I Can’t Do What? Strange Laws and Rules from Around the World

I Can’t Do What? is the kind of book you can imagine an interesting uncle giving to his 11-year-old niece or nephew at a family gathering and the kid announcing various hilarious laws and rules that adults have come up with over the years as they go through it. It’s a compilation of strange, disturbing, arcane or otherwise plain goofy laws and rules. It’s a book to dip in and out of and will bring a smile to many readers.

The author uses the introduction as an opportunity to contextualize why and how rules and laws come into being the first place. And this presents an opportunity for young people to think about why we have them and what they’re intended to achieve. The author does reference that sometimes rules or laws can be inhumane and should be questioned and sometimes changed. She clearly distinguishes between archaic and foolish laws that are funny and those that are frightening and dangerous. She includes both types in the book.

She also takes the opportunity at times to poke fun at some of the odder or more questionable laws and rules (for example, making a comical example of the Norwegian beach volleyball association for fining some of its women players for wearing shorts rather than a bikini). However, she doesn’t always do this, and one wonders why. For example, descriptions of countries’ restrictive and punitive practices around homosexuality are described with no comment. I understand the inclination not to make this a political book, but a book published in this country could at least raise eyebrows at laws and rules that clearly violate Canadian rights and norms. However, to the author’s credit, she does encourage critical thinking about all laws and rules and highlights the importance of voting, advocacy, and other forms of raising awareness and civil protest as a means of effecting change.

I Can’t Do What? is divided into four sections: People Problems, Sports Zone, Entertainment Interrupted, and Kid Concerns. Each section includes features “What Can I Do?” and “Once Upon a Time,” that provide historical nuggets. Each section ends with a quiz. I was puzzled by the quiz as it doesn’t appear that the questions directly relate to any content found in the section itself.

There are spot illustrations by Mike Deas throughout the book.