Wow, that rhymes, doesn’t it? It’s a nice way, at any rate, to pick up with some reviews after a summer holiday. I have two spectacular books to review today and I hope you’ll like them too.
Gaspard the friendly fox is back in this second instalment by Zeb Soanes and James Mayhew, and is as delightful and humorous as in his debut book. In this story, Gaspard is looking for his friend, Finty the dog, to introduce him to Peter the cat. However, while searching, he inadvertently gets involved in a dog show and impresses all the judges. Chaos inevitably ensues!
Zeb Soanes and James Mayhew are a creative match made in heaven. Soanes’ words amuse and entertain in a gently comic style – he creates animal characters that are full of fun and tells a ripping story. Mayhew’s illustrations are gorgeous – his style is so unique as to be immediately identifiable. The two work in such editorial harmony that I know I am going to enjoy a book they have worked together on.
There is a third book in the series which I hope to read and review soon, but make sure you get your paws on this instant classic!
Published by Graffeg
I was aware of illustrator Tom Gauld’s work and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he had released a children’s book, as his work has mainly been for newspapers and magazines. This debut, however, is testament to his versatility as both an illustrator and a writer.
The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess is, at first glance, a fairy tale. It involves a king and a queen longing for a child, and the granting of that wish by a witch and an inventor. This is a kind of mash-up of Pinocchio and the Brothers Grimm. Things go wrong, as they always do in fairy tales, and a quest is undertaken to put them right, with challenges along the way. It’s hard to say too much without giving it away but it is in the tradition of the best fairy tales, with a modern twist on it.
I read this to our Year 1 children yesterday and we had fun with the story. There are two sections in it with illustrations and titles of ‘too many adventures to recount here’ but serve as excellent conversation and discussion pieces. For example, we wondered why an old lady was in a bottle (a giant put her there), why a pudding was magic (if you eat it, you turn into a pudding yourself), why a baby was in a rosebush (it was blown into it by the wind), and why a blackbird was enormous (he ate too many sweets).
I hope this will be the first of many more picture books by Tom Gauld – his style is fresh and original and I think he will become a popular choice with children!
Published by Templar.
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