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Angus and the Cat by Marjorie Flack
Another Life by Charles Oberndorf
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Castway Cats by Lisa Wheeler
Chicka Chicka ABC by Bill Martin Jr. and Lois Ehlert
City of Light, City of Dark by Avi
Clifford the Small Red Puppy by Norman Bridwell
Constellation Chronicles: The Lost Civilization of Aries by Vincent Lowry review copy
Day of the Dragon-King (Magic Tree House #14) by Mary Pope Osborne
The Digital Plague by Jeff Somers
Dino-Dinners by Brita Granstrom
Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House #1) by Mary Pope Osborne
Don't Say Ain't by Irene Smalls
Do You Want to be My Friend? by Eric Carle
Emmaline and the Bunny by Katherine Hannigan
Esoteric City by Bruce Sterling
Evolution's Shore (aka Chaga) by Ian McDonald
Harriet and the Garden by Nancy Carlson
I Spy Fun House by Jean Marzollo
I Wish That I Had Duck Feet by Dr. Seuss
Jin Jin the Dragon by Grace Chang
Lizzi & Fredl: A Perilous Journey of Love and Faith by William B. Stanford
Logicist by Carol Emshwiller
Madeline and the Cats of Rome by John Bemelmans Marciano
The Mammy by Brendan O'Carroll
Minifred Goes to School by Mordicai Gerstein
Miss Pickerell and the Geigor Counter by Ellen MacGregor
The Napping House by Audrey and Don Wood
Nightwings by Robert Silverberg
One Yellow Lion by Matthew Van Fleet
Opera Cat by Tess Weaver
Queen Vernita Visits the Blue Ice Mountains by Dawn Menge
Riding High by John Francom and James Macgregor
Sassy by Gloria Mallette
The Stars Down Under by Sandra McDonald
Strange Reading by Grant Uden
The Sunless Countries by Karl Schroeder
Tarot Cafe Volume 1 by Sang-Sun Park
Tepper Isn't Going Out by Calvin Trillin
Tiger on a Tree by Anushka Ravishankar
Vacation Under the Volcano (Magic Tree House #13) by Mary Pope Osborne
The West End Horror by Nicholas Meyer
Where Is the Green Sheep by Mem Fox
Yoko's Paper Cranes by Rosemary Wells

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Clifford the Small Red Puppy: 01/28/10

My children love the Clifford cartoons that run on PBS: Clifford the Big Red Dog and Clifford's Puppy Days. They also enjoy Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Birdwell. A common question for both of them is: "How did Clifford get so big when he was so small?" Clifford the Small Red Puppy answers the question and if I had just bothered to check out the book sooner from my library, I could have given my kids the answer quicker!

Clifford as anyone who has watched the Puppy Days cartoon knows was a teeny tiny puppy. He's too small for the smallest collar.  As the book explains, not only was he small, he was also a sickly runt. Emily Elizabeth though takes to him and decides to give him a home and is told by her parents that he probably won't survive the winter.

But everyone knows Clifford somehow as an adult is a thriving, healthy giant dog. Runts of the litter do sometimes go on to be the strongest but it's a difficult and up hill battle. The answer for Clifford's success is wrapped up in a little bit of magical realism and follows similar logic used in The Shrinking of Treehorn (link to review).

The solution delighted both of my children and finally put to bed the question of how come Clifford is so big. If you want to know how, go read Clifford the Small Red Puppy. It's a short and delightful book.

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