This book is about a girl and her relationship with school. Her outlook on school is that she doesn't like it, as she spends time describing how silly her teachers look and how they act. Then her dog Pete follows her to school and disrupts all of her classes, which is where/when the book takes place. This book would be best appropriate for students in first-third grade. This age group would be best because it is whimsical and could create what I'm sure would be a lively discussion. The discussion could consist of what the students would do with their pets if they followed them to school.

This book is the story of how a dog that eats everything eats a whole set of encyclopedias and starts to talk and can go to school for a day. However, once he digests the encyclopedias he can no longer talk and is no longer smart and is just a normal dog.

Age Appropriateness (Primary, Intermediate, Middle School): Intermediate
Review/Critique: This book goes through the alphabet with different poems. The book is written in a very fancy font which may make it hard for students to comprehend. The book has very detailed instructions that can support student learning because the book is text heavy.
Comments on Use: I really enjoyed the humor and poetry throughout the book. I could see some students really getting into this book but I could also see this book being too changeling for a lot of students. ( )

I did not care for the art in this at all.  It reminds me a bit of Fauvism, or maybe Bonnard - but not in an intense or interesting way... rather, I found it simply childish (not childlike) and ugly.  The story is ok, but not special, imo. ( )

Genre: Fantasy
Summary: Poppy wise and her brother Mookie attend elementary school. One day Poppy talks about the ups and downs of school. While she is going through her usual routine Pete, her dog, gets bored and visits them at school. Pete runs amuck and gets sent to the principal's office. During his visit he eats all of the encyclopedias. That night Pete begins to speak to Poppy and Mookie and is a genius because he ate and obtained all the knowledge in the encyclopedias. The decide to take him to school in a disguise and introduce him as their cousin. Later that evening Poppy and Mookie go to show their parents what Pete can do and he can longer speak because he has digested all of the information. This book is a fantasy because a dog cannot speak or pick up the knowledge of an encyclopedia just because of eating it. Thus, this book is a fantasy.