Ellie the Homesick Puppy, by Holly Webb (Scholastic/Tiger
Tails, 2018, 124 pages, reading level 2.4, grades 2-3, ages 6-10)
Comparing
Spooky Buddies with Ellie the Homesick Puppy is simple but
not easy. Ellie attracts girls (dare
I say that today?) with a pink cover and a girl pup named Ellie while Spooky appeals to both boys and girls.
Secondly,
Spooky is fast paced with a myriad
of characters and plots. Adults get lost in the twists and turns but Ellie is a longer (seemingly) book with
one girl and her pup (and ‘fam’ and friend) plus a more realistic story: moving
to a new house and neighborhood. Ellie the pup, being a pup, gets in the way of
packing and unpacking.
Solution: pack the pup off to
Grandma’s for a couple of days until the family gets settled in the new house.
But
Megan the girl misses her Ellie pup and Ellie doesn’t understand why she isn’t home. So she decides to do something about it.
A Lovely Story and Lessons
to Learn (Seamlessly)
Ellie is a lovely little book: we hear
what the pup is thinking and Megan, about 7, is a good and caring ‘big sister’ to her pup. The story can teach so many of life’s lessons to help a youngster make it
through the tough times. Only a couple of little details would a dog trainer
suggest differently.
On
the whole, kids will want to read other books in the series about dogs (or
cats, even!) Books like Jessie the Lonely Puppy or
Sometimes Illustrations
Make the Book
Cute is the word to describe
these illustrations and those in The Scruffy Puppy, The Secret Puppy, and The Seaside
Puppy.
Sophy Williams has several drawings in each book.
One
in a series of books about puppies, in the Pet Rescue Adventures Animal Books,
the pup books also include cat books. We especially are interested in reading
Maybe, The Secret Puppy or
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