Hooray! (Good news! Bad news! - Colin McNaughton)

Member Name: helican

Product:	Good news! Bad news! - Colin McNaughton
Date:	31/05/09 (8 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: exuberant pictures & loads of humour

Disadvantages: none

Good News Bad News is the crazy tale of what happened to one small boy on his way to the dentist, but being a Colin McNaughton book it's not a straightforward story!

It starts: 'Bad news! It's a school day. Boo!
Good news! You've got the day off. Hooray!
Bad news! To got to the dentist. Boo!'
& so it continues. Good news alternates with bad, & the story gets dafter & more outrageous, so that soon the boy escapes from aliens ('Hooray!') but lands on a big hairy monster ('Boo!').

Each twist is funnier than the last & keeps you turning the pages to find out what happens next. The pictures too are brilliantly done, bright & bursting with energy so that they almost jump off the page. There's a lot of silly speech bubbles too, which will appeal to children: "Nice of you to drop in," says the dentist when the boy lands on his head falling off a witch's broomstick.

There's a bonkers twist at the end, too, to get you scratching your head.

It's a great book for all ages: younger readers can pick up the story just from the pictures, while new readers can join in with the repeated 'good news' & 'bad news' phrases, but it's funny enough for much older readers to get a lot of enjoyment out of too.

Summary: a zany story of a boy's eventful journey to the dentist.