We Love You, Hugless Douglas by David Melling
1444908308
| We Love You, Hugless Douglas by David Melling | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Zoe Page
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| Summary: Another adventure for the lovable bear, Douglas is looking for a best friend in this latest exploit. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 32 | Date: August 2013 |
| Publisher: Hodder Children's Books | |
| ISBN: 978-1444908305 | |
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"We first met Hugless Douglas by David Melling when he was simply a bear wanting a hug. Since then he’s been to a sleepover in Hugless Douglas and the Big Sleep by David Melling and had a few little issues in Don't Worry Douglas by David Melling. Now he’s returning back to his original sort of set up. This time, instead of a hug, he’s after someone to call his best friend.
I love how in books like this the lead can have a special name like Douglas, but most of the supporting cast don’t get further than being called after their species: Cow is making tasty treats, Little Sheep is playing hide and seek, Rabbit is hard at work on the trampoline.
Animals always seem to lead the way in kid lit, perhaps because they’re exotic enough to be exciting but can still go through the same things children go through, be it going to school or, in this case, making friends and playing nicely. There’s a lovely moral to this story, and it will certainly be a big help to any child who has lots of people to play with but not one, singular special best friend.
Hugless Douglas books have a distinct branding to them, with big, bright pictures that are almost cartoonish in nature. There’s lots of dialogue in this one which gives wonderful scope for reading aloud with silly voices, and sometimes there’s even a helping hand in the spelling to let you know how the characters should sound (strawberry and banana smooOOOoo-thies, anyone?) As if the pictures weren’t enough, the descriptions in the text are lovely too frothy-top milkshakes, long, tickly grass and so on.
This is a nice book, no doubt about it. It’s fun but it has a message. It’s bright and cheerful and positive, in its art work and its language, and though I very rarely agree with anything the Daily Mail has to say, I have to concede that they’re spot on with their quote on the back, saying a new book in this series is always ""a cause for celebration"".
Thanks go to the publishers for supplying this book.
If you love big, bumbling bears, then the Boris books by Category:Carrie Weston and Tim Warnes are a must.
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