Crunch! by Carolina Rabei

Crunch! by Carolina Rabei
Buy Crunch! by Carolina Rabei at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Sue Magee
Summary: A gorgeous picture book with a couple of morals delivered in a non-preachy manner. Highly recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 36	Date: May 2015
Publisher: Child's Play (International)
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1846437328
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Crunch is a guinea pig who likes his comfy bed, but most of all he likes eating - which is probably why he's called Crunch. He's gorgeously round and well-fed but he couldn't help but think that there was something missing from his life. One day he was approached by Cheddar, the mouse, who chatted to him about the abundance of food which was available to Crunch. Cheddar couldn't believe it and thought that Crunch probably had enough food to share, but Crunch was having none of this. His food was HIS food and he wasn't sharing it with anyone, even when Cheddar offered him a big friendly hug in return.

After breakfast (which I have to say Crunch ate in just a little bit of a bad temper) some thoughts began to creep into Crunch's mind. He realised that he was worried about Cheddar. What if he was starving, or in danger? Crunch realised that he had kept his food, but lost a friend and Crunch had to embark on the biggest adventure of his life.

Oh, but this is a gorgeous book. It's a lovely story with a moral which comes across in a very non-preachy way. Some things are way more important than food (or dare one say, toys?) and friendship is probably top of the list. There's another moral too (it's great value, this book - far better than the usual BOGOF at Tesco) in that when Crunch set off on his rather terrifying trip to find Cheddar it didn't turn out to be anywhere near as scary as he expected. In fact he saw lots of interesting things which he didn't expect.

I liked the characters too. Crunch is just a little bit frumpish and ever so slightly resistant to new ideas, but he does come round in the end and Cheddar is skinny and almost ethereal. You can see his hunger. The colours are slightly subdued but they bring the story off the page amazingly well and I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.

For more picture book stories of guinea pigs we can recommend Christopher's Caterpillars by Charlotte Middleton.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Crunch! by Carolina Rabei 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 Crunch! by Carolina Rabei at Amazon.com.

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