Both Katie and I could probably post about every title Pat Hutchins has ever written on our When We Were Little Sundays. All of her books are classics and I have many favourites from childhood including Good-night Owl and The House That Sailed Away but today I am reminiscing about Don’t Forget the Bacon!
First published in 1976 this book has Pat’s unmistakable lurid, clashing 1970s colour pallet.
A little boy sets off for the store with purse in hand. His mother reminds him of the list of groceries he must buy…
“Six farm eggs, a cake for tea, a pound of pears and don’t forget the bacon!”
Off out the door he repeats…
“Six fat legs, a cape for me, a flight of stairs, and don’t forget the bacon.”
Well at least he will remember the bacon, or will he?
Despite the fact that repetitive picture books often annoy adults, children delight in them. As he heads to the store the things the boy can see along the way confuse his list. Another boy rides past on his bike with a cape billowing behind him and “a cake for tea” becomes “a cape for me”.
To frame the dialogue Hutchins uses speech bubbles and thought clouds, which for the time of publication was an innovative way to display text in a picture book. The bubbles are a wonderful way to show children when there is dialogue between characters and the clouds for when the boy is trying to remember his list.
Pat Hutchins has said that she has always tried “to write about what children say and do” and in Don’t Forget the Bacon! she has created a simple story that both children and adults can relate to. And who can resist those cool 70s illustrations?
If you’d like to have a look through the book you can see inside on the brilliant Harper Collins US website.
we read this just a week or so ago. My daughter borrowed it from her school library. I think the character is Titch from the same named books. Which we love because it deals with issues of being small, which my kids are for their age.