Blue Daisy [Hardcover]

Sam and Katie find a stray dog and make a big mistake, but it's hard to make amends--how can you apologize to a dog?

A dirty, skinny, dog shows up in Sam and Katie's neighborhood. They start to follow it, and they don't like what they see: The Wilson sisters yell at it because it goes in their garden and the Tracy twins chase it on their bikes and throw things at it.

Sam and Katie want the dog to know they'll be its friends. They think it should have a name. Most of all, they want it to like them. But then they do something thoughtless, and after that, it's hard to make things right, especially because the dog now won't come near them.

How they earn the dog's trust, help it find its place in their town and how it gets its name, makes for a heartwarming story told in two voices using prose and poetry. Blue Daisy is illustrated with 20 black-and-white illustrations and includes recipes for dog biscuits and snickerdoodles.
 
A Bank Street Best Childrens Book of the Year! Positive examples of parenting offer the children guidance as they learn important lessons in responsibility, forgiveness, and understanding, and a happy ending levels the playing field between 'good' and 'bad' kids through friendship and a home for Blue Daisy. Back matter features recipes connected to the story, and the note on poetry and prose easily ties the book to language arts lessons. —Booklist

An easy-to-read, heartwarming lesson in trust-building. —Kirkus Reviews

The book contains several scaffolds for readers just moving into longer works. Quatrains preview each of three sections, while a fourth serves as an epilogue and succinctly closes the novel. Sam’s three-line stanzas provide a nice structure for the