Customer Reviews

Once I Ate a Pie

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The words and pictures in this book are beautiful. This isn't a story book, there is no story. It's more like poetry. In reading this to kindergarten and Pre-K, the kids don't appreciate the words as much as the pictures. The words are more for older children and adults, or people who will definitely appreciate and understand "puppyness".

The pictures are for everyone. It's fun to guess the different dog breeds, which are painted as sweet puppies. One puppy is rolling over, one puppy is dressed in a raincoat. I'm a sucker for German shepherd puppies, and this illustrator captured the floppy ears and big paws while the author captured the "shepherdness" of a herding dog.

If you do love dog books and illustrations, you will not regret owning this book.

Along with Carl & Biscuit the dogs in this book are just too special to ignore. I currently work in the children's Dept. of a bookstore chain(& love dogs). When this title came in I had to look read it and make my co-workers look at it too. I have also noticed that it gets moved around quite a bit so people must be interested enough by the cover & subject to pick it up and look through it. When it comes out in 'paperback' it will fly off the shelves. It is just beautiful and so accurate for pups personalities. Love the 'poetry' rather than story line. I have told my people friends about what a cool book it is. It should be sold in pet stores & grooming shops and recommended by Veternarians etc. I'd like to see it sold in the 'pets' section of the store as well. A big THANK YOU to Patricia MacLachlan for this heartwarming collection.

The illustrations are both heartwarming and beautiful and capture the essence of each dog poem. Dog owners are sure to connect personality traits of their own pet to almost all of the poems. Each one, written in first person or, rather first dog. offers at least one craft element to support teaching young writers. Craft elements include font size, questioning, dialogue, use of space, voice of the poet, patterns in poetry and even a poem for two voices. I love it! The ONLY thing missing is a reference to the dog breeds illustrated.

This book is wonderful. My girls, ages 3 & 7, first borrowed this book from the library. The illustrations were very charming. The words were simple enough for my 2nd grader, but entertaining enough to keep my attention. Each poem is written from the view point of a different dog, which made reading aloud a joy. We created different voices and characters for each poem. The girls hated returning this book to the library and asked if we could get our own copy. Any book which gets my 7 year old to request it and want to read is 5 stars by me.

My daughter loves dogs and the pictures are realistic paintings that are beautiful. Another plus about this book is that it is amusing enough for me that I can read it over and over again when my daughter insists. It is hilarious to adults who love dog breeds because the poems are spot-on with breed characteristics.

I came across this book in a used book store and it has become an absolute favorite for all my preschool classes. It manages to infuse the humor, warmth, and personality of each dog into an easy to read poetic text. The font changes and the varying format for the text (from rolling across the page to short staccato sentences), as well as the dogs names, easily invites each dog to be read in a different voice. Even tho the dog breeds may not be named, the beautiful paintings make identification easy. If your personal favorite is in this story, I promise you will recognize his/her personality in the text, as I did with the German Shephard who checks on his people, even when in the bathroom!

This book makes me feel like a kid at heart. It's great fun to read it giving each animal it's own voice since you can really sense the different personalities from each drawing and story. I also think it's a good lesson for children because, let's face it, some of these dogs are totally neurotic! I think it's a good way to show kids that everyone, including animals, have their own little personalities and behaviors and some of them are a little odd!

Huge animals lovers we are....my 7 y/o brought this book home from his school library class and I must say, we both had a hard time parting with it, so I went out and bought a copy for us to keep.

Love the illustration, so true and cute the story of each dog is! Loved the story of the Mr. Beefy the Pug, who steals tubs of butter and also is guilty of once eating a pie, Lucy the pillow/bed hog, Sugar who wants to rest but still thinks about chasing the cat, Needle Nose who is proud of using his nose to get into everything from the refrigerator to ripping up mail, Abby the Boston Terrier who doesn't steal but borrows things from other dogs bones to her owners slippers, Tillie and Maude the Westie duo...Tillie goes to the bathroom in private but Maude doesn't care, she'll go anywhere when she feels the need. And Puppies story at the beginning and the ending with Luke the St. Bernard just melts my heart.

This is just one of those books you'll keep forever and not give up at a yard sale.

This is one of the best children's books to come out in a long time. I gave them as gifts to several people - some adults - and they all loved them. Both the author and the illustrator know dogs & what they would say if they could!

A wonderful book for all ages. If your children like dogs they'll be thrilled with every page.