The Wind in the Wallows by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross
| The Wind in the Wallows by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Ruth Ng
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| Summary: If you're someone who can't bear toilet humour then steer clear. Otherwise, look forward to much giggling from your little ones in this stink-filled story! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 32 | Date: January 2013 |
| Publisher: Andersen | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1849394536 | |
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I'm always ready for a fun story when I see that Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross have come together to do another picture book. This is a particularly fun one to share, especially with kids who enjoy anything to do with farts and stinkyness and, most importantly, the tussle over who is responsible for the terrible smell!
Everything begins innocently enough, as we see swans dozing, newts snoring, and just the quiet hum of dragonfly wings. Until all of a sudden Bang! And then Pop! And then Poop! And then Parp! The pike is the first one to awake, and the accusations quickly begin. Just who is it who is making such a terrible stink? Is it the carp? Could it be the cows? No, because the cows are blaming the sheep! The sheep declare themselves to be clean and pass their blame onto the fox. Fox says it must be the owls (which leads to the wonderful rhyming pair of owls and bowels!), but the owls are having none of it, and they blame the pigs. Whoever could it be? The animals go on a hunt and they discover not a pig, or a cow, or an owl but actually a boy, camping by his tent, with a large tin of beans!
The whole story is told in rhyme which gives a good rhythm to the story and makes it quite a fast read. I loved all the different fish we meet at the beginning, with a carp and tadpoles and a trout and a tench (because, of course, you can rhyme tench with stench!) The flow of the rhyme has been done well, so you can read it fluidly, and I love all the sound effects you get to throw in, written in bold type, so you're encouraged to be especially noisy with the Poops and Boops!
I found that the ending did require some explanation in our house. I'm not sure when children learn that beans make you rather gassy but my six year old somehow didn't know, but once we'd explained she saw the humour and we read it all over again to get our full enjoyment of the story!
The illustrations are as brilliant as you'd expect. I love the little mouse in a boat selling wooden clothes pegs for the fishes 'noses' for 2p each! Look out for him throughout the book as he reappears with his pegs later on. The page of cows made me smile too, with one sitting eating a grass sandwich, pointing over at the sheep to blame them for the stink! The owls having a candlelit dinner in a tree are also very funny.
I suppose my only warning, other than the need to explain to the uninitiated about tinned beans, is that if you don't really enjoy toilet humour, or you don't like your little ones laughing over rumblings in the bowels then this probably isn't the book for you! If, on the other hand, these sort of jokes come up daily in your household then this is definitely one to share with your own little stink bugs, and much fun may you have reading it to them!
Those starting to read for themselves might enjoy trying Fluff the Farting Fish by Michael Rosen and Tony Ross and you should certainly take a look at Bookbag's list Top Ten Books For Children Who Think That Farts Are Funny
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Wind in the Wallows by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Wind in the Wallows by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross at Amazon.com.
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