ReedALOUD: Fenway and Hattie and the Evil Bunny Gang

Fenway is back!  

This week, the fourth graders and I read an excerpt from Fenway and Hattie and the Evil Bunny Gang byVictoria Coe. Victoria visited with these students last spring, so I wanted them to be the first to be introduced to the new book. The students' recall of her visit was impressive. They remembered her doing the visualizing exercises with them and they remembered her sharing how she get into perspective to write from a dog's point-of-view.

I loved the first Fenway and Hattie and this new adventure matches its predecessor in appeal and engagement. Fenway is back and he has a lot on his plate...

"The lovable little dog with a GIANT personality is back—battling something that may be worse than squirrels!  Life is pretty much a bag of treats when you’re an endlessly energetic Jack Russell Terrier. For Fenway, days are filled with important things like defending the Dog Park from wicked squirrels, snuggling with Hattie, and catching up on the neighborhood gossip with the next-door dogs Goldie and Patches. But that all changes the day a fiendish new intruder enters Fenway’s turf: he’s fluffy, he twitches evilly, and he smells worse than squirrels… 

He’s a bunny. An evil bunny. And Fenway can’t fathom why, but Hattie ADORES him. Goldie and Patches warn him that short humans are fickle: sometimes they love a new pet more than an old one. Fenway can’t believe his own Hattie would choose another pet over him. But taking matters into his own paws just makes everything worse. Is his heart big enough to accept that Hattie can love another pet too–and is he tough enough to take on an entire gang of evil bunnies?"

Victoria Coe knows how to write from a dog's point-of-view. We readers quickly get lost in the world of Fenway, a lovable and often misunderstood Jack Russell Terrier. I wish I could spend time visiting with Food Lady, Fetch Man, and Hattie and play in the dog park behind their house. 

The students used Padlet to try their hands at point-of-view writing. They could choose the animal and, using their five senses, try to capture a scene. This can be hard, especially in such a short time period, but they were so inspired by what they heard, they dove right in!