Suitabook
It Wasn’t Me!
Lesley Beake
CC BY 4.0Credits & Licence
Originally published by Book Dash. Writer: Lesley Beake. Illustrator: Gwendolene van der Merwe. Designer: Alexandria Mackinnon. Editor: Liz Sparg.
Cover resized and converted to WebP; artwork unchanged. Suitabook’s AI guidance is a separate assessment.
Original Book on Book Dash: It Wasn’t Me! (opens in a new tab)- Reading
- Pause at each new mishap and invite your child to notice the animals’ expressions and the changing room. Let them decide whether the final claim fits the clues.
- Themes
- Blame and responsibility: After the room becomes disordered during Mum's brief absence, the child says, “It wasn’t me!” The ending places the child's denial alongside the visible mess, but does not establish who caused every mishap or how the claim should be judged.
- Animals in a household: A dog and cat feature in the unfolding household disruption, including an agitated confrontation in which the cat hisses at the dog. The animals' actions drive much of the visible commotion, but the brief scenes do not establish a broader message about pets or their behaviour.
- Worth knowing
- The action includes crashing, spilled contents, tumbling animals and the cat hissing at the dog. These moments look comic, but the illustrations show energetic disruption and an agitated confrontation between the animals.