Critical issues books

Fred Stays with Me!

Cofflet, N. (2007). Fred Stays with Me. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

ISBN: 0-316-88269-0

This is a book about a girl whose mommy and daddy has divorced, and they don’t live together anymore. The girl, who has a dog named Fred, sometimes lives at daddy’s house and sometimes at mommy’s house. This story shows how she has different life styles in these two places, but still gets to be with her dog; even though he is sometimes a troublesome for her. For example, her father gets mad when Fred eats his socks, and her mother gets annoyed because the neighbor’s poodle barks at Fred. But no matter what, Fred stays with her wherever she goes; and she is happy about it.

 I think this book is very informative for 3-5 years old children since it has a message that even though it’s hard for children when their parents don’t live together, life can still be fun and enjoyable, and in this case, what makes it enjoyable is that this girl consistently has Fred with her to keep her company no matter which house she lives at.

The cover of the book is very interesting, you can see right away that the girl and her dog are very good friends. The book uses short, simple sentences, which make it easier for children to understand and the pictures are very detailed adding a sense of reality to the story.


I can scan some attractive pictures from the book  that show her life at mommy’s house and how her life at daddy’s house. I can place them in the classroom, on the wall, and see what discussions they evoke among the children.

Ways to present the story:

-Magnet board: I can use a cookie sheet as a board, and I can put a small piece of magnet behind the characters (girl, daddy, mommy, Fred), which can be made of laminated pictures (from the book or hand drawn), or pictures on cardboard. You can also have different objects from each house, for example, you can make a bunk bed magnet from her one room and then a normal bed magnet for her other room.

-Felt board: It is nice to present the story by felt board since we have different objects from mommy’s and daddy’s home that we can present. You need to make the main characters, such as the girl, daddy, mommy, and Fred, out of felt or other materials that are easy to cut. You can also make felt objects from mommy's house and from daddy's house. All these materials can be found at Michaels, the dollar store, or potentially bought premade from 3H Craftworks.
 
-Reading the book: You can read the book, while stopping on certain pages to wonder about what is going to happen next, for instance when the dog does silly or annoying things, you can ask the children what Fred might do next.
 
Extensions:
 
-Art: You can ask children to draw two different rooms, and they could be any two, one from mommy's house or daddy's house, if their parents are separated, and if not, they can draw one from their house or one from grandma’s house, or the second room can be a room they would like to have. You can also ask children to include things they really like about their room/s or what they would like in their room/s.

-Game: You can draw each object that was related to each of the two homes in the story, on small pieces of cardboard. For example, you can draw a bunk bed on one piece of cardboard, and a regular bed on another, or a slice of pizza, that she eats at mommy’s house, and a peanut butter sandwich that she has at daddy’s house. You can also provide two baskets, one with a mommy sticker on it, the other with a daddy sticker on it, so children know which is which. Then you can spread the cards on the floor, and ask the children to put each card in the right basket. This is an activity that is good as a memory game for children.

-Children participation: I can get the children to talk about what pets they have or would like to have and why at their parent's house. I can also ask them how a pet could be a good friend to them?