No book in our household evokes a more visceral reaction than this pigeon parable. My wife hates it, her sister loves it, and I have somehow experienced both of these emotions at various junctures.
THREE PROS
*The main pro is also the main con: the book's main purpose is to have the reader learn that saying "no" to someone or something is OK
*There's a nice carrot at the end that allows the pigeon to dream bigger despite your resistance to him driving the bus
*The title and dedication area adds extra fun (the driver instructs you what to do here) given that most books only start the story after you blow by these pages
*The title and dedication area adds extra fun (the driver instructs you what to do here) given that most books only start the story after you blow by these pages
THREE CONS
*The first thought I had when I read this story was: "Wow, is this pigeon really teaching my kid ways to not take no for an answer"
*If I wanted my son to study an illustrated playbook of manic-depressive behavior, I would have just done gone to the closest medical school bookstore
*There is one page where the pigeon loses his mind and starts screaming -- I could have done without that
ONE DAD'S OPINION
I hated D.L.P.D.B. the first time I read it for the negative reasons listed above. So much so, in fact, that I don't think I picked it up for at least five months; even though it would stare me right in the eye whenever I would lift my son from his crib. But then something strange happened. I grabbed it one day to read to him (since it was the closest thing to me), and I started to notice the humor was actually very well done and adult. As such, I highly suggest borrowing it for a short period of time so that your little one can learn the valuable lesson of "no" and some good one-liners. Let me caution you against keeping it beyond this window, though, lest your child gravitates to the humor and grows up to become a bitter stand-up comedian with a shrinking fanbase who enjoys drinking whiskey from the bottle on stage. I'm not saying this is a certainty for lovers of this book, just a very strong possibility...
Buy / BORROW / Donate / Destroy
2 comments:
Reason #1 to love this book: When my nephew was, I don't know, very little, he saw a pigeon (a real one, like outside), turned to his dad (my brother), and queried, "He can't drive the bus?"
Hilarious!!!
Post a Comment