The Queen's Present by Steve Antony

The Queen's Present by Steve Antony
Buy The Queen's Present by Steve Antony at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Zoe Morris
Summary: The 3rd adventure for the Queen is a festive one, and it's a treat for winter reading.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 32	Date: October 2016
Publisher: Hodder Children's Books
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1444925630
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After the success of The Queen's Hat and The Queen's Handbag I was looking forward to this festive outing for Her Majesty. We join the story on Christmas Eve. The Queen hasn't finished her shopping yet, which is probably unlikely for a grandmother and great grandmother, but then I suppose most people in that position don't have a job ruling the country so she can be forgiven. She's shopping for the little prince and princess, but in a surprisingly unpatriotic moment she realises the UK just won't do, and she needs to venture further afield. If only there was someone with access to airborne transport who could whisk her away to the likes of France and Egypt and Italy and China at the drop of a hat (or the tug of a rein, dear).

Each story in this series is getting further afield – with the first one in London, the second one covering the whole of the UK and now this international jaunt. I am looking forward to book 4, should it appear, as I truly believe the next logical step would be for the Queen to head into space.

Like the previous books, this one is high on pictures and low on words, with just enough to move the story on. The illustrations are lovely, and this time the limited pallet has a festive theme, with green, red, black and white being all that are needed. It's unusual to see fewer colours rather than more, but it works well and shows you really don't need to use every crayon in the box to tell a story.

These stories are timeless, and though it's easy to draw correlations to our reigning monarch, any female ruler could fill the role, even if another is quite unlikely in my lifetime. I'd like to thank the publishers for sending us this title to review. We really do enjoy them.

If you're doing books for all their Christmas stockings (of course you are), then older siblings might enjoy Little Grey Rabbit's Christmas by Alison Uttley and Margaret Tempest or How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr Seuss

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You can read more book reviews or buy The Queen's Present by Steve Antony at Amazon.com.

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