Muddypaws by Moira Buttfield

Muddypaws by Moira Buttfield and Illustrated by Simon Mendez

Muddypaws is a sweet picture book about a boy ‘Ben’ who gets a puppy and he doesn’t know what to call him. He ponders different names by looking around his bedroom and looking in a story book, he decides to let the puppy hunt for names. The puppy looks behind a flower pot, knocked it over and made muddy paw prints everywhere. Ben took the puppy to the park where the puppy went to look behind a tree, he ran and ran and jumped in the mud and made muddy paw prints everywhere. Ben went to his neighbours house to have a look in their garden, the puppy leaned over to look in the pond and he lent over further and fell in the pond and he made muddy paw prints everywhere. Then on the way home the puppy thought he might go digging in the garden, he brought all the mud inside and made muddy paw prints everywhere. He didn’t mean to find a name for himself but he was the muddiest puppy ever. MuddyPaws.
This picture fiction is narrated from a third person perspective using Ben speaking and the puppy’s thoughts to interact with the reader. It is a short, cute story about the first day of having a new puppy and the challenges owning a pet can create. This text has an easy to read flow to it which allows children to follow and get involved at a young age. The illustrations are simple but help explain the story in the written text. I think junior primary students will really enjoy reading this text especially if they have an interest in animals. I like the way Butterfield uses a boy ‘Ben’ as the main character I think it encourages a wider audience although I think the text is specifically aimed at year 1 - 2 students.

http://www.moirabutterfield.com/under5s.html

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