Tuesday Treasure
I first discovered Paper Puppy in 1984 (my copy was titled Francie's Paper Puppy).
Between 1984 and 2017 I moved to several different schools but I was lucky to find this book in each collection. Paper Puppy is one of my Tuesday Treasures - these are books which were recently culled from my former school. Luckily I have been able to source my own copy. This one is a former library book from Lancashire, UK. It appears to have only had two borrowers. How sad. I am glad I will be able to share this book with groups of children here in Australia.
Francie lives in the country, far away from her school friends who live in town. It is the holidays and her mother and father have driven away to do some shopping. Francie is left behind. She tries to invent games to keep herself amused but deep in her heart she longs for a friend.
"Finally Francie heard their van coming up the road. It was still far away but she knew the sound. First she heard the rumble and then she heard the clanks that the van always made when it turned into the driveway."
Mum and Dad have bought Francie a present. It is a tube of paper and a set of paints. Francie sets to work straight away and produces a set of colourful paintings which she pins to her wall.
Lying in her bed that night Francie notices one of the paintings is quite special. It looks a little like a puppy.
"She took the picture down and went to get her scissors. Gently, very gently, she cut out the puppy from the middle of the picture. 'I hope I don't hurt you,' she whispered. Francie tucked her new puppy under the warm covers and snuggled close to him."
All through the next day Francie plays with her puppy. It is a joyous day. Yes the puppy is made from paper but this means he can fly like a kite, he makes an interesting sound when she pats him although she does have accept he cannot drink his milk. A full day of play means the puppy gets a little wrinkled. Can you see what Francie is doing in this illustration?
Sharing this book with my youngest students I always demonstrated water colour painting and included a rough puppy picture which I cut out and then used for storytelling. The final scenes are so special. Francie cannot find her puppy in the morning. "She looked everywhere a piece of paper could hide." Suddenly she hears a noise. It sounds like barking. She runs outside and sees a real puppy "looking just like the puppy she went to sleep with the night before."
"Now I can really hug you and you won't get wrinkled."
I am not going to provide curriculum links for this book. I simply think this is a book that's a joy to share. Nothing more, nothing less. If you need deeper themes then I guess it is a book which celebrates creativity, imagination, positive thinking and family love. Finally something to think about. I recently read a comment on a Teacher-Librarian forum that disturbed me. These are words that are still ringing in my ears and I have to say utterly disagree. The Teacher-Librarian was responding to a question about culling a library collection and she said "Just because it’s a lovely story or a favorite author /classic, doesn’t mean it should be in the collection. "
If you follow this premise then your young reader/s will
never have the chance to hear or read this truly special book and many others. Surely we can/should keep 'lovely stories' in our school libraries. I certainly hope so.
Paper puppy is a German picture book with the title Wollen wir Freunde sein?
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