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Doctor De Soto

Author: William Steig

Year: 1982

Type: animal fantasy

Award: Newbery Honor

 

 

Personal Reflection:

 

When I started to read this book, my first thought was that, “Wow! The picture book is so colorful!” Absolutely, I believe there are other colorful picture books as well. They must have a lot of colors to catch our attention. However, I thought too many colors in a book can make me feel too complicated. Although Doctor De Soto was used abundant colors, I considered it is very delicate. All of them are gentle and smooth. I could feel that it must be a tender story. And I thought it really does. Besides, the characters and all the stuff were drawn daintily.

 

I recommend this book for those children who extremely hate to see a dentist like me as I was young. In my opinion, a dentist was a wicked person who would take knife or something dangerous to hurt me and my teeth. Nevertheless, Doctor De Soto, who was a mouse was considered a gentle and tactful one. I could imagine I felt relaxed when I saw a dentist who was a cute mouse. It was able to make me less scared toward a dentist.

 

 

Analysis:

 

In this book, the protagonist is Doctor De Soto who is a mouse and the antagonist is a fox. I thought it corresponds to the symbols of animals. A mouse is symbolized as a witty role. In contrast, a fox is cunning. It is easy for children to recognize. Doctor De Soto said he wouldn’t treat dangerous patients such as cats. The fox was certainly an evil animal to him. At first, when the fox came, he didn’t want to cure him of his toothache. But the fox begged for treatment and it seemed hurtful. Then, he still decided to help him. This part teaches kids that is it suitable to help a bad guy? It is surely a moral question, “Should we help a person who is possible to hurt you?” In my opinion, it depends everyone. If I were Doctor De Soto, I would choose to help the fox as well. Even though the person would be bad, I couldn’t see that he felt miserable and I wouldn’t give him a hand. If I really did it, I was a bad guy, too. 

 

However, I couldn’t find a solution to the dangerous situation. Of course, Doctor De Soto felt terrified in the fox’s mouth. But he tried to find how to solve the problem. In the end, he really cured the fox and used his intelligence to escape from the danger. It indeed proves the mouse’s witty image. The books also teaches kids not to do bad things to others, or you will be punished. It is a good teaching and worth reading!