World Of Happy: The Knitting Gorilla
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Giles Andreae |
Egmont |
9781405258463 |
April 2011 |
32 pp |
Whole book & series read |
Read On? YES |
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During Easter weekend I was made to read aloud all thirteen of these quirky World Of Happy titles in a single sitting. The books are mini modern Aesopian fables in which unhappy situations become resolved, but not in an overly educational way. In The Knitting Gorilla, for example, one of the gorillas’ children, instead of growing up to be big and fierce like his daddy, defies convention by developing a knitting habit. The jumpers he knits are too small. To begin with, the other gorillas jeer and mock, but after a while they begin to RESPECT the jumper as an item of distinction. Likewise in The Pink Cricket, instead of playing the violin like all the normal green crickets, the one and only pink cricket takes up the drums. Despite the inevitable ridicule and teasing, the pink cricket sticks to his dreams and ends up playing drums in the band.
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Eye Of The Crow
|
Shane Peacock |
Tundra Books |
9780887768507 |
September 2007 |
250 pp |
Whole book read |
Read On? YES |
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Andrea Deakin sent me this Canadian winner of the 2008 Arthur Ellis Best Juvenile Crime Novel Award quite some time ago, but I only recently picked it up. And enjoyed it. It is well-written and well-paced, though on balance I would have preferred the narrative in a traditional past tense, rather than the rather stylised continuous present used by Peacock.
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Cows In Action: The Ter-moo-nators
Steve Cole |
Red Fox |
1862301891 |
May 2007 |
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Anarchic wit and inventiveness are shaken (not stirred!) to perfection in Steve Cole’s latest series, ‘Cows in Action’. A herd of agents and adversaries play out the action and adventures from the base of a time-travelling cowshed, invented by the bullishly brilliant Professor McMoo. |
Mister Monday
Garth Nix ill. by Tim Stevens |
Collins |
1904442714 |
Jan 2004 |
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‘He couldn’t believe he was in this situation. He was supposed to be some sort of hero, going up against Mister Monday, and here he was without any pants on, worrying about being bitten somewhere very unpleasant by Nithling Snakes. Surely no real hero would end up in this predicament.’ |