'This is terrible!' he wailed 'First the Ugly Beast and now a monster.' Basil the Bushbaby cannot get any rest, first disturbed by the arrival of a mysterious creature everybody in the forest decided to call the Ugly Beast, and now the earth shakes from a mighty thuds of a truly humongous monster. Basil decides that the monster has to be got rid of, but nobody seems to be willing to help: Spike the Porcupine can do cats and dogs, but not monsters, Piers the warthog is too beautiful and Ralph the lion has a sore throat. Even the Ugly Beast doesn't feel able to help.
| Thud by Nick Butterworth | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Magda Healey
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| Summary: Gloriously illustrated story full of suspense, action, humour and humanity (though it concerns jungle animals and monsters), highly recommended for all preschoolers. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 36 | Date: June 2008 |
| Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd | |
| ISBN: 978-0007274666 | |
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But when all animals band together to face the monster, they are in for a surprise: the monster is, in fact, the mother of the Ugly Beast and the Ugly Beast - actually he has a name, quite a nice one - is called Raymond.
Thud is a delight: the pictures and text are both great and work together really well, and the story maintains interest and excited suspense to the very end (and beyond!).
The repeated onomatopoeic THUDS are a great opportunity to join in; there is both some dialogue for variety and repetition so familiar in picture books. Preschoolers aged roughly three to five are probably the most typical audience for Thud and it works very well read aloud, but it contains enough story to interest an older child, a beginner reader perhaps, while older toddlers might enjoy a peek at the illustrations, especially all the jungle animals.
The pictures are outstanding, colourful, very dynamic, the faces of all the creatures wonderfully expressive (and not always in stereotypical character, which also makes them funny), and with quite a bit of extra detail. The monsters (i.e. Raymond and his mum) are glorious ones, a bit dinosaurish, a bit from Where the Wild Things Are, combined with extremely human, and very reassuring expressions. The faces of both when they find each other are such a picture of joy that I wast tempted to cheer with all the other animals.
There is a lesson here, too. Thud can deal with children's fear of monsters by showing one (a huge, thudding, scary one with fangs!) that turns out to be somebody's mummy.
Thud also teaches a bigger lesson, in acceptance and universality. The new and the unusual and the different (and the ugly) is scary and easy to reject. But all jungle animals feel comforted and reassured by the revelation of the relationship between Mother and Raymond. Raymond seems less of a strange ugly beast by the virtue of having a nice name and a mother, and the monster herself is somebody's mother, and thus less scary. And they both seem (or are?) less ugly when they have a hug. We all have mothers, each of us is somebody's child.
Highly recommended for all (especially older) preschoolers.
Big thanks to HarperCollins for sending this to the BookBag.
Other great monsters can be found in The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Thud by Nick Butterworth 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 Thud by Nick Butterworth at Amazon.com.
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