Give Books a Chance! - Twenty Page Test

Here's my newest graphic organizer hack:  give a book a chance and if you don't like it, let it go!  My usual book test is to read the first 20 pages.  After that, you'll know if you love a book. I gave The Adventures of Hank the Cowdog way more than that...and it wasn't worth it.  Don't waste your time reading books you don't love!  There are a gajillion books out there - always give a book a chance, but if you're not in love, move on!

I wanted to love Hank the Cowdog.  I really did. 

After reading the first five chapters and skimming the rest, I have to admit: Hank the Cowdog is not for me.  First of all, I was OFFENDED that he called his deputy "worthless" to his face.  Not cool!  I don't care if you're a dog or a chicken or a kid, you can't say that.  As I read the first few chapters, I thought this might be a good book for my mom to read aloud to my little brother, but after the "worthless" part, I changed my mind. 

Sure, Hank has amusing parts.  Hank thinks he's very misunderstood and he says and does some things that make a dog feel good about himself and make humans laugh.  But mostly it takes a long time to get to the funny parts, and there's a lot of country humor.  I'm a city girl, so it just wasn't for me.  Blah blah blah coyotes blah chickens blah blah truck.  Blah blah NO THANKS.

Here's my graphic organizer for Hank...but I'm not proud of it.  If you love the book, it'll show in your graphic organizer.  And if you don't love the book, you'll get something like this: