Meet Q Pootle 5 (QPootle5 - Nick Butterworth)

Member Name: Karenwilson

Product:	QPootle5 - Nick Butterworth
Date:	27/10/01 (133 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great read

Disadvantages: none

Now this really is a different kind of book for young children. Nick Butterworth who is better known of his success writing “Percy the Park Keeper” has now created a new character called Q Pootle 5.

I know you must be wandering what on earth or should I say moon is Q Pootle 5. Well you can probably guess he is an alien. He is quite a cute looking chap who is an olive green in colour and has two small antennas popping out the top of his head.

Small children love rocket and spaceships stories and this book will be no exception. The rocket looks like it is made up from old tin cans and hairdryers. Q Pootle 5 is the alien’s name and what a creative name Nick Butterworth has managed to come up with.

The story is about Q Pootle 5 landing on earth by accident. He was actually heading for a party on the moon held by his friend Q Pootle 6. Unfortunately the spaceship has a problem; one of the rocket boosters (tin can) won’t boost. He can see it is broken but wanders how he is going to find another rocket booster on earth. An earthling comes along and he looks friendly and he is also a nice shade of green. He asks for his help but the earthling who in fact is a frog does not know what a rocket booster is. Along come some birds but they cannot help the alien either because they don’t need rocket boosters.

After some time Q Pootle 5 gets a bit disheartened as he knows he will not be able to make the moon party for his friend Q Pootle 6. Eventually a cat walks by eating his cat food from a tin can with a spoon. The alien explains his problem and the cat offers him his tin when he has finished eating all the cat food up.

The cat is called Colin and he is pleased to be of assistance to the alien. Q Pootle 5 fixes the new rocket booster onto the spaceship and the presses the starter button but it does not work. Q Pootle 5 is beginning to get a bit upset now as he thought that was the pro
blem with his rocket malfunctioning. Luckily Colin finds the problem and it’s only a bit of leftover cat food in the tin. Q Pootle 5 then presses the starter button again and after a large rumbling sound and a horrible smell of cooked cat food (yuk) Q Pootle 5 is off and away. He waves goodbye to his earthling friends and they wave back.

The pictures really are good in this book and will really capture the child’s imagination. The last page shows Q Pootle 5 finally making the moon party of his friend Q Pootle 6. The page unfolds into one large page showing all the other aliens on the moon with all different shapes and sizes of rockets. The food displayed on the table really makes you giggle and are well thought out by the author, star biscuits, saturn rings, rocket jellies, black holes, UFO cakes, moon cheese balls, planet sweets, and the sandwiches are called delta wings.

Luke my four-year-old son absolutely loved this book and I think it would really appeal to young children, as there are not that many books around featuring cute little aliens like Q Pootle 5.

Well done Nick Butterworth, Q Pootle 5 is certainly going to be another success story.

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