Coconut Comes to School

by Berlie Doherty, Ivan Bates (Illustrations)

Everyday Mrs. Pie--who works in the kitchen--brings Coconut the donkey to school, but Mr. Clapper the teacher does not think a donkey belongs there and devises a plan to make Coconut go away.

Genres: Picture Books

Hardcover

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Berlie Doherty née Hollingsworth is an English novelist, poet, playwright and screenwriter. She is best known for children's books, for which she has twice won the Carnegie Medal.She has also written novels for adults, plays for theatre and radio, television series and libretti for children's opera.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every day, Coconut accompanies the lunch lady to school. The kids adore the little donkey, but the teacher does not have a taste for Coconut. It's a cute story, with sweet illustrations by Ivan Bates.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Callie really liked this book. It’s a cute one to get from the library and read every once in a blue moon.

[Cristina Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of our favorites, but we read it every now and then. He loves the donkey sounds, and the whole idea of taking him to school.

[Lancee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coconut comes to school is a cute story about a grade teacher named Mrs. Pie who has a donkey and she comes to school every day bringing her donkey named Coconut with her. She brings Coconut with her because all of the children love her. One day Mrs. Pie brings Coconut with her to school and another teacher named Mr. Clapper gets upset that Mrs. Pie brings a donkey to school every day. Mr. Clapper gets so mad that he comes up with a plan to get Coconut to follow him into the forest so that Coconut can be tied up to a tree until school gets out. Mr. Clapper is luring Coconut into the forest with a bag of carrots and Coconut is following right along when all of a sudden Mr. Clapper trips and falls into a ditch. He tumbles down and getting badly hurt and he is complaining that no one will help him all the way in the deep forest. Coconut comes over to Mr. Clapper and she saves the day. She nudges Mr. Clapper to get on her back and he does. Then Coconut takes Mr. Clapper back to school to get fixed up by Mrs. Pie. When Coconut comes to school every day after that, all the children exclaim “ Coconut’s coming” including Mr. Clapper.
The Story of Coconut expresses pretty realistically how simple minded many animals are. The first few pictures are very peaceful. There are bright rays of sun shining down on Coconut while Mrs. Pie walks her through the dark looking forest. I see this as a portrayal of how an animal can bring positivity, joy, and happiness to dark times and unhappy places. As you can see, throughout the entire story, Coconut is at peace and very happy the whole time.
The idea of protection and loyalty is seen in the story as well. Coconut’s feelings towards anyone stay the same. Coconut does not understand Mr. Clapper’s anger towards her nor can she start to understand it because she is a simple minded animal. You see expressions of love and happiness on Coconuts face the entire time she is with Mr. Clapper. With this in mind, all of the scenes of Coconut and Mr. Clapper’s are all focused on Mr. Clappers. He is the only one with emotions, expressions, feelings, thoughts and dialogue. His actions and thoughts will be closely focused on because Coconut’s character does not change or do anything different.
The story of Coconut can be so easily related to other stories that a child might express out loud. A story that is easy to read to a child can really open up many opportunities for that child to come up with their own stories. When a story is too complex for a child to read, it will not be read but when the right amount of complexity and simplicity are thrown together in a child’s storybook, they will make for a wonderful opportunity for creativity

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, being really annoyingly loud about the numerous Hee Haws in this book is probably why my son liked it so much. It's a cute story, although I'm trying to figure out what kind of schoolhouse allows a donkey to come to school with one of the teachers everyday and apparently feeds children dinner from scratch out of a kitchen. I want to be in this school district!

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe I'm being harsh, but really what IS a donkey doing at school? It really is no place for a donkey at school. The message of the book is nice but that message could have been presented in a better way.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read-a-loud. Sweet story for back to school & illustrate helping others.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mediocre story on being kind, being accepting and being helpful. The illustrations didn't help the story to stand out because with some fluffing, it would have been a great story.