Martha Speaks (Puppy Dog Tales Collection) by Susan Meddaugh (HMH Books for Young Readers, 2015 [2010, 2013], 304 pages, $8.99, ages 6-9, grades 1-4)
Yes, Martha Speaks! And Walks the Dog
Martha, as we all know, is a former shelter dog now belonging to 10-year-old Helen (two ‘girl’ protagonists – yippy skippy!) who once slurped a bowl of alphabet soup: the letters traveled to her brain instead of her stomach, thus enabling her to speak and she loves to speak and speak and speak!
On TV, Too!
The Martha stories began in 1992 with a series of tales by Susan Meddaugh which turned into an American-Canadian series of children’s educational TV shows. Each show focuses painlessly on vocabulary and synonyms without interrupting the flow of the story. Martha and Helen (another little red-haired girl!) live in Wagstaff City (thinly disguised take-off of Flagstaff, AZ). The TV shows ran from 2008-2014.
Read, Read, Read All About It
As you know, DogEvalsis all about reading good books about dogs and to our dogs. We champion not only children reading more but more adults reading – and it’s OK to start with children’s books! Martha makes that effortless – and may just bring back memories to share with your kids!
Watch Martha, Too!
Martha, a little bit chunky, is available on DVDs, on YouTube with more than 200 stories, and – she has her own webpage here on PBS Kids.
Hidden Learning
In 2010, the Martha Speaks books (and DVDs)were published, and include 24-page readers, chapter books, and a picture book. This title, Puppy Dog Tales, contains three Martha chapter books with plenty of illustrations.
A Pup’s Tale tells how Martha came to be a bungling thief, a shelter pup and then was saved for Helen.
Shelter Dog Blues is the story of how Martha landed back in the shelter and broke out again with her new friends.
And, So You Want to be a Dog? is all about science experiments - turning dogs into humans and humans into dogs with new words like hypothesis.
Martha Speaks (Puppy Dog Tales Collection)Each of the three books in this book ends with a one-page glossary. Other features include an ASPCA page about adopting a dog, how to start a drawn photo album of your life, and how to conduct an experiment on being a dog for a day. Fill in the blanks to get started writing your own biography and use the vocabulary words, in the blanks given, to write and continue a ‘Helen’ story – and then a silly one! You can even paper-fold a dog!
Best of All
Martha is a family dog who gets into and out of trouble. Even though Martha is a girl-dog, boys identify with her and so will you – love her, that is.
But, Who is Skits?
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