Book Review 1 Bashful Bob And Doleful Dorinda - Margaret Atwood

[Jade]

Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda by Margaret Atwood

This is a great book as it gives the opportunity for children to play with language and have fun with it. This is a great book to be read out loud to the class. Its use of regular alliteration means it’s quite a tongue-twister, which in turn makes it worthy of many laughs when the teacher is reading it out loud!

Here, Margaret Atwood has turned her attentions briefly to children’s fiction to write about two characters, bashful Bob and doleful Dorinda. Bob, who was abandoned as a baby outside a beauty parlour, is raised by three dogs, a boxer, beagle and a borzoi. He barks rather than talks, and is utterly bewildered by the normalities of everyday life.
Dorinda, who has lived with distant relatives since the disappearance of her parents in a disaster, is forced to live in a disreputable dive whilst her relatives live in splendor. She laments that she does not ‘deserve such a dismal deal’ and leaves only to find Bob in a bush. The two become unlikely friends. Dorinda teaches Bob to talk, and after an encounter with a buffalo, inspires Bob to no longer be bashful, but brave. Bob declares to Dorinda that she is no longer doleful, but daring. Both their parents return to them, and they all end up living together in a bungalow where there are ‘dishes of delicacies’ as well as a ‘bounteous backyard’ to enjoy.

This book shows us the power of friendship, and how it is needed so we can learn more things out about ourselves that we never knew, and how we can also help other people.

I would suggest that this book is aimed at Key Stage 2 for ages 9+. This book has some tricky words in it, but this gives scope for the teacher to talk about these words, as well as encouraging the children to independently look up these words in dictionaries, thus helping to expand their vocabulary. This book is engaging, and the illustrations subtly show the relationship between the two characters (yellow for Bob and purple for Dorinda) and how in the end they both show a little of each others colours in them.

This particular edition comes with an audio CD of the book, which is great as it gives children the opportunity to practice their listening skills and to see if they can follow the story without looking at pictures and text.

A fun and enjoyable task would be to see if children can make up their own stories using alliteration, and to see how many different words they can come up with that begin with their chosen letter.