A small fish with big stories! (Tiddler - Julia Donaldson)

Member Name: Claribella

Product:	Tiddler - Julia Donaldson
Date:	01/07/09 (18 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellant rhyming

Disadvantages: quite long

This is another classic book written Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler who seem to be a match made in heaven when it comes to writing and illustrating children's books.

The books tells the story of Tiddler, a fish is late for school almost everyday. When he finally turns up he always tells everyone far fetched stories about why he was late and of course no one believes him. One particular day he ends up in a fishermen's net and when the fisherman realizes that he's too small for consumption, throws him back into the sea. The trouble is Tiddler is thrown into a part of the ocaean that he is not familiar with but he finds that his untrue stories help him find his way back home.

The text in the story is exactly the same as the other stories that Donaldson has written in that the book rhymes from start to finish but the rhymes make you want to chant and almost rap them.

The illustrations are bright and carry a lot of detail so it makes the reader really study each page. You can tell the simularities between the drawings if you have read any other of the pairs books. The creatures that feature in the book are funny and cute and makes the reader feel at home with them.

When I first starting reading this book I was enjoying but I did assume that it would be the classic tale of 'the boy who cried wolf' so was almost predicting what was to come. Fortunately the book proved me wrong and went in a totally different direction and I almost had to laugh as it dented my pride!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story and always love the stories that are easy to read and roll off the tongue without any effort at all. I love the way the story went despite the fact that it shoved all of my morals about lying to the side. I absolutely loved the ending of the story but will say no more than as I don't want to spoil it for you. The pictures were brilliant and Noah and I spent quite a lot of time looking at them.

Noah shared my enthusiasm with this book and I haven't stopped reading it! He loves joining in with some of the words because they are repeated a far bit like most of Donaldson's books. He has spent quite a while looking through it by himself as well which is always a good sign. The one thing he absolutely adores about this book is the fact that it is all about underwater creatures. We go to our local Aquarium a lot so he is familiar with the underwater life so this book was right up his street.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with a child as young as two years old. It's fun, unpredictable and a great over all read.

Summary: Another great read