Once I Ate a Pie

This book is wonderful. My girls, ages 3 & 7, first borrowed this book from the library. The illustrations were very charming. The words were simple enough for my 2nd grader, but entertaining enough to keep my attention. Each poem is written from the view point of a different dog, which made reading aloud a joy. We created different voices and characters for each poem. The girls hated returning this book to the library and asked if we could get our own copy. Any book which gets my 7 year old to request it and want to read is 5 stars by me.

My daughter loves dogs and the pictures are realistic paintings that are beautiful. Another plus about this book is that it is amusing enough for me that I can read it over and over again when my daughter insists. It is hilarious to adults who love dog breeds because the poems are spot-on with breed characteristics.

Along with Carl & Biscuit the dogs in this book are just too special to ignore. I currently work in the children's Dept. of a bookstore chain( & love dogs). When this title came in I had to look read it and make my co-workers look at it too. I have also noticed that it gets moved around quite a bit so people must be interested enough by the cover & subject to pick it up and look through it. When it comes out in 'paperback' it will fly off the shelves. It is just beautiful and so accurate for pups personalities. Love the 'poetry' rather than story line. I have told my people friends about what a cool book it is. It should be sold in pet stores & grooming shops and recommended by Veternarians etc. I'd like to see it sold in the 'pets' section of the store as well. A big THANK YOU to Patricia MacLachlan for this heartwarming collection.

The illustrations are both heartwarming and beautiful and capture the essence of each dog poem. Dog owners are sure to connect personality traits of their own pet to almost all of the poems. Each one, written in first person or, rather first dog. offers at least one craft element to support teaching young writers. Craft elements include font size, questioning, dialogue, use of space, voice of the poet, patterns in poetry and even a poem for two voices. I love it! The ONLY thing missing is a reference to the dog breeds illustrated.

The words and pictures in this book are beautiful. This isn't a story book, there is no story. It's more like poetry. In reading this to kindergarten and Pre-K, the kids don't appreciate the words as much as the pictures. The words are more for older children and adults, or people who will definitely appreciate and understand "puppyness". The pictures are for everyone. It's fun to guess the different dog breeds, which are painted as sweet puppies. One puppy is rolling over, one puppy is dressed in a raincoat. I'm a sucker for German shepherd puppies, and this illustrator captured the floppy ears and big paws while the author captured the "shepherdness" of a herding dog. If you do love dog books and illustrations, you will not regret owning this book.