Iggy and Me On Holiday by Jenny Valentine
| Iggy and Me On Holiday by Jenny Valentine | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Keith Dudhnath
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| Summary: Iggy and Flo are back for their third outing. The tales of normal, everyday life are as heart-warming and delightful as ever. We're massive fans of them! Highly recommended. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 176 | Date: August 2010 |
| Publisher: HarperCollins Children's Books | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-0007283651 | |
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We've already met Iggy and Flo twice before. They're back again, with their tales of daily life, and this time the short stories cover their summer holidays. We've been massive fans of the Iggy and Me books from day one, and will continue to be so. They're super!
Iggy and Flo are just regular young kids, getting up to all the sorts of things that kids do. They're such lovely characters, and the interactions with their parents so sweet, that you can't help but love all that goes on. From seeing Iggy's last day of the school term, where she gets an important summer job from her teacher, through her holiday at the seaside where she meets a great friend, then back to school with her special regrets that the summer holiday is over, it's an absolute joy. The writing is crisp and clear, perfectly pitched at its young audience. As we've said before, the quality of writing is such that it's also a super book to help progress from picture books to chapter a night stories, and for even older readers to blast through when looking for something light and heart-warming.
On Holiday differs slightly from the [[[Iggy and Me by Jenny Valentine|Iggy and Me]] and The Happy Birthday as there's more of an overall story arc this time round. I really liked the first two being made up of individual vignettes that added up to a cohesive whole. Whilst I'm delighted to read more stories (and hope very much for more and more and more in the future), and indeed understand why there's a clearer thread running throughout this time, my preference is for the snapshots. That's me being hypercritical; fans of Iggy (and if you're not one, you should be) will love hearing all about Iggy's sneaky packing method, will smile as Iggy raves about Clyde, and will be appropriately anxious when she goes missing.
Joe Berger's illustrations are peppered throughout. Iggy is exactly as you'd imagine her, and as great as it is to see her with a big beaming smile, it's seeing her cross, or wriggling in her seat, or twiddling her hair deep in thought, that really make you feel like she's a real, live person. The words and pictures go together perfectly.
Even if you've not read the first two books, you can dive right in to On Holiday and have a whale of a time. Be warned: you will want to go back and read all the books, though. Highly recommended.
My thanks to the publishers for sending it to Bookbag.
Michael Rosen's Big Book of Bad Things by Michael Rosen has plenty of real and moving tales of childhood and family life, in the form of poems. For a different take on summer holidays - from a hamster's perspective - check out Holidays According to Humphrey by Betty G Birney. Katie: The Revolting Holiday by Mary Hooper is a light and funny read.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Iggy and Me On Holiday by Jenny Valentine at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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