Don't Call Me Choochie Pooh!
by Sean Taylor and Kate Hindley
Read Aloud
This book was made to be shared. The pictures are beautifully expressive - just look at those eyebrows. The contrast between the dog and the human are loads of fun - but you have to do the voices. We went with a really deep, gruff voice (think Danny Dyer with a sore throat) for the main character, switching to a high-pitched, over-pronounced vocal for the human. Written in the first person, it gives direct insight into how puppies really feel about being pampered pooches.
Today we've read it out loud with children aged 4-9 and got laughs all round.
Talking points
One of the children asked if the main character is a boy or a girl. This sparked an interesting discussion:"It's a girl! Look at the big pink bow!"
"Boys can wear bows; that doesn't mean anything."
"It didn't choose the bow anyway, the lady did. And he doesn't like it, so he might be a boy."
Really, the gender isn't stated (in a similar way to The Boy at the Back of the Class), which led us to decide it is irrelevant. The dog's character is what matters.
Another thing Year 2 picked up on was the theme of acceptance. Connecting to Perfectly Norman (which we read yesterday) they talked about how often, people worry that they will not be accepted or included, before anything even goes wrong!They decided that
1. When they feel like that they will try to step up and be positive and brave.
2. They will look out for others who might be worried and encourage them with friendly words and smiles.
It's always extra brilliant when we can bring a strong message out of a book which makes us laugh so much.
