It’s coming to the end of National Children’s Book Week but there is still time for me to bring you a couple of reviews of some lovely children’s books! First up is The Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat written by Coral Rumble and illustrated by Charlotte Cooke. This was sent to us from the publisher for review as part of the Parragon Book Buddies programme.

The adventures of the owl and the pussycatThis is a gorgeous book based on the classic poem “The Owl and The Pussy cat” by Edward Lear. I remember enjoying that poem myself as a child so it is lovely to see it reinvented in such an accessible way for preschool children to enjoy.

The first thing that struck me with this book is that I love the illustration style. It is lovely pastel colours, with cute rounded characters and lots of little details, which made it interesting for the boys to study the pictures and pick out different things.

owlandpussycatThe text is really nice too, with only a few lines on each page at most it was perfect to keep Mr T and Mr R’s attention (age 3 and 2). It also engaged Mr Z (age 5) and he would be able to read this himself too.

The book is it all written in rhyme, in keeping with the rhythm and feel of the original poem. I liked that it was shown that all the adventures were had by the character’s imagination – showing them “sailing off” from a cardboard pretend boat in the living room. This captures beautifully just how far imagination can take children in their play! I also loved how the end of the book echoes the original poem very closely – The whole thing is just beautifully done.

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And finally – the original Edward Lear poem for anyone else remembers it from childhood and fancies a bit of nostalgia 🙂

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat

By Edward Lear

I
The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
   In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
   Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
   And sang to a small guitar,
“O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
    What a beautiful Pussy you are,
         You are,
         You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!”
II
Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl!
   How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
   But what shall we do for a ring?”
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
   To the land where the Bong-Tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
   With a ring at the end of his nose,
             His nose,
             His nose,
   With a ring at the end of his nose.
III
“Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
   Your ring?” Said the Piggy, “I will.”
So they took it away, and were married next day
   By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
   Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
   They danced by the light of the moon,
             The moon,
             The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

”books”