Books for children
This is the story of Little Red Riding Hood — sort of! Cat is trying to read the story to Dog, but the latter’s attention wanders in many directions as he interrupts with his own take on the old fairytale. ‘Does the girl have special power, like a flying basket and exploding eggs to fight crime? Does she zap the bad guy? Do old ladies taste better than little girls?’ Cat becomes more and more frustrated with Dog’s maddening questions. The humour is very funny throughout, right down to the last line. The simplicity of the drawings and the laugh-aloud dialogue will delight six-year-olds and upwards.
(Frances Lincoln; €8.80) is a big, book for young train enthusiasts. The excitement begins at the station when the train rolls in to pick up its passengers of all types. The clickety-clack journey rolls swiftly across the countryside, through towns and over high bridges, past the seaside and finally reaching its destination. The strong colour illustrations of bustling towns, breathtaking landscapes and boats on the river define the scintillating beauty of travel for age seven and upwards.
(O’Brien; €9.99). This is an evocative and funny collection of rhymes, some well known, others getting a new outing — such as ‘Three little ghosties/ sat on three posties/ eating buttered toasties /greasing their fisties up to their wristies/ weren’t they the beasties!’ or — ‘I’ve got a dog /as thin as a rail/ He’s got fleas all over his tail / Every time his tail goes flop/ The fleas at the bottom all hop to the top’.
And, just one more taste of humour — [I eat my peas with honey/ I’ve done it all my life/ It makes the peas taste funny/ but it keeps them on the knife’.
With sixty two more jaunty rhymes, this is a mix of humour for any age.
The delightful illustrations by Steve McCarthy are the icing on this cake of laughter to share. The royalties from sales will go to The National Children’s Hospital, Tallaght.
