Tuesday, 10 September 2024

Discombobulation

Discombobulation by Trevor Todd and David P Reiter, illustrated by Richard Hoit (IP Kidz/Interactive Publications) HB RRP $25.99 ISBN 9781922830517

Reviewed by Kylie Buckley

Woody (the canary) loves to sing, trill and whistle, and he believes that his bird friends love to listen to him. However, one dawn, Sir Humphrey (the parrot) explains to Woody that the other birds do not like his singing at all, in fact they find it ‘
discombobulating’.  Woody, of course, is disheartened. Not only can he not pronounce that word properly, but he doesn’t want to believe that his singing is not appreciated. Woody then sets off to seek opinions from Magpie, Lyrebird and Kookaburra, but finds that they all love his singing. Finally, he approaches the Wise Old Owl who helps to set the record straight.

Discombobulation is a story about jealousy and dishonesty. It includes full colour cartoon illustrations and characters that would appeal to an early childhood audience. Discombobulation is the second picture book in the Woody and Sir Humphrey series. The first book in the series, Disinformation, was published in 2023.

This picture book can be used as a resource for social-emotional learning in a primary classroom or as an introduction to prefixes and suffixes. This story includes ten different words with the ‘dis’ prefix and many examples of different suffixes. It also includes plenty of tier two vocabulary for students to discuss and explore further.

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