The adorable faced dog on the cover 
snatched my attention immediately. Kandy Radzinski draws the personality out of each dog. You get a sense of what each playful pup is like in just two poetic lines.
I read the book to several classes, ranging from first grade to fourth. All the children feel in love with the book What Dogs Want for Christmas. The boys were giving me double thumbs up. Each child seemed to make a connection with at least one puppy, and everyone had a story. I resorted to having the children give a vote if they owned the dog on the page. Excitement grew with each page. I had a lot of fun and laughter while reading this book.
Savorings for reading and in writing for What Dogs Want for Christmas:
- Point of View – a characteristic of each breed is woven into his request
- Note/Letter format – “Dear Santa; Love, General“
- Poetic Narrative
- Apostrophe usage
- Illustrations – intriguingly real; drawing conclusions with the use of added symbols such as cat-faced buttons
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Sounds like a keeper. Wish I could walk down the hallway and borrow it from you. 🙂
What a great start for “What Cats Want for Christmas”, etc.! I love it when a book can be used by multiple age levels effectively.
I love using picture books as springboards for research based creative writing. The fact that a characteristic of each breed influences the request makes me think this might be another one to add to my collection. I love the visual you painted of the building excitement. I think I might have had a few stories to share myself if you were reading to me!