by Gloria Estefan
illustrated by Michael Garland
Noelle the Bulldog can’t figure out her special talent. She can’t run fast like other dogs, swim like fish, glow like fireflies, or have shimmery colors like the birds. Then one day, the dogs can’t get their ball from underneath a car. Noelle saves the day. A fish jumps out of the pond, Noelle is able to pick him up and put him back in the pond. The birds needed seed, and Noelle knew just where to go in the house. Noelle’s special talent was found on the inside!
From the publisher: It captures all the worry of an outsider trying to fit in and all the joy of discovering that everyone has a talent that matters, and that true beauty comes from inside
Reading Comprehension: Metacognition, Schema, Connections, Questioning,
Other lesson ideas: Tolerance and acceptance, Everyone’s unique, rhyming and rhythm
Writing: Personal narrative about one of your special talents in action, sentence fluency (due to the rhyming and rhythm the sentence beginnings vary a lot)
Radway's Round Table 