A hop a stick and a jump! (Stick Man - Julia Donaldson)

Member Name: abbadabbado

Product:	Stick Man - Julia Donaldson
Date:	09/11/09 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: brilliant writing

Disadvantages: a lot to take in for a toddler

As soon as we received the Gruffulo last year as a present, we have been reading more titles from Julia Donaldson as my daughter has really taken to her rhyming style of writing.
We saw Stick Man in the library so we added it to our pile. I think this week it has been the most well read book in our house.

Stick Man is yes you guessed it a stick. Unlike any other stick he is about to go on a journey through the book trying to find his way home to his "family tree".
The book starts when stick man leaves his tree to go for a jog, but soon gets chased by a dog. Escaping from the dog, poor stick man is accosted by a little girl wanting to play pooh sticks with him. As he trails down the river a swan catches him for her nest, before he manages to get free and floats into the sea.
Being the finishing touches to a sandcastle isn't what stick man wanted to do when he washed up on the beach, but as he frees himself from that predicament, poor stickman finds himself freezing in the snow as the seasons change.
Ending up on the fire waiting to be lit, it seems that stick man really has met his fate, until rescue comes in the form of Santa Claus, who returns stick man to his family tree in response to stick man freeing Santa Claus from the chimney above the fire.

The outline of the book sounds quite farfetched, but it really does gel well together and in perfect rhyme as is tradition in Julia Donaldson books.
When we started reading stick man I will admit to thinking it was going to be a silly book with no strategy to it at all. The only one annoying rhyme that is repeated is that of stick man himself where he states "I'm stick man, I'm stick man, and I'm stick man that's me".
That sentence did grate on me but it did work with the book and helped toddlers identify that the book is about a little stick.

There is a lot going on in a fairly short book which I thought could be quite distracting, but I think the above rhyme helped centre the story around its purpose. The guest appearance by Santa Claus was great and perfect for reading around this time of year.
As usual the graphics are illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Each page is full of colour and character with many tiny features that make the book special. For example my daughter pointed out a small Christmas decoration on the tree that was in the form of the Gruffalo. If you have ever read the Gruffalo with your children then they may spot this reference.
Pictures tell a lot of words for children and I have found this to be a great trait with Donaldson and Scheffler. You can almost make the story last a lot longer if you chose just by the pictures.

This book has become a firm favourite in our house and I think we may even be buying it because it's available from Amazon in paperback for just £2.97 which is a bargain for a loved book.

ISBN: 978-1407108827
Published: 2009

Summary: a great offering from Julia Donaldson