Please Don't Tease Tootsie
PreSchool-Grade 2—A tongue-in-cheek look at the proper care of pets. Tootsie, a disgruntled red cat, is arching her back and glowering at the little girl who is cheerfully threatening to spray her with a hose. On succeeding pages, readers meet a number of animals under siege by naughty preschoolers. The text consists of brief, alliterative entreaties to mend their ways—"Don't madden Mutley, or disturb Dixie." Halfway through the book, the tide turns and the children begin to model good behavior. In response to prompts from the narrator—"Mutley's here for you to dote on/Will you put his new blue coat on?"—they learn how to treat the pets kindly and appropriately. Though this is technically a lesson book, the didacticism is so exaggerated that it becomes quite funny. The narrator's voice calls to mind an exasperated but patient English nanny. The illustrations are droll and stylized, featuring expressive cartoon animals on fields of bright color or flamboyant Art Nouveau patterns. The children's faces reinforce the idea that naïveté, rather than cruelty, motivates their misbehavior. Some of the vocabulary is a bit elevated for the target audience, but the pictures will help readers decode the unfamiliar words.—Rachael Vilmar, Eastern Shore Regional Library, Salisbury, MDCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.