Harry Without His Bucketful Of Dinosaurs (Harry & The Snow King - Ian Whybrow)

Member Name: belfin

Product:	Harry & The Snow King - Ian Whybrow
Date:	22/04/08 (133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Introduction to the character that has become a household name

Disadvantages: Not as good as the later books

***Background***

Ian Whybrow is well known for his popular series of Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs, both in books and on the television but he has written a lot of other books too including some Little Wolf ones that are a personal favourite of my son.

***The Story***

The story begins with a small boy called Harry looking out of this window.

"When the snow came, you had to look for it.
But Harry had waited long enough.
He went out with his spoon and plate.
He put out his tongue and caught a flake.
It was just right."

There isn't much snow lying around but Harry finds little piles of it on the woodpile and on the leaves. It takes him a long time but finally he has enough snow to make a snow king who is only about 8 inches high.

He decorates it with holly berries and makes a crown for it before taking it in to show his family. They agreed to leave the snow king outside on the wall so he doesn't melt but when Harry goes out after lunch he is nowhere to be seen. Harry asks everyone if they have seen his little snow king but no one knows anything about it.

The next morning when Harry looks out his window there is not only a lot more snow but there are a whole load of snowmen in the yard. The farmer then turns up with a handful of cherries and a little crown and Harry is pleased because the snow king must only have gone away to order some more snow.

Harry then goes off on a fun sleigh ride behind the tractor and enjoys the rest of his day.

***The Illustrations***

Adrian Reynolds is responsible for the fine pictures in this storybook. He also takes care of that side of things in the Harry series and his style is unmistakable here. They are drawn with lots of details that add texture to everything from clothes to the snow king himself. The writing is big and black and this makes it easier for young children to read.

***My Thoughts***

We first had a look at this book when my son chose it from the library and he expected it to be filled with dinosaurs but we have since found out after getting a box set of Harry books that this is the first book where we are introduced to the character of Harry and that he hasn't actually come across the dinosaurs yet. My son was a little bit disappointed by this to start with but did enjoy the story none the less.

All children love to make snowmen and it can be very frustrating when there are lots of bulletins on the news, warning of heavy snowfalls in your area, only to find that you don't even get as much as a flake. We can relate to this here as it wasn't until very recently that we had any snowflakes at all and even then they didn't lie enough to make a snowman.

My son loves to play out in the snow so this book was a little bit of a substitute for him, as he sees an excited little boy racing out to collect all he can and the disappointment when that little snowman disappears.

I find the story of this a little bit lame though and although the idea of a snow king wishing for more snow should have been a good idea, it just doesn't quite work. The illustrations are great though and this helps a little bit but I was still left feeling a little bit cheated by the ending and wanted to know more about where the snow king was meant to have gone. I feel it could have had a bit more depth to it, somehow.

Saying that, my son still enjoyed the story and liked the idea of making a crown, so I guess I know what I'll be in for next time it snows here although I'm hoping that won't be until next winter now.

***Price & Availability***

The paperback version of this book retails at the price of £5.99 but Amazon are selling it for only £2.99 at the moment. We had the hardback copy from the library that has a price of £7.99 on the back but it seems to be out of print at the moment although there are copies of it available on Amazon marketplace.

The bargain bookshop near us had a set of 6 books including this one along with a CD of the stories for only £9.99 a wee while ago and I would thoroughly recommend it for any Harry fans. My son got it for his birthday a couple of weeks ago and has been reading the books every day since.

Paperback ISBN No. 0140569863
Hardback ISBN No. 1899607854

Summary: Because every child dreams of snow