Woffles: A Fishy Adventure by The Curtises, James and Nick

Woffles: A Fishy Adventure by The Curtises, James and Nick
Buy Woffles: A Fishy Adventure by The Curtises, James and Nick at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: There's a lot more to this book than is apparent on first reading. Older pre-schoolers and those just beginning to read will enjoy the story and the involvement.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 40	Date: December 2011
Publisher: CowPat Publishing
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0957105805
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Woffles is a big, shiny black Labrador with a very long, pink tongue and he is one happy dog. Once he's greeted you with a yodel and a wuff (and I suspect that there might be a generous lick in there too) he'll tell you all about his wonderful life. What pleases him is that he lives in the countryside - it's very green, you know and there's a complete lack of coffee shops and other things for which he has no time. He has lots of friends, but his bestie is Pip the Border Terrier and today they're off on an adventure down to the lake which is being restocked for the fishermen. And - on a boiling hot day what's better than a dip in the lake and using that long tongue to extract a few sandwiches from the fishermen's hampers?

You can't read this book without feeling good. The colours alone would stitch a smile onto your face but it's the character of Woffles which means that you just can't stop grinning. He might seem full of himself, but he wants to know about you too. Where's your favourite place? What can you see out of your window? Who's your best friend? The illustrations are going to appeal to children: they're very cleverly done, but they look like something they could draw themselves. Look more closely though - there's usually something in the picture which you might not spot on first reading, such as the hot-air balloon, or the rather clever number plate on the car. And just have a look at the fillings in those sandwiches!

It's a generous read, being rather longer than the usual picture book (forty pages against the usual thirty two) and it would perhaps be wasted on the youngest children. Children from the ages of three upwards will enjoy it for the character of Woffles but at about five years old they'll be joining in the fun and they'll have lots of questions about what's going on. It's a book children are likely to return to - even when they start to read for themselves. Some of the words - such as countryside will be a little challenging to start with and even Woffles admits that he has problems with a word like FLAB-BER-GAS-TED but that's because of the size of his tongue!

Many paperbacks for younger children seem flimsy and unlikely to stand much handling but the production values here are good. It's a book to give to a child - boy or girl - so that they can enjoy it.

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

for more adventures we can recommend Tom and Millie's Great Big Treasure Hunt by Guy Parker-Rees.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Woffles: A Fishy Adventure by The Curtises, James and Nick at Amazon.com.

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