Officer Buckle and Gloria

Officer Buckle gives school safety talks so dull they put every student to sleep, until the police department pairs him with a dog named Gloria, who starts secretly acting out each safety tip behind him while he speaks, tumbling and mugging for the crowd without his ever noticing. The students, now genuinely delighted, finally start paying attention, and Buckle, believing the sudden popularity is all his own doing, is crushed to learn from a television broadcast that Gloria has been the real draw the whole time. Hurt, he refuses to keep doing assemblies with her, and the very next talk, given without Gloria along, falls flat, and, worse, a preventable accident happens at the school not long after. A student named Claire, protected by her helmet, one of Buckle's own safety tips finally paying off, writes to tell him that Gloria has been miserable without him, and the two reconcile, going back to doing the assemblies together and, this time, sharing the credit.

Peggy Rathmann both wrote and illustrated the book, working in bright, clear cartoon style built around a joke the text itself never explains: readers can see Gloria performing on every spread while Buckle's own narration keeps insisting no one is paying attention.

A genuinely funny, high energy read aloud for four to eight year olds, it works especially well in a group, since a room full of children spotting Gloria's antics before the reader does is much of the fun, and the gap between what Buckle says and what the pictures actually show gives even a first time reader plenty to perform with their voice alone.