Magic Tree House Fact Tracker #24: Dog Heroes

This is a nonfiction book about dog heroes. It begins with a history about dogs and their ancestry. It discusses the behavior of the earliest dogs then moves into how dogs were bred. It also gives a variety of information about different kinds of hero dogs. I really liked this book because for every informational explanation of the type of hero dog, there were historical facts and examples of famous hero dogs. This could mentor a writing activity by being an example of how students could research into a nonfiction writing topic.Specifically, the way in which the book is organized is similar to how students could ease their way into nonfiction writing by making a book that looks like a journal with notes, pictures, and collected information added on. The book also chose one specific type of character (hero dogs) that includes facts. This is another way for children to write nonfiction writing. They can choose a character and a storyline as an avenue to include facts. The reading level is for fourth grade, but would probably require an advanced reader. The text has complex language conventions because of the specific dog heroes named. The sentence length varies and the meaning of the book is very clear since it is a nonfiction book about dog heroes. ( )