Dolores learns to curb some of her more smothering tendencies and wins the affection of her new pet cat, Duncan.

Summary:
Two little girls see a flyer for a cat.The younger girl (Dolores) decides they should adopt him. When the cat (Duncan) arrives home the next Dolores want to play with him but Duncan just hides under a cabinet. When he finally come out Dolores tries to get him to play dress up or do tricks but Duncan doesn't do either. Instead Duncan likes to hang out on Faye's lap while she reads her book. Faye tells Dolores she should leave the cat alone if she wants him to like her. Dolores does. Eventually Duncan starts handing around Dolores more. However, Dolores scares him off again with a scream.

Review:

I thought this book is really cute. I like the content of the story because it is a good depiction of a situation that happens often with little kids. They bother a pet so much the pet pretty much detest them. I also liked the child like illustrations. I think children could relate to them. I like the author's message and i liked the portrayal of the characters. The author did a really good job of giving each of the sister sisters and even Duncan a very distinct personality. ( )

Duncan and Dolores is a book about a girl who gets a cat but is not nice to it at all. She dresses the cat up, makes the cat play with her and just scares the cat because she is loud. Duncan, the cat, hides from Dolores every chance he gets. Duncan comes out and lets Dolores’s sister pet him and Dolores wonders why he doesn’t let her pet him. The sister has to explain to Dolores that Duncan doesn’t like playing dress up and doesn’t like loud voices. So Dolores ignores Duncan and he starts to come around her a little more each day.

This story is another from my childhood memories of seeing it on Reading Rainbow. I always loved this story. As a parent, I have seen my girls doing the same thing as Dolores did to Duncan. I always had to remind them to just leave the cat alone. I just love the illustrations in the book because they capture the true personality of the characters.

I would read this book while we were studying pets. Students can make a list of what cats like and dislike. A graph can be made on how the cat feels and how the girl feels, happy or sad. The cat’s graph would be on one side of the paper and the girl’s on the other. This is a great beginning to learning to graph data. Another idea would be for students to draw their pets that they own or would like to own and make a class Book of Pets.