Ida Luttrell

This book did not receive any awards. This easy reader is good for 1st and 2nd graders since the book is over 50 pages so it will be too long for a kindergartner to pay attention too. Even thought the book is long it is a very easy read for students who are starting to read. This story is about a little gopher how gets a bear as a neighbor. Now they start off on the wrong foot because the gopher's sprinkler was getting all the bears belongings full of mud and water, but then they got back on the right foot and enjoyed laying under the sprinkler on a hot summer day. Then the story goes on when they are in the winter and in the spring and both times the gopher does something that would bother the bear, but in the end the bear forgives him because after all they are neighbors. This story deals with making new friends and the difficulties in keeping a friendship and it deals with sharing. with the first graders we can read it together and then discuss a time they either moved into a new house or a time that a new neighbor moved next door to them. The second graders can read the book and then they can write a few sentences about a time where they either did something wrong to a friend or a time where they had to forgive a friend.… (mer)