One Nosy Pup (Holiday House Reader, Level 2) - Hardcover

Carol Wallace, a former second-grade teacher, has written several children's books. One Nosy Pup, also illustrated by Steve Bjorkman, won the New Jersey Garden State Reading Award. She lives with her husband, Bill Wallace, in Chickasha, Oklahoma.

PreS-Gr. 2. Winsome ink-and-watercolor sketches illustrate this breezy beginning chapter book about an unlikely friendship between pets. Pokey the beagle is puzzled when a mysterious thief begins to pilfer food from his bowl, leaving crumbs around the house. Afraid his owners, Mama and Daddy, will blame him for the mess, Pokey sets out to solve the mystery, and he's astonished when the culprit turns out to be Charlie, a hamster abandoned by the house's previous owners. Pokey and Charlie become dear pals, snacking on Pokey's dog food and laughing together in the evenings. There's a tense chapter when Mama and Daddy sense a rodent in the house and set threatening traps, but after meeting Charlie, they embrace him as a new family member and outfit him with a comfy cage, exercise wheel, and proper hamster chow. Wallace writes in short, simply constructed sentences and uses a brisk, basic vocabulary just right for new readers, and the expressive, color-washed art hums with activity and emotion. A fine entry in the Holiday House Reader series. Gillian Engberg
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