Otto's Trip to the Moon by Katherine Lodge

Otto's Trip to the Moon by Katherine Lodge
Buy Otto's Trip to the Moon by Katherine Lodge at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A pull-tab book in the Seriously Cute series makes for a fun bedtime read with surprises hidden on every page. Recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Maybe
Pages: 16	Date: July 2008
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN: 978-0747593423
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It was Otto's birthday and Missy and Chip had bought him a present. When he unwrapped it he discovered a rocket and where else do you take a rocket but to the moon? Off the friends went, with the moon being very pleased to see them and they had a picnic on the moon and a dance before they tidied up and flew back home again.

That might sound very simple but on every page there's a surprise and a pull of the tab will reveal the secret. Pull the tab – sometimes you have to be really quite firm – and you will see a rocket, or the friends flying off to the moon. Some of the secrets are glorious, bold triumphs – like the rocket which turns into a 3-D picture on the following page – whilst others need a little more study. The picnic scene shows the juice in Missy's class going down, Chip eating his sandwich and the candles on the birthday cake burning and this isn't quite so obvious to the child.

It's an enjoyable story with the idea of going on a trip, having a picnic, playing and then, most importantly, tidying up the mess that you've made. I loved the idea of the moon laughing that the brush tickled him. There's a nice wind-down as the friends realise that they're tired and want to go home and to bed – a lovely bedtime story.

The pull tabs are robust. Certainly the first pulls which release the mechanism will need to be done by an adult but once they are moving they can be pulled quite easily by a child. There's a neat indentation in the page which makes it easy to get hold of the tab. The 3-D page folded out and back successfully on every occasion and even opening the book a little too far doesn't cause any problems.

I'm less convinced about the surprises hidden under flaps of paper. The picnic basket opens out to reveal bird having a drink quite successfully, but on the final page when the three friends are in bed the coverlets can be pulled down to give further surprises and it was very easy for a careful adult to pull these too far and then have difficulty getting them back again.

The story is gentle, amusing and easy to read, but the joy is in the surprises. It's not a book which is going to remain on the favourites shelf for very long but it will make a fun bedtime read if only in the short term.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to The Bookbag.

We also enjoyed Where's Noddy?: Pull-the-tab Surprise Book by Enid Blyton rather more than we expected to. Older children will love the paper engineering in Journey to the Moon by Lucio and Meera Santoro which also gives the opportunity to invent your own story to go with the scenes.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Otto's Trip to the Moon by Katherine Lodge at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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