Carol Wallace (2) (1948–)

Freddie, a fluffy, white, well-mannered dog had the best life. He had a good home with a good boy who loved him and played with him, took him for walks and Freddie loved his boy right back. But it all disappeared one day when the boy’s father took Freddie for a ride and dumped Freddie out in the country. No rhyme or reason.

While Freddie is looking for food, he comes upon a junk yard being guarded by two dogs, Tiger and Spike. Spike is a watch-dog-in-training, who isn’t really the type. Spike and Freddie form a friendship when Freddie helps Spike escape.

They set off on a hunt for food and a place to sleep. Both had had bad experiences at the hands of humans, but their travels lead them to tow humans that make them wonder if there are humans to be trusted again.

A tale of friendship and caring is a line that runs through the books by Carol and Bill Wallace. A good read for kids and adults.… (altro)

This story is told from the perspective of Cat, a young farm cat whose job is to be a mouser. He is to take over the job Callie was doing, before she got too old.

He is a pretty good mouser and is able to present a catch almost every morning, on the front porch for the House People. He is also still learning about the world he lives in.

Come spring a pair of mockingbirds set up housekeeping in a nearby tree. Seems they do this every year. Cat is quite curious to see what is in the nest, but the female bird is quite the dive bomber and able to keep Cat away. If not her, then the male does a good job too.

Over time he finds that there are baby birds, and he watches as they grow and learn to fly. When time comes for the birds to fly south, there is one baby who refuses to fly. Seems she experienced a fall from the nest, earlier, and is now afraid to even try!

When she falls out of the nest and lands on Cat's head, she wants him to eat her and get things over with. All the other birds have left and she has no food. The problem with the request is that Cat doesn't eat birds!

Cat takes on the responsibility of protecting Flea (the name he gives the bird). Seems there are other critters on the farm that consider birds a nice treat. Cat does manage to teach the bird to fly and gets it to fly south, but he also learns a few things about himself.

Another chapter book with illustrations that I bought for the great-gran, but had to read. It was an entertaining story. Hope she enjoys it too.… (altro)

This book is perfect for beginning readers who want to get into chapter books. It’s a stepping stone towards reading books like charlottes web, or a similar chapter book. First off, I really love how this book has such big, easy to read print, and that it doesn’t have too many words on each page. Children will look for that when picking out a book during silent reading time, and I looked for that as well. For example, one page only has 22 words on it, with great size, and not in one large paragraph but in several short lines. Another reason I like this book is because there is something so special about the graphics. They are all very bright and fit well on the page, while not being overwhelming and taking away from the words. The graphics fit well with the theme/mood of the story, which is what I liked best about this story. The theme is friendship through all odds, and always sharing with each other. On one page of the book, Poky helps his friend (a hamster) avoid mouse traps by rolling balls over them to make the traps snap shut. Poky also shares his food with his friend, and that is something all children should learn; to share no matter the difference between each other. This book teaches a very good lesson for students and has small, few page chapters that will encourage readers to keep reading chapter books, or books with more and more words/concepts/harder vocabulary. I’d strongly recommend this.… (altro)