Lollypop Makes a Mess

Deborah Dowson is a children’s librarian in Pickering, Ontario.

According to the publisher, the Compass Collection is a series of books
“designed to help children successfully navigate their way through
major developmental stages, integrate into the family and later into
society.” This is a pretty lofty aim for a series of toddler board
books. In fact, the series probably has more impact on the parents
reading them than on the children. Parents gain the perspective of what
a toddler is thinking when they say no, make a mess, or refuse to eat.
Lollypop’s parents model understanding behavior and strategies that
other parents may use to cope with the so-called terrible twos.

The books are very attractive, with a glossy board format and solid
primary colored borders on each page. The illustrations are, for the
most part, cute and appealing. However, the main character, whose bald
head is huge and round like the Lollypop he is named for, appears to be
about 8 months old. The circle for a head may be endearing, but it also
makes him appear too young for his age. He looks younger than his baby
sister, who has been given hair.

The stories focus on common situations that parents and young children
experience. There is usually a small conflict that is resolved to
everyone’s satisfaction. In Nightmare, Lollypop is given his teddy
bear to hug instead of his mother, and that solves his night waking. In
Makes a Mess, he helps his mother clean up the mess he made trying to
cook by himself, and later he makes cookies with his mother. Children
can see themselves in the typical situations that Lollypop experiences,
and hence the socialization goal of the books can be said to be met.
Recommended.