Customer Reviews

Scritch Scratch

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A tiny insect craws into a classroom and soon the whole class is scratching. It's hard to imagine how a picturebook on head lice can be whimsical and fun, but even parents who have suffered through an outbreak will find the zany drawings and rollicking story line to be fun.

"One day a tiny insect, no bigger than a freckle, crawled into Ms. Calypso's classroom. Nobody noticed..." She took a look around, saw Ms Calypso's "cascading curls," dove through the air, and landed, making a nice little home for herself and her tiny eggs. Pretty soon Ms Calypso began to scritch scratch, and soon her entire class was scritching and scratching as the head-lice scampered from head to head to head. Mr Trout, the principal, sent a note home: "Please comb special conditioner through your children's hair and make it so slippery that all the head lice slide into the bath water and float away." The treatment worked perfectly. "There was not a single louse in sight. They were all gone. Well, all except one!" Poor Ms Calypso lived alone, and had no one to help her condition and comb, and soon, the whole class was scritching and scratching all over again. This time Mr Trout sent the note home, and then volunteered to help Ms Calypso with her hair. They fell in love and got married, and there hasn't been a scritch or a scratch ever since...well at least not in Mrs Trout's room..... It's hard to believe that anyone could author an appealing story about head-lice infestation, but Miriam Moss and illustrator, Delphine Durand seem to have accomplished the impossible. Ms Moss' engaging and entertaining text takes the mystery and stigma out of the head-lice issue, as she shows that anyone can be a victim. Ms Durand's bold, bright, and busy cartoon-like illustrations enhance the story, and are filled will expression, vibrant color, playful humor and eye-catching detail. Perfect for youngsters 4-8, Scritch Scratch is a clever, funny romp that takes a lousy topic and makes light of it with fact instead of fiction.

I'm not sure that I would have ever found this book had I not been specifically looking for a book on lice. My sister n law is a second grade teacher and her first year teaching she came home with a funny lice story. She kept getting the goosebumps talking about it which was only amusing to me. I bought her this book for her class and she loved it.

My two year old son picked this book up at a used bookstore and I failed to look at the title, let alone the subject. This is absolutely repulsive. After trying to give it away with no luck, I threw it in the recycle bin.