dog and cat and kids playing ... ( )

The illustrations of this wordless book are simple to follow. The young boy and his friend are stacking blocks and just as they top it off with what looks like a chess piece (like a crown), Jack bursts into the room crashing through the blocks, jumping on the boy. After about three attempts to complete the block stack, Jack does it again, only this time, the boys lock him out of the room. While this is happening, the lazy cat has slinked out of her chair and takes the block topper. When the boys finally complete their block stack, they find the topper missing. Of course, it is blamed on Jack. When they can't find it, Jack does. He sticks his nose at the cat which makes the cat stand in his chair where the boys find the topper.

This book is very easy to understand and could be used for ELL students. They can learn to infer and try and feel what the kids and animals are each feeling. You can teach them about blame and many times innocent individuals are blamed for things that they didn't do. Also perseverance can be taught after seeing the boys work so hard to recover the missing piece and to see Jack persevere despite being wrongly blamed. ( )