TINY THE SNOW DOG

Meister and Davis team up for their fourth beginning easy reader about Tiny, a gigantic golden dog who is anything but tiny. In fact, he is so tall that his floppy ears graze the tops of doorways. The simple, first-person story is narrated by the boy who owns Tiny, with just one or two sentences per page (“This is Tiny. He is my dog.”) and plenty of full-color illustrations to move the action along. The winter-themed plot shows Tiny and the narrator dressing in warm winter clothes and then playing outside in the snow till Tiny chases a snowball too far. The narrator searches for his dog (who is always glimpsed by the reader somewhere in the illustrations), mistaking him for a snow monster when he finally reappears. They go home; they drink hot chocolate; they throw their wet clothes on the floor—just a boy and his six-foot-tall dog on an average day. This simple, satisfying story has a predictable plot, controlled vocabulary, and lots of repetition to help new readers feel successful. Can a springtime adventure for Tiny be far behind? (Easy reader. 4-7)