Down Girl and Sit On the Road

Down Girl and Sit On the Road

Author: Lucy Nolan

Illustrator: Mike Reed

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Award: Bluebonnet Award

Grade Level: 3^rd to 5^th grade

Down Girl and Sit are neighbors. They are each other best friend and a comrade when it comes to wrecking their owner’s things. The story starts with two best friends chasing after a squirrel (classic dogs’ hobby) in the garden. They introduce themselves and their owner, Rruff “never chase squirrels”. On the first and second chapter, Rruff and Sit’s master drives the two dogs to the beach. Down Girl comments that she likes to stick her head out of the window while Rruff is driving the car. Once they reach the beach, the two best friends are up to no good. They see a cat at the beach which the only way to get to him would be to drive a car. While Rruff and master are asleep, Down Girl and Sit somehow manage to drive the car. People gather around the car to stop the car on going to the beach. When Rruff finally gets hold of the car, he is clearly mad and upset with both dogs. But the two best friends don’t understand why Rruff and master would be upset with them. All they did was drive a car. Oh, but the fun does not stop there. On the third chapters, Rruff decides to take Down Girl out for a camp trip which ends up into a mess. And on the fourth chapter, Down Girl is challenged by Kitty Kitty who is always at the top of the roof teasing the two dogs. Down Girl is upset that she cannot reach that high but she is determined that Kitty Kitty will never be able to come down the roof because she will be protecting the ground. Just then Rruff takes her to the vet. And I think we all know that dogs and vet do not quite get along with each other. But she gets over her fear as soon as she sees Kitty Kitty in the crate and is happy with the realization that she won’t have to worry about Kitty Kitty ever coming to her house!

This is an illustrated novel. Majority of the page are words and only small part of it are illustrations. The story is divided into four chapters. It is a humorous book with simple sentences since it is written from the dog’s perspectives. It is quite a small and light book, so it is perfect for taking it everywhere and it is humorous on top of that!

Thoughts:

This was quite a humorous book. I always wonder what goes on inside the dog’s mind. I know that they can see when their owners are happy, sad or angry BUT how about those days when we leave them alone at home? What is going on in their head? What are they thinking? This book sort of help to get inside dog’s mind. One thing is for sure that dogs can do no wrong and even if they do. It is only because they wanted to see their humans happy. This is a jolly book to read to students at the end of the day as I am sure this book will have them laughing. It was quite interesting to read through dog’s perspective. I could use this book to ask student to think through perspective of others other than themselves. This will make them aware that there are always two perspective to any story so do not be so quick to judge!