Rocket is a dog. He just wants to take a nap by a tree, but when a small little bird welcomes him to class he is confused. The bird wants to teach him to read and Rocket just wants to nap so he find another tree. But when he hears the bird reading a story about a dog looking for a bone and then stops before the ending Rocket wants to, needs to know how it ends.

And he ends up learning to read. They begin with learning the letters and their sounds and then adding the sounds together. Of course Rocket is an excellent student and when the little bird flies south for the winter he practices in her absence. It is a happy reunion when she returns knowing that he will get to learn more.

This is a cute book called How Rocket Learned to Read. It is written and illustrated by Tad Hills who has written the duck and goose books which we've enjoyed. The illustrations are done in oil paint and colored pencil. Rocket is a mostly white with some black dog with black eyes and a black nose. He acts like a dog, doesn't walk on two legs or wear clothing. He likes to dig and play in the mud, and as he gets better at reading he begins to spell everything out. The scenes take up the entire page or even sometimes both pages in a two page layout. They are colorful and interesting and show the season changes as the book moves through the year.

The words are spelled out in the text like M-U-D and as I read the book I'd spell them out and ask my son, who is in kindergarten, to read the word. He was able to read all the words that were spelled out, of which there were about 10. As far as text goes, there were between one and seven lines on each page, basically a short paragraph on each page. I did most of the reading but had my son help me throughout.

Overall I think this is a great book for children learning to read. It is recommended for ages 3-7 and I'd agree that that is a good range. It's a short picture book with a fun theme very appropriate for the intended audience.

Recommended: Yes