Bashful Bob and Doleful Dorinda

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University. She is the author of several books, including The
Mountain Is Moving: Japanese Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret
Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

Bob has been abandoned in his baby basket next to a beauty parlour. To
call his mother “bubble-headed” is a compliment. Dorinda, who lives
near Bob, is an updated Cinderella, disgracefully neglected by cruel
relatives who dress her in dust mops and dingy dungarees. They make her
sleep on “a dank and dubious duvet in a derelict dumpster, and make
her work from dawn to dusk!” Not surprisingly, Dorinda becomes so
depressed by such a dismal deal that one dark December day she departs.
While walking through the park she finds the bashful toddler hiding in
the bushes with his beagle, boxer, and borzoi dog buddies. The dogs have
been keeping Bob alive with burgled necessities from bundle buggies.
Confusion thickens when a buffalo escapes from the Botanical Gardens
nearby. Needless to say, all ends happily with the four parents, two
kids, and three dogs sharing a bungalow “in blinding bliss, delirious
with delicious delight.”

Atwood’s hilarious tale will amuse listeners of almost any age with
its alliteration and clever wordplay. Petricic’s cartoonlike
illustrations add comical detail and set the tone: the blond, bashful
baby Bob’s innocent world is awash in sunshine yellows and golds;
doleful Dorinda’s depressive world is painted in dark purplish-blues.
Their teamwork here forms a perfect partnership. Highly recommended.