Realistic Fiction

The Cats' Burglar, by Peggy Perrish is a wonderful book to share with students. The book is about a woman named Aunt Emma who has a house full of cats. She absolutely adores cats and has them here, there and everywhere in her house. Her neighbor Mr. James always makes comments about how she has too many cats. Aunt Emma is not ashamed of her 8 cats and they serve her proud in the book. In the book, the cats help protect Aunt Emma when her house gets broken into by a burglar. The burglar is allergic to cats and has trouble controlling his sneezing. As more cats enter the scence, the more the burglar sneezes and cries for help. Aunt Emma finds her cats to be very amuzing, as she watches them attack the burglar. Police Chief, Don comes to Aunt Emma's house to put an end to the sneezing freenzy. He takes away the bad guy and Aunt Emma smiles because she had her cats to protect her. Her nephew and niece stop by the next day with a suprise, another kitten. She was thrilled and gladly took the kitten into her home. I think this book says a lot about having a pet around the house. I would integrate this into my lesson by relating the book to my students. I know most of my students will have some kind of pet at home or will have a friend with a pet. They can reflect on the story by relating it to their own experiences with pets.