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Ooh! It’s Mr Goo!
Who are you, Mr Goo? by Zanri Kritzinger illustrated by Stephen Wallace
NB Publishers
32 pages
R155
4/5 stars
Goo?
Imaginary friend?
This was new vocabulary for my five-year-old Lathi, who has been raised bilingually. I had to try to help her understand what these words mean, which was a good part of the fun.
But first I read the book with her so that I could gauge her understanding. She was excited when she saw the book the first time – and has been every time we’ve read it since. It’s the beautiful illustrations by the award-winning Stephen Wallace that do it for her. She can easily identify with the animals she knows, such as the octopus, and she’s full of questions about the ones she didn’t know.
She’s good with Goo and loves the poster that came with the book that we put up on the wall. But, by the end of the second read, I didn’t think she was all that sure about the concept of an imaginary friend. I tried explaining in isiZulu, but from her blank stare I could tell that there were crickets in the distance. But she’s getting there. When I asked her the name of her imaginary friend, she shouted: “It’s Stinky!”
The book is about the difference between real and imaginary friends. It’s a lesson about the importance of kinship, about loneliness and about supporting one another, being the best friend possible. In the book imaginary friends go to school to learn who their human friends are and how to be better friends with humans. Mr Goo is assigned to Ted, his human friend, who wants nothing to do with Mr Goo and any other human for that matter. Mr Goo eventually asked for help from his fellow imaginary friends and they brainstorm and come up with the decision to help Ted.
- We also particularly love Mr Goo’s recipe for fluffy, gooey slime at the back of the book. - Lathi (5) and Criselda Ndlovu
