Little Critter: A Snow Day for Dog

PreS-Gr 1–Little Critter and Little Sister are ready to enjoy a day of play in the blanket of freshly fallen snow, but as soon as they head outdoors, a gust of wind blows Little Critter’s hat off his head. Dog, who chases the hat, gets stuck in the deep snow, and thus begins a series of challenges to free Dog and retrieve the hat. The critters try making their way by shoveling, sledding, walking with buckets over their boots, and finally reaching Dog with their makeshift snowshoes. Readers, who may offer their own ideas for solving the problem, will smile at the end when the wind blows once more, suggesting that short-lived success will lead to another round of obstacles. A great introduction to circle stories, this humorous early reader offers repetition (“One, two. One, two.”), rhyme (“Dog cannot go. There is too much snow.”), and sound words with a well-developed plot.