Hey Crazy Riddle

by Trish Cooke, Hannah Shaw (Illustrations)

Why does the agouti have no tail? How did the dog lose his bone? Why can't the wasp make honey? Find the answer to these and other intriguing questions in Trish Cooke's exciting collection of Caribbean tales. The stories are told in a gentle rhyming style and introduce elements of local dialect, but remain easy to understand and appealing to children developing their independent reading.

64 pages, Paperback

First published June 9, 2006

About the author

Trish Cooke is a British playwright, actress, television presenter, scriptwriter and children's author who might be best known for being a presenter on the children's series Playdays. She also wrote under the pseudonym Roselia John Baptiste.

Reviews

[Chloe Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

When sharing these little poems/short stories I would make sure to read the short authors note first. Cooke points out that there isn’t always a rhyme and some rhymes are not regular, but this is an important thing to teach children - not all poems rhyme. Some stories I favoured heavily over others, especially “why wasp can’t make honey” and “why dog barks”, and even if I chose not share this whole book with children, I would use those two poems in the classroom as they are fun and interesting. I also think “hey crazy riddle” is good for the classroom and making comparisons with a familiar nursery rhyme.

[Bonnie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hey Crazy Riddle
Author: Trish Cooke
Illustrator: Hannah Shaw.
Suggested Reading Age: 7-10 year olds.

This book tells seven short tales involving animals. I choose to read this book after looking at the note from the author. Trish Cooke was born in Yorkshire, but her parents are from Dominica in the West Indies. Cooke was told these tales Caribbean tales by her parents and grandparents growing up. I like the idea of reading tales from different cultures and traditions to school children, as some children may have heard similar tales at home and can identify with the stories characters.

Not all the tales rhyme and sometimes the rhythms are not regular, and so I did stumble in my own reading of the stories. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book very much. The reading was who have the best of luck.
However, one tale called ‘Why wasp can’t Make Honey’ I did enjoy. It tells the story of a wasp that always looks stressed, but in fact is really doing nothing. There is also a bee that is always busy making honey, but who always makes time for his friends and family. One day, the wasp needs to take a break and the busy bee offers him some honey to eat. The wasp loves the honey and eats it all up, the bee asks the wasp to wait while he fetches his recipe for him. Needless to say, the stressed wasp flies away before the bee returns with the recipe. This is why wasps can’t make honey. This tale would be a good tool to read when teaching phonics as there is repetition of the ‘m’ and ‘z’ phoneme.

I think the book can be made engaging for children if the reader spoke in a Caribbean or Jamaican accent when reading some parts of the dialogue. However, this would need to be a brave reader and one that is careful not to offend anyone from the West Indies.

There are illustrations in the book that are comical. However, as the book is printed in black and white and most of the illustrations use a lot of dark print, the objects are hard to make out for the reader.
The tales in the book do address issues such as; family, jealousy, greed, ungratefulness and laziness. These are all issues that can be discussed with children of all ages after reading the book.

I wouldn't use this book in a lesson due to the complexity of the rhythm and the lack of clarity in terms of the teachings of the different tales in the book.