2. “Dogzilla” by Dav Pilkey Theme 3

3. Meet the Author and Illustrator Even before he was old enough to go to school, Dav Pilkey loved drawing. Today, he writes and illustrates his own booksand draws pictures for other authors’ books. He says, “I feel really lucky to be able to make a living doing my favorite things”. (from www.eduplace.com)

4. Genre: Fantasy A fantasy is a type of incredible story. Something that is incredible is amazing, unbelievable, or not likely to happen. This story places ordinary characters in a traditional monster-movie plot.

5. Summary The dreadful Dogzilla destroys the streets of Mousopolis, ruining the city’s cook-off. Brave mice attack, but Dogzilla’s terrible doggy breath defeats them. Finally, the mice come up with a better plan-BATH TIME! Dogzilla flees, and Mousoplois is saved, at least until next year.

6. Background Information This story is a “spoof”, or a silly take- off, of the monster movie Godzilla. If you would like to find out more about Godzilla, click on the monster below!

7. Key Concept Movie Monsters

8. Key Vocabulary colossal creature heroic horrifying monstrous terrifying tremendous

9. colossal very big; enormous

10. creature a living being, especially an animal

11. heroic very brave or daring

12. horrifying causing much fear

13. monstrous extremely large; enormous

14. terrifying causing much fear

15. tremendous very great, large, or powerful

16. GUESS THE COVERED WORD

17. American soldiers are heroic men and women that fight for our freedom.

19. The scary movie was horrifying to watch.

21. The volcano erupted a tremendous amount of lava.

23. The skyscrapers in New York are colossal.

25. The brown creature was crawling up my arm.

27. The monstrous giant defeated the mouse.

29. The dog was terrifying the little girl.

31. Strategy Focus: Evaluate When we evaluate, we form an opinion about we see and/or read. The author calls this story “extremely goofy”. Do you agree with him? Evaluate how well he uses the words and pictures to make you feel this way.

32. Strategy Focus: Evaluate Tell a partner how the picture on the title page makes you feel. Let’s try it! Tell a partner how you feel about the title of this story. ~or~

33. Comprehension Skill Focus: Fantasy/Realsim We have defined fantasy as incredible, not real, and unbelievable. As we read “Dogzilla”, we find examples of things that are fantasy (not real) and some things that are real and could really happen in life.