Post by Mark T. Locker.

Arthur’s April Fool by Marc Brown

Now that my boy is such a voracious independent reader, we don’t sit and read as many picture books as we used to. Maybe that’s a shortcoming as a father. I know that some day he will just not want me to read to him again. And that will be that. Be that as it may, I wouldn’t want to have to choose between never reading to him again or reading him books from the “Arthur” series ad infinitum. There is nothing wrong with Arthur per se. He’s a nice bespectacled weasel, or aardvark, or whatever he is. Naturally, lots of low-hanging lessons to be gleaned throughout the series. Perfect for adaptation to the PBS screen for kids.

Anyways, we were away for my birthday weekend staying at the coast with friends. My boy found a box full of picture books. As it was already past bedtime, he naturally chose the longest book he could find for me to read. As is happens, it was Arthur’s April Fool. I’ve never known him to read anything from this series, but that’s fine. He cozied up to me (another thing he’ll never do again, some day) and we read about the trials and tribulations of everyone’s favorite capybara.

I don’t remember the plot much. Some bully picked on Arthur. Arthur pulled some pretty harmless practical joke on him, the ol’ kaleidoscope-gives-you-a-black-eye gag. I’m not sure what the message was for this particular installment. Revenge is a dish best served cold?

If you are looking for some decidedly wholesome and lesson-teaching picture books, these are a good choice. There are about 100 of them and they have a TV show to complement the series. Good for kids that aren’t my son’s age, probably 4.