Henry And Mudge In Puddle Trouble (U)

for Use In Schools And Libraries Only. A Series About An Only Child And His Huge Best Friend, A Mastiff Named Mudge.children's Literaturewe Can Never Have Too Many Good Stories To Lure The Beginning Reader. They Are Most Satisfying For All Readers, Including Parents And Teachers, When They Present Characters We Care About Doing Interesting Things, Depicted In An Appealing, Unintimidating Format Using The Necessarily Limited Vocabulary. Cynthia Rylant Has Met The Challenge. Although The Text In These First Two Books In Her Series About Henry And His Dog Mudge Does Not Have The Poetic Lilt Of Some Of Her Other Picture Books, Her Depiction Of The Relationships Between A Boy, A Dog, A Family, And Of Henry's Thoughts And Emotions Raise These Above Other Similar Stories. In puddle Trouble, Henry Struggles With The Ethical Question Of Whether To Pick The First Flower Or Let It Grow As Mother Advises. Mudge Solves His Dilemma. They Have A Glorious Time In A Puddle, With Father Surprisingly Joining Them. Finally Mudge Heroically Defends Some Kittens. Sucie Stevenson Catches Their Spirit In Her Simplified But Naturalistic Black Outlined, Lively Watercolor Illustrations. I Wish They Were More Even In Their Effective Reflection Of The Text And More Consistent In Their Anatomical Accuracy. First Graders Listened Intently To This Book, Found Many Things To Discuss, Empathized With Henry, Worried About Mudge, And Cheered The Ending. Most Important Of All, They Were Eager To Read Them On Their Own. The Original Review For This Book Appeared In (the Five Owls, March/april 1987 (vol. 1, No. 4)).