At Royal Fireworks, we’re nearly bursting with excitement! Poodle and the Blue Desert Dunes, the fourth book in Michael Clay Thompson’s Poodle series, is now available!

Readers who have been following along on our good friend Poodle’s journey through language will be thrilled to see that our favorite chicken is back with his best pals What? the beagle and Sidney the snail to continue their exploration (and explanation) of language. This time they’re looking at phrases—specifically prepositional phrases—but they have to cross the desert to do it, and the journey is not without peril. For starters, the desert is hot! Fortunately, the friends make most of their journey during the night, when the dunes are cool and the sky is awash with stars.

In fact, the desert, particularly at night, invites all kinds of discussion about space and time, and that’s important because describing space and time are what prepositional phrases do best. Poodle and his friends are traveling to the end of space and time and exploring the intricacies of prepositional phrases along the way. They’re joined by Burgull the consonant monster and Dickinson the Blue Mountain monster, which is a good thing because there’s another monster in the desert, and this one is cranky!

But anyone familiar with the Poodle books knows that the characters aren’t just good at language; they’re good at being kind, and maybe this new monster just needs someone to see beyond his disgruntled disposition. However, Maybe the mouse, the director of this play, storms onto the stage—this time with a new assistant—and she’s angry. No new monsters! Three monsters in one play? Who ever heard of such a thing? Well, Poodle and his friends have something to say about that!

Michael Clay Thompson is a creative genius with language and with the ways in which he gets children to understand how it works, and Poodle and the Blue Desert Dunes is another shining example of everything done right. The story not only teaches language arts through a delightful story but also pushes readers to their imaginative limits, with characters who are in the book but also in a play, who talk among themselves but also take direction from Maybe and also argue with the author, who claims to have written their words (they disagree). Again in this book, artist Christopher Tice has created a breathtakingly beautiful vision of the story, doing his part to elevate this grammar experience into one that blends instruction and artistry seamlessly. And again readers can hear Michael narrating the book through QR code technology. An instructor manual gives parents and teachers a wealth of hints and tips for implementation, in addition to answers to the review questions and quizzes.

Click here to listen to audio of Michael narrating the text.

Poodle and the Blue Desert Dunes is the fourth volume in the Preliminary Level of the MCT language arts curriculum for children ages 6-9 (grades 1-3). The books are available to purchase separately, but they build upon one another and are meant to be read in order, so we also offer a package of all four volumes at a discounted rate. Don’t miss this opportunity to give children a lesson in language that will leave them eager for more! How often can anyone say that, really?

Poodle can. And we believe him.