Just Something That Annoyed Me This Morning

The Real Winner: North South Books by C. Neugebauer

My review

rating: 1 of 5 stars
Preachy, lame, didactic (but with cute pictures)- I don't think any competitive child would be convinced that winning isn't everything (and this book is preachin' to the choir) from reading this load of tapioca.

Rocky (the raccoon - and the author's probably lucky Sir Paul doesn't come gunning for her on that) has to win every race and complains if someone else is ahead with a predictable "Not fair!" His dopey do-good companion keeps stopping to rescue other animals allowing Rocky to win. In the end, Rocky seems to have learned his lesson with a fishing competition. The first one to get a fish wins! Rocky won't stop until he gets one, and when he does (SPOILER ALERT - as if anyone cares) the fish is too small. He's disappointed. He throws the fish back. Allegedly it's to let the little fish grow, emulating the altruistic behavior of Hippo-boy, but we all know it's only because it was too small to be worth keeping and that any real raccoon would have just eaten it as an appetizer.


The real reason not to be like Rocky is that he's such a whiner. It's fine to be competitive (hark at me! - everyone who knows me well is checking the authorship of this review on the strength of that one comment), kids really enjoy it and people love winners. The only one who doesn't enjoy it and is shunned is the one that loses all the time and whines about it. I should know. I was a professional loser for most of my young life and now find it really difficult to compete even though I am capable of winning at some things. "No one loves a whiner!" I was always told.


So what's my complaint: it's an unrealistic children's story about talking animals? Is this another one of my tempests in a teaball? No, it's not the right message and the characterization is garbled. Here's the competition message in a nut's (me) shell: Winners should learn to be gracious, losers should learn to not give up hope, and the mediocre should just get over it.

A better choice for a book about competitiveness is Mia Hamm's Winners Never Quit.



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