Happy Birthday, Dear Dragon

A boy holds up a nicely decorated cake for his mother and father to look at. It's his birthday and he takes a package and shakes it, but says "I can not guess." He has many toys in his hands and has everyone look at them. He points the jack in the box and his mother and says, "And here is something that can jump up." She's very surprised when the clown pops out of the box! The father takes the boy's hand and they are off to get him something. "Run, run, run." They are off to the pet shop to take a look at some dogs, but the boy told him they already had one and he wasn't interested in the goldfish either. "No, I do not like it. What can it do? It can not play with me." They looked at a bunny, but all of a sudden the little boy saw something he wanted. It was a pet dragon. "I like it. I like it. I like it." They bought the dragon and took it home to show his mother. The pet dragon dragged him and his wagon along and for fun they toasted marshmallows. They were going to have fun together. "Oh, what a happy birthday, dear dragon." This is a fun and very popular series with the youngest readers. The easy, repetitive text is geared toward a successful reading experience. In the back of the book there is a sixty-four-word list of words in the book. These can be placed on flash cards to enhance reading fluency. In the back of the book there is a thorough "Reading Reinforcement" section that can be used in the homeschool or classroom setting. There is phonemic awareness (the d sound, repeating words), phonics (using the letter Dd), vocabulary (suggestions to enhance it), fluency (echo reading) and a text comprehension section. This popular series is now out in newly revised editions and will entrance another generation of readers!

This was the very first book I read by myself as a child in Kindergarten, and I am eager to share it with my own little girl. All of the Dear Dragon books are perfect for young readers, and I highly recommend them.