The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

The book is about four brothers and sister, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy
(in order from oldest to youngest), who discover a magic world through a wardrobe. The children are sent to a school in London to live with old Professor Digory and Mrs. Macready. One day while it is raining the children decide to explore the house and Lucy discovers the magic land of Narnia through an old wardrobe in a hidden room. She meets a faun, Mr. Tumnus. At first he tries to take her to his home so he can turn her over to the white witch because all the creatures of Narnia are ordered that if they ever see a “Son of Adam or a Daughter of Eve” they must capture them and turn them over or they will get charged with treason. Tumnus brings Lucy to his cave but instead of tricking her into going with him to the queen, he grows quite fond of her and tells her the whole story of how he is really trying to capture her right now and that he is sorry. Lucy accepts his apology and tells him to not feel bad, for he is really a nice faun. He then helps her return to her world, back through the wardrobe. When Lucy returns she tries to tell her brothers and sisters about Narnia, but they think that she has gone mad, and Edmund even takes it further as to mock her. Lucy is very upset by this and locks herself in her room for two days. On the third day, the children decide to play hide and seek, and Lucy winds up hiding in the wardrobe. Edmund sees her go into the wardrobe, and decides to follow her. When Edmund arrives in Narnia he does not see Lucy, but he does get approached by the White Witch (he does not know at the time that it is the White Witch because she announces herself as “Queen of Narnia”, although she is not). The White Witch invites Edmund to come with her on her sleigh so he can get warm, and spoils him with Turkish delights and hot cocoa. She then asks him to bring the rest of his brothers and sisters to Narnia, and tells him that is he follows her orders, he will be prince and then King of Narnia. He agrees to this and accidentally slips that Mr. Tumnus helped Lucy get out of the wardrobe safely. The White Witch is angered by this news, but she does not show Edmund and she leaves him. As soon as the White Witch leaves, Lucy runs up to Edmund, ecstatic to see him. He does not tell her about the White Witch and they both return to the wardrobe. When they return Lucy is excited to tell Peter and Susan that Edmund went to Narnia with her, but when she tells them Edmund lies and says that he did not go and that he was just pretending with Lucy. This makes Lucy even more upset than the first time they didn’t believe her, and Peter gets mad at Edmund for being so mean to Lucy. A few days pass and the argument slowly blows over. The kids decide that they want o explore the house some more, so they begin to explore. On this particular day Mrs. Macready is giving a tour to guest, and the children were told not to make a ruckus when guest were in the house. To try to get away from Mrs. Macready and the guest before they get in trouble all of the children rush into the secret room and then into the wardrobe. They all begin to fight through the coats in the wardrobe and end up falling into snow. In shock and amazement, Susan and Peter realize that they are in fact in Narnia. They immediately apologize to Lucy and make Edmund apologize also. They then ask Lucy what she wants to do, and she takes them to Mr. Tumnus’ house. When they arrive at the cave they the children find that his cave has been broken into and he has been taken into captivity by the witch. Lucy is very upset by this, but the children do not wish to waste any time, and they decide they must go and help Mr. Tumnus. While walking through the forest they are encountered by a beaver, Mr. Beaver, who request to take them back to his dam and explain to them how important they are and tell them about the prophecy of Narnia. When they arrive at the dam Mrs. Beaver has dinner ready, to the children’s delight, and they sit down to dinner and Mr. and Mrs. Beaver begin to explain the prophecy. They tell the children how Narnia was put under a spell by the White Witch, a spell that makes it always winter and never Christmas in Narnia, and the only way the spell can be broken is when the 2 sons of Adam and the 2 daughters of Eve sit on the 4 thrones in The Great Hall of Cair Paravel, after fighting in a battle with Aslan the Lion, King of Narnia. When Mr. Beaver was done talking to the kids, everyone realized that Edmund was missing. They ran out looking for him but they soon realized that he had betrayed them and went to the White Witch’s castle. When Edmund reaches the castle the Witch is furious that he came without his brother’s and sisters and instead of treating him to Turkish delights she gives him a hard loaf of bread and water. She then calls her dwarf slave to get her sleigh ready and calls her wolves. She tells her wolves to run ahead to try to sniff out the other children, then she loads up Edmund on her sleigh and heads out. Meanwhile the children, along with the beavers, head toward Aslan, who is waiting at the stone table, because this is the only way they can save their brother and Narnia. While they are heading towards the Stone Table, they notice that it is getting warmer outside, which proves that the spell is beginning to break and that Aslan is getting closer. While on their journey they hear a sleigh with bells and begin to run fast because they fear that it is the Witch. Much to their surprise it is not the Witch it is Santa Clause! He awarded each child with a gift to help them during their battle. Lucy receives firefly juice that can heal anyone who had been wounded. Susan receives a bow and arrow that promises to never miss and a horn, that when she blows it is guaranteed that help will come. Peter receives a sword and shield because he is the leader in battle. The Witch also notices that the spell is breaking because her sleigh will no longer move in the grass and she is forced to walk. The children finally reach Aslan at the stone table, and tell him what happened with their brother. Aslan tells them that he can help, but it will not be easy since his brother betrayed them. Soon after they arrive at the Stone Table Peter faces his first battle. While he and Aslan are talking he hears Susan’s horn and runs to her rescue. She and Lucy are stuck in a tree and being attacked by the White Witches wolf pack. Peter charges the wolf and cuts through him with his sword. In fear the rest of the awful creatures flee, and Aslan orders his men to follow them because they will lead them to the White Witch and Edmund. Later, the White Witch demands a meeting with Aslan, and he accepts. She tells him how Edmund is a traitor and according to the old Deep Magic all traitors belong to her and she must kill him. Aslan knew of this, but he takes her to talk in private. When they are done talking they return to Aslan’s people and tell them that the Witch changed her mind and that Edmund was in no danger. When she leaves Aslan tells everyone to move from the Stone Table and go to the hilltop. Aslan then directs Peter in how to fight the battle, and tells him how he will not be there to right with him. Later that night Susan and Lucy cannot sleep, so they wake up together and find that Aslan is leaving. They follow him and he tells them that they can walk him, but only until he tells them to stop then they must go no further. When Aslan orders the girls to stop following him, as they arrive at the stone table, they crouch down and hide behind a bush. They then witness the White witch and all of her evil creatures bind and shave Aslan, and then put him to his death on the stone table. Lucy and Susan are deeply saddened and as soon as everyone leaves to go prepare for war, they run to Aslan to try to unbind him. After they had been crying for several hours, they realize how cold they are and decide to get up and walk around a bit. As soon as they walk away from Aslan, they hear the stone table crack, and find that Aslan is missing. When they go back to the table Aslan comes up behind them and is alive. He tells them that before Deep Magic there is a spell that says if an innocent person sacrifices himself for a traitor then death will be reversed. He then tells the girls of their long journey ahead and how they can ride on his back on their long trip to the witches’ castle. When they arrive at the witch’s castle they find all of the statues of people that the witch had turned into stone with her magic wand. Aslan hurries around the castle and blows on all of the statues to bring them to life. The most exciting statue that he brought to life was dear Mr. Tumnus! Lucy was very happy to see him. After all of the statues are brought to life, they begin their quest back to the land to help Peter and the rest of the creatures in battle. When they arrive at the battle scene the good guys are being beaten badly, and Peter is fighting one on one with the witch. Aslan runs down and jumps on the White Witch, instantly killing her. The other good guys fight the bad creatures, and win the battle almost immediately. After the battle is over, they find that Edmund is almost dead because he sacrificed himself to break the White Witches magic wand. Lucy quickly runs over to him and feeds him some of her firefly juice. She then runs around to all of the other hurt creatures and gives them some of her firefly juice while Aslan breathes life into the statues. After the battle they all go to The Great Cair Paravel Hall and Peter, Susan, Lucy and Edmund are crowned and given their thrones. Aslan leaves soon after, but everyone knows he will soon be back. Many years later when all of the children are grown, they are in the woods chasing a creature that if caught will grant them all their wishes. While they are hunting for it they run into a lamp post that is familiar to them. They follow the trail which leads them back into the wardrobe. When they arrive back in their world they turn back into their young ages, are in the same clothes from the beginning of the story, and no more than a few minutes have passed. They run to the professor and tell him everything. He believes them and tells them that they can no longer go to Narnia through the wardrobe, but one day they will be able to go back another way.

The Magicians Nephew

This book starts off with two young children, Polly and Digory. Who have just became friends because Digory and his sick mother had to move in next door with his Aunt and Uncle because Digory’s father went to work overseas. They start playing together daily and become great friends.
The action of this story starts when Polly shows Digory her special place through the attic. It’s a cool place where she could keep tings, like her story she was writing. But the thing that Digory liked most about it was that you could walk from there to the other people’s attics. It was a tunnel between the houses. As soon as Digory finds that out, he wants to go explore and go to other people’s houses.
They try to sneak into this house that was apparently empty, but they miscounted their steps and end up walking into Digory’s uncle Andrew’s attic. I know normally that that wouldn’t be such a big deal, but Digory was told to never go into the attic, and Uncle Andrew was kind of weird. The attic was a furnished, very homey room. Polly and Digory walk in and Polly notice these gold and green rings, beautiful rings that sounded like they were humming. After they are both inside the room, Digory’s uncle walks up and lock the door to the rest of the house and shuts the door that Polly and Digory cam in through. Uncle Andrew talks to Polly and Digory about how he tested his experiments on guinea pigs and all, but the problem was that you couldn’t teach the hamsters to come back. He is kind of scaring Polly and Digory, finally they are able to leave because they said that they had to go to super. Uncle Andrew offers Polly a gold ring before she leaves, immediately, Polly accepts because she thought they were beautiful. Right when she touches a ring, she disappears. Then Uncle Andrew tells Digory how they are related to a fairy godmother, and that he made those rings out of dust that was in a box the fairy godmother told uncle Andrew to burn after she died. But he didn’t burn the box, the dust was from another world and Uncle Andrew made the yellow rings to take you to the other world, and the green rings to bring you back. Uncle Andrew tricked them, he made Polly go to “the other world” with no way to come back so that Digory would have to go there also and bring her a green ring so they could both come back home.
Digory finally put on the gold ring and brought two green ones so that Polly could come back home too. He ends up coming out of a pool in the middle of some woods. He sees a girl lying by a tree and it takes them a while to remember everything that has happened. Then Digory sees that there are a lot of different pools. He gets to thinking and thinks that his uncle wasn’t all correct. Really the gold rings brought you to what they called “The Woods between the Worlds” and that every different pool would bring you to a different world. And the green rings would simply let you travel through the pools.
After Digory comes up with these thought he wants to explore the other worlds. But Polly wants to make sure that they can go home first. So they go back into their pool until they saw that it took them back home, then they put the gold rings on to take them back to the woods. They mark the pool that takes them back home by cutting up some grass. Then they head out to try another pool.
Polly and Digory end up in this quiet, empty, dark world, called Charn. In Charn they are in a stone building with a solid red light, instead of the light that we are used to here on earth. There, it’s just a solid dark read light, no flickering or anything. They think that the town would have been pretty neat while it was alive and had peopled, or whatever alive and moving around. But there is pretty much nothing there until they walk into this grand room with a big table and several wonderful manikins with “beautiful” clothes on according to Polly. While they admired these manikins and their clothes they notice that their facial expressions start off happy and friendly looking and then they steadily get worse and mean looking until the last one. The last one was a beautiful, tall woman. The kids were amazed by all this and couldn’t help but wonder about the history of this place and the story behind the room. After they are done looking at the manikins they go and look at this bell on top of a table-like thing. On the bell it warns you not to ring the bell because there could be danger, but it also tells you that you will live the rest of your life wondering what would have happened. Right after reading that, Polly wants to go home, but Digory wants to ring the bell. Polly reaches to grab her gold ring but Digory grabs her hand, and while hurting her, he stops her and rings the bell. This, in consequence, awakens a terrible witch that happened to be the reason that Charn was destroyed. She destroyed the whole world by a spell when she was in a war with her sister. She immediately demands that they take her back to their world so that she can conquer it. Polly and Digory know this is bad so they put their rings on to go back to the woods but the witch went with them! It turns out that the rings “work as magnets”, if you are touching someone while you put on a ring, the person goes with you.
The witch is able to come to Earth with Polly and Digory because while they were leaving the woods, the witch grabbed on to Polly’s shoulder. Te end up back in Uncle Andrew’s attic and Uncle Andrew is ecstatic, he is so happy that his rings worked and that Polly and Digory brought someone back with them. Uncle Andrew offered himself as a servant to the witch, and so she orders him to take her around London (where they live). When Uncle Andrew takes the witch around town, they create a ruckus. She steals a cab, and a pearl necklace, they just make a lot of people mad. Finally, after Digory has been watching out the window for quite a while now they come home. Digory has decided that he is just going to grab the witch and take her back to the woods between the worlds. But when the witch and Uncle Andrew get back they have several people following them, mad at them.
After a lot of yelling and the witch hit some people with the iron bar she broke off of the lamp post, Digory, and Polly, take the witch back to the woods between the worlds. Not just the witch though, they also brought the Cabby, Uncle Andrew, and Strawberry, the Cabby’s horse. From the woods Polly and Digory tried to take the witch (and everyone else) to Charn to drop the witch off where she belongs. By accident though, they ended up in another world.
This world was just dark at first, no sign of anything; they didn’t even know what they were standing on. After some time of talking and singing of hymns (lead by the cabby) something else started to sing. Then stars appeared, and eventually light. They saw a lion singing, and as he would sing different things would grow. Starting with grass, then trees, flowers, even animals. This lion, with his beautiful voice, just created this world called Narnia.
While the lion, whose name is Aslan, was singing and creating this new world the witch (being evil) tried to hurt the lion by throwing the iron bar form the lamp post at him. She hit him right between the eyes, but it didn’t faze him. He just kept walking straight while the iron piece landed far away and grew into a lamp post. The witch got scared because she couldn’t hurt him and ran away.
After the lion was done creating the world and selects some animals to talk, he selected a few more to be part of a council. While aslant was talking to his newly created council, Digory is dying to go talk to him. Se, early Digory’s aunt was talking to her friend and said something about the “land of youth” witch got Digory thinking that he could find something from another world to help save his mother. So the cabby asks Strawberry (who is now able to talk) if he would mind giving Digory a ride to Aslan so that he can talk to him. It takes Strawberry a while to remember the cabby, but once he does he agrees to take Digory to Aslan.
During Digory’s conversation with Aslan, he (son of Adam) confesses to bringing the evil (the witch) to Narnia, and tells Aslan and the council the story. Aslan tells the council not to be mad though because in hundreds of years relatives of Adam and Eve will come to help remove the evil from Narnia. After all that was over Aslan sent Digory on a mission to bring back an apple from on top of this hill far away. Digory accepts this mission and him and Polly ride on Strawberry’s back, who now has wings given to him by Aslan.
When they get to the hill and climb to the garden Digory goes in alone to get the apple. While he is in there and has the apple in his hand he is very tempted to eat it, he didn’t know what came over him, and he just wanted some. Then he looked up and saw a bird which made him not want to eat it. Then Digory realizes that he is not there alone. He sees the witch who has just eaten one of the apples. Digory sprints out the gate and beats the witch out while the gates close behind him. But the witch climbs over and gets very close to convincing Digory to take the apple back to his mom right then. Digory realizes how wicked the witch is however, and takes it back to Aslan.
Once Digory, Polly, and Strawberry return, Digory gives the apple to Aslan and Aslan tells Digory to throw it towards this one river. Digory does as he is told and then Aslan crowns the cab driver and his wife (which Aslan brought to Narnia earlier by singing her there) as king and Queen of Narnia. After the little ceremony the apple which Digory threw grew into a great tree. Aslan tells Digory to take an apple back to his mother and have her eat it. Aslan also tells him though, that he must berry the rings.
Digory does as he is told. He gives the apple to his mother, and she is cured within a few days. After that he berries the rings in the back around the apple core.
At the end of the book Digory, his mother, Uncle Andrew and Digory’s father who has just retired moved into a big mansion that Digory’s father inherited. Several years later, the tree that grew out of the apple core is struck by lightning and Digory builds a wardrobe out of it, which you can read more about in the next books.

Bedtime stories

When I was a child me and my two other sisters used to beg my dad to tell us a bedtime story each night before we went to bed. He would tell us the three little pigs most frequently. He told the story in a way to make us feel like we were part of the story. He would name each of the little pigs after one of us, and call himself the big bad wolf. He would use sound effects, such as knocking on the wall when the big bad wolf would knock on one of the three little pigs’ doors, to make the story more interactive. He would change his voice for each of the different characters, which added a comic relief element to the story.

One of the fun things about children’s stories is that there are many ways to get your children involved. You can read them to your children, or have your children read them to you. You can act them out in a play or a puppet show. You can do as my dad used to and add sound effects and change the names of the characters to match real life people that you both know. Children’s stories are limitless when you think of all the different ways to get your children excited about reading them.

Holes

The book Holes by Louis Sachar is about young boy, Stanley Yelnats, who gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and ends up paying for it. Stanley gets caught with a red pair of basketball shoes that had once belonged to a famous basketball player. The basketball player had donated the shoes to a homeless shelter, and someone stole them, but right when they were about to get caught they threw them off of a bridge, and unfortunately Stanley catches the shoes, and gets arrested. For his punishment, Stanley gets sentenced to 6 months in Camp Green Lake juvenile correctional facility. Stanley’s family blames his bad luck on a curse, from century’s back, that was placed on the family from their great-great grandfather, who broke a promise to Madam Zeroni. When Stanley gets to Camp Green Lake he realizes that there is in fact no lake, but the camp is in the middle of a desert. The camp is run by Warden, who is cruel to everyone, unless they do exactly as she says, and then they get rewarded. Warden has the boys dig 5 by 5 holes everyday as their punishment and says she does it to “build character”. We find out as the book goes on that Warden is having them dig holes in hopes to find the treasure of Kate Barlow, a used to be school-teacher century’s ago, who turned into an outlaw after Stanley’s great-great-grandfather killed her black lover. The boys at the camp are all unique. One boy, X-ray is the unofficial leader because he has been at the camp the longest. If any of the other boys in the camp find something while they are digging then they are supposed to give it to X-ray because they can turn in what they find, and if Warden likes it, they get the rest of the day off. Another boy at the camp is Zigzag. He is the most violent boy at camp, who does not like new comers, especially Stanley. Armpit, the fat boy in the camp, always smells and at first he does not like Stanley, but they eventually become close companions. Squid, the tough kid in camp, always taunts Stanley about how he writes home to his mother, but one time, in confidence, Squid tells Stanley that he still cares about his mother and wants her to know that he is doing better. Magnet is the thief at camp, and got his nickname because he claims his hands are like magnets. Zero is the quiet boy at camp, who is amazingly fast at digging his hole, and he and Stanley become best friends. One day, Zero gets sick and tired of getting made fun of by everyone about how he is dumb because he doesn’t talk, so he runs away. The Warden does not worry because she knows they are in the middle of the desert with no water for hundreds of miles, so she knows he will eventually have to come back or he will die. Stanley begins to worry about Zero so after 3 days, he also runs away. He finds Zero hiding under an abandoned boat. Zero and Stanley get to talking and realize that Zero was the boy who threw the shoes that Stanley caught and had to come to the Camp because. They also find out that both of their families are cursed with the same curse. Zero’s great-great-grandmother was Madam Zeroni, the one who put the curse on the Yelnats family. Together Stanley and Zero climb to the top of a mountain, because they heard that magic onions and water sat upon the top of the mountain. They reach the top and find that the legend is true. Once the boys reach the top they realize that they must go back to camp to find the treasure so they can break their families curse. The boys go back to the camp, and find the treasure! As soon as they find the treasure it begins to rain in the desert for the first time since the death of Kate Barlow. The Warden tries to take the treasure from the boys, but as soon as she does Stanley’s lawyer shows up with an order to shut down Camp Green Lake and take home Stanley. Stanley convinces his lawyer to take Zero and the rest of the boys along, and she agrees. Stanley’s family is ecstatic to see him when he arrives home and even more excited when they find that he brought the treasure with him. They split the treasure between the Yelnats family, and Zero because it was half Zero’s families. With the money from the treasure Zero hires a private detective to find his mother. The detective finds Zero’s mother and they are happily reunited. The other boys from Camp Yelnats all straiten out their lives and get on the right path.

This book has a very happy ending and it was a very easy and enjoyable read. I would recommend it to any young reader from 3rd to 6th grade.

Children's Authors

I thought learning about picture books was the most interesting thing we have done thus far this semester. I never knew how much depth could be found in picture books. When I read them as a child I liked them because they were easy for me to read and had a lot of cute pictures. Learning about them now, as an adult, I realize there is a lot to be learned on the deeper side. Picture books use many techniques such as color scheme, word placement and picture placement on the page, rhyming, pattern and theme to make it easier for children to learn how to read, and more interesting. I never realized how much work children’s authors had to put into writing a book. They can only use a limited amount of words because children have a limited vocabulary. They can only use a limited amount of color because children only have limited knowledge of colors. They cannot write a story line that is to complex or children will loose interest and not follow the story. It is crucial for the author to consider their age audience when writing a book because a 1st grader has very different reading skills than a 3rd grader. Children’s books are not as easy to write as I once thought, and I have a great amount of respect for children’s authors.

A Dog Called Kitty

This book should not be classified as a children’s book. The ending made me so mad and upset. Ok, let me write a summary of the book, and then I will write about my reaction.

The book is about a little boy, Ricky, who has a terrible fear of dogs because when he was younger he was attacked by a dog that had rabies, so he had to undergo several painful shots and stitches to heal him. Ricky lives on a farm in Oklahoma with his mom, dad and little brother, Chuckie. One day they find a puppy hidden in their barn, and the mom wants to keep it, but she cannot because of Ricky’s fear. While Ricky is in the barn one day stacking the hay he sees the dog hidden behind some hay, and the dog looks like he is about to die form starvation and he is to weak to move. Although Ricky hates dogs, and fears them more than anything, he feels sympathy for the dog and decides he is going to sneak scraps of food to the dog, just until the dog is strong enough to walk, then he plans on scaring the dog away. After about six weeks of hiding the dog from his parents, his parents find out about it, and are excited that Ricky has overcome his fear. Ricky develops a strong relationship with the pup, and decides to keep him. One day Ricky’s dad tells him about coyote traps that other farmers have put around the land to trap these 4 wild dogs that have been killing other dogs and cows. The traps have a piece of raw meat in the middle of them, and when the dogs go to take the meat a poison sprays them, and instantly kills them. Ricky is very worried that his dog, Kitty, will get into the traps so he devises a plan to make sure Kitty will not go near them. He feeds raw meat to Kitty that has burning hot peppers in it, and as soon as Kitty eats the meat, the burning kicks in, and that was the last time Kitty ever ate meat that was not in his feeding dish. After this problem gets resolved, Ricky’s dad gets a phone call that his sister was in a horrific car crash and lost her son, and her husband was in critical condition. The father wants to go visit his sister to help her, but does not want to leave Ricky and the mom home alone to land the land and animals because winter had just began and 2 of the heifers were about to deliver. The mom convinces the dad to go, and she and Ricky begin to tend to the animals. The first day that the dad is gone one of the heifers has her baby with no complications. The next day when Ricky and the mom are riding out to the pasture the truck gets stuck in the mucky snow, and they cannot get it out. The mom and Chuckie go back to the house, and Ricky walks, with Kitty, out to the pasture to give the cows the hay. Ricky counts all of the cows, to make sure they are all accounted for, and he realizes the pregnant heifer is missing. Kitty and Ricky search everywhere and cannot find it. When it starts to get dark Ricky searches the last place he can think of, the pond, and finds her. He also encounters the 4 wild dogs. The dogs are after the cow and her newborn calf, but when they see Kitty the begin to attack him. Ricky’s fear of dogs rushes back into him, and he runs for the house. As he is running he hears Kitty screeching as if she is about to die, so he grabs a club and runs back to the pond. When he gets their Kitty is not in good shape, and one of the dogs runs up to Ricky and bites hhis leg. Ricky takes the club and smashes the dog on the back, breaking it’s back and killing he. He then goes to one of the dogs attacking kitty and fights it away. Finally after all of the wild dogs are gone Ricky hears momma calling for him. Mom takes Ricky and Kitty up to the house and calls for the vet and doctor. Ricky and Kitty are both saved, and become the new town heroes. When the summer comes Ricky and Kitty explore all of the land together. Oil rigs were being dug near Ricky’s house, so he became friends with a lot of the workers. One day while he and Kitty were walking to the oil rig, Kitty smelled food and ran as fast as she could up to Arthur, the oil rig manager. Before Arthur had time to yell at Kitty it was too late, a truck load of pipes was being unloaded and Kitty ran right under them, and he dies instantly.

The ending of this book made me so angry. I was just beginning to get so happy that Kitty survived the dog attack and that Ricky lo9ved Kitty enough to defend him, and then Kitty goes and dies in a freak accident, breaking Ricky’s heart. Kitty and Ricky overcame so many obstacles together; first Ricky overcame his fear, then Ricky trained Kitty to not go near the coyote traps, then they battle the wild dogs together. As a reader I was very let down by such a tragic ending. I would not let my children read this book because it is to sad, and I do not think kids at such a young age should be subjected to suck agony.

My ABC poem

The animal alphabet:
A-alligator
B-bear
C-cat
D-dog
E-elephant
F-fish
G-giraffe
H-hog
I-iguana
J-jaguar
K-kangaroo
L-lion
M-monkey
N-newt
O-octopus
P-penguin
Q-quail
R-rhinoceros
S-snake
T-tier
U-unicorn
V-vulture
W-walrus
X-xenops (wild bird)
Y-yak
Z-zebra

When writing a children’s book that is intended for them to learn from, such as an alphabet book to learn the alphabet, it is important to have a theme throughout the book. Having a theme keeps the theme constant throughout the book, making it easier on the child to understand. I chose animals as my alphabet learning theme because then the children can learn their alphabet while learning about different types of animal. This could be a good technique to get the children to ask their parents questions about different types of animals, which will start parent-child interaction. When writing a children’s book it is important to remember that children have a limited amount of knowledge, so an author should not incorporate things in their book that a child will not understand or cannot relate to