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DAISY DARE by Anita Jeram

DAISY DARE

by Anita Jeram & illustrated by Anita Jeram

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 1995
ISBN: 1-56402-645-0
Publisher: Candlewick

Sprightly illustrations can't compensate for the irresponsible message in this tale of a fearless mouse who will accept any dare her friends think upwalking on top of a wall, eating a worm, making faces at an elderly neighbor. She sensibly refuses to take the bell off the sleeping cat at first, but then rises to their taunts. They all escape the aroused cat by the narrowest of margins, and instead of learning the dangers of recklessness, the friends praise Daisy's bravery and she preens with satisfaction. This outcome is depressingly typical of adolescent rituals of risk- taking, but hardly bears celebrating in a book for preschoolers. If Jeram (Dick King-Smith's I Love Guinea Pigs, p. 386) is aiming at a message about overcoming and admitting fear, what she conveys is that it's admirable to take foolish, even lethal risks when pride is at stake. Dare children, instead, to take on Kevin Henkes's Sheila Rae, the Brave (1987). (Picture book. 3-6)