What's Up Mumu?

What’s Up Mumu? is an incredibly funny and unique picture book from the wonderful David Mackintosh who previously bought us the excellent Standing In For Lincoln Green. I was lucky enough to be sent a proof from HarperCollins and with Mackintosh’s fabulous illustrations this stood out to me immediately.  

 

The story follows two friends, Mumu and Lox. Mumu is in a very bad and grumpy mood and is totally fed up. Best buddy Lox is trying to cheer Mumu up in any way that he can think of. He goes to an enormous amount of effort to try and make Mumu’s day a little better but all of his gestures seem annoy Mumu even further. Lox tries everything, from going to the lake to a trip to the countryside. Mumu has a constant excuse why she can’t enjoy Lox’s efforts. Eventually, Lox thinks he has the best idea and takes Mumu to the fantastic High Skyscraper! It’s eighty stories tall, twenty meters wide and has five thousand windows. It takes two years to paint and by the time you finish you have to start all over again! Lox takes Mumu to the top only to find that Mumu has no interest in the magnificent High Skyscraper. Lox ends up losing his temper with Mumu which then leads Mumu to try and cheer up Lox. Mumu ends up telling Lox to “Cheer up. It can’t be so bad, whatever it is”. The pair make up.

 

Mackintosh’s incredible illustrations make this book all the more a joy to read. In every page there is something to spot which makes the book all the more humorous. My personal favourite has to be all the cinema posters for horse films. Lox’s facial expressions are also hilarious.

 

I think what I like the most about this book is how it relates to adults almost in the exact same way it relates to children. I often feel that I have been in a mood like Mumu and no matter what my friends try and do to cheer me up I am set on being a grump for the whole day. Equally I also find myself trying to improve my friend’s days whenever they are feeling sad only to find myself getting annoyed when they have no interest in cheering up.

 

What’s Up Mumu? is a fantastic picture book for both parents and children as well as people like me that feel they just often have grumpy days and need to brighten up. This is a funny and open look at most friendships that are around us while showing us not to take our own relationships for granted.

 

 

 

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.

 

Oi Frog!

 

Oi Frog! is undeniably super cool and very funny! Oi Frog! starts with a rather bossy cat telling a frog that he must sit on a log. The frog protests and complains “But I don’t want to sit on a log, logs are nobbly and uncomfortable. And they can give you splinters in your bottom” to which the cat replies “I don’t care, you’re a frog so you must sit on a log”. This starts the whole chain of the rest of the hilarious book.  Before we know it we are being told that lions sit on irons and fleas sit on peas. It ends with the poor frog asking the cat what do dogs sit on, to which we see a rather uncomfortable looking frog being sat on by a dog on the last page.

  

Jim Field’s illustrations in Oi Frog are fantastic. I found myself laughing four or five times whilst reading. I particularly liked his illustrations of “apes sit on grapes”. My favourite thing about the artwork in this book is how spot on the facial expressions are on each of the animal. The frog, throughout looks rather worried and perplexed whilst all the other animals have their own individual expression depending on what they are doing.

 

Lastly the wording is so much fun that you could play around with it all day. It works very well as a memory game for kids to remember what certain animals sit on. “What do puffins sit on?” “Why of course muffins!” You could also chop and change the order you read the middle of this book to keep it exciting and have children remembering where animals are supposed to sit in different orders. All in all this is a bright, catchy, laugh out loud picture book. I loved it.

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.