Mr Noisy gets a shock! (Mr. Noisy's Noisy Day - Roger Hargreaves)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Mr. Noisy's Noisy Day - Roger Hargreaves
Date:	05/04/09 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lovely illustrations, good story for little ones

Disadvantages: Might be hard to find in the shops

I found this copy of Mr Noisy's Noisy Day at a car boot sale in pristine condition for 50p, my granddaughter is just 21 months and doesn't really know the Mr Men range of characters but the board book seemed an ideal introduction into the fantastic Roger Hargreaves stories.

It's basically a simplified version of the standard Mr Men books especially for babies and younger children who are too small to read the original books and is part of a range called My First Mr Men. There are several of the characters available in the range, and obviously this one features Mr Noisy who is a lovely red ball of a character that children cannot fail to warm to.

Mr Noisy keeps making animals jump by generally being noisy, he scares a pig by shouting 'Wakey, Wakey!', pulls a poor little mouse's tail to get her out of bed and spoils Dog's nice dream by banging a drum behind him. The illustrations are wonderful and show the animals with a real look of shock on their faces, right down to when a duck jumps so high she flies into the air while quacking her annoyance!

Mr Noisy gets his comuppance when he shouts and Mr Mischief, only for this even more outspoken character to turn the tables and make Mr Noisy jump! My granddaughter loves the final page when Mr Mischief shouts out because I do the voice and she always pretends I've made her jump just like Mr Noisy.

This is a nice interactive book, We always shout to make the animals jump and then Nanny makes a fool of herself by mimicking the shocked cries of the animals, my granddaughter giggles and laughs at every single page and she knows exactly what is coming now and really plays her part in the story well. She recognises all the animals and when the page comes along that shows Mr Mischief she'll say 'uh-oh!' because she knows that he is going to be the one to make Mr Noisy jump in the end.

I love the fact that this book is so bright and colourful, it makes it a real pleasure to read with my granddaughter. Mr Noisy is slightly less detailed than he is in his 'older children' book but this serves to simplify and dumb down the illustrations to appeal more to babies and toddlers. All of the pictures are very basic at first glance but they are so well rendered that you don't notice this after a while, the colours and contrasts are excellent for grabbing your child's imagination and my granddaughter will sometimes trace the thick black line surrounding each picture with her finger.

The book is well made and perfect for children of any age in my opinion. The board pages are tight to the spine of the book and have withstood the gnawing of my teething granddaughter as well as numerous drops and bangs. None of the colour is coming off any of the pages and it still looks to be in fantastic condition despite having had two or three months use now. I like that the cover is slightly padded simply because it feels good to the touch and allows my granddaughter to comfortably hold the book while I read it to her or if she wants to look at it alone.

On Amazon sellers are listing these books for just 1p plus postage, as I cannot find them elsewhere I shall buy my granddaughter more of this set from here as even with postage costs this will be a small price to pay for such nostalgic and fun books.

Summary: An excellent introduction to the Mr Men series for babies and toddlers.