Unlovable
Author: Dan Yaccarino; Illustrator: Dan Yaccarino
Alfred is an unhappy pug. The cat insists that his round head, squashed face and tiny little legs make him absolutely unlovable, and the other dogs in the neighborhood don’t help any: no one will play with him because of the way he looks. Then, one day, a new dog named Rex moves in next door and Alfred, desperate to make a friend, tells a lie. A harmless one - ‘I’m a golden retriever,’ he says - but one that comes back to haunt him when Rex decides to dig under the fence and meet Alfred face-to-face.
First of all, Alfred is really cute, and I always wonder how Yaccarino manages to pull off the story he does, telling us that Alfred is ugly and unlovable, when it’s so obviously clear that he is anything but. In fact, I have yet to read this to a group of students and not have them interrupt to argue the point. ‘He’s really cute!’ they exclaim. ‘Look at his little tail … what a mean cat!’
Which is, of course, the entire point of the story, and what, I think, makes it such a great book for character education and helping establish a sense of community amongst children. They all immediately see the injustice of how Alfred is treated. They connect quickly with his desire to make Rex his friend, and while they agree he shouldn’t have lied, I think they easily see why he did it and, more importantly, how the way he was treated by his peers drove him to it.
So, clearly Unlovable is a great book for talking about bullying and friendship and loving yourself and others for who they really are. What’s interesting to me, however, is that this same lesson makes Unlovable a great way to teach children about connecting with characters in stories; one of the key things a burgeoning reader must be able to do.
The fact is, most fiction, adult and children’s alike, is all about character. It’s about characters doing things, having reasons for doing them, then feeling and reacting to what happens as a result. This is what drives fiction forward. If we can teach young children to think about those things, to empathize with how Alfred is feeling and understand why he tells that white lie, we are, in essence, teaching them how to understand that story.
And this is more than a minor point. Reading comprehension is THE goal of learning to read. The letter sounds, the spelling, the phonics, the sounding-out — all the reading skills children learn — are just ways to get them reading the words of the text. The ultimate goal of reading is to understand what has been read. Understanding character motives and feelings is a huge and important part of that, and Unlovable is, without a doubt, the perfect book for practicing and building that ability.
Literacy Activities
Read-Aloud Tips
- Do voices. There are plenty of voices to do in this one, so do voices. Meow it up, with attitude, as the cat. Squawk the parrot’s line. Get gruff as the doberman and as prissy as you can for the pampered poodle. For some reason, I always read Alfred with a Woody Allen voice and Rex always seems to come out sounding like that little dog in the old Looney Toons cartoon that jumps back and forth over the bigger dog saying, ‘Wanna throw a ball, Spike? Huh? Huh? Wanna?’ Yours may sound different, just don’t let is sound like you.
- Alfred’s expressions in the book are priceless and, beyond that, are a young child’s doorway into understanding his feelings. Be sure to pause and talk about those facial expressions when they play a major role.
Comprehension Questions
Before Reading
- Read the title and look at the cover illustration. What do you see? Why do you think people might find this dog ‘unlovable?’ Do you think the dog in this story will be happy or sad?
- Have you ever felt like you were unlovable, or that people did not like you for some reason? Why did you feel that way? Was it a nice way to feel?
After Reading
- Why did Alfred feel unlovable? What were the reasons given in the story? (Kids could go two ways with this: either they will cite the things Alfred wonders about — his curly tail, ect — or they will blame the cat, parrot, and other dogs. As a teacher, I think either one shows good attention to detail.)
- When Alfred first talks to Rex through the fence, he suddenly blurt out, ‘I’m a golden retriever.’ Alfred knows lying is bad, so why does he do it anyway? What motivated him to tell that lie?
- When Rex sees that Alfred is a pug, he is not angry that Alfred lied to him. In fact, he is happy. Is that how you would feel? If you were Rex, would you be mad or glad to discover the truth? Why?
Writing
- Staple several half sheets of paper together to make a book. Now on each page draw a picture and either write a sentence or label about something Alfred and Rex like to do together now that they are friends. You can use ideas from the story, or make up some of your own. A folded piece of construction paper makes a great front and back cover for your book! Make sure you give it a title, and don’t forget to write the name of the author and illustrator … YOU!
- We think it’s good that Alfred has a new friend, but I’m not so sure the cat agrees. Look at the last page of the story where Rex and Alfred are staring at the cat. What do you think the cat is thinking? How does the cat feel about there being ‘two’ Alfred’s around? Write about Alfred and Rex’s new friendship from the cat’s perspective.
Using our Unlovable Alfred coloring page (PDF, Acrobat Reader required), color and make a picture of Alfred’s face. Use your crayons to add more details to the picture. Now write some sentences that tell us about Alfred. What does he look like? What kind of dog is he? Is he nice? What does he like to do?
Phonemic Awareness
- Parrot Pronunciation: The parrot at Alfred’s house has a problem; every time he speaks, his words start with the /p/ sound! Say each of the words below in a parrot voice and challenge your child to replace the /p/ sound with the correct one.
Plfred Pex pold pish pence pat pushes ped poberman priends pindow Now try it with other words or substituting other sounds.
- R…R…R - ex! Alfred stutters when he gets nervous, and today his stuttering is splitting his words into onset and rime.
Say the words below with a one second gap between the first part, or onset (everything up to the first vowel) and the second part, or rime (the first vowel and everything that follows — see article linked above for more details). For example, the onset in ‘cat’ is the /c/, and the rime in ‘cat’ is /at/.
Your child’s job is to squish the two parts back together and tell you the whole word.c - at m - an fr - iend b - ird f - ence b - ush d - og p - illow p - arrot y - ard
Phonics
- Word Family Flip-It: Make a flip book of words in the -AT and/or -OG word families. Word families are groups of words that have the same ending (technically, they have the same rime) and rhyme with each other. In this case, start your child with the words CAT and DOG, then help them brainstorm words that rhyme. Make a list of word ideas, then pick three or four and make a flip book.
- Alfred and Rex Hunt: Fold a paper in half and write Alfred on one side and Rex on the other. Discuss with your child what each name starts with and the sound that letter makes. Then send them on an Alfred and Rex Hunt in newpapers and magazines, looking for both words and pictures that start with those same letters.
Fun
- Act It Out! Some parts of this story are probably best avoided for dramatic play (I tend to shy away from letting kids act out scenes in stories where characters are being mean to one another), but one good place to have kids act out is the end where Alfred and Rex are playing together. Kids love to choose roles and play in pairs at running, jumping, barking, etc.
- Alfred’s Bed: Once you take a look at this book, you’ll see immediately that while Alfred isn’t treated very well by other animals, he does have one super-posh bed. One day, my students stopped me at the page that shows Alfred’s fancy bed and commented on how nice it was. So we stopped reading and made a huge pile of mats, blankets, pillows and bean bags for the class to sprawl out on while we finished the story and read a few more. They loved it. Your kids might, too.
If you found these activities helpful, please support Reading Is Good by purchasing Unlovable through this link at amazon.com.
ryan » May 27th, 2008 at 2:09 pm »
We absolutely love the book Unlovable. The children love hearing the story. I have been reading Unlovable for 3 years to children of all ages. Storytellinginthehood read and tell stories to children in churches, daycare centers, afterschool programs, block parties and at summer camps. The children love it when we use different voices and facial expressions. We have made up a song based on the story and the children love it. It is a great book about bullying too.
Evelyn Evans-Mitchell
Storytellinginthehood@yahoo.com
“Where Stories Come to Life”
Evelyn Evans-Mitchell » May 28th, 2010 at 11:36 am »
Evelyn, thanks for your input. Unlovable is one of my favorites. A song is a great idea for the little ones. One year I used Interactive Writing techniques to have the class write a script for the book, then assigned roles in groups to act out the story. We recorded each group’s performance and played it at an Open House. It went over very well with everyone, kids and parents.
readingisgood » May 30th, 2010 at 9:42 am »