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Description
The possum ‘that didn’t’ is a very contented animal who smiles in sunshine and rain, but when a group of human picnickers spot him hanging by his tail, they read his smile as a frown and call him stupid for insisting that he is happy. They decide to take him to the city to find amusement and, because he won’t climb down from the tree, they excavate it and transport tree and hanging possum together. Frank Tashlin's book goes philosophical in two different directions. One is the direction of satire: We laugh at humans taking a possum to a nightclub, but what do we really know about animal happiness? The other direction is existential: from the perspective of the possum, it dramatize the question: What do I do when I'm understood backwards over and over again—when the world I thought I lived in becomes unrecognizable?
Publication Date
2025
Publisher
Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children
City
Montclair
Keywords
animals, environmental degradation, environmental education, being misunderstood, native species, philosophy for children, satire, wilderness
Disciplines
Early Childhood Education | Education | Environmental Education | Philosophy
Recommended Citation
Gregory, Maughn Rollins and Shea, Peter, "Possum that Didn't (1950/2016) by Arthur Frank Tashlin" (2025). Picture Books. 36.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/iapc_thinkingstories_picturebooks/36