The Stray Dog

The Stray Dog
Written by Marc Simont
2001

This is the story of how a family's picnic in the park leads to them gaining a new member of the family. Right away the children fall in love with the dog and quickly name him "Willy." Convinced by their parents that the dog belongs to someone, the children are sad when they say goodbye to Willy at the end of the day. All week, the family thinks about Willy, and they see him once again the following Saturday when they go back to the park. This time, Willy does not stop to play with the children but quickly runs past them instead. The children's quick thinking helps them to come up with a way to save Willy from the dog warden, and become their newest family member.

The text in this story is quite basic and depends heavily upon the illustrations in order to deliver the full story to the reader. The reader has to use their inferencing skills and background knowledge to further understand the story, because although their are many pictures, they are made up of relatively simple lines and colors. This book would be particularly appealing to the early elementary readers based on the level of text complexity, as well as the style of the illustrations.