Oh No, George!
by Chris Haughton
Candlewick Press, 2012. 32 pages.
Starred Review
This book is along the lines of No, David!, by David Shannon, but this time the naughty “child” is a dog. In many ways, I think that will help children take lessons from the book all the more, and get practice putting themselves in the perspective of someone very different from themselves on the outside, but not so different on the inside.
The pictures are simple shapes, rather like a child would draw them, with bright orange backgrounds on alternate page spreads, mostly where the words say, “Oh no, George!”
The opening pages have these words:
Harry is going out.
“Will you be good, George?”
asks Harry.
“Yes,” says George.
“I’ll be very good.”I hope I’ll be good,
George thinks.George sees something in the kitchen.
It’s cake!
I said I’d be good,
George thinks,
but I LOVE cake.What will George do?
That’s the cue for a page turn, a bright orange background, a picture of George taking an enormous mouthful of cake, and the words, “Oh no, George!”
And so it goes. George is tempted to play with Cat and dig in dirt, things he LOVES to do. Before each succumbing, the audience is asked “What will George do?”
Then Harry comes back. He confronts George with his terrible mess.
I said I’d be good,
George thinks.
I hoped I’d be good,
but I wasn’t.
A tear is coming out of George’s eye, and the text reads, “What will George do?”
It turns out that George apologizes and gives Harry his favorite toy. Harry and George go for a nice walk.
On the walk, George is once again tempted by a cake, lovely dirt, and a cat. But hooray! George goes right past!
The book ends like this:
Something smells very interesting.
What can it be?It’s a trash can. There’s nothing George likes more than digging in trash.
What will George do?
George?
You can see there are so many interesting things that can be discussed about this book! And it tells a fun story at the same time. This is sure to be a hit in storytime or on a parent’s lap.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/oh_no_george.html
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Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.
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