So much to see - So much to do! (Once Upon a Time - John Prater)

Member Name: wendybull

Product:	Once Upon a Time - John Prater
Date:	29/02/08 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of talking points

Disadvantages: Nothing

Once Upon a Time is such a fabulous book for encouraging talk and conversation with your child. It starts with a little boy in his house just waking up. The main interest in the book is what is happening outside his house however and there is more and more to see on each page as you go through the book.

The text is written in little poems and it describes what is happening with the little boy and his family, like his father going to work for instance and him having lunch. However on each page there are lots of extra little things happening in the area around his house and garden.

On the first few pages we begin to see the three little pigs starting to make their houses. On the left hand side baby bear comes running from his cottage with Father Bear, holding a broken chair. Goldilocks has already run past on page 1.

As we go through the book, with the text describing the little boys day, the pictures are describing much more and we see Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf, a giant, Humpty Dumpty, a witch and the cow jumping over the moon.

Only a little more of each story is revealed as each page is turned and it is fun as my children look around and spot the next part of each well loved story.

The illustrations are wonderful as well and each page is a double spread so the pictures go over both sides. This allows for much more detail to be spread around and lets different aspects of the stories to be found out on each page.

I particularly like the way they have incorporated the same wolf into both Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs pictures and it does make me laugh when the giant finally appears (well his enormous foot makes it onto the page) and steps on the wolf's tail. This also makes my children laugh and reinforces the fact that bad people will get their comeuppance.

We have spent in the region of half an hour reading this book some nights as there is always so much my children want to look at and remember the relative fairytales that go with them. It is always enjoyable too as I can read the short poem on each page about the little boy in his house and then my children kind of take over, doing all the talking and explaining. This is productive for them as it encourages a love of books and an enjoyment of telling stories, as they have to tell the story to me through the pictures they see.

You can get this on Amazon for just 29p on their marketplace although they do not have it as a new book through them so there will be postage on that too.

Other books by this author:

Number One Tickle Your Tum
Again!
Oh Where, Oh Where

I would recommend this as a great book to encourage conversation with your children or as a story for pre-school children in school story times.

Summary: RECOMMENDED xx