I'm about to break my spell check.

For the sake of an epinions pal of mine who shall remain nameless because I think far too much of Jam to embarrass her in front of everyone, I shall explain my title.

Those of you who saw Monty Python’s Life of Brian will remember that the character of Pilate had a horrible speech impediment. His “R”s came out as “W”s so, when he twied to welease a cwiminal to appease the cwowd pwiow to the cwucifiction of Chwist, the people kept yelling out names that they knew Pilate would mangle, like Bawwabas, or Wodewick (who was a wobber and wapist), or Wogew…

...or Wodney.

An odd way to start off this children’s book review but give me a bit of leeway. I’m going somewhere with it.

Hooway or Wodney Wat (the 32 page paperback written by Helen Lester and Illustrated by Lynn M. Mussinger in 2002) is a story about a small rat named Rodney who suffers the same infliction as Python’s Pilate... not to be confused with Pilate’s friend Biggus Dickus who had a horrible lisp.

Rodney can’t pronounce his R’s and is tormented by all the vermin classmates in Miss Fuzzleworth’s elementary class.
Like the crowd with Pilate, they get him to say things like “Twain” and “Twacks” and “Wabbit”, laughing at him until he miserably hides in his shirt.

One day, a new student is introduced. Camilla Capybara is huge and loud and obnoxious. She brags about being bigger than all of them, meaner than all of them and smarter than all of them and goes out of her way to prove it. She elbows an ear or two, squashes some tails and shouts all the answers out in class (sometimes before the questions are asked) so that no one else can have a turn.

Wodney is petrified of her.

… and then Wodney is picked as the leader for the day’s game of Simon Says.

His speech impediment, understood by everyone else, causes Camilla to make a growing fool of herself with out her knowledge. When the others read a sign, Camilla tried to “Weed” the sign. Wodney gains his confidence with each passing misunderstood saying and eventually he starts playing in to it.

His final command (“Wodney Says GO WEST”) causes all his classmates to collapse in a heap while Camilla (it seems) is forced to wander off in to the sunset and roam the earth for eternity.

Wodney’s classmates, not having enjoyed being bullied by Camilla, hail Wodney as a hewo… uhhhh… hero.

I’m not really sure about this book.

At my daughters current age (she isn’t a year yet) it’s fine but once she starts to pick up subtle things like “plot” and “meaning” I may have to put it away. My wife and I laughed our heads off when I did the first reading for Hailee (who sat through it with a goofy smile on her face) because you WILL sound like Michael Palin through much of it. Even if you try not to, you will mess up a lot of words.
Twy weading this sentence out woud. It’s addictive. “Send us Wodewick… he’s a vewy sewious cwiminal indeed…”

The problem is the message it sends to an older kid. Rodney gains acceptance by the children who made fun of him by making fun of someone else. The children stop laughing at him when he deflects their laughter to a new victim. The situation with Camilla isn’t resolved, she’s simply driven away.
If you have a daughter who is a bit delicate, you may not want to show her the pictures of Wodney cowering inside his coat. My wife found them heartbreaking… and this is a chick who watches movies about serial killers…

A fun story to read, and one I’m sure a very small child will love if you put some energy and heart in to it, but not one I would necessarily want my kid to learn from.


Recommended: Yes