If you haven’t visited my picture book giveaway yet for Chickens on the GO!, please do so now. You don’t want to miss this SUPER CUTE picture book. Click here.
Now on to this FUNNY, FUNNY picture book that dog owners EVERYWHERE have to check out–this is another one of those picture books that are perfect for any age reader.
*Picture book, preschooler through third grader, fantasy–since the dogs and cats are writing letters 
*Loveable dog and not-so-loveable cat as main characters
*Rating: If you love Dear Abby or any of the self-help talk shows, you will love Mr. Mutt. He solves all the dogs’ dilemmas. See if you recognize any of these going on in your home with your poor, mistreated dogs. . . (I love this book!)
Short, short summary:
Mr. Mutt accepts letters from all his dog fans, and they write him with the most common dog dilemmas of the day. For example, there’s “Famished in Florida” whose people have put him on a diet! He is so hungry his stomach is growling louder than he growls, and he also complains that the fat cat gets fancy food from a tiny can, while he gets tasteless gravel from a giant sack! Mr. Mutt sympathizes with Famished and explains to him where he can get some food–on the counter tops, the trash can, the baby’s high chair (MY DOG HAS LEARNED THAT FOR SURE!), and to top off the meal–a drink from the toilet. Then Mr. Mutt reminds Famished he is a top dog and that cats are spoiled rotten. Of course, Mr. Mutt has a cat to deal with himself, the Queen, and she writes her own opinions down. Help Me, Mr. Mutt continues in this fashion with dogs writing letters full of problems to Mr. Mutt, and he answers them back with the best dog advice, and The Queen cat also gives her two cents. It is so cute and funny, and I really think adults will get a huge kick out of it, too.So, what do I do with this book?
1. Kids will love writing a letter to Mr. Mutt–especially if Mr. Mutt can answer them back! They can either write as a dog OR write as a human with a pet question. Kids would enjoy getting a letter back from The Queen, too. One huge classroom letter would do.
2. The end of the book is told in mostly illustrations and “newspaper” clippings. The rest of the book is told in letter form with help from the illustrations. This is a form of organization, one of the 6 + 1 traits of writing. What do kids think about the organization? Can they tell the end of the story, even though it is not traditionally told with words? Also discuss with students how picture books have much of the story in illustrations, too, and how it is important to pay attention to both the words and pictures in a picture book. (Another part of the organization is there is an overall problem–the cat/dog dilemma, and then several little problems with the individual letters.)
3. If you have to teach parts of a letter or letter writing, what a great book to do it with. It’s much more fun to learn about letter writing from a humorous picture book like Help Me, Mr. Mutt than it is from a Language Arts textbook.
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