Blown Away by Rob Biddulph
Winner: Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2015
| Blown Away by Rob Biddulph | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Zoe Morris
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| Summary: A fun and funky tale about a fly away penguin. Adorable. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 32 | Date: January 2015 |
| Publisher: Harper Collins | |
| ISBN: 978-0007593828 | |
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If you thought penguins didn’t fly, think again. Penguin Blue is up in the sky but it’s not what you might think – thanks to a fun kite and a cheeky gust of wind, he’s soaring up, up and away from the home, and as his friends try to help they get pulled up and away too. Uh oh. Where will the wind take these South Pole creatures? The answer, in this amazingly fun book, is to a lush, tropical island. It’s full of friendly creatures and wondrous green foliage like none they’ve ever seen before. But it’s rather hot and far from home.
This book is capital B Brilliant. Told in whimsical rhyme, it is an adventure and a nature lesson all in one, and it’s written in a way that adult caregivers will take great pleasure from, meaning the inevitable requests to read it again and again will not be begrudged. The illustrations, too, appeal to adults as well as children, and older siblings will start to get more out of the book if they’re eavesdropping on story time, as they start to notice immensely cute details like the ‘Please swim safely’ notice as you exit Antarctica and the signpost in the jungle.
I love books with a bouncy rhyme and this one is perfect, beautifully constructed so the rhythm is there for you with no effort on your part. You just read the words as they are and go with the flow. The vocabulary is mainly simple with a few new words to share – like the maiden flight, the description of the tropics as lush and the phrase there’s no denying at the end, nothing too outrageous but a nice way to stretch their lexicon as you enjoy it together.
There’s so much to look at in this book you can string it out for a nice long time even though the story is not too long or overwhelming. It’s amazing what fun can come from a simple idea like a windy day coupled with a fantastic imagination, and this book really delivers.
I’d like to thank the publishers for sending us a copy. It’s excellent, and highly recommended.
Love penguins? See Penguin by Polly Dunbar.
Blown Away by Rob Biddulph is in the Top Ten Picture Books 2015.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Blown Away by Rob Biddulph 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 Blown Away by Rob Biddulph at Amazon.com.
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