Pinky Dinky Doo: Where Are My Shoes?

Pinky Dinky Doo: Where Are My Shoes is part of a series including books like Pinky Dinky Doo: Polka Dot Pox and Pinky Dinky Doo: Think Pink! In this installment Pinky Dinky Doo makes up a story to tell her little brother Tyler. In her story she imagines she cannot find her shoes for school and has to wear baloney shoes with string bean laces or she will miss her bus. When she gets to school she realizes that all of her friends also could not find their shoes and had to use various types of food as well. Just when you think it could not get any better the principle comes over the loud speaker to say that there has been a mix-up in the kitchen and they are serving shoes for lunch! Can Pinky Dinky Doo come up with a solution for this? You will have to read and find out.

I have never read any of the Pinky Dinky Doo series and I was pleasantly surprised with this story. I think that is was imaginative while also being practical. Not practical in the sense of the story but of the way the book was sett up and the strategies it used to foster literacy. For some of the actions it used visuals to represent for the reader to understand which would be good for not only emergent readers but language learners as well. It also used a good strategy for comprehension and prediction as well. Twice in the story Pinky Dinky Doo gave A, B or C answers for what would happen next. Two of the answers were completely silly and one was the correct answer. The author gives the answer but it would be helpful for teachers to check for skills like comprehension and prediction.

There was also a spot in the book where a big word was used.The word was exasperated. On the next page there was her brother looking up the word in his "Book of Big Words". A little conversation box said, "X-AS-PER-AY-TED. It means upset." (Jinkins, 13). I thought that this was such a good strategy to help emergent readers learn big words in context without having to put the book down and look up a word or skipping over it.

I also liked at the end when the story was over Pinky Dinky Doo asked her brother which part was his favorite. When he couldn't answer she would ask questions about the story changing a minor detail to see is he understood the story. She was checking for comprehension. I think that this is a great thing to show children because reading comprehension is so important.

This would be a great book to use as a read aloud in the classroom and as a silent reader in the classroom.