Parents and Teachers:
The
Adventures of Bebe and Poppy is a
series written to encourage good character traits in
children using the comical lizards, Bebe and Poppy. Discuss
with the children before you read the book the differences
between good and bad character traits. After you read the
story ask if they can find the good character traits woven
throughout the story. Use the following examples to direct
your questions:
In the first book,
Why Lizards Wear Tennis Shoes, Bebe and
Poppy are confronted by a very big problem. They are given
the
responsibility by the
other garden animals to come up with a solution to their
problem. Bebe and Poppy are shown
respect by the
other animals who look up to them.
Bebe shows
kindness and
encouragement to Poppy
when he reassures him that his tail will grow back.
Poppy shows
wisdom when he
comes up with the idea that they need tennis shoes to out
run the cat. Bebe and Poppy
cooperate together and
are
industrious and
show
endurance by
working long hours
to recycle the old
tennis shoes into bright colorful new tennis shoes for
lizards.
They both show much
courage when
they rescue little Itsy from the mouth of the cat and allow
the cat to chase them. Bebe and Poppy show
perseverance by
allowing the cat to chase them until the cat wanders off in
defeat.
When all the other garden lizards want tennis shoes, Bebe
and Poppy become very
industrious again
and build their tennis shoe shop. They use
good judgment by
recycling items
found in the garbage and around the garden for their
building supplies.
All of their
hard work pays off
when other lizards bring them food in exchange for tennis
shoes. (They are using a
bartering system instead
of money.)
In the second book,
Horrible Horrace, Bebe and
Poppy learn to take a bad situation and turn it into
something good when a bully who has moved into their
neighborhood wants to take over their tennis shoe shop.
My hope is that through fun adventures with Bebe and Poppy,
children will learn good character traits that they will
carry with them throughout their lives.
Kathleen
Ambro