Kurt, Gert, Jazmine, and Bagel

Irene Dolnick’s Kurt, Gert, Jazmine, and Bagel tells a story about the importance of friendship among a group of beagles. Jazmine, a stray dog, feels lonely and jealous when she sees her friends Kurt and Gert playing inside their warm, cozy house on Mirt Lane. But, when Jazmine meets Bagel, a fellow stray who knows what it is like to be alone, they immediately become friends. Together, Jazmine and Bagel embark on an adventure to an area with warm weather.Jazmine’s new friendship with Bagel teaches her to overcome her jealously for Kurt and Gert’s relationship; Jazmine ultimately learns that, despite being an outdoor dog, she can still be friends with Gert and Kurt too.

Coupled with Dolnick’s warm illustrations that bring the text to life, this picture book will be a delight for children to read. The watercolor illustrations are perfectly directed at the young reader and allows them to make connections between the text and the illustrated single page spreads.

Additionally, Kurt, Gert, Jazmine and Bagel is an excellent concept book for beginner readers. This book uses red text to isolate the letters in a word and underneath the word in parenthesis is the phonetic spelling of the sound the word makes. As a result, the text teaches the young readers both how to pronounce the word, as well as recognize the repeated sound. By the end of the book, the phonetic spelling is gone, and just the letters of the words are highlighted in red, allowing the reader to test what they have learned.

This book’s focus on phonics makes Kurt, Gert, Jazmine, and Bagel an ideal picture book for beginner readers. With a story that spotlights the values of friendship, Dolnick’s picture book is a perfect example of that not only teaches phonics, but also provides a fun and engaging story for the young readers.