Summary: Lulu and her best friend Mellie always go on vacations together. Although vacations are usually fun, this is not the case for Lulu and Mellie. On this vacation to the beach they make a new friend. Lulu had an amazing idea of what she wanted to do with her new friend, but her parents and Mellie didn’t think it was possible. Then something very unexpected happens which causes Millie and Lulus family to feel different about her new friend.
Summary of Professional Review: The Horn Book Guide gives this book a rating of 2. The review says that “along with the novel's abundance of dialogue, pen-and-ink illustrations show setting, characterization, and important action scenes, giving plenty of help for beginning chapter book readers”. The Kirkus review says that this story will help readers “absorb some truths about family vacations and the true care of animal companions”.
Review by Ivette Thompson: This story was told using a 3rd person narration. I enjoyed how this story was written because every time that it was telling the story about a character, the narrator used language that the character would use. For example when the Narrator was describing the thins that the dog saw at the beach he said “they were chasing around a toy that flew through the air. As soon as they caught it they flung it away. They made happy noises unless they fell over. Then they squealed”. There was a little of repetition in this story. Lulu said “good dog! It’s all right! Good dog!” every time that she wanted to play with the dog. The author also used Italics and bold letters to show what the characters where thinking, and important words that were said. The author helped us see movement in the story by using the days of the week. Towards the end that chapters were divided by a different day of their week long vacation. I also like the illustrations. There are only a few of them and they are in black and white. This book was also written using language that a 7 year old would really use. I think that young readers could relate to the friendship between Lulu and Mellie.
This book would be useful when teaching…
· This book could be used to teach children how to show movement in time in a narrative.
· This book could be used to teach children about using different techniques in their writing such as using Italics and bold font to represent what some someone might be thinking or bold to show importance of a word.
Summary of Professional Review: The Horn Book Guide gives this book a rating of 2. The review says that “along with the novel's abundance of dialogue, pen-and-ink illustrations show setting, characterization, and important action scenes, giving plenty of help for beginning chapter book readers”. The Kirkus review says that this story will help readers “absorb some truths about family vacations and the true care of animal companions”.
Review by Ivette Thompson: This story was told using a 3rd person narration. I enjoyed how this story was written because every time that it was telling the story about a character, the narrator used language that the character would use. For example when the Narrator was describing the thins that the dog saw at the beach he said “they were chasing around a toy that flew through the air. As soon as they caught it they flung it away. They made happy noises unless they fell over. Then they squealed”. There was a little of repetition in this story. Lulu said “good dog! It’s all right! Good dog!” every time that she wanted to play with the dog. The author also used Italics and bold letters to show what the characters where thinking, and important words that were said. The author helped us see movement in the story by using the days of the week. Towards the end that chapters were divided by a different day of their week long vacation. I also like the illustrations. There are only a few of them and they are in black and white. This book was also written using language that a 7 year old would really use. I think that young readers could relate to the friendship between Lulu and Mellie.
This book would be useful when teaching…
· This book could be used to teach children how to show movement in time in a narrative.
· This book could be used to teach children about using different techniques in their writing such as using Italics and bold font to represent what some someone might be thinking or bold to show importance of a word.