Caca Boudin!

It says a lot about my time living in France that this is one of the books that really stuck with me. Yes, it's a children's book and yes, the humour is accordingly puerile but I love it! I only regret that there is not an English version (yet anyway) to share with everyone at home but I'll do my best to explain ... because I loved it too much to keep it to myself.

Basically, it's the story of a cheeky little rabbit who replies only and always to anyone and everything "caca boudin!" (a common thing for French kids to say which kind of equates to saying "poopoo sausage!"). One day, the big bad and green wolf crosses the little rabbit's path and eats him. The greedy green wolf is struck by a strange affliction - a sore tummy and the inability to say anything besides (you guessed it) "caca boudin!". Which of course gives the game away. The little rabbit's father discovers that the wolf has eaten his little rabbit and quickly extracts him from the beast's belly, hailing his child with an affectionate "there you are, my little Caca Boudin!" to which the slightly offended little rabbit replies "why are you calling me that, Dad? You know perfectly well my name is Simon". However, upon returning to the house and being told to eat his spinach, the little rabbit embraces a new word ... "prout!" (fart).

I read this book over and over and over with one of the little girls that I looked after, both of us yelling at the top of our voices "caca boudin!" each time the book demanded (I'm not actually sure who enjoyed it more, her or me). The unfortunate side-effect of this though was that, come dinnertime and spinach, she would invariably tell me "I'm not eating that, it's caca boudin!" (or "green eggs and ham" but that's another, more self-explanatory story). And all authority would go out the window because I could never stop myself from laughing.

I have also since discovered that Stéphanie Blake does currently have one book in English: I Don't Want to Go to School featuring yet again the cheeky little rabbit. Clearly in the same vein ...