Horrid Henry's Fearsome Four by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross
| Horrid Henry's Fearsome Four by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: A bind of four favourite Horrid Henry stories - only this time the pictures are in full colour. A great present for the emerging reader. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 288 | Date: November 2012 |
| Publisher: Orion Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1444006575 | |
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Recently I was talking to the teacher of a class of seven-year-olds about books. It was, she said, very easy to find books for girls, but much more of a challenge to find something suitable for the boys. And by 'something suitable' she meant the sort of books which boys like to read, something 'edgy' which appealed to their inner racal. The early reading stage is important for all children, but it's the boys who are most likely to be 'lost' at this stage if the books they see don't feel relevant to their lives. So what does appeal? Well, Tom Gates always goes down well and so does Horrid Henry.
Do I need to introduce you to Henry? No, I thought not. Even if you don't know him you'll know of him. He's a healthy, lively, fun-loving menace whose heart is (roughly) in the right place and who has his priorities well sorted (himself). He's a trouble magnet, with long-suffering parents and a brother who is absolutely perfect. Yes - that's right - you know exactly who I mean. Adults find him endearing at a distance and his readers adore him.
You've probably met at least one of his early readers before. The format is simple: a decent story in just over a hundred pages nicely broken up into sensible chapters which give a real feeling of having achieved something when you're an emerging reader. The vocabulary is challenging (as it should be) but not too difficult and there are pictures on every page which give clues as to what's going on. There's a real sense of achievement when a book's finished and they're great fun too.
Horrid Henry's Fearsome Four has all this and more. There are (as you might have guessed) four early reader stories in the book: Horrid Henry's Birthday Party, Horrid Henry's Underpants (please try and be strong), Horrid Henry's Nits and Horrid Henry and the Football Fiend. It's all great stuff to strike (mock) terror at the heart of any grown up and boys are going to love them. The illustrations (and I haven't found a double page without at least one) are in full colour and have Tony Ross' trademark sense of fun. It's a real book - big with hard covers - and just the thing to make young boys think that this reading lark might be a better idea than they first thought.
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
For an introduction to non-fiction for the emerging reader we can recommend A Horrid Factbook: Horrid Henry's Bodies by the same partnership.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Horrid Henry's Fearsome Four by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross 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 Horrid Henry's Fearsome Four by Francesca Simon and Tony Ross at Amazon.com.
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