Reader's Journal #13 The House of a Million Pets by Ann Hodgman, illustrated by Eugene Yelchinin

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

                I am still reading the memoir, The House of a Million Pets by Ann Hodgman and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin.

                Here was a passage from the book I really enjoyed from page 68:

                “We can put him in the tank with the fish,” David said.

                It was fun to watch him there.  Crayfish – in case you’ve never seen one – look exactly like miniature lobsters.  Crayfishy was tiny, maybe an inch and a half long.  For a couple of days he zoomed energetically around the tank.  Then we came into the playroom on the third morning to find that Crayfishy had killed puffy.  He had also eaten Puffy’s eyes.”

                I picked is passage because I thought it was very funny, especially how David didn’t know how to take care of pets.  This passage is important to the book because without it, we would all think that David is a dull man who never buys pets.

               My before reading strategies for this book were to remember what I read last time and start a little bit before where I left off to remind of me of what I had read.  My two during reading strategies were to understand what I was reading and to look for the various text features.  My two after reading strategies were to understand new vocabulary words and comprehend what I had read.

                The genre of this book like I said before was memoir.  The topic is a lot of pets.  The main idea is about a woman who keeps buying and buying pets and this is implied.  If I could give this book another title, it would be Too Many Pets in the House.  Some supporting details of the main idea are one, each chapter is the name of another one of the pets she got.  Second, it says at the beginning of the book that she loves to buy pets.   My third supporting detail is the title.  The essential message of the book is that be kind to all the animals because they are all very nice, which is my conclusion.

                One example I saw of cause and effect was is that due to the fact that David put a crayfish in a fish tank, the effect was that it killed Puffy and Bulgy (these are the names of their pet fish). 

                Comparing and contrasting the text, you can see that some of the text gets down to the point but yet some of it doesn’t. 

Some text features I saw was an illustration of Puffy being waved as a flag by Crayfishy.  The front cover’s picture looks like it was drawn in crayon.  I noticed that on page 26 there is text box. 

The pattern of organization is difficult to describe, because there are flashbacks, then flashbacks within flashbacks.

The author’s purpose was to show how she loves pets.  The author’s perspective is that all people should love pets and agree with her, and this is biased.  The author’s point of view is that everyone should at least get one pet.

The tone and mood of the book is funny, definitely humorous.

Here are some great new vocabulary words I learned:  Hoist.  Some context clues I used was that the kid was pulling and couldn’t walk, so I think that this means to pick yourself up.  There were no other vocabulary words that I noticed that I didn’t understand.

I say this reminds that I can never get a pet even though I really want one, this book makes me feel like I don’t really need one.  This text reminds me of the song “Bingo” because there are a lot of animals in it.  As text to world, it reminds me of how many animals are out there and how they are captured.

                I would rate this book ten out of ten because it is hilarious and informative.  It teaches you about animals.  I would recommend this book to anybody because it has easy vocabulary and it is funny.

Sincerely, your student,

Michael Heskiel