McGuinty's Friend

McGinty’s Friend is a humorous fiction story about a girl, Melissa Brown, who loved cats…especially a cat named McGinty. She wanted a cat, but the Browns had canaries. McGinty invited Melissa to the park one night when she snuck out dressed like a cat. The cats at the park talked her into climbing up a tree…but she struggled to get down. The next morning, Melissa was thankful to have canaries. The story is narrated with dialogue and illustrative text.

McGinty’s Friend is a simple narrative story. Critical thinking questions are provided to guide the reader. Illustrations match the text. A visual information guide is provided for teachers to draw students’ attention to the changes in font style and illustrative text. There is an infographic at the end of the book outlining the parts of a narrative including the who, where, when, problem, and solution. An activity on drawing and labelling a character with words that describe them is provided for teachers to extend students’ learning.

Readers develop vocabulary such as nouns (canaries), verbs (hiss), singular/plural (cat/cats), and similes. Opportunities arise to discuss apostrophes to show possession (Melissa’s legs) and apostrophes within contractions (you’re). Focus on short and long vowel a, suffix ly (quietly), base words (terrified), and silent letters (wrote).

This title is from the Sails Literacy series. Hook readers and ignite their curiosity - over 850 levelled texts with bright, colourful, sophisticated designs.