Rabbit the Dog is flying! She wants to show off to all the other dogs, but she suddenly realizes that she cannot stop flying. Aspin steps in with ideas, but then seems to run off. Oh no! Rabbit finds herself going through a series of excuses because she doesn't know why her last hope, Aspin, has left her all alone. How does Rabbit get down?
In this naptime/early reader story, Rabbit the Dog goes through several life lessons. She wants to show off something that she thinks is cool, but turns out to be a liability. She goes through the five stages of change (in an accelerated fashion, of course) because she is trying to understand why things are happening to her when she does not have all of the facts. And she uses a lot of exclamation points - because she is excited, worried, and yelling. (Exclamation point usage is an important life lesson!)
We have identified legitimate research papers and gleaned the lessons learned from each one. Thus, this story promotes phonetic awareness, builds vocabulary, and is useful as a transition from picture book to early reader. It also facilitated educational discussions as noted above. And, finally, it is written and illustrated in such a way that it should not be annoying and tiresome to read several times. (As an added bonus it is also a short story so that you can get the child down for a nap quickly.)