Pistes d'exploration

Carefully examine the book jacket and peek inside. Look at the inside of the jacket and the book cover underneath. Read the book description and make predictions about the story.

With a partner, retell the story from the point of view of the dog or the girl.

If you had to choose one book to be your special Book, what would it be? Explain your choice.

Design your own jacket for Book. Include the features of a book jacket: title, illustration and author.

Examine the book jacket (inside and out) and the book cover underneath. Read the book description and make predictions about the story. Discuss how your choice of a book is influenced by the cover.

As you read the text, identify the book and the girl’s characters. Make a character map for the two.

If you had to choose one book to be your special Book, what would it be? Explain your choice. Design a book jacket or “wraparound band’’ for it. Include the title, author, a short synopsis and a few positive reviews.

This Book Just Ate My Dog!, The Good Little Book

Mots-clés

Picture book , books , creativity , design , friendship , metafiction , reading , transformation

Commentaire descriptif

“Book” is a book who just wants to be loved. Waiting on the shelf for a child to choose him, his day finally comes. But the girl who claims him also owns “Egg Cream,” a rather boisterous dog. This meta-fiction is told from Book’s point of view. Expressive language and clever ideas make the storytelling compelling and highly original. The reader empathizes when Book sees Dog as: “a big clumsy problem with scary teeth and a huge slippery tongue.” Pencil outlines, scratchy pastels and watercolour accents provide an imaginative mix of scribbles and sophistication. At one point, all we see is a splatter of mud in frenetic splotches of black and brown across the page. The book itself is an object for exploration. When Book gets dirtied by Egg Cream’s exuberance, he is terrified the girl will shelve him. Instead, she is inspired to make him his very own cover, complete with cut-out eyeholes. In fact, the very one the reader has in hand! Ingenious and moving, this is a fun way to engage young readers in identifying with books, reading and design on a conceptual and emotional level.