My Dirty Dog: My Informative Essay (The Read and Write Series)

“My Dirty Dog – My Informative Essay” is a funny educational story by award winning author Darcy Pattison, illustrated by Ewa O’Neill. Children will like the story and learn from it. It is about two cousins who visit a K-9 Karnival, have an interesting fun time, learn much about dogs, write informative essays about what they saw and thought, and then went to Grandma’s birthday party. Besides being an enjoyable and fun story, the book will inspire children to also write about their experiences, or at least, to think more deeply about what they see.

This picture book is a how-to book for elementary kids. However, I have used it with my middle school kids who just could not get the concept of writing an informative essay. The author uses two young kids and their dogs to create a scene from which they will write an informative essay. What I liked best about this book was at the very end she gives instructions for the steps in writing an informative essay.

I found three grammatical errors in this book. On the Face Painting page: " I wanted a Maltese on my check..." cheek- misspelled. On the page with grandma's birthday cake. "Grandma" and "Mom" should not be capitalized in the middle of the sentence and "Again." is not a sentence. In context, it seems as if though "Again." was part of the previous sentence. As it stands, it is not a sentence. "Now it's time to put the conditioner on the dog and rub it in." Missing comma to link the two sentenced joined by "and." I'm returning.