Officer Buckle and Gloria (1995)

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Officer Buckle is in charge of teaching the students the rules of the school. He notices when he is telling others, no one seems to be listening to him. He recruits his dog, Gloria to come and help him. They are a hit at the schools and the student's love them both! Officer Buckle soon starts to feel like everyone enjoy's Gloria more. Eventually he stops showing up with Gloria. This story teaches about friendship and how to stick together. ( )

This is a great book to teach safety tips but also it teaches the children to listen to safety tips and why they are important. I think this is a great book for the start of the school so they can learn that being safe is good

Genre: Fiction- Humorous
Grade: Three

Rating: I would give this book 5/5 stars because the reaction that Gloria has to the safety talks that Officer Buckle gives, keeps the reader interested and wanting to keep reading to see what she will do next. Also, this book provides many opportunities for classroom lessons and activities.

Theme: The theme of this book is friendship and relying on your partner to have your back and overcoming conflict when that does not happen. Also another theme in this book is staying safe.

Review: Officer Buckle and Gloria is about a cop named Officer Buckle who travels around to different schools with his K9 partner, Gloria, to give important safety talks. Officer Buckle enjoyed going around to the different schools because he liked the idea of sharing his wisdom about safety with students. While at the schools, Gloria starts to notice that everyone is falling asleep or not paying attention to Officer Buckle so she starts acting out the safety tips behind his back to keep the students interested. After seeing himself on the news, Officer Buckle then realizes that people were only interested in the safety talks because of Gloria. Officer Buckle then becomes discouraged and sends Gloria off by herself to the safety talks, which did not make everyone as happy as it did before. After Officer Buckle sees his partner struggling, he decides to join her and incorporate her into his safety tips so that they both can get the attention and praise they deserve. This book is great to read aloud in a third grade classroom because it is a funny book that can hold students' attention and interest. Also, it teaches students that there is more than one way to do something, meaning that having others give input or letting them participate can help things turn out better. Reading this book can teach students about the importance of forgiving someone for upsetting us and finally looking at the situation from a different point of view. This book is great to read in the classroom because if offered many opportunities for lessons and different fun assignments that can keep students motivated and interested. ( )

Officer Buckle provides safety tip presentations to schools, but his audience sleeps through them and accidents abound. However, once he begins bringing police dog Gloria along, the students pay attention, accidents diminish, and he is booked solid! Once he realizes that Gloria has been acting out his safety situations behind his back, he feels dejected and Gloria must go it alone, without any success. He realizes that the two are successful only when they work as a team. The detailed cartoon illustrations tell the story hilariously!