Giggle away those grumps with This is Gus a hilarious picture book.  It’s all about bad moods and learning to compromise. After all . . . we all have Gus days!

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THIS IS GUS

Chris Chatterton – Author and Illustrator

Gus has grouch written all over him. His brow is furrowed, his eyes are glowering, and his posture is stiff and unyielding. He “doesn’t like much of anything,” including walks, sticks, balls, and making friends.

He doesn’t even enjoy his own birthday party!

And then……… a perky basset pup shows up as one of the birthday presents! The puppy is the first-person narrator of the story, changing the negative focus to a positive one. The pup declares that Gus now likes activities such as bath time and hide-and-seek, though the looks on Gus’ face don’t match that narrative.

The surprise ending involves a huge bowl of sausages, with the gradually thawing Gus saving just one sausage for the hopeful young dog.

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How do we talk to our children when they are grumpy?

“Sometimes when I’m sad, I like to tell someone how I feel and have a hug. Other times I want to sit quietly by myself for a while. What do you think would help you right now?”

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“You tied your shoe! It was really hard at first, but you kept working on it and now you learned to do it all by yourself!”

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“Sometimes I get frustrated when I can’t do something on the first try. I have to remind myself that learning something new takes practice. Have you ever had to practice something to learn how to do it?”

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 Draw Gus with Chris Chatterton 🙂