Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hill (Schwartz and Wade, 2012) is the sequel to the best-seller How Rocket Learned to Read (2010), a delightful story about a yellow bird helping a curious dog develop the ability to read. Rocket Writes a Story brings us the same adorable and talented dog, who now really wants help in creating a story, but he doesn’t know how to write it. His teacher helps him find interesting words around him. As Rocket records those words, he finds a new friend, which gives him the inspiration he needs to write a story.
When the first book came out, my son was in the process of learning to read; now that he is older and practicing handwriting, I’ve begun implementing some creative writing into our school time. What perfect timing for us!
My son and I read this story together and talked about words, and then I let him write a story, with my help in capturing it on paper. His story was a somewhat plagiarized retelling of Tad Hill’s story, I’m sorry to say, but he did add some of his own elements into it to make it his own creation! Besides, he is excited to write more now.
