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Pookie

Stupid news story of the day has to go to one which reported that researchers at the University of Edinburgh have studied children’s books which feature animals with human characteristics and declared that they could give children ‘a distorted image of the natural world and make them biologically illiterate.’ Of course, I did read this in the Daily Mail and, as I am constantly being reminded by my Left-Wing family, friends and colleagues, the Daily Mail is full of shite. However, in the spirit of no longer caring what other people think of my reading habits, nay, what they think of ANY of my habits come to that, I allowed myself ten minutes of indignation and went in search of this...

My first ever book! It’s well over 50 years old now and looking a bit tattered through over-cherishing.  
But I have kept it because it is a big part of who I am. Inside, you can see the improvements I made to the black and white title page. At aged 3 or 4 years old, I must have thought it rather dull...

...and in the back cover, my first attempts at writing...
The story is about Pookie (obviously) who is a rabbit with wings. He also talks, and has fairies and elves as his friends, and he goes on epic adventures. The point is that I didn’t grow up believing rabbits could talk and fly. Nor did I read Winnie the Pooh, Paddington, Watership Down, the Beatrix Potter stories, Doctor Doolittle, Animal Farm  - shall I go on? - and develop beliefs that the world is populated by animals who can talk, walk and behave like humans, even to the point of carrying marmalade sandwiches under their hats in case of emergencies. (What? You mean you DON’T? Just me then...sigh...) Biological illiteracy? What a load of twaddle. 

Personification - the language feature whereby human qualities are attributed to non-human things e.g animals and inanimate objects - blossoms the imagination. It allows children, as developing readers and writers, to explore language, thoughts, morals and ethics and the world itself at multiple levels. It builds their ability to question and to empathise, to transfer those skills into their human relationships, to understand metaphor and analogy and learn how to apply them to ‘real’ situations. Where would the world be without those personified animals, teaching us about love and loyalty, friendship, empathy, helping those in trouble, how to accept difference? 

I re-read Pookie this morning. It is a book that taught me how to treat bullies with the indifference they deserve, about unconditional friendship, how to embrace being different and to be your own person and follow your own path, how to persevere when you are at the point of giving up, how to believe that life can be, and is, magic. 

Life would be a sadder and poorer place without talking animal books. You wouldn’t have had my Much Malarkey Manor Christmas stories for the past few years, for a start...😉





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