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Meg and Greg: A Handful of Dogs
Key Selling Points
This decodable book includes features to accommodate striving or dyslexic readers, such as comic-book-style illustrations, a dyslexia-friendly typeface with ample spacing, and shaded paper to reduce contrast between text and paper—all of which make this series more accessible.
Targeted at striving readers in grades two to four, ages six to nine, the Meg and Greg series has a wide appeal to ELL readers, reluctant readers and at-level readers alike with its engaging and age-appropriate plots and low reading level that doesn’t demoralize or stigmatize struggling readers.
Co-author Elspeth Rae is a teacher certified in using the Orton-Gillingham approach to teach children of all abilities to read and spell, and she especially enjoys working with children with dyslexia and other language-based learning difficulties. She is currently a literacy specialist teaching children ages five to thirteen.
Elspeth Rae was diagnosed with dyslexia when she was eight years old.
Includes explanations of the rules of adding suffixes and prefixes to words, activities to practice suffixes and prefixes, a guide to using the Meg and Greg books, and a glossary.
This decodable book includes features to accommodate striving or dyslexic readers, such as comic-book-style illustrations, a dyslexia-friendly typeface with ample spacing, and shaded paper to reduce contrast between text and paper—all of which make this series more accessible.
Targeted at striving readers in grades two to four, ages six to nine, the Meg and Greg series has a wide appeal to ELL readers, reluctant readers and at-level readers alike with its engaging and age-appropriate plots and low reading level that doesn’t demoralize or stigmatize struggling readers.
Co-author Elspeth Rae is a teacher certified in using the Orton-Gillingham approach to teach children of all abilities to read and spell, and she especially enjoys working with children with dyslexia and other language-based learning difficulties. She is currently a literacy specialist teaching children ages five to thirteen.
Elspeth Rae was diagnosed with dyslexia when she was eight years old.
Includes explanations of the rules of adding suffixes and prefixes to words, activities to practice suffixes and prefixes, a guide to using the Meg and Greg books, and a glossary.
160 pages, Paperback
Published August 13, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 9, 2024
I received this book from Netgalley/the publisher in exchange of an honest review.
I was very curious about this book! Firstly because of the fun cover, secondly because of the title. I just LOVE a story about dogs!
But this book (and series) is apparently very special because it teaches kids about suffixes/consonants. Each story features a certain suffix and focusses on words that have that. For instance the dog story? That one focusses on consonant suffixes, -ful -ly -ment -s. Each story also gives more explanation on these suffixes and per story you even get some fun extras like puzzles. It is a really fun way to give kids more language skills but don’t make it feel like you are studying. You are just reading a fun story about Meg and Greg and their adventures and along the way you learn new words, new suffixes!
There are 4 stories in this book. The first story is all about dogs, Greg and Meg have a Dog Dash stand for the Fall Fair Fundraiser! I really loved this story as I am a big dog lover. I loved what Greg and Meg did and how they kept going even if it was rainy/windy/stormy outside. I would have loved to see the obstacle course in person and bring along my doggo Coco to give it a whirl. She would have loved it! Next up is a story about quests! The school has a fun day prepared for the kids and they have to do quests and crack codes to win. Who will win? I loved seeing the kids solve riddles and travel through the town on the hunt for new clues. It gave more insight in the town and I wish I could have been there for real. I would love a good scavenger hunt!
Next up a story that I loved in parts and hated in other parts, you can read my NOPE later in this review. The yay were the cute school hamsters and what Meg and Greg were trying to make for them. A maze! And just a tiny one, but a big one! And then figuring out what snacks work best and how to get the hammies to discover the maze and find the exit. The surprise made me laugh and go awwww (but then later also ARGHH). And lastly we have a fun trip to a pumpkin patch… but will it be so fun when you have to babysit younger kids, especially when it is a very demanding set of twins? Finding pumpkins! There is a corn maze! I wish we had that kind of thing here, I would spend days at such a place, haha.
The art was quite fun! It reminded me a bit of a Diary of a Wimpy Kid and other such books. I liked that we also got some comic pages throughout the story.
While I did like the suffixes and that the words are in bold, my ADHD was just not happy. I kept having to drag her back to the sentence we were and not focus solely on the bold words, haha.
But please, PLEASE authors, stop with the stories of two hamsters together in ONE cage. Hamsters are SOLITARY animals. They will fight. They will kill each other. I am getting tired of it being 2024 and STILL we are getting stories like this, or stories in which kids give dogs chocolate. Can we please just stop? Everyone knows that these things are bad. Why would you put them in a children’s book? Not to mention, the cage is WAY too small even for one hamster. And I am not going to start about the hamster surprise, very cute, but….
But other than that, I did like this book and the stories in them. I liked that kids learn about suffixes this way. And I definitely want to keep on reading this series~
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
I was very curious about this book! Firstly because of the fun cover, secondly because of the title. I just LOVE a story about dogs!
But this book (and series) is apparently very special because it teaches kids about suffixes/consonants. Each story features a certain suffix and focusses on words that have that. For instance the dog story? That one focusses on consonant suffixes, -ful -ly -ment -s. Each story also gives more explanation on these suffixes and per story you even get some fun extras like puzzles. It is a really fun way to give kids more language skills but don’t make it feel like you are studying. You are just reading a fun story about Meg and Greg and their adventures and along the way you learn new words, new suffixes!
There are 4 stories in this book. The first story is all about dogs, Greg and Meg have a Dog Dash stand for the Fall Fair Fundraiser! I really loved this story as I am a big dog lover. I loved what Greg and Meg did and how they kept going even if it was rainy/windy/stormy outside. I would have loved to see the obstacle course in person and bring along my doggo Coco to give it a whirl. She would have loved it! Next up is a story about quests! The school has a fun day prepared for the kids and they have to do quests and crack codes to win. Who will win? I loved seeing the kids solve riddles and travel through the town on the hunt for new clues. It gave more insight in the town and I wish I could have been there for real. I would love a good scavenger hunt!
Next up a story that I loved in parts and hated in other parts, you can read my NOPE later in this review. The yay were the cute school hamsters and what Meg and Greg were trying to make for them. A maze! And just a tiny one, but a big one! And then figuring out what snacks work best and how to get the hammies to discover the maze and find the exit. The surprise made me laugh and go awwww (but then later also ARGHH). And lastly we have a fun trip to a pumpkin patch… but will it be so fun when you have to babysit younger kids, especially when it is a very demanding set of twins? Finding pumpkins! There is a corn maze! I wish we had that kind of thing here, I would spend days at such a place, haha.
The art was quite fun! It reminded me a bit of a Diary of a Wimpy Kid and other such books. I liked that we also got some comic pages throughout the story.
While I did like the suffixes and that the words are in bold, my ADHD was just not happy. I kept having to drag her back to the sentence we were and not focus solely on the bold words, haha.
But please, PLEASE authors, stop with the stories of two hamsters together in ONE cage. Hamsters are SOLITARY animals. They will fight. They will kill each other. I am getting tired of it being 2024 and STILL we are getting stories like this, or stories in which kids give dogs chocolate. Can we please just stop? Everyone knows that these things are bad. Why would you put them in a children’s book? Not to mention, the cage is WAY too small even for one hamster. And I am not going to start about the hamster surprise, very cute, but….
But other than that, I did like this book and the stories in them. I liked that kids learn about suffixes this way. And I definitely want to keep on reading this series~
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
July 30, 2025
This series has great reading supports in place, it's clearly very thought out! I love that it also has backmatter to help caregivers understand why a child might be struggling with certain words and grammar rules. My gripe is with the stories themselves - how unrealistic that Meg and Greg, as 5th graders, would ever be responsible for the things in this story without any supervision. Trying to rainproof an outdoor dog race? Running the dog race alone in the first place? Chaperoning 2 kindergarteners at the pumpkin patch? I just had visions of waivers running through my mind the whole time.
February 13, 2024
4 stars
I read a digital advance copy courtesy of the publisher and Edelweiss
This is an emergent reader that allows the reader to feel successful by sharing the reading responsibility with another reader. The texts contain certain word parts which are clearly explained at the beginning of each small "book" and also some word search and puzzles.
I read a digital advance copy courtesy of the publisher and Edelweiss
This is an emergent reader that allows the reader to feel successful by sharing the reading responsibility with another reader. The texts contain certain word parts which are clearly explained at the beginning of each small "book" and also some word search and puzzles.
May 29, 2024
I picked this one up off of NetGalley as a quick read just to see what's out there for emergent readers. I really liked the way this was laid out and how it emphasized specific words and suffixes. It would be a great addition to an elementary school classroom. I just wish the illustrations were more colorful.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews