It's time to party! (Happy Birthday Winnie! - Valerie Thomas)

Member Name: kingfisher111

Product:	Happy Birthday Winnie! - Valerie Thomas
Date:	08/10/09 (143 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great story and illustrations

Disadvantages: none

My daughters love all the Winnie the Witch books that are written by Valerie Thomas and illustrated by the brilliant Korky Paul. In all of the stories you meet the wonderful flamboyant witch, Winnie, and her long suffering cat, Wilbur. Winnie loves to dress in bright zany combinations which are definitely clothes to match her colourful character! Although, she is generally a pretty good witch, there are occasions when spells do sometimes go wrong and it is often Wilbur who suffers as a consequence! The latest book we have read is a really lovely story called 'Happy Birthday Winnie!'

The story starts with Winnie looking at the calendar and realising that her birthday is coming up soon on Friday 13th - when else? She decides to have a big party so the week is filled up with sending out invitations, making new clothes, preparing lots of party food and getting the garden ready for the party. This is not too difficult if you are a witch and can just wave your magic wand! After doing this and shouting the magical 'ABRACADABRA!', the garden looks totally amazing with a bouncy castle, magic maze and so much more!

Friday 13th arrives and all Winnie's wonderful assortment of guests arrive bearing some amazing gifts. These include a magic carpet, a bat in a cage, a book of special spells and a magic trumpet - what more could any witch want on her birthday? They play all sorts of fabulous party games which are a lot of fun but everything does get incredibly noisy so Winnie decides to quieten all her guests down with three toots of her new magic trumpet. When she does this though, all the guests disappear which is not a lot of fun for Winnie as it's her party! Luckily, she does work out what to do and she gets all her guests back in time for them to help her create the best birthday cake ever! Everyone has to shut their eyes and think of their best birthday cake ever. As they do so Winnie turns around, stamps her feet three times, waves her wand, recites those magic words (you know the ones!) and then before everyone's eyes is the biggest, best birthday cake ever! What a great way to end the party and even Wilbur has a slice of his favourite cheesecake flavour too!

This book is so much fun and one that will really appeal to small children. Imagine the idea of the best birthday party ever and being able to include everything that you wanted which is just what Winnie is able to do! Who wouldn't love the idea of that? This book does not have the usual sort of storyline with a problem to solve and a resolution but it is wonderful to read about and see all that happens at the party. We love the wonderful assortment of guests that turn up. There is an array of cousins, aunties and uncles who all bear an uncanny resemblance to Winnie. It's great fun to spend some time to take a look at all the other guests arriving too and if you are familiar with more of Korky Paul's books you might spot some other characters that you recognise! We have read books about Professor Puffendorf and Captain Teachum and my younger daughter was very excited when she spotted them in Winnie's garden. I think that it is very clever of Korky Paul to have included these characters as it then reminds you about his other books too.

Now that I have mentioned Korky Paul, I have to say that, as always, all of his illustrations are absolutely superb. We are used to seeing Winnie with her wild frizzy hair, red pointed nose and incredible dress sense, but there is also so much to take in with all the other characters too. Added to that the wonderful pictures of the gardens, the presents and the fabulous cake at the end that soars almost as high as the sky and they are so delightful for a small child to look at and enjoy. The attention to detail is second to none and we can spend ages just looking at everything that is going on in just one illustration!

The story is told in a very easy way that makes it accessible for young children. My eldest daughter is six and is now quite a proficient reader and very much enjoys reading the book to herself, as well as to her younger sister.

Overall this is another great Winnie the Witch book to add to the collection. It is published by Oxford University Press and has a RRP of £5.99 although I am sure that you could shop around and find it for less than that.

Summary: a fabulous book for young children