Raymond Briggs

Advantages: A great twist on a traditional tale.
Disadvantages: Some children of a nervous disposition find the giant scary!

...This is a brilliant retelling of a classic children's traditional story. As a teacher I love books like this as so many comparisons can be drawn between these re-mixed versions and the traditional tales. ~ Raymond Briggs / Author ~ He is perhaps most famous for The Snowman but he has written a number of other books for children and is an award winning writer and illustrator. * The Mother Goose Treasury * Fungus the Bogeyman * When the wind blows * The Strange House * Father Christmas * Fee Fi Fo Fum ~ Jim and the Beanstalk ~ Jim (not Jack), wakes up and sees an enormous plant growing outside his window. Being inquisitive, he climbs up it , in to the clouds, until at the top he sees a castle. Feeling a tad hungry he decides to go to the castle for a breakfast of cornflakes. A giant answers the door...... "Aha... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Another inventive story by this popular author
Disadvantages: Not long enough, ends too abruptly.

...This offering by the masterful Raymond Briggs is a large, 9 inches by 12 inches hardback book, profusely illustrated, that is sadly all too thin in content and really begs to have been expanded more. The story is told in the form of comic book cartoon style panels, illustrated in colour over thirty pages. On a simple level the idea behind the story is a clever one. We have Ug, a child living in the Stone Age with Dug, his father and his mother called Dugs. As the family and their tribe live in the Stone Age everything is supposedly stone. They are shown to sleep on stone beds with ludicrously huge stone slabs as duvets and even the clothes they wear are stone. However, the boy Ug is a thinker ahead of his time and constantly questions the world around them. He wants to bring fire caused by lightning into their cave for heat... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: It's another trip into Feist's creative universe
Disadvantages: It reads like a childrens story

...enemy is causing trouble in the streets of the city. William, James and Jazharra must hunt down the protagonists and face the evil behind them. To write this review kills me. Before doing so I must let you know that I am A huge fan on the Raymond Feist novels. I have read his first novel, 'Magician', 7 times and all the other except the 'Krondor' series a minimum of 3 times. I just love them and can let myself become completely immersed in the story. I have to say though that even though the first 2 'Krondor' books, 'Krondor: The Betrayal' and 'Krondor: The Assassins' weren't his best works, the latest offering from my favourite author, 'Krondor: Tear of the Gods' does STINKETH. I read the book in one day it was such a simple plot and it seems to be written as if it were aimed at an 8 year old reading it. I believe that it is the shortest... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful