Children's Books > C Children's Books > Julia Donaldson

Advantages: An interesing book.
Disadvantages: Not great for large groups or pre-school children

...character’s favourite book, beginning with Charlie Cook’s: ‘Once upon a time there was a boy called Charlie Cook Who curled up in a cosy chair and read his favourite book….’ There is then a double-page spread of a ‘snippet’ of the book which was about a pirate ship and chief… The pirate then finds a treasure chest inside of which is a book… Again a double-page spread of a little of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Baby Bear finds Goldilocks ...
...all of the characters join Charlie Cook in the room where he is sitting on a cosy chair reading his favourite book. ~ Educational Value ~ * Identifying rhyme. * Encourages children's participation and develops memory skills. * Introduces different genres / types of books to children. ~ Illustrations & Format ~ Axel Scheffler has worked alongside Julia Donaldson on a number of books and is a superb illustrator. The drawings are often different ... Read review

Advantages: Rhyming, adjectives, animals
Disadvantages: Swan doesn't get any chocolate mousse

...macaroni and carrots followed by chocolate mousse, but in the realm of children's books anything is possible. Julia Donaldson has in fact created a wonderful book bursting with rhyme, adjectives and the idea of differing personalities in Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose. The title is actually based on a line from one of the pages and the alliteration probably makes it the most obvious one to have been chosen. On each page we meet a different animal, ...
...and five, possibly six, and the Amazon price of £3.49 is excellent value. Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose by Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharratt Macmillan Children's Books, 2006 Paperback, 24 pages ISBN 140502190X Price £5.99 (£3.59 on Amazon) This is a printed book, not an audio book. ... Read review

Advantages: Fun rhymes and fantastic pictures
Disadvantages: over too soon

...on with the show." Conjuror Cow is trying to make a rabbit appear but can't seem to get it quite right. She is performing on stage for all her farmyard friends who encourage her along the way. As we go through this delightful rhyming book we see her make a worm appear from a cake and a pig from under a cloth but it's not until the end that we see that really all the white rabbits are hiding under her cloak. On every double page there is a half ...
...conjured up and children will love to turn this to see what's underneath as well as finishing the rhyme on that page. ***The Illustrations*** The expressions on the faces of the animals in this book are drawn in a wonderful way with lots of smiling faces on everyone as Cow gets things wrong. The colours are bright and at the back of the stage is a rainbow effect. After each trick goes wrong we can see reference to the outcome on the following page ... Read review

Advantages: Lovely illustrations, catchy story
Disadvantages: Maybe a bit too long for a younger child

The Princess and The Wizard - another wonderful book by Julia Donaldson. This is another one of my daughter's faves although perhaps the story is a little bit long for her at the moment but she loves the pictures, especially the glittery ones. It's the story of Princess Eliza, who gets captured & whisked away (on her 7th birthday of all days!) by a wicked wizard who likes turning people to stone. Luckily before she is taken away, her fairy godmother ...
...colour and changing her shape'. The wizard isn't impressed and replies 'changing her colour and changing her shape will never help Princess Eliza escape'. So Princess Eliza gets seven chances to escape and each day she changes herself into something new, such as a blue fish, yellow chick, green grasshopper... But the wizard always finds her and takes her back to his castle to do some horrible work for him. On her final chance to escape, Eliza realises ... Read review

Advantages: magical, easy to read
Disadvantages: none

This is the touching story of a young boy called Bertie told by his widowed wife after his death to another young boy called Jack after he finds himself in her garden after running away from boarding school (the same school Bertie went to) Bertie grew up in Africa where met his "Butterfly lion" but had to leave him when he got sent to England to go to boarding school. I don't want to give too much of the story away but i think any children (or ...
...which would be easy as the print is large and there are only 127 pages which contain some non-coloured pictures(by Christian Birmingham), which help illustrate and capture the magic of the story wonderfully. I got made to read it for my Uni course, but i am so glad it was this book as its such a beautiful story and had me actually crying in parts! This is the first Michael Morpurgo book i have read, but i will certainly be reading a few others ... Read review