Don't Copy Me by Jonathan Allen

from goodreads

3.5 stars

I am the youngest of six kids. I am the youngest by a lot. And when little I probably annoyed my elder siblings by copying what they did. They say that copying is the sincerest form of flattery. It is also the sincerest way of saying 'I know how to push your buttons of annoyance, prepare to squirm'. 

I don't know how kids figure out that playing copycat will result in annoyance. I don't know why when people copy us it drives us so crazy. But they do and it does. There are many times when I hear the cries of 'stop copying me!' coming from the play room or the kids' bedrooms. I understand the pain the one is going through, and the pure pleasure of pushing someone else's buttons. What a crazy somewhat twisted world we live in.

Synopsis

All Little Puffin wants to do is go for a nice quiet walk by himself. Then comes a long three gull chicks who decide he is the best one to copy. What's a puffin to do?

My Thoughts

This is the type of book that you will either love or want to run away from. If you have a low threshold for copy games put the book down and run away. You can feel the annoyance of the puffin oozing from the pages.

At the same time I found the gull chicks to be quite cute especially the "baby" gull because he had to copy things to an imaginary bird. I liked his gumption at being the same and not letting things get in the way of his copying. Good for you little bird, good for you. Perhaps being the youngest I could identify with him.

The ending is definitely one that you roll your eyes at. You definitely don't learn how to stop a copying game. There is definitely no closure. But, I think kids will think it wildly funny as they totally will know how to relate to the situation, whether they be gulls or puffins.

This is not one that will go down in literary history as the most game changing children's book every. It will be entertaining to kids and show them they are not alone in this crazy world of copycat games. My suggestion though, if you have huge issues with the game of copycat, wait until your oldest can read the book to the younger ones, thus extricating yourself from the whole copycat mess. Happy Reading!