Dudley and the Christmas Thief

Adele Ashby was the former editor of Canadian Materials for Schools and Libraries.

In this, the sequel to Swede’s Dudley and the Birdman, Dudley comes upon a boy trying to steal his friend Linda’s purse. Dudley is not able to stop the thief and the next day he decides to play detective. At a local shopping center, he sees the boy buying gift wrap and ribbon. He follows him home and confronts him in front of his mother and sister. Jack, the thief, has taken the purse and its contents because he has no presents for his family’s Christmas. Dudley then begins to feel bad in the face of such deprivation and he comes up with a way that Jack and his family can have a Christmas with presents.

We need more stories that reflect the reality of many Canadian children — single parent families living in straitened circumstances — but these elements do not in themselves make a good book. The book comes close to condoning Jack’s behavior because of his environment. And how is it, one wonders, that he had money for wrap and ribbons but not presents? The illustrations, which alternate black and white and colour, are poorly drawn. In one, Dudley is climbing stairs, but his body is at right angles to the steps. Moreover, in the pictures, Dudley looks to be about nine, but nine-year-old readers are seldom persuaded to pick up a story that is told in picture book format. Not a success.