Saturday 17 August 2024

Dolly, Lolly, Jolly, and Good Golly Miss Molly!

Four book reviews- all for children's books. [still reading Rob Biddulph's Peanut Jones, so cannot review that yet] Two were gifts from a friend, and two were Rosie's library books which we read together last week.

DOLLY Dolly Peg Fairies and Princesses. This is a Craft book from Top That Publishing. Seven easy ideas for turning a humble wooden dolly peg into enchanting creatures, using tissue paper, pipecleaners and a few other pretty sparkly bits and pieces.An ideal activity for children aged 3-9 to do with a bit of support from adults. Jess is just about old enough to help me to create these. 

Instructions clear, good diagrams. Rosie could do these with minimal support. ***** 
LOLLY Lolly Stick Craft Book also from TT Publishing-  7 more projects. Good variety - butterflies, spotty dog, picture frame, boat, glitter star, snowmen, Xmas tree. Again good instructions, and hints and tips for further projects, ***** 
Rosie reads by herself, but also has her "chapter" books - one of the adults will read a chapter or two with her at bedtime. This is a lovely experience. She had two with her when she was staying here last week. I will review the second one first
JOLLY  Baby Aliens Got My Teacher,
 by Pamela Butchart. This was such a crazy, jolly book, and in order to get it finished before Ro left, we all had an extended reading time on Friday morning before breakfast! Told in the first person, Izzy cannot explain why her teacher, Miss Jones, is suddenly being nice to everyone, and absurdly cheerful. Izzy and her two classmates decide she has been got at by aliens. The way these kids try to explain the behaviour of the adults around them is screamingly funny. Bob and I had different theories about the real reasons [and both partly right, partly wrong] Not exactly high quality writing, but such fun, and cleverly written.*****
Finally GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY! Vetman by Irish TV Vet, Noel Fitzpatrick. This was the oddest book I have read with Rosie, by a long, long way. My first problem was actually saying "Vetman" - my brain wanted to say "Vatman" or more frequently "Vietnam". And as we read, I kept thinking Good Grief" this is ridiculous!
Plot synopsis - Imogen and younger brother Findlay are coming to terms with their Dad's death. One night they find an injured hedgehog, and a squirrel [with a tail like a wire brush] leads them deep into the forest where they find the bizarre Vetman, who specialises in recycling household items into prosthetics for sick animals [eg owl with a headlamp for an eye, tortoise with wheelbarrow shell, etc] They also encounter The Man With No Name, who is trying to bring down the whole animal kingdom. Immy and Findlay work with their superhero and his bionic army to save the planet.
The book should come with trigger warnings I think - so much about the grief surrounding Dad's death, and the awful suffering of the animals. Some nights I had to read two chapters, so we didn't end on a scary cliffhanger, which might stop Rosie enjoying peaceful sleep. At one point, I actually wondered if NF was about to launch into a defence of assisted dying! In places the plot didn't hang together properly. 
I found myself skipping bits, and moderating some of the descriptions. I didn't really like the writing style. "It is an awful book" said another family member after they had done their evening's chapter with Ro. 
Julian was with us during Rosie's stay, and commented that he has noticed that many of the current crop of Junior Readers are written in such poor English "When I was at school, we would not have been allowed to write stories that were just a string of sentences beginning 'And then I did this/and then I did that' It was considered lazy writing"
NF may be a great TV personality [I have never watched him so cannot say] but I think he should stick to TV and his Veterinary work, I am not sure children's writing is his forte.
I know that many online reviews give Vetman 5* but I am only giving *
Giving Rosie and the family 5* for persevering to the end of this strange book though. And 5* to my kind friend for sending the craft books. 
Which children's authors do you rate highly ? [past or present]


18 comments:

  1. Vetman reminds me of reading a Malorie Blackman until late with my son, 7 or 8 years old... the book had him so scared that we had to finish it before he could sleep! I was simultaneously reading aloud and skimming ahead in order to skip scary bits and just tell the story. Books can be so powerful, at any age.

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    1. You're right. And if you have a vivid imagination (like Rosie - or me) , your brain adds in even more gruesome detail.

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    2. Even now I often have to read the ending if the middle becomes too trepidatious for me!

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    3. Oooh, doesn't that feel like cheating??

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  2. I think there are many celebrities (or slebs, as we call them) who think that writing children's literature is easy, and publishers who think (know?) that the sleb name will sell books. There are some good sleb writers but also many dire ones. Sadly, I think writers that I loved in my childhood aren't as exciting or gimmicky for today's youngsters. I read a Geoffrey Trease book that I loved when I was young to my class, and they were bored by it. If you could ever find "Brother Dustyfeet" by Rosemary Sutcliffe, Ro might enjoy that...possibly. Love FD xx

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    1. I have read other RS but not that one. And certainly read GT in my childhood. It is interesting to note which older books are 'boring' to this generation

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  3. It's been a long time since I read any children's books with my daughter. The craft books sound like they have some fun projects in them.

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    1. They do, You call them Popsicle Sticks in the USA - not so good for the title of the post!!

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  4. I've lost touch with children's books but these do sound rather unusual, especially the one by the TV vet.
    Alison in Wales x

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  5. I used to collect lolly sticks off the pavements around our home to use for craft making in my Dad's shed when I was young. There were no packs of craft lolly sticks to purchase back then.

    My favourite author as a child was Enid Blyton, I must have read most of her books. My eldest son was a huge Roald Dahl fan and my younger son loved Shirley Hughes books. I enjoyed reading all of them for our nightly bedtime stories.

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    1. It took AGES to collect enough sticks for a project! I read lots of Enid Blyton. My cousin gave me some American Cherry Ames nursing books, by Helen Dore Boylston and I remember getting the librarian to order them for me. But I've never found anyone else who read them.

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  6. "Baby Aliens.." brought to mind a theory my friend and I had in Junior School, inspired by the comic "School Friend". We were convinced that the headmistress had a double, or twin sister, and that "something was going on". We found that she had a different pair of shoes on the mat outside her office one afternoon, from the ones there in the morning! I can't remember the other clues to our suspicions.....

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    1. Oh that is SO intriguing! I remember rumours about our HM, and eccentric spinster. People said she never married because her fiancé died in the trenches in WW1. Then she reached retirement age, and we realised she must have been only 10 when WW1 ended. But women of her generation had to give up teaching if they married, so maybe she was "wedded to her job". She didn't seem to like men very much!!

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  7. Late to comment today as we have been out and then had a visitor. Looking forward to seeing what the girls make from the two books. My daughter was read to every night before sleep and sometimes in the day as well. She still reads as often as she can and likes murder mysteries especially ones involving forensics explanations! Catriona

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    1. I am sure that bedtime reading with children helps develop a love of reading in adulthood. I enjoyed the Patricia Cornwell/Kay Scarpetta books when they first came out, but now I find them a bit too gory!

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  8. I read MANY, MANY contemporary children's books. I ADORE the Katharine Woodfine Sinclair's mysteries books (some bits can be a bit scary...but exciting scary), 'The 1000 year old boy'author (is it Ross Montgomery's???) books are fab, The Last Chance Hotel series is great, the Onyeka series are brilliant and Jummy at the River School series is a LOVELY Nigerian series which reminds me of Malory towers. I could name many more!! Kezzie x

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  9. You are a mine of information about children's authors Kezzie. Thank you 😊

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