Little Cog Burt and Cotton Candy

After reading both “Little Cog-Burt” and “Cotton Candy” I found there are many similarities but also differences. Lola and Little Cog-Burt shared some of the same behaviors and the way the interacted with others. Lola was able to communicate verbally, however, she could have been labeled as bashful or even strange. She would send the men she loved dead butterflies and she did it in secret. From my personal experience from working with children of all ages and special needs, most of them are not interested in the dead bodies of an insect. When Lola would visit the zoo, she would feel a connection with the zoo animals. Some might consider this very odd. I think Lola was missing that personal connection with humans and a lot of this had to do with the way her mother was. Poor Cog-Burt had the same issues with connecting to humans. The story calls him a little boy who always whined. Moira did not care for Cog-Burt because of this and Cog- Burt always hid from her. On the day of the Christmas party all the other children gathered around in a circle and received their gifts from Moira and Richard happily. Poor Cog-Burt was last and sat in the corner very quietly. He did not want the large ball that Moira had picked out for him. Unlike Lola, Cog-Burt would cry or “whine” to show expressions and communicate. In today's culture, someone would automatically assume Cog-Burt suffered from autism or if not familiar with autism might be like Moira and just think he is ungrateful and rude. Like any mother would, his mom was able to tell them what he was saying and communicate for him. I think this is Allfrey’s way of letting the reader know that Cog-Burt has a social disorder whether it be Autism, social anxiety, As burghers, or any other mental disorder. Communication skills, fairies, butterflies, mothers, and other similar aspects of the readings made me believe that it was done so on purpose. Caribbean kids and the women in these stories were very interesting and I would have loved to visit their towns and their people.