Seadog


Written by Claire Saxby
Illustrated by Tom Jellett

For ages 0 to 6

Get this book
This book is best for:
  • character description
  • possessive pronoun (our)
  • copula (is)
  • negative (not)
  • prediction
  • making inferences
  • problem solving

Review

In Seadog, a young boy describes his playful and mischievous pet. Seadog is not a fetch dog, neither is he a tricks dog nor a particularly clean dog. He doesn’t like baths much either. But his owners love him just the way he is.

Seadog’s rhythmic text and beautiful illustrations quickly draw the reader in. The descriptive language and wordplay perfectly describes the main character and ensures readers form a connection with the story - well all know a mischievous dog like Seadog! Early word learning is promoted through the use of phrase repetition. These repetitive phrases include grammatical elements such as the possessive pronoun ‘our', copula ‘is’, and negative ‘not’. This book is also a great choice when targeting more complex semantic goals, such as prediction, inferencing and problem solving.

For further speech and language targets, see the list below.


Book Details

Narrative Structure: Action Sequence

Story Plot: Character Flaw

Themes:
  • animals - pets, dogs
  • place - beach
  • bathtime
  • individuality

Speech and Language Targets

Speech Sounds:
  • /b/ - bath
  • /d/ - dog
  • /g/ - dog
  • /n/ - not, shiny, clean
  • /s/ - sea, soap, sit,
Grammar:
  • adjectives
  • copula (is)
  • negatives (not)
  • possessive pronoun (our)
  • action verbs
  • mental verbs (love, like, know)
Semantics:
  • predicting
  • making inferences
Concepts:
  • descriptive (dirty/clean)
  • quantity (few)
  • temporal (until)
Social-Emotional:
  • problem solving
Narrative:
  • character description
Book Info

Published by Random House Australia in 2013 (ISBN: 9781742756516)

To stay updated on the latest and greatest picture books for speech and language development, subscribe to our email newsletter.