ISBN 0819300950 - Book does not state where it was printed, or an age range. Pictorial hardcover, 40 pages. Published by Parents' Magazine Press in 1964. By Jean Conder Soule, illustrated by Denman Hampson.
A lively rhyme that suggests a lot of ways that you could interact with a variety of animals, as long as you never tease a weasel.
My copy of this book is older than I am, because I stole it from my older brother. There is no storyline here, and there isn't supposed to be. This is a poem; it is exactly what you'd expect to get if Dr. Suess, Shel Silverstein and Laura Numeroff were melded into one awesome being. There's no threat, either, which a 2011 person might expect - there is no "this is what happens if you DO tease a weasel." Instead, the reason you shouldn't tease a weasel is simple - he won't like it and it isn't nice. It is, in fact, a ridiculously simple reason, or an elegantly simple reason, depending on how you look at it, but the important part is that it can have an actual influence on young readers. Learning this lesson in good behavior in a delightfully fun way will stick with a child - just ask the dozens of adults who've searched high and low to get their hands on a copy of a book they remember from their own childhoods.
Denman Hampson's illustrations are fantastic. They are fun and funny, they suit the text perfectly and never overwhelm it. The images have a fair amount of that crosshatch style of shading that was far more common pre-1980s and plenty of hilarious details that will catch, and hold, the attention of readers of any age.
- AnnaLovesBooks
