Features

Good books, old friends

Details

By Kara Kvasnicka

Tuesday, November 29, -0001

Hits: 245

After spending a full seven days with my active three-year-old nephew and my infant niece I appreciate how difficult it is to keep small children entertained. I understand why their parents dearly treasure whatever sleep these two will allow them to get each night.

My niece is fairly easy to please … so far. The 24-hour cycle of bottles, changings and cooing and cuddling that any baby requires is just fine for her. She remains content as long as she remains on schedule.

My nephew too is capable of displaying good manners and endearing charm. Why, as soon as I stepped off the airplane in Nashville, he greeted me with a big hug and kiss and anxiously inquired, "Aunt Kara do you want coffee from Daddy's coffee maker? Aunt Kara do you want to go to the mall and get pizza?" Proof positive that he is showing great potential in the hospitality department.

But like any toddler he expects adults in his household to provide him with a great variety of stimuli. This can entail, I discovered in my eye-opening visit, hours of playing Matchbox cars with him on the floor, watching the same Barney video with him three times consecutively, being ambushed with a water gun or hose after having uncomplainingly pushed him on his swing for a half hour and spinning around with him in the family room until growing faint with dizziness.

In spite of all these diversions, his parents and I still found ourselves campaigning with more zeal than the craftiest politician to dissuade him from tears over the smallest disappointments (not being allowed to spray the hose into open kitchen windows) and testing unsafe waters (swinging on a doorknob until the door practically falls off its hinges).

I can understand now why the American Library Association awarded the 1995 Caldecott Medal for best illustrated children's book to Peggy Rathman's Officer Buckle and Gloria (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 30 pages).

A humorous book or video is a great weapon to have in your arsenal when toddlers are contemplating mischief or a good long cry over their miserable lot in life (having to share their Mommy with a new little sister).

Rathman's comic words and drawings cannot fail to capture their attention for at least 15 minutes and give them some much needed safety tips.

While the audience for this book is children, 3 to 8, it is ideal for preschoolers since the pictures alone convey the story.

Set in contemporary Napville, the story follows the efforts of Officer Buckle to convey his safety tips to local students. Unfortunately, no one listens until the day he brings along Gloria, the Napville police dog.

Suddenly, with Gloria at his side, his audiences sit up and take notice of his speeches. He even begins to receive fan mail which demonstrates that he is getting his points across. A little girl named Claire writes, "You and Gloria make a good team. P.S. I always wear a crash helmet (Safety Tip #7)."

Officer Buckle loves having Gloria as a buddy, but he assumes invitations from 313 schools to relate his safety tips stem entirely from his own charisma.

Not until he sees a videotape of an appearance he and Gloria made at the state college auditorium does he realize (as we have known all along from Rathman's illustrations) that Gloria's slapstick interpretations of his safety tips behind his back are the true source of his sudden popularity.

Jealous that Gloria has upstaged him, Officer Buckle cancels the speech he planned to give the next day at Napville School, exclaiming indignantly to Principal Toppel, "I'm not giving any more speeches! Nobody looks at me anyway!"

Gloria goes in his stead, but alone she cannot convey Officer Buckle's important safety tips and thereby prevent the biggest accident in Napville School history.

Only Officer Buckle can save the day. That is if he gets over his fit of pique in time to realize the most important safety tip of all, "Always stick with your buddy!"

After watching with my nephew "There Goes a Police Car" two times consecutively on the last day of my visit I know the humorous exploits of policemen and police dogs will appeal to small children. Sure he was impressed by the fancy police vehicles so prominently featured. But the real reason he wanted to watch it over and over was to see the uproarious scrapes in which Deputy Dan and Deputy Becky kept finding themselves. Each time we reached those points in the video he laughed as though he had never seen it before.

Believe me, the comedy in Officer Buckle and Gloria is much more original. Rathmann gives you a chance to laugh and to point out parallels between her characters' unsafe habits and those of your child.

For instance, if I were reading this book to my nephew I would point out that using his rocking horse as a stepladder to climb to the top of his dresser is not much safer than Mrs. Toppel using a swivel chair to hang a school banner.

I recommend all Caldecott winners as possible reading material for your children, but seldom has there been one so down-to-earth and practical as Officer Buckle and Gloria.

Look for it in your local library or bookstore the next time you and your little one need a good laugh. I somehow sense my nephew will find it under the Christmas Tree next December.

Kvasnicka, a former East Village Magazine news editor, has been the magazine's contributing editor and research consultant since 1989. She has a master's degree in information and library studies from the University of Michigan and works for the Genesee District Library.

• < Prev
• Next >