Dog Breath

Dog Breath centers around a dog by the name of Hally Tosis. Hally Tosis is a dog with horrendous breath, so bad in fact that her family wants to get rid of her. Luckily the children in the family want to solve the problem of Hally’s bad breath and go through a series of odd potential cures for her breath. The children try taking her on roller coasters, and having Hally observe beautiful views in nature. To their dismay none of these methods work for curing the dog's bad breath. After the family goes to sleep two burglars break into the family's house, and Hally comes up to them and greets them with a lick on the face. Hally’s breath is so bad that it knocks out the burglars and has them looking blue and stiff limbed until morning show more comes when they are found by the family. The burglars are turned into the police and Hally is considered a hero. Her family decides to keep her and the story ends on a positive note. Between the great images, and the fun story I would rate this book 4 out of 5 stars. I would recommend the picture book for children in first to third grade. There wasn't a clear central message but one that I got from it was that sometimes things that we dislike in ourselves or others can actually be advantages. The family spent the whole book trying to change the dog's breath, while in the end realizing that it was a great form of security and embraced it. Another possible central message could be embracing who we are rather than trying to change ourselves to meet others standards. Overall this was a very cute and short picture book, and would be wonderful for beginning readers looking for a quick read. show less

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!! Ok...the laughing is out of my system....hehe. Or not.

Seriously though, this book is great. A must read for Dav Pilkey fans or even for anybody who just needs a good laugh. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go regain my composure.

*gets up out of chair, takes about one step and then falls on the floor in laughing heap. Slaps the floor a bit and then begins rolling around while clutching stomach. Howls a little due to stomach pain, but continues laughing anyway*

This was one of my favorite books growing up and I would alwayss read it to my younger cousins. I love this book because you can give them the fear that they have bad breath and it also gave me the fear to have bad breathe so at the end of the day I think that this book was great to make me tramatized.

I really liked this book because the characters were well developed and relatable. Dogs can be great additions to the family however they are not always easy to deal with and can have issues such as bad breath or barking that make them difficult to have sometimes. I also really liked the plot of this story. The kids try to get rid of the dog's bad breath so their family doesn't have to get rid of the dog. Then the dog scares off some burglars with her bad breath and the family realizes that they love their dog and will keep her despite her bad breath. The main idea of this story is to entertain as well as to teach kids the value of family members including pets!

Summary:
Dog Breath is the story of a dog named Hally Tosis. Hally has really bad breath, so bad that Mr. and Mrs. Tosis decided they had to find a new home for Hally. The Tosis children knew the only way they were going to get to keep Hally was by getting rid of her bad breath so they took her on little adventures but nothing seemed to work. One night 2 burglars broke into the Tosis house and Hally's bad breath knocked them out so they were found on the floor the next morning. Everyone was safe, the Tosis's decided to keep Hally, and she became one of the most famous crime-fighting dogs.

Personal Reaction:
I think Dog Breath is a really cute book and the pictures in it really bring the story to life. I read it to my 7 year old son and we show more both loved it. It's a good book to get the children giggling!

Classroom Extensions:
1. Because Hally became a famous crime-fighting dog, I think this book would be good to incorporate when the local police department brings their crime-stopping dogs to the school.
2. We could also incorporate this book when learning about the sense of smell. We could have different things in the class that smell good or bad and let the children distinguish between them. show less

This book is about a dog name Hally who belonged to the Tosis family. Hally Tosis has awful breath. The Tosis family is considering giving her up because she's stinking up the whole house! So the Tosis children decide they are going to fix the problem. They take Hally to all of these different events and places that will "take your breath away" or "leave you breathless." But none of them work. Then one night, two burglars break into the Tosis home. Hally knocks them out with her terrible breath! This gives the Tosis parents enough time to call the police and make sure everyone is safe. This makes Hally Tosis a famous crime-fighting dog! And the Tosis family decides to keep her.
This book is a fun, silly book with wonderful show more illustrations. It also promotes problem solving and taking initiative in family situations. The children use their knowledge about the situation and try to fix it. Even though they weren't the ones who convinced their parents to keep Hally, they still tried to solve a problem and do what was right. show less

A really cute book about a dog named Hally Tosis who is a good dog but has one big problem, he had bad breath. One day grandma comes to visit and insists that the dog stinks and must go. They put up a sign free dog. The kids don't want him to go so they set out to find a way to get rid of his bad breath. They try things like looking at a breath taking view,seeing a scary movie that would leave him breathless, etc. Nothing works though, just when they think that they would have to get rid of him their house gets burglarized but they didn't get away because they fainted form Hally's bad breath. The family received an award for turning in the crooks and Hally became the most famous crime fighting dog in the country and the family decided show more to keep their dog.
I liked the way they played with words and the illustrations showing how Hally's breath affect everyone, even the sun and a picture of Mona Liza. It would be fun as a class to find other books that play with words. show less