Patrick Puckle & Friends are a cast of characters with kid-appeal and real-life challenges, written with common-core standards and character counts pillars in mind. This Realistic Fiction book series deals with themes such as: Managing Bullying, Learning English as a Second Language, Addressing Children with Disabilities and Serious Childhood Illnesses, Introducing Multiculturalism, Providing a World-Class Education to children, particularly girls in the Middle East, and Understanding Entrepreneurialism within the Immigrant Experience. This contemporary book series comes with an over-arching Character Counts mindset that portrays Patrick Puckle & Friends with positive problem-solving sensitivities. An additional feature of this practical and ready-to-use reading and writing curriculum, is the added bonus of an all-inclusive lesson plan on "Character Trait Development and Story Theme Identification." The Patrick Puckle & Friends Realistic Fiction book series lends itself perfectly to mini-lessons on the Explicit Instruction and Teaching of Reading Comprehension Strategies. This refreshing cast of characters will illuminate your classroom with the profiles of real children experiencing real challenges in your 21st century classroom today