Summer Reading with Daisy: "Bark, George"

This week, I am bringing you a book that is sure to inspire non-talkers like myself.  Bark, George is written and illustrated by Jules Feiffer.  I love the story and the pictures of the little pup, George, are darling!

George's mom tells him to bark.  Instead of a 'woof', an animal sound comes out of his mouth!  Here, George says "Meow" (that's for you, Madi).

Poor George's mom gets so frustrated with him.  He just keeps talking in farm animal speak, not dog.  Here he says, "oink". His mom decides to take him to the vet.

Thankfully, none of our dog-tors stick their hands down our throats and pull out a PIG!  Poor George had all of these animals inside of him!  No wonder he couldn't bark!

There's a little twist at the end because George then says...

Hahahahaha - I bet you can guess what happened!  Wouldn't it be fun to talk in different animal languages?!

Summer Reading With Daisy: The Day The Crayons Quit

Hey Everyone! It's me, Daisy!  I'm back with summer reading every Wednesday.  I have a whole stack of books to tell you about.  First up, The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt.  We know crayons all quit on the last day of school, but this isn't a story about summer vacation.  The story starts off with Duncan (!!!) getting a stack of letters...from his crayons!  

Each crayon wrote a letter to Duncan.  They talked about how they aren't used enough, are his favorite, are only used for holidays and firetrucks (red), which is the real color of the sun (orange or yellow), and how they are happy with their career so fat (green).

Poor beige.  He's tired of being second place to Brown because Brown gets all the puppies, bears, and ponies. Beige just gets wheat and maybe a turkey dinner.  I need to have a talk with Beige...he's missing out on drawing a lot of Wheatie puppies!  Beige would be used all the time for drawing me!!!!

This is the funniest part of the book in my opinion.  Peach is NAKED!  Hahahahaha!  Poor Peach had it's clothes torn off and is now too embarrassed to leave the box.  We all know crayons like Peach.

On the last page, Duncan honored all the crayons' request and created a masterpiece.

This is such a creative book and really makes you think about the crayons in your box.  The illustrations by Oliver Jeffers make you really relate to the crayons' emotions.  We know you'd want to color a masterpiece, too, after reading this story!

Summer Reading With Daisy: "David Goes To School"

School starts tomorrow.  It's our last night of summer vacation.  For my last summer review, I picked David Goes To School by David Shannon.  Good Boy, Fergus, also by David Shannon, kicked off my summer reading - so I decided to end with another book by him.  There are a lot of David books.  The first graders always get a kick out of David because he's so naughty.  We are secretly hoping there is not a "David" in this year's class!

David hears the word "no" a lot because he has no self control.  We talk about what David could have done instead.

When you are a little kid or puppy, this is always an issue.  Always.

Oh, David is sooooooo bad!  Do you see the drawing of Fergus on his desk?

David finally gets to go home.  We always hope David can follow the rules and is ready to learn when he comes back to school the next day.

I helped make some "magic dough" for the students tomorrow.  Every student gets a little ball of dough. There's magic in the air on the first day of first grade for a first grader.  If you squish the dough (when you get the OK to!) and it turns a color, you are going to have a GREAT year!  If it doesn't turn a color, UH OH.

We hope all the first graders have a magical first year and don't have a "David" in their class!!
oxox
Daisy

Summer Reading With Daisy: The Paper Bag Princess

The Paper Bag Princess is another fun book by Robert Munsch. It is fairy tale-ish, with familiar characters...and a big twist!

"Princess Elizabeth was a beautiful princess."  She was going to marry perfect Prince Ronald.

A dragon destroyed the castle, prince-napped Ronald, and burned off Princess Elizabeth's clothes!  There was only one thing not burned by the dragon - a paper bag.  Princess Elizabeth put it on and followed the dragon in order to save the prince.

The dragon loved to breathe fire and was a little too self confident.  Elizabeth tricks him so she can rescue Prince Ronald.

When Princess Elizabeth rescues the prince, instead of being happy, he tells her she's filthy!  The not so prince-ly prince tells her to come back when she's dressed like a real princess.

The ending is the BIG twist and makes all the kids cheer.

Michael Martchenko illustrated this book, like so many other Robert Munsch books.  I have to say, this is one of my favorite Munsch books!
Happy Reading!
oxox
Daisy

Summer Reading With Daisy: If You Give A Dog A Donut

This is a REAL book!  It says dogs can have donuts!  If You Give A Dog A Donut is one of the "If you give a..." books.  The first one was If You Give A Mouse A Cookie.  They are all written by Laura Numeroff and illustrated by Felicia Bond.  You can't go wrong with any book in this collection.  The dog one is my favorite, of course.

These books are so fun to read because they are a circle story.  So, the main character (Dog) starts with getting something (donut).

Then, the dog goes through a series of different events all stemming from the donut.

He even pretends he's a pirate!

Just when you think this tale could go on forever with all the tangents he has,  the dog ends up back at the starting point...getting a donut.  This is the best part of the story - finding out how the story circles back to the beginning.

So, if you read a book about a dog and a donut, the dog has to have a donut!

If You Give A Dog A Donut is such a tasty and fun book to read.  There are similar stories about a mouse (cookie), moose (muffin), pig (pancake), and cat (cupcake).
Happy Reading!
oxox
Daisy

Summer Reading With Daisy: You Will Be My Friend!

Since this is Safety Week here in Blogville, I selected a book that addresses an issue facing many of us - not being yourself because you want to be friends with creatures you shouldn't.  I shared You Will Be My Friend with Aly and Dixie. The three of us keep trying to be friends with lizards and bunnies, but they just don't want to be friends with us.  

Peter Brown wrote and illustrated this book.  We really like the pictures that are so colorful and engaging.  

Lucy (the bear) tells her mom she is going to make a new friend.  There are so many critters in the forest, she is bound to find a friend.  She climbed up a tree to meet a giraffe.  The giraffe glared at Lucy because she was sitting in his BREAKFAST!  They did not become friends. 

Lucy tried so hard to make friends and tried acting just like the critters.  She felt so silly because she just didn't fit in with them.  I can't fly like the birds I want to be friends with, so I totally understand Lucy's predicament. 

Be aware Blogville friends - if bees invite you over, don't eat their house.  They will be mad.

Lucy finally made a friend when she stopped trying to be like others and just was herself.

You Will Be My Friend is a fun book to read and share with anyone who has trouble making friends.  I know I need to be myself and that means I might not be able to make friends with lizards and bunnies. Luckily, I do have LOTS of friends who I can be myself around!  Peter Brown has written a lot of books we love.  One book I know that will crack you up is:

Happy Reading!
oxox
Daisy

Safety week is going strong here in Blogville!  Tomorrow, August 14, is the deadline to submit your pictures for my sandbox on August 16.  Here are the contestants so far for the "So You Think You Can Dig" contest:
Hailey
Phod
Greta
Frankie and Ernie
Beachnut
Sarge, Frankie, and Ernie

If you have a digging picture, please send it to daisythescottieATgmailDOTcom by Thursday night

Upcoming Safety Week Classes:
August 14
Pet Fire Safety – Five Sibes  
First Aid Tips – Goose   
Hot Weather Safety – Idaho Pugs  
Pet Insurance – Bunk   
Microchipping –  Wallace and Samuel   

August 15
Search & Rescue – Bert  
Zoomie Safety – Mille and Walter   
Stormy Weather Safety – Casey and Cinderella     
Water Safety – Lily and Edward 
Pickpocket Protection –  Easy 

August 16
Picnic –   Sasha & Ruby 
DJ Rockin’ Wills –  Sweet William the Scot  
Bad Dawg Agency 
Surf Jammers concert 
ADTR Fundraiser Kissing Booth – Mona and Prissy    
Bounce House – Frankie and Ernie  
Sand Box –  Daisy 

Summer Reading With Daisy: How Rocket Learned To Read

I have a very important book this week about a skill everyone had to learn.  How Rocket Learned To Read is a tail tale about the journey a pup takes learning how to READ!  Rocket is also the mascot for the Orange County Public Library summer reading program.  We think they couldn't have picked a better character.

Tad Hills wrote and illustrated this book.  He has a real dog named Rocket.  Tad says real life Rocket can't read, but I think he can.  The story begins with Rocket doing dog things - I think we all can relate.

He spies a book in a tree that a little yellow bird was reading.  Rocket was intrigued.  The little bird became his teacher and taught him the first step in reading - recognizing the letters.

Next, Rocket started putting sounds together to make words.  I love this page because he read "grrrrrrrrrrrrr".

Once Rocket could blend his words, he was ready to tackle reading!  You just can't stop yourself from reading once you know how.  Hooray - Rocket learned to read.

Tad Hills has written several books about Rocket that I will try to review this summer. His illustrations make it seem like you could really feel Rocket's fur!  This is an inspirational book to read to little people who are ready to read or are just starting to read.

Happy Reading!

oxox

Daisy

Summer Reading With Daisy: Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site

I have a whole lot of construction going on in my yard right now.  Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site is the perfect book to read right before you go to bed if you like hard-working trucks and wonder what happens at the end of their day.  It has a lot of fun rhymes and you get to read about all the machines in the construction yard!  This is an e-book checked out from our library.  Libraries are the BEST!!

I was a little worried when we got to the cement mixer page.  I heard one is going to be visiting my house soon.

He stops his spinning at the end of the day and goes to bed with a blanket.  I guess he can't be that bad!

There are so many trucks to read about in this story.  I had no idea there were machines that can dig more than I can!  I found out they get tired, just like I do after a big dig.

Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site is written by Sherri Duskey Rinker.  She has two boys and knew they'd love a good truck book.  It's illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld who also wrote another favorite of mine ~

Duck! Rabbit!.  I still can't make up my mind which one it is!

Happy Reading!

oxox

Daisy

Summer Reading With Daisy: A Ball For Daisy

This week's selection is another book close to my heart.  A Ball For Daisy is an award winning book...and it doesn't have ANY WORDS!  It's true - it's a book that anyone can read.  Each time I read A Ball For Daisy, I make up a different story.  Have you ever just read pictures?  You should try it today and then encourage a little person to read just the pictures.  They feel so grown up when they can read a story to you!

So, as you correctly guessed from the title, this book is about a dog named Daisy and a ball.  I brought my ball along because I thought it'd like to hear the story.  Chris Raschka illustrated the whole book and penned the most perfect title ever.

You are not going to believe this, but 'some doggie' makes an appearance in this story!  Look what some doggie does to Daisy's ball.  Sometimes, you lose something you really love and are so sad.

I have personal experience with some doggie destroying my toys.  I just don't know how it happens.

Don't read about Snow Crab, ok?

Hooray for a happy ending! You won't see what's coming the first time you read the story.  I was surprised myself, so I don't want to give away how Daisy gets a new ball.  It's my favorite part!

Chris Raschka also wrote Yo? Yes!, which is another great book for all readers.

                         

Another amazing book to practice reading pictures is Tuesday by David Wiesner.  Take a look...

                                

It doesn't matter how old you are, YOU can read A Ball For Daisy! Crabby is off for a little plastic surgery.

Happy Reading!
oxox
Daisy