Original Post 1/12/2011 Buster goes to Cowboy Camp

Buster Goes to Cowboy Camp by Denise Fleming
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

 I saw this sitting on top a shelf when checking out books at the library yesterday and just had to check it out since my theme is cowboys/western in my classroom. I really liked the glossary on the back of the book for cowboy terminology. I will have to read this at the beginning of the year to get us into the "theme" of our class. I really liked the "mini" headings or chapters to get younger students ready for chapters. I loved the progression of missing "brown shoes" (owners) and not liking camp to liking camp at the end. There is also a lot to talk about as far as inferencing goes. Like who is brown shoes, pink slippers, who is in the picture of the wanted sign and why did he want that person/animal? Loved the bulldog named Snarkle (lol) he was funny and the kids liked him too. I didn't really care for all of the pictures. For the most part they are good but there are several that were a little muddy and dark looking. The media used I think was okay but sometimes too dark a color. Also sometimes the wording is very basic and stilted. I think this is due to the age the book is geared to. Despite this I think it would be good for the beginning of the year.