Soap! Soap! Don't Forget the Soap!

Author: Dick Gackenbach
Title: Soap! Soap! Don’t Forget the Soap! An Appalachian Folktale
Book Genre: Traditional
Publishing Info: Holiday House, 29 pp

Summary: Plug Honeycut is the most forgetful young boy in town. One day his mother asked him to go to the store and get some soap. Plug did a great job of remembering what his was on a journey for until he came across a bullfrog in the creek, then he became sad that he could no longer remember. After being pushed in the water, pushed in the sticky bushes, made to chop wood, and many other horrible events, Plug came across the mayor’s wife and said the only thing that he could remember: “You look nice with hair on your face.” The mayor’s wife then said the one thing that Plug needed to jar his memory of what he was getting at the store. She said, “I ought to wash your mouth out with soap for saying such a thing to me.” Plug got the soap and returned home to his very impressed and grateful mother – who then gave him a bath!

Personal rating: ****

Rationale: Great book for children. It teaches culture, excitement, and raises certain questions about stereotyping.

Reading level: 6.0

Interest level: K-6th

Thematic Areas: adventure; memory; family; friendship

Content Areas: language; history; psychology; science

Potential Problems or Difficulties: Some of the dialect in this book would be hard for younger readers to understand while reading. Listening may be okay.

Possible use in classroom: Children could discuss things that Plug could have done to remember what he was going to the store for. Children could act out the different characters in the book while attempting to use the dialect used in the book. Children could discuss things that their parents ask them to do that they sometimes forget.