Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever by Richard Scarry
| Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever by Richard Scarry | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Luci Davin
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| Summary: Eleven stories about the people of Busytown - the real charm is in the pictures. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 48 | Date: March 2011 |
| Publisher: Harper Collins Children's Books | |
| ISBN: 978-0007413553 | |
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This new edition of Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever includes eleven stories about the inhabitants of Busytown. These "people" are drawn as various animals, and many of them appear in several stories. The local policeman, Sergeant Murphy is a dog wearing a helmet, riding round on a motorbike, and he is kept busy investigating everything from theft to talking bread. He is often assisted by his friends Huckle (a cat) and Lowly (a worm).
A lot of adults including me will feel some nostalgia over Richard Scarry's name. I don't remember the book I had, or the stories; my memory is of enjoying the pictures of all these anthromorphic animals engaged in all sorts of activities.
The layout of this book, like others by Richard Scarry, is unusual compared to other picture books for children - rather than having a picture and a few lines of text per page, each page has 3-5 pictures, each accompanied by a short paragraph. This busy style is quite exciting for small children to look at.
I find the stories in this book a bit of a chore to read aloud, and a little silly, although my 4 year old son enjoys them. I think he finds them more amusing than I do. The pictures are much more fun to look and giggle at and chat about.
Scarry's books are a bit old fashioned, often showing things which have changed a lot. In "The Talking Bread", Humperdink uses a very old fashioned dial phone to call the police. It should also be pointed out that the main active characters in the stories are all male - female characters tend to be housewives and firmly in the background.
Despite these reservations, I think that Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever is worth buying for children of the right age - about 6. It would be a good book for primary school children who are just beginning to read themselves for pleasure, but perhaps still like being read to as well.
Thank you very much to Harper Collins for sending a copy to the Bookbag.
We have two non-fiction books by Richard Scarry that Danny really enjoys - one of them is What Do People Do All Day? - with chapters showing people at work. The Bookbag also enjoyed Richard Scarry's Best Bedtime Stories Ever.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever by Richard Scarry 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 Richard Scarry's Funniest Storybook Ever by Richard Scarry at Amazon.com.
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