National Geographic Kids Chapters

October 1, 2014

Gr 3-6-Many children already know that dogs can be trained to assist individuals through "seeing eye" and other companion services. However, they may be surprised and delighted to know that dogs, capuchin monkeys, and even rats have been trained to provide additional indispensable services. Students will hear three inspirational tales in this work. Cloud, a Labrador retriever, locates stranded dolphins; Kasey is a capuchin monkey who greatly enhances the life of a severely disabled young accident victim; and, perhaps the most remarkable of all, Samo, an African giant pouched rat, sniffs out bombs to enable explosive disposal specialists to locate and disable them. Narrator Johnny Heller capably launches each account with the beginning of a true story to gain listeners' attention and curiosity and then smoothly intersperses interesting factual details about each situation, animal group, and the training processes involved throughout the remainder of the adventure stories. Teachers could easily use one or more of these accounts in various learning exercises, for example, when studying animal classification and species; in a variety of social studies units; to motivate learners to find and read additional animal fiction and nonfiction works; or even as a stimulus to create illustrations and artwork.-Rebecca James, Christ Presbyterian Academy, Nashville, TN

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