Please Don't Tease Tootsie

Chamberlain, Margaret. 2008. Please Don't Tease Tootsie.

This one is "a cautionary tale about looking after your furry friends." Here's how the jacket flap reads, "Tootsie cat and Poochie are furry friends. They don't like to be teased or poked. No... Our pets like to be doted on, stroked! Furry or slimy, scaly or silly, the playmates we love come in every size, shape, and hue. So please make the effort, everyone... be kind to our four-legged friends."

While Margaret Chamberlain has illustrated many books for children, this is her first to write and illustrate. Good message, a teeny tiny bit didactic, but a good message to impart nonetheless. The illustrations are interesting. The writing is straight forward.

Please don't tease
Tootsie,
or provoke
Poochie.
Don't madden
Mutley,
or disturb Dixie.

You get the idea. After a long list of things to don't do...the reader then gets a list of things to do with their pets. And it ends on a happy note,

We will stroke you,
never poke you.
We love you Tootsie Cat!

How do I feel on this one? Well. I realize the message was that all pets--cats, dogs, lizards, birds, etc--deserve to be treated well by their young owners...there wasn't much story. I initially picked up Please Don't Tease Tootsie because Tootsie looked like an interesting character, a cat with personality, a cat with attitude. So I was slightly disappointed that this wasn't the story of one pet and her family. But I know it's not fair to judge a book based on what it's not. So there you have it. I liked it well enough. It won't be making my top ten list of books to avoid by any means. But I didn't love, love, love it either. It probably won't be making my top ten list for best books either. So it's safely in the middle.

It was originally published with the title, Please Don't Torment Tootsie.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers