The Pencil

A lonely pencil draws a little boy for company, but his creation becomes rather demanding. Soon the simple pencil boy, dog and cat have insisted they be coloured in and before too long a whole world that the pencil has created are expecting more and more of him.

This is a delightful tale from Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman that sees the return of 'Banjo', a charming pencil drawn boy. A super read for younger children, which encourages involvement, pokes fun at the reader-author relationship. I read this to a slightly older audience, a group of 8-9 year olds, and they also very much enjoyed anticipating what would happen to the pencil's artistic solutions. We loved the battle that occurred, in both the story and pictures, when pencil draws its arch rival - the rubber! This, as with so many of Ahlberg's stories, is such a treat, and one that is worth coming back to again and again.

reviewed for ACHUKA by Danielle Alder.