Lions and tigers and boats. Oh, my!

The CPG children read and discussed Toy Boat by Randall de Seve and Loren Long. As you read through their comments, you'll see the children were delightfully scared by the boat's misadventures. It's obvious that de Seve and Long have written the perfect "thriller" for the preschool set. They've given their readers just the right scare factor, with the happy resolution coming soon enough to diffuse the tension.

Aria: I like this part in the tub. I like the boy and the boat. I like this part, but he let go of the boat. The boat got lost. I like this part, 'cause he said, "Boat! Boat!" I like this part 'cause it's pretty scary. The weather blowed it away. I like this part, cause he [the big boat] said, "Move!" He's sad 'cause he misses his boy.

Alec: The [tub toy] shark looks happy. The boy's in the tub with his boat. [Flips to illustration of a speedboat with flames and teeth painted on its sides.] It's scary! Those are bad boats! [Flips to illustration in which the boy and boat are reunited.] That boy said, "Boat!" The end.

Teagan: [Flipping to illustration of a speedboat with flames and teeth painted on its sides.] I'm going to the shark one. The boat shark. It maked me freak out. The speedboat's yell did. When he said the thing. ["Move along!"]

John: I liked the picture with the speedboat. The speedboat had flames and some teeth and lots of yellow on it and a white cover on the top. The speedboat zoomed by and kicked up a lot of water and the speedboat went really, really fast. The toy boat got wet. The speedboat screamed, "Get out of my way!"

Maeve: [Flips to illustration of a speedboat with flames and teeth painted on its sides.] I like when the scary boat was shooting by. The boat's scary. My favorite part was the teeth.

Aidan C.: The toy boat escaped from the boy. I like the part when it was scary. The part when it was dark. The toy boat got lost and he couldn't find his friend. They were together in the end.