal surprise. The lines "I run and run./See them come./They come and come./Will they get me?/No, no, no!/We go and go" are accompanied by playful pups of every variety shown running through a park. These titles have similar-sounding vowels and consonants, popular sight words, and short, simple sentences with clear punctuation, making them successful entries in the beginning-reader canon.-Kristine M. Casper, Huntington Public Library, NY

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