Booktalks Quick and Simple

	Fleming, Candace. STRONGHEART : WONDER DOG OF THE SILVER SCREEN New York : Schwartz & Wade, 2018 IL 3-6, RL 3.9 ISBN 978-1-10193-410-4 (3 booktalks)
Click on the book to read Amazon reviews	Booktalk #1 On a farm in Germany , a carefree puppy named Etzel played in a sun-washed barnyard. He chased the chickens, he tipped over his water bowl, and he gulped down the last of his kibble, licking the bowl to shiny emptiness. At last, tired and full, he flopped onto the squirming puppies nestled in the curve of his mother’s belly. He had just closed his eyes, when—“Here’s a big, handsome one,” a man’s voice boomed. Rough hands tore Etzel away from his family and held him high. “Ja, take him,” rumbled a second voice. “And we will turn him into the fiercest guard dog on the Berlin police force.” Etzel was shoved into a canvas bag. His mother barked. In the bag’s darkness, Etzel whined. In three years, all traces of the cuddly puppy will have disappeared---and Etzel will have become an angry, dangerous guard dog. But life has something more in store for Etzel---and when he meets a man named Larry Trimble, he finds a friend who has faith that deep inside, Etzel is full of heart. Will Larry be able to find the sweet puppy who still hides somewhere inside this vicious dog? Read Strongheart—based on the true story of a man and the dog that became the star of stage and movie screen. (New Hampshire Great Stone Face nominee, 2018-2019) Booktalk #2 Etzel is a police dog, trained by cruel policemen in Berlin, Germany. By the time he’s one-yearold, he is the fiercest guard dog at the police station. Far away in the United States, Larry Trimble, a film director, comes up with a brilliant idea of casting a dog as the main character in a thrilling adventure movie. But, where can he find a movie star dog? After searching throughout America, and most of Europe with no luck, he passes by a rundown police station in Berlin, Germany. A German Shepherd breaks through the glass, he’s terrifying, yet magnificent; Larry has found his star. Yet, how does he train him to become a real actor, a true movie star? Read this suspenseful fiction title, based on a true story from the 1920’s, about the first canine movie star dog, Strongheart. The plentiful, realistic illustrations make you feel like you’re in a movie theatre, glued to the action of this heartwarming historical fiction blockbuster. (Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2019-2020) Booktalk #3 When a movie director travels to Berlin searching for his next big star--a dog!--he finds Etzel, a fierce, highly trained three-year-old German shepherd police dog. He sees past the snarls and growls and brings Etzel back to Hollywood, where the dog is renamed Strongheart. Strongheart soon becomes a movie sensation. (Sunshine State Young Readers Award Books 2020-2021)
	SUBJECTS: Dogs -- Fiction. German shepherd dog -- Fiction. Motion pictures -- Production and direction -- Fiction. Working dogs -- Fiction.

Fleming, Candace.
STRONGHEART : WONDER DOG OF THE SILVER SCREEN
New York : Schwartz & Wade, 2018
IL 3-6, RL 3.9
ISBN 978-1-10193-410-4

(3 booktalks)

Click on the book to read Amazon reviews

Booktalk #1

On a farm in Germany , a carefree puppy named Etzel played in a sun-washed barnyard. He chased the chickens, he tipped over his water bowl, and he gulped down the last of his kibble, licking the bowl to shiny emptiness. At last, tired and full, he flopped onto the squirming puppies nestled in the curve of his mother’s belly. He had just closed his eyes, when—“Here’s a big, handsome one,” a man’s voice boomed. Rough hands tore Etzel away from his family and held him high. “Ja, take him,” rumbled a second voice. “And we will turn him into the fiercest guard dog on the Berlin police force.” Etzel was shoved into a canvas bag. His mother barked. In the bag’s darkness, Etzel whined.

In three years, all traces of the cuddly puppy will have disappeared---and Etzel will have become an angry, dangerous guard dog. But life has something more in store for Etzel---and when he meets a man named Larry Trimble, he finds a friend who has faith that deep inside, Etzel is full of heart. Will Larry be able to find the sweet puppy who still hides somewhere inside this vicious dog? Read Strongheart—based on the true story of a man and the dog that became the star of stage and movie screen. (New Hampshire Great Stone Face nominee, 2018-2019)

Booktalk #2

Etzel is a police dog, trained by cruel policemen in Berlin, Germany. By the time he’s one-yearold, he is the fiercest guard dog at the police station. Far away in the United States, Larry Trimble, a film director, comes up with a brilliant idea of casting a dog as the main character in a thrilling adventure movie. But, where can he find a movie star dog? After searching throughout America, and most of Europe with no luck, he passes by a rundown police station in Berlin, Germany. A German Shepherd breaks through the glass, he’s terrifying, yet magnificent; Larry has found his star. Yet, how does he train him to become a real actor, a true movie star? Read this suspenseful fiction title, based on a true story from the 1920’s, about the first canine movie star dog, Strongheart. The plentiful, realistic illustrations make you feel like you’re in a movie theatre, glued to the action of this heartwarming historical fiction blockbuster. (Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2019-2020)

Booktalk #3

When a movie director travels to Berlin searching for his next big star--a dog!--he finds Etzel, a fierce, highly trained three-year-old German shepherd police dog. He sees past the snarls and growls and brings Etzel back to Hollywood, where the dog is renamed Strongheart. Strongheart soon becomes a movie sensation. (Sunshine State Young Readers Award Books 2020-2021)

SUBJECTS:     Dogs -- Fiction.
                        German shepherd dog -- Fiction.
                        Motion pictures -- Production and direction -- Fiction.
                        Working dogs -- Fiction.