The Honest Truth

I recently got sent the proof copy of The Honest Truth by Dan Gemeinhart from Chicken House. I started reading it without having any idea what the plot was about. I soon discovered that it was a beautiful and heartbreakingly sad account of a young boy who has cancer and is determined to climb to the top of Mt Rainer.

 

The story’s heroes are Mark and his dog Beau (the smartest dog in the world may I add). Mark and Beau set run away from the family home to climb Mt Rainer. From the start of the book the reader can tell that Mark is sick. It is only a few chapters in that you realise that he has cancer. Mark has decided that climbing Mt Rainer is something that he needs to do before he becomes too sick and can’t do it all. With Mark and Beau we travel on a long, tough journey through back alleys and midnight diners as well as chance encounters with hateful gangs and friendly strangers.  

 

 

The Honest Truth is a moving account of what a young sick boy who, against all odds does something that most healthy people could not do just because he believed in himself. When I finished reading this book I was left feeling quite humble. It doesn’t end with an ending; it ends with a beginning which I think is very positive given that we never find out if Mark pulls through or not.

 

After finishing The Honest Truth I was having a look at some reviews on goodreads to see what other people had thought of this beautiful book. I must say I found myself getting annoyed as I felt that I was reading every two out of three reviews calling it “The Fault In Our Stars for younger readers”. It annoyed me that people have thought that two very different books can be lumped into the same category just because the main character has cancer. The Honest Truth is an extremely smart book for children who are growing up and want to read about complex things in the world such as cancer.

 

Dan Gemeinhart has created a wonderful hope filled book for young readers. It teaches children to not feel that things are hopeless when times are bad and to have faith in people around you, whether they are strangers or people in your family; don’t isolate yourself and accept the help of others because you will never get very far without your friends.

 

 



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.

The Sea Tiger

The Sea Tiger is one of those picture books I could read again and again! The Sea Tiger takes us through the touching story of the Oscar, the young merman and The Sea Tiger. Together they go on exciting and dazzling adventures through the ocean. From exploring the deepest depths of the sea to going to an extraordinary circus, The Sea Tiger looks after Oscar and protects him from any danger that might be near. The Sea Tiger soon comes to realise, however that Oscar only has one friend – him. The Tiger decides that for Oscar to make some friends of his own he must make some new friends too.

The end of this book made me feel a little bit sad as I was really touched by Oscar’s relationship with The Sea Tiger and I wanted them to stay friends forever. However, on reflection I thought that this was a really good ending as it compares to friendships in real life. It was nice to see The Sea Tiger look after Oscar and in the end help him find some new friends so he can stand on his own two feet (or flippers for that matter).

For me, the best thing about this book has to be the illustrations. The Sea Tiger is full of some of the finest and most stunning artwork I have seen in a picture book for quite a long time. The colour scheme is wonderful and flows so well with the sea theme of the book. Every page of this remarkable book is filled with haunting and ethereal images that are so delicate and soft. This is a completely magical journey from start to finish.

 

 

The High Street

The High Street by Alice Melvin is a beautifully illustrated, fun and catchy tale about a little girl's visit to the shops and everything she has to remember to buy. The young girl has a rather long list of things to remember to buy and is only able to get these things from separate shops. On every page her rhyming shopping list becomes shorter and shorter until she only has a yellow rose left to buy. When she enters the last shop to buy her yellow rose, they have sold out! The young girl sadly leaves the shop to take the long walk home when she stumbles upon a garden packed full of yellow roses.

The layout of this book is brilliant. I love that every page has a flap that you can lift so you can see into all of the various shops on the high street. The rhyming shopping list is also a fantastic aspect of the book as you find yourself joining in with all the things the little girl needs to buy. Melvin’s illustrations are also completely stunning, simple and very pretty. This quirky little picture book is fabulous and fun from the very start.   

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.

King Bidgood's In The Bathtub

 

For my first blog post I feel it would only be right to start it with a truly wonderful book. King Bidgood's in the Bathtub has for me all the great makings of a fantastic picture book. Enjoying his bath time a little too much King Bidgood decides that he will not get out and will conduct all of his duties from the bath. A stream of his court visits him one by one to try and coax him out of the bath, only to be dragged in. When the court feel they have exhausted all efforts to get the King out of the bathtub the young page comes along and pulls the plug out for them.
 

The thing I love most about this book however, is the marvellous illustrations by Don Wood. His artwork is completely unique and beautiful. Every page is brimming with colour and imagination. King Bidgood’s banquet in the tub with his wife is truly stunning.

I discovered this book whilst working at Waterstones and fell in love with it. It was always one of my favourites to recommend to customers who had a lot of the main stream titles at home and wanted something different. Before I could buy a copy of this brilliant book for myself it went out of print! To say I was disappointed is an understatement. Recently on a visit to New York’s finest bookshop; Books of Wonder, I found a hardback pristine edition of King Bidgood. It now sits pride of place upon my bookshelf.  If you have not discovered this one of a kind, royally fun picture book I urge you to go online and buy yourself a copy while they are still out there!