The Great Gracie Chase, Stop That Dog!: By Cynthia Rylant

        The Great Gracie Chase, Stop that Dog! by Cynthia Rylant is a story full of excitement that would be a great addition to any dog lovers collection! Gracie Rose lives in a quiet home, which she loves, with the bigger dog, the kitty, and the fish. Gracie enjoys the peacefulness of her home and was a good dog every single day of her life--except for one...the day the painters came. When the noisy painters come to paint the kitchen in Gracie's quiet home, she tries to tell them to take their loud clangy ladders and big-person voices back outside, but they do not listen to silly little Gracie. Instead, they put Gracie outside and she decides to do something naughty.  Gracie goes out the front gate that the painters left open and the excitement begins when those noisy painters realize Gracie is no longer in the yard. Upon realizing Gracie is gone, they begin to chase Gracie, but she keeps on running. Neighbors, trash-men, delivery people and more and more people from the town join in the chase to try to stop Gracie. That silly little puppy keeps on running until one by one everyone chasing after her becomes tired and stops. Gracie quickly realizes that the world is peaceful again and turns around to go back and enjoy her quiet home.
         Rylant's story invites the reader to join the fun as Gracie runs and runs and runs. Mark Teague's full-page illustrations compliment the chase very well, creating a unique perspective of depth as the town all joins in to try and keep up with fast little puppy. The use of depth perspective helps the images to almost run off the page, as we see each character charging through the town. This kid-friendly picture book does an excellent job of modeling story elements and character traits, and would be an excellent model for young readers learning about story sequencing and summarizing. I highly recommend The Great Gracie Chase, Stop that Dog! to young readers, as it is packed full of laughs and tons of excitement.

Picture Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/981940.The_Great_Gracie_Chase_Stop_That_Dog_