Looking for a read aloud?

I was at the public library when the title of this book caught my eye.

The Dog, the Cat, the Exploding Eggs, the Wolf, and Grandma
by Diane Fox
illustrated by Christyan Fox

In this book, the Cat is reading Little Red Riding Hood when the dog arrives. When the dog hears that Little Red Riding Hood is wearing a red cape, he immediately concludes she must be a super hero. Cat tries to explain the story to Dog, who continues asking questions. Cat gets increasingly frustrated with the dog, and finally tells him to go find his own book to read.

This is my favorite page:

I read this book to my son (age 6) and he LOVED it. It's perfectly suited for kids in K-2, but I think older kids would also enjoy it--who doesn't enjoy reading about kindness rays and exploding eggs? It could be used to work on a wide range of literacy skills.

How could this book be used in class?

Model or practice fluency: reading with feeling

Older kids or very advanced readers would really enjoy doing this as a readers theater. For younger kids, you could pick a page or two for them to perform.

Identify character feelings or traits.

Mentor text for writing a dialogue.

Analyze Dog as a reader: Throughout the story we get to witness Dog using research-based comprehension strategies. I can't think of another book where one of the characters actually models good reading strategies.

1. Asking questions--and these are often higher-order thinking questions like: "Why didn't the wolf just eat her then and there?" and "Are you sure this is a children's book?"

2. Inferring--although he often infers incorrectly

3. Visualizing--we see dog acting out his own ideas as well as some of the actual scenes from the story.

4. Making Connections--Dog clearly has some background knowledge about the role of wolves from other stories he knows.

5. Synthesizing--Dog's thinking about the story evolves as he learns more.

I'm just so excited about this book!

This post is linked with Book Talk Thursday hosted by Andrea at Reading Toward the Stars. She's running a giveaway on her page, so be sure to enter while you're there.

Have you entered my giveaway yet? There's still time!

I'm giving away copies of my two new products.