The Pigeon Wants a Puppy!

Bibliographic Information: Willems, M. (2008). The pigeon wants a puppy. New York, New York: Hyperion Books for Children.

Annotation: Pigeon wants a puppy and tries everything he can in order to get one.

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Grade Level: N-I

Readers Who Will Like This Book: Young children

Personal Response and Rating: I rate this book a 3. Most children can relate to the pigeon and probably, at some point, have really wanted something they were not allowed to have.

Prereading Question: Have you ever thought you really wanted something, only to find out it was completely different than what you thought it might be?

Reading Strategies Connection:

A. Reading Strategy: Feelings Chart

B. Description of Strategy: Children identify the character's emotions related to certain events in the story and write it on a chart.

C. Rationale: Children often have very strong emotional responses to the events in their lives, just as the pigeon demonstrates in the story. Using the Feelings Chart can help children sort out and identify the emotions in the story, then apply what they learned to individuals and themselves in the real world.