Fred Stays with Me

Fred Stays with Me

Author: Nancy Coffelt

Illustration: Tricia Tusa

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Grade Level: 1^st to 3rd grade

This is a story about a young girl and her dog, Fred. As soon as we read the story, we know that her parents are divorced. She lives few days with her dad and few days with her mom. But wherever she goes, Fred goes with her too. She describes how the things that she does when she is with her mother place and also the things that she does when she is at her father place. Whoever she is with, Fred is always with her.  Her mother does not like Fred because he always barks at the poodle next door. Her father does not like Fred because he always eats his socks. Both of her parents say that Fred cannot stay with either of them, but the young girl is adamant that Fred stays with her wherever she stays. It is because Fred is the only thing that she knows that will be always there for her and is the only thing that is she can call her own. So, the parents come up with a plan. Her mother helps Fred become friends with the poodle, so they would both stop barking and her father buys Fred lots of toy so he would stop eating all the socks. The moral of this story is that compromises are needed for a relationship to work. The young girl is certainly compromising living in two separate home because she is happy and is not complain about it.  The parents should compromise too for the sake of the young girl happiness. If the young girl can do it, then so can the grownups!  

The book is designed perfectly. The dust cover and cover share the same illustrations and the endpapers are bright red which contrasts from the beige colored illustrations. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful. The best feature about this book is the red contrast color on the beige illustration. The illustrator has used watercolor mixed with other media. Some of the illustrations have borders but some of them take the whole page with the words either at the top or the bottom of the page. Each page has words that are a sentence which is perfect for young readers!

Thoughts:

I personally think that writing a story about divorce is not an easy thing and on top of that writing through a child perspective is even tougher. But this book does it so well. The story is sweet, and the illustration is top notch! The young girl is happy with her life and does not seem to bother that her family is not exactly the traditional type of family. She is content that she has an awesome dog that she can always look forward to at the end of the day. I feel like this book would be great to read to younger children because not only deals with divorce it also deals with the relationship between a pet and its owner.