Noodle's Knitting - Sheryl Webster

Why I Bought This

I currently have a two year old niece and also a neighbour's little girl is roughly the same age - so I like to buy books that will make good reading for them both.

The Product

Large hardback book by Sheryl Webster & Caroline Pedler.
ISBN:9781848950931.
Publisher: Magi Publications.
Age range shown as 2+ years.
10.5 x 11 inches.
The hard covers have a large image on the front of a mouse (Noodles) and a large ball of purple wool. The back cover is a continuation of the image and shows other balls of wool.
The title of the book is written out in purple wool.
The large ball of purple wool on the cover is embossed in a way to make the wool feel wool-like.
'Soft to touch on every page'.
The front and end double pages of the book/inside covers are cream paper covered in bunches of cherrries (Noodles' wallpaper).
Printed in China.
12 double pages of colourful story with some wool to feel on each page.

Wool Feature

The unusual feature in this book is that each page, including the cover, has an image of the large purple ball of wool or the scarf that is being knitted from it - and this is embossed so that the child can stroke it and feel the wool-like texture.

===The Story==

Twelve double page spreads with just a little text on each.
Noodles the mouse has been watching the farmer's wife knitting and has leant the magic words 'knit one, purl one, knit two together!'.
Then the farmer's wife decides it is the wrong colour and throws it on the floor - this is the opportunity for Noodles to take it away.
Noodles begins to roll it home through the woods, and first meets his friend the hedgehog gathering backberries who kindly gives her two of his prickles to use as kniting needles.
Noodle then begins to knit herself a scarf.
She crosses a river on stepping stones, but nearly falls until a frog pops up for her to jump across and land on. frog says it is too chilly for a dip. Noodles walks of with the long growing scarf trailing behind - which then gets caught on a thistle.
Noodles walks on and the scarf stretches and stretches - until 'boing' - he flies through the air - luckily to land in his friend the squirrel's wheelbarrow of autumn leaves.
Winter is coming and it starts to snow - Noodles runs into her cute house - with a door in a tree trunk. Still she keeps knitting.
Long into the evenng she knits - sitting in her cosy tree home on a cotton reel with a little candle light and the snow and wind outside. The scarf grows longer and longer - 'yippee its finished'.
But poor Noodles has knitted herself into her home - but her three friends appear at the window to get her out. They disentangle Noodles - who wonders what she will do with such a long scarf.
But the friends know - to keep them warm from the cold - 'you have made the most wonderful winter's nest ever'. Noodles agrees - and the best thing is 'it is big enough for you all'.===Cost===

Book is price marked as £10.99
Currently selling on Amazon new for £9.89.
I purchased my copies from The Book People for £1.99.

My Opinion

Well I had not seen this book but bought two copies from The Book People for the great price of £1.99 each. I did not read the measurements and was expecting small books - so when they arrived I was very pleasantly surprised both with the quality and size.
One copy I still have in my present cupboard but the other I have read on many occasions to my niece when she has visited.
As well as the lovely full page illustrations on each page, which are lovely in themselves, the great novelty of this book is the embossed images on the cover and each page. This enables the child to stroke while you are readig and pointing out things in the pictures, and greatly entertains them - and surprises them too as not many books hae a feely effect on the pages.
This is a great book to read with young children, it only has a few lines per page so does not take long to get through. The images on each page are lovely, of the animals and trees etc.
The novelty of the wool is a great attraction and will I am sure hold my niece's interest even when she is old enough to go through and read it for herself. To enhance the purple wool theme I am going to get her a little scarf for Christmas - which will add to the stroy as she will them have her own purple scarf - just like Noodles.

Star Rating

5 stars

Would I Recommend?

Yes.

Websites

www.littletigerpress.com
www.thebookpeople.co.uk