Andrea Hillbrick's Tuning in with Task Cards includes a teaching lesson structured around the boy's shopping list from the story.

was a success in England and the United States, and received positive reception from the American Library Association, and The Washington Post.

A little boy leaves his home with his dog to shop for food items for his mother, and attempts to remember the list of things she wanted him to buy.

The original request from his mother is "six farm eggs, a cake for tea, a pound of pears, and don't forget the bacon".

Throughout his trip to the grocery store, the boy sees things along the way that play tricks with his memory, and items on his list one-by-one become substituted with other goods.

By the end of his trip, the boy has forgotten the initial items requested, and supplants them in his mind with "six clothes pegs, a rake for leaves, a pile of chairs, and don't forget the bacon".

has been used as a learning tool for children in education, in order to teach them about various themes including miscommunication,[2] responsibility,[3] and the reliability of spoken language.

[8] In her book Foundation Blocks: Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Mavis Brown suggests the story be used to teach children about the theme of miscommunication.

[2] The story is used in a case study in education, which is cited in the book Improving Teaching and Learning in the Core Curriculum by Kate Ashcroft and John Lee.

[14] Mildred R. Donoghue writes in Language Arts: Integrating Skills for Classroom Teaching that the story should be utilised in the course of primary education.

[15] In their work Success in Reading and Writing, authors Barbara J. Blackford, Helen Cappleman and Betty Cramer suggest the book be read aloud to children in kindergarten, and the teacher should subsequently quiz members of the class to see if they can recall items from the boy's shopping list.

[16] Authors Diane Stirling, Linda McKay, Georgia Archibald and Shelley Berg recommend the story in their book Character Education Connections: For School, Home and Community, in order to teach children the character trait of responsibility: "A willingness to be accountable for your own actions without blaming others.

"[30] In an article for The Washington Post, associate professor and director of the reading clinic at Western Maryland College, Joan Coley, observed that the repetitive nature of the story is appealing to children.

[34] ^[A] Secondary source references consulted to assist in summarising information for Plot section include Brodt 1987,[35] Elleman 1976,[30] and McElmeel 1990.