Reviews: (by author)

Lester, Helen. Hooway for Wodney Wat. Illus.Lynn Munsinger. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. ISBN 0-618-21602-X

Hooway for Wodney Wat is the tale of an unfortunate, sensitive, and sweet little rodent who becomes estranged from all his classmates as a result of a minor speech impediment common to many children: the inability to pronounce r's. This inability results in the pronunciation of the consonant w instead of r. The title, Hooway forWodney Wat, stands as the perfect example of this verbal tendency.

Ignored, embarrassed, and harangued by his peers, Rodney the Rat finds himself alone and unloved. One day, a large rodent by the name of Camila Capybara arrives in class. This enormous and aggressive rodent outweighs, outsmarts, and outtalks all of her classmates. Encouraged by her own superiority, Camila becomes the bully of the class. Verbally and physically abusive, Camila soon becomes feared and disliked.

The tides soon change during a session of the game Simon Says when Rodney, much to his chagrin and fear, is chosen as the leader of the event. As a result of his speech issue, Rodney inadvertently causes Camila's downfall. His speech pattern causes her great confusion, belittles her, and finally drives Camila away from the school forever. This is due to her misinterpretation of Rodney's directions. For example, she hears Rodney's direction to "rake the leaves" as "wake the leaves," and "wrap your paws around your head as "wap your paws around your head." Mocked and humiliated by the class, she feels herself alone and is bewildered as to why she is scorned for following what she believes to be are Rodney's directions. Finally, Rodney's instructions to "go rest" are interpreted as "go west," and she does so. She leaves in search of "west," never to be seen again.

Lynn Munsinger's illustrations are colorful. Her depictions of Rodney's morose situation are poignant and moving. Moreover, Munsinger's illustrations of Camila are terrifying in detail and excellent in the depiction of the quintessential class bully.

The text aims to teach individuality, autonomy, and acceptance. Unfortunately, it fails miserably. Lester commits a fatal error in bettering and alleviating Rodney's situation through the intentional downfall of another character's dignity. The students' image of Rodney as one who is verbally challenged is changed only because he inadvertently removes Camila from their lives. I disagree with this approach and think it is in very poor taste. Although Camila is a certified bully, she does not deserve indignity and humiliation. Is this not exactly the condition under which Rodney suffered at the hands of his classmates? The question remains: what are we really teaching our children, acceptance via understanding, or survival of the cruelest? There are other texts that achieve the author's intentions through more adequate and moral means.

Farhang Pernooz Nov. '02

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