In this terrific follow-up to How Rocket Learned to Read, Hills delivers another gently humorous story about mastering a skill and making a friend.
Readers first met the winsome Wheaton terrier as a dog who loved to play. ("He loved to chase leaves and chew sticks. He loved to listen to the birds sing.") In his new adventure, Rocket is a dog who loves to read: "Rocket loved books. He loved to read them to himself or to sit quietly by his teacher, the little yellow bird, as she read them aloud." He loves the way a new book smells, "like a place he'd never been to, like a friend he'd never met." Rocket has also become a word collector. He brings back to the little yellow bird words like "buttercup," "bug" and "feather." A trio of vignettes depicts Rocket's moments of discovery. Then a full-bleed, full-page illustration depicts a "nest" that sits very high in a pine tree that's perfectly symmetrical except for one low branch with very few needles.
Parents and teachers will seize the teachable moments here: Rocket writes down words such as "leaf," "bush" and "dog" (nouns), while the bird adds other words that provide a perfect launch point for parts of speech discussions, such as "for," "by" and "the" ("This one is small, but I promise it'll come in handy," she says while holding the word "up" between her wings). "What shall we do with all these splendid words?" the little yellow bird asks Rocket, harking back to her hymn to the ABCs ("Ah, the wondrous, mighty, gorgeous alphabet.... Where it all begins"). Fred the Dachshund and Emma the terrier, introduced in the previous book, reappear here, along with cantankerous Mr. Barker, and they all get to hear Rocket's plans. His nose leads him back to that tree with the nest, and its scent of pine and feathers--and the nest dweller, who introduces herself as "Owl." ("Only three letters, but what a word!" the little yellow bird chirps with encouragement.)
But a subject does not a story make. Writers young and old will recognize Rocket's plight: "He looked down at the blank page and the blank page looked up at him. But no story would come." He wags when things go well, growls when he is blocked, draws pictures for his story, and takes walks for inspiration, as if to say, "Try this!" His teacher's questions about the owl help to break his block.
Just as Rocket's wish for more of his teacher's story about Buster ("the lucky dog") leads him to read, here as Rocket reads to the owl, she asks, "Then what happened?" And each day, lured by the tale, the owl (with a beak "the color of a buttercup") moves down the branches of the pine tree, until she's on the lowest one, providing more fodder for his story as a friendship blossoms. Once again, Hills delivers a double dose of smart tips on learning while also illustrating how to be a good friend. More please! --Jennifer M. Brown
Shelf Talker: In this companion volume to How Rocket Learns to Read, the winsome pup pens his own story, which leads to a new friend.