The Great Lollipop Caper - A Book about Friendship
The Great Lollipop Caper is one of Dylan’s favorite books. Written by Dan Krall, it tells the story of two unlikely friends, a sweet red lollipop and a green sour caper.
The book begins with tiny Mr. Caper being angry at tall yummy Lollipop. Mr. Caper, jealous of the fact that all the kids love Lollipop and not him, he believes the only choice is to be an enemy to Lollipop. Despite the fact that all the adults love him, Mr. Caper desperately wants the children to love him, and will do anything to try and make that happen.
Mr. Caper hatches a plan to make the children of the world love him. He sneaks into the Lollipop factory to change all lollipops to the flavor of “caper” and firmly believes that once the children have a taste, they will love him as much as sweet red Lollipop. Mr. Caper is excited to see the kids’ reactions to the new caper lollipop so he goes to town just as the kids get their first taste. How will the children react?
Mr. Caper finds out the hard way that you cannot make others like something that they just don’t like. Not only that, his “trick” caused the adults to be upset with Mr. Caper and now no one likes him.
In Mr. Caper’s despair, who should come to his rescue but sweet Mr. Lollipop. Mr. Lollipop gives of himself to the children, a delicious lick of sweet lollipop and saves the day. He gives so much so that he almost disappears but knows he just needs a trip to the lollipop factory to be as good as new.
Lollipop convinces Mr. Caper that the children will love him when they grow up and that new children will be there to love Lollipop by then. The adults have forgiven Mr. Caper, the children are happy and sweet again and best of all, Lollipop and Mr. Caper forge a wonderful new friendship.
This is a wonderful read for kids going back to school as it exemplifies friendship, accepting others, being kind to others, loving who you are, helping others and not judging others. It is so important for children to see that size doesn’t make a person any different than anyone else. Tall or short and regardless of weight, shouldn’t have a bearing on whether or not two people can be friends. It is what’s inside that counts – personality, sense of humor, kindness, helpfulness – that is what makes a person a person. It is so important for children to be kind to everyone and to realize that every single person is special in their own way.
There are many books based on friendship, but the uniqueness of this one really made a winning hit with my seven year old son. Kudos Dan Krall!