The Postman Always Visits Twice

Last year, PomPom sent the Jolly Postman on a world tour, to find a wife. He went all over the place. He reached Cornerstones in August. Rosie and I did our best to keep him amused - he went to a castle like Hogwarts, a jungle in a Garden Centre, a wedding in Dorset, and much more...And this summer he visited us for a second time.

This time, the big red felt envelope was bulging... The journal told stories of his adventures, the pink envelopes contained twenty one possible spouses, and the passport bore stamps from Ireland, Scotland, England, and four states of the USA. Rosie and I spent ages, looking at all the possible partners- and although we were rather fond of those drawn by Auntie Steph, we decided that choosing someone called Elizabeth was an excellent idea [just like Mummy Liz]

Rosie was very taken with the 'extras' -bible, knitting, butterfly, mouse, scarf and kilt. "I must make them some accessories for their new home" she declared. And rushed off to draw and cut out Jess-the-cat, and a jar of honey.  The best part of the package was the new book PP had sent us as a gift. The third book in the JP trilogy -

 the Jolly Pocket    Postman- in which our intrepid mailman shrinks to the size of a postage stamp.

This story comes with all sorts of added inserts, 

including a magnifying glass for reading the teeny tiny tiniest print. We had enormous fun with this book. Jolly meets some well known 

characters from other children's books, most notably Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy in Oz. Rosie and I had watched The Wizard Of Oz, last year, so she knew that story, and was also familiar with Alice's adventures.

I thought the book was extremely clever - I notice some reviews imply it is too hard for children under eight - but I think that would depend on whether they already knew about the other characters. The map shows his route, and we picked out lots of literary links. Rosie and I both rated it *****

Thank you PomPom for initiating this blogfest - and all the other participants who put such time into adding their pieces to the story.[I love the kilt, Annie, and not surprised by the crochet scarf, Mags] 

Last week, Rosie and I read a chapter of Alice's adventures at her sleepover [the wonderful Tea Party Chapter] and mused about living in a treacle well [too dark and sticky, we thought] 

Grandad Bob kindly made his famous pancakes at the sleepover breakfast, so we could put treacle [aka syrup] on them!

A happy summer holiday - it ended too soon!

Have you read any good children's books in your family recently?