Author: Jeanne Willis Illustrator: Tony Ross Publisher: Anderson Press Publish Date: February 2006 Genre: Children's Picture Book Pages: 32 Age Suitability: 3-5 RRP: £5.99 (I got it as a 3 for 2 deal from ELC)
At my two year old son's insistence, I took him into town this weekend to buy him a new book. We went into the Early Learning Centre First where there was a 3 for 2 deal on. My son picked up The Really Rude Rhino to which I added two other titles which appealed to the sensible mum in me a little bit more.
Having scanned through the book on the drive home, I grew increasingly happy I had bought the other two books as well.
***Who is Jeanne Willis?*** I have to admit to having not heard of Jeanne Willis before but having done my research, I realise she is front runner in the world of Children's stories from picture books up to teen novels.
Jeanne graduated from Watford College where she studied to be an advertising copywriter. She worked for two London based agencies and at the age of 21 had her first book published by Anderson Press. By the time she was 26, Jeanne quite the advertising business to focus on writing children's stories as well as TV scripts for a variety of children's programmes.
To date, Jeanne Willis has had over 80 titles published and in 2004 was short-listed for the Whitbread award for her teen novel Naked without a flat.
Other picture books Jeanne has written include, Gorilla Gorilla, Tadpole's Promise, and I hate School.
***Who is Tony Ross?***
Born in London in 1938, Tony Ross studied at Liverpool College of Art before becoming Arts Director for a prominent advertising agency. He soon left the industry to pursue a career in teaching at which time he supplemented his income with cartoons drawn for a variety of magazines including Punch.
Ross can count books by Roald Dahl, Paula Danziger and Michael Palin amongst others as works he has illustrated. In addition to illustrating the works of other authors, Ross has gone on to write his own stories as well such as Hugo and the Man who Stole Colours, Hugo and Oddsock, Naughty Nigel and the popular I want my Potty.
***What's it all about?*** Little Rhino is born a very rude baby rhino and although family and those around him keep reassuring his parents that he will grow out of it, he continues to be rude to everyone he comes across. He is particularly partial to blowing raspberries, sticking his tongue out and waving his naked bum at people. By all accounts, little rhino appears to have no respect for others at all and in fact enjoys being rude immensely.
The doctor has diagnosed Little Rhino with an incurable condition and the parents accept defeat. It is at that point little Rhino goes out one evening intent on being unnecessarily rude. He comes across a little girl sitting by a river eating watermelon and decides to be rude enough to her as to cause her to run away leaving the watermelon for him to enjoy. His plan backfires when the little girl turns the tables and sticks her tongue out to blow the biggest and baddest of raspberries at Little Rhino. Of course, Rhino runs off mortified and is never rude again.
***So how did I find the story?*** Despite really trying, I could not find any redeeming value to this story. I imagine the point of it is for children to appreciate the need to be polite and courteous however, this point was entirely missed. Instead, I think this book will encourage kids to take on Little Rhino's traits at an age when parents are already trying to combat bad habits from forming and to instil a positive and courteous attitude into our children.
I also found the end of the story a bit disturbing. I don't want my son to grow up thinking that the way to combat a problem is by giving it back in double. You can't always fight fire with fire and I dread the thought of my son thinking that is always the answer.
I found the writing fairly boring as almost each page started with "Ppppttthhhhhppppttt!" or some similar rude noise. There was no challenge or imagination which I thought would engage a child past the novelty stage of the funny noises.
***So were the pictures good?*** Not really. They matched the story well in their crudeness. The illustrations were done more in a sort of scribbled/ sketching style. The front cover show an image Little Rhino bending over bearing his bum to the reader - hardly the warm and fuzzy image you expect to find. This theme of nastiness continues through to show more bum shots, and roughly drawn sketches of him sticking his tongue out at wretched relatives.
There is little detail and the individual characters are often not in context with any background scenery but instead just hover over or below the text.
Perhaps the harshness of the story could have been softened slightly with more carefully thought out illustrations.
***And all in all was it worth the money?*** I choose to think of this as the book I got for free with my 3 for 2 deal which makes me feel a bit better about having bought it. To be honest I found this to be a totally irrelevant children's book and one I would happily loose track of. Having said that, children will love it as Little Rhino does all the things they are discouraged from doing. Kids love the idea of being naughty and this book allows them that freedom without the consequences.
If you are prepared to spend the next few months with your children making faces and horrid noises at people in the street then perhaps you will get more out of this than I did. My verdict? Ppppttthhhhhppppttt!!!
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