Dodo doo-doo

The story of Fred’s hapless expedition to find a Dodo and its subsequent extinction makes a curious picture book. As a teacher reading it aloud I certainly provoked great hilarity with parts of the story rivalling Dr Seuss as tricky and tortuous tongue twister reading! What with stumbling over Kaye Umansky’s rhyming text and Korky Paul’s reliably witty illustrations, the setting was clearly humorous but the book also provoked quite a lot of concern with younger listeners at the fate of the Mother Dodo and her egg! A tricky subject and consequently it received really mixed reviews from the children – they either loved it or the more literal and virtuous took great offence! This is not a book to lie gathering dust but one that, rightly or wrongly, doesn’t spare the audience and challenges readers to re-read!