The Snowman Strikes Back by Allan Plenderleith

The Snowman Strikes Back by Allan Plenderleith
Buy The Snowman Strikes Back by Allan Plenderleith at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Emerging Readers
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: Delightful winter story about bullying and being bullied and how to deal with it. It's timeless.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 48	Date: September 2016
Publisher: Ravette Publishing
ISBN: 978-1841613932
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It's not easy being a snowman, you know - particularly when you are made by Ernest Green-Bogle, who delights in tormenting you. Sometimes he'd make you upside down or looking like a pig (it's just plain undignified, you know). That's not the worst of it. He has been known to attack snowman with a hairdryer, feed his carrot nose to a rabbit and even encase him in a block of ice. The snow clown was not funny and the snow ice cream cone even less so. But one day everything changed when Ernest came home and there was a big boy with him. Ernest had a black eye and the big boy was threatening him.

Ernest sat down beside snowman and cried. He was shocked out of crying when he heard snowman speak (they can, but they're not supposed to - it's in the rules). The next day Ernest came home with the big boy again - and with another black eye. Snowman decided that the time had come to take matters into his own hands.

I'm a great fan of Allan Plenderleith's books for children. They're the perfect size for small hands to hold and read from, and the font is just how kids hope they can write when they've been asked to do something in their very best writing. It's perfect for the emerging reader and not so long that it's a bit daunting. The stories are usually a delightful tale of good triumphing over evil, but it's done in a humorous way and is never in the slightest bit preachy. This one has a gentle nudge about not being a bully and that it's no use kowtowing to bullies either. There's even a message from the author at the back and I'll quote from it, because it's important:

Nobody has the right to hurt you or make you feel bad. You don't have to deal with things alone.

It's important to remember that at any age and anywhere.

Some books with the best of messages don't get the words home because kids are not engaged by the books. That's not going to be the problem with The Snowman Strikes Back. Kids are going to laugh at the antics of Ernest and the snowman (whilst sympathising with snowman) and the pictures are funny in themselves. The message and the method of delivery are both timeless - it's the sort of book which is saved to be passed down to future generations. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

I think our favourite Allan Plenderleith book is The Christmas Carrot.

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You can read more book reviews or buy The Snowman Strikes Back by Allan Plenderleith at Amazon.com.

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