Picture BookGrades K-3STEM & Engineering
Grace Builds an Almost-Perfect Dog
by Curtis Manley, illustrated by Tracy Subisak
Pacing MaterialA young girl who loves dogs but can't have one of her own decides to build one instead, using tools, ingenuity, and a lot of heart.
Big Idea
Engineering is about designing, testing, and improving — and 'almost perfect' is a celebration of creativity, not a failure.
Discussion Questions
- 1.What does Grace want to build, and why?
- 2.What tools and materials does she use?
- 3.What does 'almost perfect' mean to you?
- 4.Is it okay if something we make isn't perfect?
Lesson Plan
⏱ 40 minutes📦 Drawing paper, colored pencils, recycled materials (optional), glue, tape
Learning Goals
- Describe the engineering design process — plan, build, test, improve.
- Identify tools and materials used in building.
- Explain why 'almost perfect' can be a good thing.
- Design an original creation with a list of features.
Activity Steps
- 1.Read the book, noting how Grace approaches building her dog.
- 2.Discuss what 'almost perfect' means — and why imperfection is okay.
- 3.Students draw their almost-perfect pet and list its traits.
- 4.Share designs and celebrate each one's unique features.
Standards Connections
- ELA: RL.K.1 — Ask and answer questions about key details
- ELA: RL.K.2 — Retell stories, including key details
- ELA: RL.K.3 — Describe characters, setting, and events
- ELA: RL.3.6 — Acknowledge differences in characters' points of view
- ELA: SL.K.1 — Participate in collaborative conversations about the text
- ELA: W.K.3 — Write narratives recounting events with descriptive details
- SEL: Responsible Decision-Making
- Art: VA:Re7 — Perceive and analyze artistic work
Pace-Write-Read Study with Pace-Write It!
Focus question: How does an author slow down and speed up a story to show both careful problem-solving and big feelings? In Grace Builds an Almost-Perfect Dog by Curtis Manley, Grace uses creativity and engineering to build the dog she wishes she could have. The pacing moves between step-by-step making scenes, playful surprises, and emotional moments, helping readers feel Grace’s excitement, frustration, and hope.
| Element | How to notice or teach it in the novel |
|---|---|
| Pace | Read: Notice how the story speeds up when Grace gets excited about building a dog and slows down when she works carefully with tools and materials. The pacing matches her engineering process and her feelings about wanting a real dog. Classroom Activity: Write 4 sentences about a character making something, with 2 fast-action sentences and 2 slow, careful sentences. |
| Plot | Read: Track the problem, attempts, and outcome: Grace wants a dog, cannot have one, and decides to build one instead. Each part of the plot adds a new step in her design journey. Classroom Activity: Make a beginning-middle-end plot map for a story about building an almost-perfect invention. |
| Prosody | Read: Listen to how the story sounds when read aloud, especially in lively moments when Grace’s dog creation acts in unexpected ways. The rhythm of the sentences helps readers hear excitement and warmth. Classroom Activity: Choose 3 lines to read aloud with expression, then write 2 original lines meant to sound excited and playful. |
| Word pause | Read: Notice places where a word, phrase, or punctuation mark makes you pause and pay attention to Grace’s thinking or to something surprising about the dog she builds. These pauses help readers feel the timing of discovery. Classroom Activity: Write 3 short sentences about an invention and use dashes or ellipses to create a meaningful pause. |
| Concept | Read: The book blends the idea of wanting a pet with engineering design, showing that building, testing, and revising can come from love as well as logic. Grace solves a personal problem through STEM thinking. Classroom Activity: Write a sentence stem completion: “My character cannot have ____, so they decide to design ____.” Then add 2 steps of the design process. |
| Voice & World View | Read: Notice the warm, playful, curious tone that treats Grace’s idea seriously while still celebrating imagination. The story’s world view suggests that children can be makers, thinkers, and problem-solvers. Classroom Activity: Write 5 sentences in a hopeful, inventive voice about a child who thinks, “I can make this work.” |
| Setting & Place | Read: Pay attention to where Grace builds and tests her dog and how those spaces support tinkering, experimenting, and noticing what works. The setting feels like a place where creativity can happen. Classroom Activity: Describe a workshop, bedroom, garage, or classroom makerspace where a child creates something important. |
| Point of View | Read: Notice how readers stay close to Grace and understand her wishes, plans, and reactions as the dog comes together. This point of view helps us care about both the project and the dream behind it. Classroom Activity: Rewrite one moment from the story idea from the dog’s point of view using “I.” |
| Original Characters | Read: Grace stands out because she is both dog-loving and engineering-minded, and the dog she builds becomes memorable because it is not ordinary or perfect. Their originality drives the story’s charm. Classroom Activity: Invent a child character and a handmade companion with 3 unusual traits each. |
| Dialogue | Read: Listen for how dialogue reveals Grace’s determination, the reactions of others, and the personality of the almost-perfect dog. Dialogue can speed a scene up and make it feel immediate. Classroom Activity: Write a 6-line conversation between a child inventor and the thing they made. |
| Details | Read: Notice the specific details about tools, parts, movement, and dog-like behavior that make Grace’s project believable and funny. These details help readers picture the engineering process. Classroom Activity: List 5 precise details for a machine-pet, then use them in a short paragraph. |
| Descriptions | Read: Study how the story describes Grace’s creation so readers can imagine both its construction and its personality. Description helps the dog feel almost real. Classroom Activity: Write a description of an almost-perfect animal invention using what it looks like, sounds like, and does. |
| Strong First Lines | Read: Think about how the opening quickly introduces Grace’s desire and pulls readers into her problem. A strong beginning sets the story in motion right away. Classroom Activity: Write 3 possible first lines for a story about a child who decides to build what they cannot have. |
| Immediacy & Engagement | Read: Notice how the story makes readers feel close to Grace’s actions and emotions as she builds, tests, and reacts. The sense of “right now” keeps the pages turning. Classroom Activity: Write 5 sentences in which every sentence shows what a character is doing in the moment, not explaining it later. |
| Story Scenes & Summaries & Unique Structures | Read: Notice when the book slows into a full scene, such as a key building or testing moment, and when it moves more quickly through time to show progress. This balance helps the story cover a whole process without dragging. Classroom Activity: Write one detailed scene of making something and one 2-sentence summary that skips ahead to the next stage. |
| Flashback & Flash Forward & Cliffhangers | Read: Even if the story is mostly straightforward, readers can imagine what came before—Grace’s earlier wish for a dog—and what might happen next when her invention does something unexpected. Small cliffhanger feelings can happen at the end of a page turn. Classroom Activity: Add a flashback sentence about why a character wants to build something, then end the paragraph with a cliffhanger question. |
| Tension & Suspense & Surprise | Read: Watch for moments when readers wonder whether Grace’s dog will work, how it will behave, or what will go wrong. Surprise adds energy to the engineering story. Classroom Activity: Write a 5-sentence mini-story where a child tests an invention and includes one problem and one surprise result. |
| Page Turns and Chapter Breaks | Read: In this picture book, page turns matter because they can hide the next step in Grace’s design or reveal a funny or dramatic surprise with the dog. The turn creates timing. Classroom Activity: Plan a 4-page picture-book dummy and mark what surprise or reveal happens after each page turn. |
| Performance | Read: Think about how this story could be acted out with gestures for measuring, hammering, testing, and reacting to the almost-perfect dog. The physical actions make pacing visible. Classroom Activity: Write 4 stage directions and 4 spoken lines for a short performance called “Grace Tests Her Dog.” |
| Personality | Read: Notice how Grace’s persistence and love for dogs shape every choice she makes, and how the dog’s behavior gives it a personality of its own. Personality makes the engineering project feel emotional, not just mechanical. Classroom Activity: Write a character sketch of an inventor whose creation starts to show a surprising personality. |
| Humor | Read: Notice the funny contrast between a carefully engineered plan and the imperfect, lively results of trying to make a dog. Humor keeps the pacing light even when things go wrong. Classroom Activity: Write 3 funny problems that happen when a child builds an almost-right pet. |
| Pause | Read: Look for moments where the story pauses so readers can notice Grace thinking, observing, or feeling disappointed or hopeful. These pauses make the action more meaningful. Classroom Activity: Write a short paragraph that includes one sentence where the character stops and thinks before the next action. |
| Poetry and Poetic Devices | Read: Listen for language that may echo patterns, sounds, or image-making as Grace builds and imagines dogness in her creation. Even in prose, playful sound and image can shape pacing. Classroom Activity: Write 3 lines about a machine dog using alliteration or onomatopoeia. |
| Repetition | Read: Notice repeated actions or ideas, such as Grace’s continued effort to make the dog better or repeated dog-like behaviors. Repetition can show persistence and build rhythm. Classroom Activity: Write a paragraph that repeats a key phrase like “She tried again” or “Almost perfect” for effect. |
| Rhythm | Read: Feel how short and longer sentences can create a building rhythm as Grace gathers materials, constructs, and tests her dog. Rhythm helps readers sense motion. Classroom Activity: Write 6 sentences about building something, mixing short sentences with longer ones to create rhythm. |
| Punctuation | Read: Notice how punctuation can show excitement, surprise, stops, and shifts in Grace’s project. Marks on the page help control pacing and emotion. Classroom Activity: Rewrite 4 plain sentences about an invention test, adding commas, exclamation points, and dashes to change the pacing. |
| Questions | Read: Readers naturally ask questions while Grace builds: Will it work? Will it feel like a real dog? What will happen next? These questions keep attention high. Classroom Activity: Write 5 reader questions that could fit during a story about testing a homemade pet, then answer 2 of them in story form. |
| Compare-Contrast | Read: Compare the dog Grace wants with the dog Grace can build, and contrast a real pet with an engineered one. This comparison deepens the theme of love, limits, and creativity. Classroom Activity: Make a T-chart comparing a real dog and an almost-perfect built dog, then write 3 comparison sentences. |
| Objects | Read: Pay attention to the importance of tools, parts, and materials in Grace’s work. Objects are not just props; they move the plot and reveal her problem-solving. Classroom Activity: Choose 4 objects an inventor uses and write how each one helps solve the problem. |
| Threes | Read: Look for patterns of three in actions, attempts, or details, since groups of three often feel complete and satisfying in picture books. Grace’s building process can be retold through three key tries or three key features. Classroom Activity: Write a story plan with 3 attempts to improve an invention. |
| Whitespace & Negative Space | Read: Notice how space on the page can slow readers down, spotlight Grace or the dog, and make a reveal feel bigger. In picture books, empty space helps pacing just like words do. Classroom Activity: Sketch a page layout for one scene and decide where to leave blank space to highlight an important moment. |
| Art & Graphics | Read: Study how Tracy Subisak’s illustrations show motion, feeling, materials, and humor in Grace’s engineering adventure. The art helps readers understand pacing, especially in wordless or nearly wordless moments. Classroom Activity: Create a labeled storyboard for one scene showing 3 illustration changes from plan, to building, to test. |
| Interactives & Gamification | Read: Turn Grace’s engineering process into a challenge by noticing each design step, problem, and revision like levels in a game. The book invites readers to think, “What would I try next?” Classroom Activity: Design a simple “Build an Almost-Perfect Pet” challenge with 3 levels: plan, test, improve. |
Pace-Write It!
20-Minute Classroom Flow Read (5 min): Read aloud a key section from Grace Builds an Almost-Perfect Dog where Grace moves from wanting a dog to building and testing one. Ask students to listen for places where the story feels fast, slow, funny, or tense. Notice (5 min): Chart what students notice: fast parts = big actions or surprises; slow parts = careful building or thinking. Name how Curtis Manley uses pacing to match Grace’s engineering process and emotions. Write (7 min): Students write their own short “almost-perfect invention” scene. Writing frame: “I wanted a ____, but I could not have one. So I decided to build a ____. First, I ____. Next, I ____. Then something unexpected happened: ____. I stopped and thought. I tried again by ____. At last, my invention was almost perfect because ____.” Encourage students to include one fast sentence, one slow sentence, and one surprise. Share (3 min): Partners read their favorite sentence aloud and explain whether it was a fast, slow, or surprise moment. Exit ticket: Write one sentence answering: “How did pacing help show Grace’s problem-solving in the story?”
Classroom Activities
Design an Almost-Perfect Pet
Students design their own 'almost-perfect' pet, listing the traits they want and the materials they'd need to build or care for it.
Design an Almost-Perfect Pet
Students design their own 'almost-perfect' pet, listing the traits they want and the materials they'd need to build or care for it.
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