Why I Picked It Up
It has a character named Princess Puffybottom. I’m not sure that further explanation is necessary.
Why I Finished It
This really is an adorable and unique story about learning how to co-exist with someone who is different. Princess Puffybottom, the cat, loves her perfect life … until Darryl. Darryl, the dog, appears in her perfect home. He is not what she wanted and she definitely doesn’t like his smell, personality, or being. Eventually, after quite a bit of quirky trials of ridding her house of Darryl, she learns he’s actually okay and learns to co-exist.
Who I Would Give It To
First I would give this book to cat lovers or to any family that has a new baby or pet entering the home. This is also a great story to help teach acceptance and learning about perspective and others’ feelings.
Integration Ideas
Point of View and Text-to-Text Connections
This picture book is told from the point of view of the cat, Princess Puffybottom. She refers to her owners as “her subjects”. She explains her life through her perspective. This is such a great way to get students to step outside what they know and think about what life and feelings are like for other people (or cats). Have students discuss who the narrator is and what information the readers will learn based on the narrator. Of course focus on the feelings and emotions of the character. If the students are ready, they can also discuss how they THINK the other characters are feeling, but it should be shared we don’t really know because they are not the narrator.
As the Crow Flies is another picture book that provides perspective from the point of view of an animal narrator. This book would be a great text-to-text connection since it shows various perspectives of the same place in one book. There are also ties to mapping and social studies! So much integration!!
Character Feelings
Sweet Princess Puffybottom goes through a lot of feelings in this story. That makes this the perfect book to introduce vocabulary that describes feelings (make sure to differentiate between feelings and traits). Also, have students discuss her feelings at different points in the book. I would read aloud a small chunk of the story and then ask the kids (given about 5-10 words) how Princess Puffybottom is feeling and why. After a short class discussion, each student would write their own sentence. I would then read the next chunk and ask how she was feeling now and follow the same procedure. Repeat. (Feeling Vocabulary Cards).
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