Don't Hug Doug (He Doesn't Like It): A story about consent

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The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done.I also love this book because the illustrations (by Daniel Wiseman) and the diverse group of characters are absolutely delightful! In Don’t Hug Doug, author, Carrie Finison, specifically includes lessons in boundary-setting and respecting others’ choices, as well as, in asking for consent. She does this in a way that kids ages 2-8 can really understand and incorporate into their own lives.

Simple and effective in showing young viewers how to establish bodily autonomy . . . A great starting point for a conversation about boundaries and how to set them.”— The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s BooksRabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol. Don’t Hug Doug can make kids feel better about their own boundaries, and challenge them to understand the comfort of others. But really, it gives grown-ups something to consider, too.”— Boston Globe