View source for So What! by Tracey Trussell and Neil Price

{{infobox2
|title=So What!
|author=Tracey Trussell and Neil Price
|reviewer=Ruth Ng
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=3.5
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=9781909428195
|pages=32
|publisher=Digital Leaf
|date=March 2014
|aznuk=1909428191
|aznus=1909428191
|cover=1909428191
|website=
|video=
|summary=A tale with good intentions, though it didn't quite hit the mark for me.
}}
Girls can be horrid sometimes.  You know how it is - one girl in the playground says quite innocently that their mum bought them some new sandals at the weekend and another, louder, bigger, bossier one says 'so what!'  And then perhaps every time that quieter girl opens her mouth to say something the other girl is there to shout her down with a 'so what!'  This book captures those feelings, and demonstrates a way to deal with any 'so what' nonsense that comes your way!

In this story the quiet girl getting shouted down all the time looks very sweet and naive and innocent.  Her supposed best friend is the one who starts shouting her down, and she looks much wilder.  Indeed, as the story progresses, she actually starts to look a little deranged every time she screams 'so what' at her friend!  In one particular picture her eyes are bulging from their sockets, her mouth is so wide and all the gaps between her teeth are disturbingly prominent!

Our nice little girl imagines each time what she might have said to Lissy, what she could have conjured from her imagination to have boasted about, like a camel with six humps or a magic wand, but each time she is cowed by Lissy.  Until finally, one day, after Lissy seems to have replaced her with another girl, our little girl gets brave and she invents a story about what she's going to be doing at the weekend, and this time, instead of saying 'so what' Lissy is amazed!  And when Lissy in return says what she is going to be doing our nice little girl responds, quite serenely, with her very own 'so what'!

I do like the idea behind this story, and it is good to be able to stand up for yourself, but I'm not sure that retorting with the same phrase that's been flung at you is the best way to go about things.  I'm also not sure just what age range this story is aimed at.  It's a picture book, so we're probably looking at children around 6 years old or younger, and again I don't know that this is pitched quite right for their age group.  It strikes me more as being aimed at an 8-10 year old audience (sometimes the girls in the pictures look disturbingly grown up) but it's unlikely they'd pick up this kind of book. 

It isn't that it's a bad book, or a bad message.  I just felt that it didn't quite sit right with me and I have to say I didn't read it with my seven year old daughter because I had visions of this sticking in her head and then I would find myself on the receiving end of a 'so what' at some point in the near future!  Borrow it from the library to take a look first, and make your own judgements as to whether or not it's right for you.  The artwork is an intriguing mixture of lovely and terrifying, so it's worth a glance just for that!

For other stories about bullies try [[I Am So Strong by Mario Ramos]] or [[Noguchi the Samurai by Burt Konzak and Johnny Wales]].

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[[Category:Tracey Trussell]]
[[Category:Neil Price]]