GRRRRR!

Rob Biddulph I was lucky enough to be sent a proof copy of GRRRRR! By Rob Biddulph. After the success of Blown Away I was very excited to get my paws on this!

GRRRRR! is about a grizzly bear called Fred. Every year Fred wins the Best Bear In The Wood Contest. To win this contest you must be a brilliant fish-catcher, a fine Hula-hooper, very scary to all humans and most importantly of all, you must have the loudest GRRRRR! All Fred does day in and day out is practice of the contest. He doesn’t need friends in his life as long as he has his trophies.

Then the day before the contest, a new bear shows up. He has a rather fantastic moustache and jumper combo. His name is Boris and he is acting rather fishy. At night he sneaks into Fred’s house. When Fred wakes in the morning, to his horror his GRRRRR has gone. Fred goes in search of his prized GRRRRR along with many other helpful animals in the woods. It seems that no one can find what happened to it!

 

 

 

Fred must now face the Best Bear in the Woods Contest without his famous GRRRRR. Fred and Boris go head to head in every competition coming out tied in all of them. When it finally comes to who has the loudest GRRRRR Boris’ roar goes off the Growl-o-meter! Fred steps up to take his turn, when he opens his mouth all of his woodland companions GRRRRR for him. The noise they make is so loud it makes Boris jump. And what should fall out from under Boris’ snazzy jumper? Why it’s Fred’s GRRRRR! Boris is told off for cheating and he admits that all he really wants are some friends of his own. Fred sees a lot of himself reflected in Boris and decides that he is not a bad bear. Boris and Fred share a hug and become friends.

 

 

GRRRRR! is laugh out loud funny with lots of fun characters and interesting things to spot on every page. Biddulph’s illustrations are vibrant, cheerful and exciting making reading this picture book all the more fun. I really liked that this story highlighted the importance of friendship and how having friends by your side can be more important than being the best at something.

Being a longlist reader for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2015 which Rob deservedly won was so much fun and I really loved Blown Away. However, it seems that for me GRRRRR! is a favourite.

 

Please Mr Panda

Please Mister Panda – Steve Antony stole my heart from the minute I looked at this book. Having already been a fan of Steve’s previous work (The Queen’s Hat & Betty Goes Bananas) it was no surprise that I loved it. I am not ashamed to admit, I am quite fond of a panda. Mr Panda, in this adventure is one of my favourite fictional pandas I have met. He is delightfully grumpy whilst being very cute.

 

Mr Panda walks around all day offering various animal friends his doughnuts. They all reply to him rather abruptly that they would or wouldn’t like a doughnut and become upset when Mr Panda replies “No, you can not have a doughnut. I have changed my mind.” Until one of his friends, a rather cheeky looking lemur says the magic word…please! The lovely lemur is then rewarded with all of Mr Panda’s doughnuts for being so polite.

This is a fun and hilarious picture books that teaches children about the importance of manners. The illustrations, for me is what make the book so funny and unique. I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Antony recently at his launch party for Please Mr Panda and from what I could gather; everyone in the room (and in America by the sounds of it) has fallen in love with Mr Panda.