Kitchen Disco by Clare Foges and Al Murphy
| Kitchen Disco by Clare Foges and Al Murphy | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Sam Tyler
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| Summary: When the humans sleep, the fruit likes to party. You are all down on the list for this highly entertaining and silly bop around the fruit bowl. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 32 | Date: August 2015 |
| Publisher: Faber and Faber | |
| ISBN: 9780571307883 | |
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If the Toy Story films taught nothing else, they taught us that when we are not paying attention, toys come to life. Call me old fashioned, I am not impressed that this is common knowledge, but did you know that fruit also awakens? If you listen closely as you go to sleep you may just hear the soft pulse of some Happy House or Dubstep as down in the kitchen the fruit are having a disco.
The idea that a melon can dance with a grape sounds ludicrous, but in the world of Clare Foges and Al Murphy, this is exactly what can happen. Kitchen Disco is an eccentric tale all about what happens at night when the fruit bowl comes out to play. Foges is best known as a speechwriter for David Cameron; who would have thought she’d have such an imagination and flight of fancy because Kitchen Disco is great fun.
The story opens quietly as the family go to bed, only when their eyes close does the book explode. Told in the form of a series of rhyming couplets, Kitchen Disco explores various types of fruit and how they like to dance – the Pineapple is cool and high fives his friends, whilst the grapes love to conga. The words are utterly bizarre but work brilliantly. There is nothing more off-putting in a rhythmic story than when the couplets don’t scan properly. Foges makes sure that the tempo works and goes beyond even this giving the book an almost hit record feel as there is a chorus of types that crops up several times. It won’t belong to you and the youngster will be singing along.
The best way to accompany a daft singalong story is to have some daft and colourful illustrations and these are provided perfectly by Al Murphy. The book opens with the humans going to sleep and all the pictures are contained in little boxes in the centre of the page. However, once the succulent squashes start to dance the pages explode with bright colours and loads of silly images of fruit jiving around the linoleum. There is a further treat towards the end as Murphy goes full out to bring an overview of the party, glitter ball and all. Although the majority of the pictures are flat, there is a sense of vibrancy and life that makes them leap from the page. This is a Fun book, with a capital F!
As a concept, Kitchen Disco may have bought a one-way ticket to Cloud Cuckooland, but it attacks the silliness with a gusto that is great fun for both adults and child. The singalong aspects means that it will prove very popular, but is perhaps not best suited as the last thing to read before bedtime. With some great words and fun illustrations, this is a perfect book for a toddler with a mischievous sense of the absurd.
What are the fruit and vegetables scared of, perhaps Night of the Veggie Monster by George McClements or How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague? You might also enjoy Bathroom Boogie by Clare Foges and Al Murphy.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Kitchen Disco by Clare Foges and Al Murphy 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 Kitchen Disco by Clare Foges and Al Murphy at Amazon.com.
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