listen buddy!

We read ‘Listen Buddy’ by Helen Lester. 

Buddy is a bunnyrabbit who lives with his mother and father.  He clearly comes from excellent bunnyrabbit stock; his father has a big nose.  It means he is a GREAT sniffer!  His mum has wonderful teeth.  It means she is a GREAT muncher!  Buddy has fabulously looooong ears.  It…..doesn’t matter!

It doesn’t matter because Buddy is always so busy thinking of other things, that he ‘mishears’ what he is being asked to do.  He never pays attention.

For example, when he is asked to bring his dad a pen, in its place, Buddy brings him a hen.  Instead of a slice of bread, his mum is given a slice of bed - Buddy has sawn off a piece!  And his dad certainly wasn’t expecting a pile of wash for dinner!  (It was squash he wanted, in case you were wondering!)

Before Buddy’s first solo outing, he is given clear instructions about which path to take at the fork in the road; one way leads back home to the safety of the rabbit warren - the other to…..well, you had better read it yourself if you want to find out!  Of course when Buddy gets to the junction, he cannot remember whether to go left or right.

Now I don’t want to spoil the story for you, but anyway you have almost certainly guessed that Buddy takes the wrong turning and ends up getting into a terrible pickle.  And I hope you don’t mind me mentioning that this terrible pickle means he is in danger of being turned into bunnyrabbit SOUP!

In the end, Buddy learns his lesson and becomes a much better listener.  But we think we could have saved him all kinds of bother because in 1b we know just what we need to do to be good listeners…..

Here, then, is our advice for Buddy.

As Tim wrote, ‘He could listen with his eyes.’  And as Anusha put it, ‘He can listen with his mouth.’

Mélina wrote that ‘He can listen with his whole body; and,’ she added, ‘ he could be even closer.’

Bianca even suggested ‘not doing something when they are talking to him.’  Indeed!

Clearly we all know how to be good listeners…..