Biscuit's Big Friend

Biscuit

by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, Pat Schories (Illustrator)

For fans of Clifford and Spot, welcome everybody’s favorite little yellow puppy, Biscuit, in an I Can Read adventure! Ruff! Sam is a big dog and Biscuit's newest friend. Biscuit wants to do everything that Sam does -- like running fast and fetching sticks. But it sure is hard for a puppy like Biscuit to keep up with such a big dog. In this encouraging story of friendship, Biscuit shows that small puppies can do big things!   Biscuit’s Big Friend , a My First I Can Read book, is carefully crafted using basic language, word repetition, sight words, and sweet illustrations—which means it's perfect for shared reading with emergent readers. 

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, Dogs, Fiction, Kids, Friendship

Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

About the author

Alyssa Satin Capucilli was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1957. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, and pursued her interest in dance, becoming a professional dancer and dance instructor. Though Capucilli had written stories, poems, and even puppet shows as a child, she didn't consider a career as a writer until after her own two children were born. To this day she sees herself as both a dancer and a writer, and the two professions complement each other nicely: dancing is, in her words, “telling stories in another way,” and readers of her children's books can attest to the rhythm of her language. Since 1994, she has written more than 15 books for children, and her work has been translated into French, Hebrew, Afrikaans, Greek, and Bulgarian.

Capucilli lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, with her husband and children. They have a chocolate Labrador retriever named Huckleberry, who likes to watch the author at work.

Reviews

[L. McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

SUPER FAST REVIEW:
Aww, another cute Biscuit book!
It’s about Biscuit, the small puppy protagonist of the series and Sam, his friend who is a bigger dog.
It has a nice lesson as well as a cute story, some humor and adorable artwork!

It is unfortunately more predictable than the previous books in the series and the ending feels just slightly abrupt. I think that there’s more that could have been done here.
Overall it’s cute and funny. I greatly enjoy these books and reading them to my little puppy! If you want a happier read with cute artwork, dogs and funny moments you definitely should try the Biscuit books!
Definitely recommended!

4/5

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The little puppy is cute as he ineptly mimics the big dog and gets to have a little victory for being so small.

The story is a silly bit of nothing, but it does remind me of when we got our new puppy a few years back:

[Lorellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A particularly lovely biscuit about how being little is as important as being big.

[Hannah Parks · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Biscuit's Big Friend," is the story of two dogs- one big, one small, who each have different strengths. Biscuit, the smaller dog, wants to do the things his big friend does, but has trouble because of his size. However, when a ball is accidentally thrown over a fence, Biscuit crawls under it- something only he could accomplish because of his size.

This book subtly acknowledges that people have natural strengths and weaknesses, and that is okay. Diversity in both strengths, identities, and appearances are important and should be valued. In the classroom students could share what makes them beautifully different to celebrate the diversity in the classroom. Word math problems could also be made (Biscuit has fetched 8 sticks. His friend has fetched 12. How many sticks were fetched total?) from this story. Genetics could also be explored- what makes Biscuit small and his friend big?

[Ali Book&Seaglasshunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a cute and relatable story for early readers. Biscuit is a small puppy but he has a good friend Sam, who is a big dog. There are lots of things Sam can do that Biscuit can’t quite do yet. Biscuit wants to run fast like Sam, or carry a big stick. When a game of fetch encounters a problem, Biscuit finds out that sometimes there are things that little dogs can do and big dogs can’t!
Lots of kids in the target reading range for this book are likely to relate to wanting to do things that a bigger friend can do, so I like that it’s relatable. Since it’s an early reader the plot isn’t very complex and this is a common theme in children’s books, so it likely isn’t a new concept for lots of kids, but still a nice reminder that we all have different skills. The super cute illustrations are an added bonus.

[Asho · Rating 3 out of 5]

L continues on her quest of reading every dog-related book at our public library and so she has recently discovered the Biscuit books and checked a couple out before quarantine began a couple of months ago. We finally got around to reading this one today and it's cute. She "read" a few words herself (I point to words I think she can easily guess from the context of the picture) but she quickly informed me she didn't want to read, which is fine! Biscuit books never appealed much to big brother S, but I think they're going to be a hit for L.

[Makayla Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Any books with biscuit were my favorites to read growing up. I have fond memories of reading these books at my grandparents house. I’m so excited to share this little piece of childhood with my own child. 🥰

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biscuit's Big Friend by Alyssa Satin Capucilli is a cute story about friendship. Great for all ages.

[Amanda Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for dog lovers about how all sizes are special and can do different things.

[Molly Cluff (Library!) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very basic text. Biscuit's friend is big, and he is small (which sometimes means he can do things the big dog can't!)

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biscuit is very popular in our library. This is a cute friendship story.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fun to get a friend🙄

[Cara Byrne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woof! Ruff! This early reader highlights a friendship between little Biscuit and big Sam.

[Jeannie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good addition to the Biscuit series, introduces the words big and small as the theme.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Henry has been loving this series - age 2

[Adrianne Rosal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love me some Biscuit!!

[Christie Marine · Rating 5 out of 5]

So sweet, the friendship between Biscuit and the big friendly dog! Nice way to teach kids that unlikely friendships are sometimes the best ones-even in the animal kingdom.

[zhanghao · Rating 5 out of 5]

A life of playing with good friends.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

(read aloud by himself at 5yo, no words missed)

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a dog! I read to my 3 year old grandson.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fun of playing fetch. If only we could meet Biscuit.

[Alisha Ptacek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal Reaction- This book is really cute and will be very appealing to dog lovers. In this book you get to see the personality of two very unique dogs, which makes it very fun and enjoyable to read. This is a very good book for beginning to read students, because it has big fount and repetitive words.

Read aloud- This book does not have any beneficial value to read it aloud because it lacks a strong storyline.

Independent reading- This is a very good beginning to read book for students, because it has a large fount with repetitive words like Biscuit, Sam, woof, ruff, and big. The book also does not have very many words on each page and the words are very simple. Beginning readers will enjoy this book and feel a since of accomplishment amongst completion of the book.

Literary elements- This book lacks a strong plot, theme, characterization, setting, conflict, and tone, which does not make it a good book for teaching any of these elements.

[☼Bookish in Virginia☼ · Rating 3 out of 5]

~ borrowed from the Library

BISCUIT'S BIG FRIEND is a cute little book at the Kindergarten reading level (end of Kindergarten).

As Biscuit stories go, this one is alright. It's not as good as BISCUIT WINS A PRIZE but it is good practice. The story actually reminds me of LITTLE BLACK A PONY. Stories about being Big and Small and how small animals, and by inference children, can do things that large animals/people cannot do. In this case Biscuit is sort of behind the curve because he can't carry and fetch like Sam. In fact, he falls in Sam's waterdish. All this is reversed though to Biscuit's advantage when a ball goes astray.

Here's some sample text from one page:

Splash!
Silly puppy!
Sam's dish is too big
for you!

Sweet book about friendship and using what you have to your advantage. The artwork is adorable as usual.

**Teachers should note that there is an Accelerated Reader test available. Also that this book is Common Core aligned.

[Juli (Olson) Morneweck]

3/29/16-Big and little dog crafts.
Program plan:

1. Construction paper dog hats (large dog)
Similar to this:
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/dogc...
http://www.toddlerapproved.com/2012/0...
2. origami dog craft (Biscuit)
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/orig...

After program notes:
Went really well, given I only had two kids show up! Used templates for the dog hat parts (ear, nose and eyes--brim pieces were pre-cut) and method of taping template to construction paper in numerous locations before giving to kids to cut. ***This worked REALLY well; definitely want to do that in the future. (Templates are in program files.)
My boys taught how to make simple origami dogs (they used tape on some of the open bottom (chin) section to turn the origami dogs into puppets. Nice touch!)

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another fun book in the Biscuit series by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and Pat Schories. These books are short, with simple and repetitive narratives and the illustrations are adorable. Our youngest loves that she can read these stories all by herself. She read this one to a dog at our local library (during a read-to-the-dog program.)

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

We got this from the library. My son loves the Biscuit books, and he picked this out himself. This is the first book he wanted to read over and over and over again. (And, yes, that is finishing the book and starting over right away.) He LOVES this particular book. He relates to the pictures, saying "uh-oh" when Biscuit's toy is on the ground instead of in his mouth, among other things.

This is a great book for kids who love dogs.

[Chinyleu Nwokolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another winner for the young reader who loves dogs. Simple words that help kids form sentences. My son loved that the big dog was a friend to biscuit. He tried really hard to do what the big dog did but soon realized that he can only do what little dogs can do.

Capucilli, A., Schories,P. (2003) Biscuit's Big Friend.
USA; HarperCollins.

[Yiovana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story because it demonstrates two main ideas to kids such as, friendship and how small dogs can also do big things. Children can enjoy this book specially if they love dogs, the illustrations are clear and the wording is simple to follow through. Definitely recommend for children ages 3-5.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's funny and kind of sad because in the middle and beginning Sam, his friend, was doing stuff better than him and at very end he couldn't jump over the fence. But biscuit went under the fence because he was little.

[Takeisha Hannor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a dog who finds a friend that is bigger than he is. He likes to play with his friend. This book is age aprropriate for all ages. A good book to teach basic reading skills for beginners.