Scapegoat: The Story of a Goat Named Oat and a Chewed-Up Coat by Dean Hale, illustrated by Michael Slack, is an adorable story about a mischievous young boy named Jimmy Choat and his family’s put-upon goat, Patsy Petunia Oat. Missing coat? Broken boat? Messy tote? Blame it all on the goat! As the week progresses, more and more missing and broken items plague the Choat’s, and Jimmy happily blames everything on Mrs. Oat the Goat. But what happens when someone hears and tells the goat’s side of the story?
This absolutely adorable picture book is filled with fun and playful rhymes and alliteration, and is a blast to read aloud. The fun rhymes (and the goat’s hilarious non-rhyming dialogue), and playful illustrations – one day, the goat is so fed up with being blamed it is outside “chewing the grass with some sass” and has chewed a silly portrait of Jimmy into the lawn – make this picture book pop. The illustrations bright colors, fun details, and all of the character’s expressive faces make this a joy to read, and adding in the cute story with a fun twist at the end makes this book a winner.
Not just a cute story, this book has several educational uses, from teaching kids how to accept responsibility for their actions and why telling the truth is important, to more basic ideas like learning the days of the week (the story is told On Monday…On Tuesday…etc) or understanding the “oa” sound/letter combination. This cute and fun story will win over all audiences, from the mischievous little boys who get into trouble on up to every parent who has asked “What happened to…?” and not been given a straight answer.
- Posted by Erin