Leave Me Alone!!! (Cuddly Dudley - Jez Alborough)

Member Name: belfin

Product:	Cuddly Dudley - Jez Alborough
Date:	20/05/08 (156 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great funny story with a cool ending

Disadvantages: None

***Background***

Jez Alborough not only writes this wonderful story but illustrates it too and has done so with a wide variety of books including his wonderful rhyming series about Duck and his lovable series about Bear.

***The Story***

This story starts with a penguin called Dudley who loves to play by himself. The problem is that he has lots of brothers and sisters who love to cuddle him and he rarely gets a chance to be alone.

"'Go away,' Dudley would say. 'Leave me alone.'
'We can't," came the reply. 'You're just too cuddly, Dudley.'

'I'm fed up with all your huddling and waddling and cuddling,' said Dudley one day.
'I'm going to find a place where I can play all on my own.' And off he went."

So Dudley walks for many miles until he finds a little house that seemed to be empty. Dudley thinks this is just perfect and soon makes himself at home enjoying the peace and quiet, until a knock at the door disturbs him.

It turns out to be a couple of his sisters who have followed his footprints to find him but he sends them on their way and shuts the door. He is soon enjoying a bath but there is another knock and all his brothers and sisters are there.

He sends them all away and all is quiet again until another knock makes him go to the door. This time it is a great big man who immediately thinks Dudley is cute enough to cuddle. He runs out of the house and tries to get back home but finds himself a little bit lost. He climbs the hill to see better and all his brothers and sisters are waiting for him on the other side.

The book ends with them all having a big cuddle together and Dudley is quite enjoying it until suddenly the man appears and all the penguins scatter.

***The Illustrations***

As with all the Jez Alborough books, the illustrations really help to make the story come alive and they are bright and colourful with lots of detailing. The pictures are often placed in a comic book style with each box having a bit of writing at the top of it and many pictures on the same page. The text is clear and black and is always written on a white background at the top or bottom of each picture box.

***My Thoughts***

My son has loved all the Duck and Bear books that he has seen so far and any time we see a book at the library by Jez Alborough, he rushes to get it. The style in which this story is told is very similar although there are no clever rhymes in this one, but that doesn't mean it is lacking in the slightest.

The story is funny and might just help children to understand that sometimes people like to do things on their own at times. I find that this is a problem with my son and he thinks that his older sister should always want to play with him, whereas, at fifteen, she would rather do her own thing at times. Since reading this book, we have been able to explain to him that although she loves to cuddle him sometimes, it's not great for him to always be annoying her.

This book is ideal for a young reader as the text is clear and there are a lot of simple words in the story. My son's reading is amazing considering he is still in his first year at school and I don't think he struggled at all with this one.

The thing he likes most about the book is the series of pictures and especially how funny Dudley looks when he finds a Hawaiian shirt, baseball cap and shades on a teddy bear in the house and decides to borrow them to wear for himself, even though there is snow all around. I feel that pictures like this really help to tell the story and for younger children there is plenty to look at while a parent reads this book out loud.

This book is on my highly recommended list for anyone with young children and I'm sure any boy or girl will love it as much as my son has.

***Price & Availability***

This large paperback retails for the price of £5.99 but it is available from WH Smith for only £4.79.

ISBN No. 1406310743

Summary: If you haven't tried Jez Alborough yet, then buy this book.