I've just spent the last couple of weeks reading a chapter of this book every night to Sophie before bed. It's been a while since I've read to her as, now aged nine and an avid reader, she tends to read by herself or she reads stories to her younger brother and sister. It's been great though, snuggling up together under the covers and spending some quality time together, giggling and doing silly voices and chatting, so I think we'll have to get back to doing it as a regular thing.
The Great Rabbit Rescue is a fabulous book for a parent and child to share because it gives you so many chances to talk about things going on their life or things that may be worrying them. Some of the childhood escapades are timeless - the girls with their walkie-talkies and secret clubs really reminded me of my childhood games with my next door neighbour/best friend and Sophie loved hearing me tell her about our own secret spy club and banging on the wall between our bedrooms with a coathanger to each other, rather like the girls in the story ! Other aspects are more contemporary things that the modern child has to deal with - parents breaking up, children having to choose which parent to live with, friends having to change schools following their parents' divorce ...
Sophie loved it when little elements of our own lives popped up in the book, such as Anna losing her watch, her dad shouting at the football on the telly (Sophie laughed and said she thought her dad was the only one to do that !) and - I'm not sure I should admit to this ! - the parents saying "for crying out loud!" and "your life won't be worth living if you do that" ! Sophie giggled and said it sounded like me ! Oops, I've turned into a cliché ! Seriously though, it shows how realistic the writing is and Sophie could really relate to the characters. I especially loved the childish way of speaking that the narrator uses, which frequently made me start reading with a Charlie & Lola type voice without even doing it on purpose !
The central rabbit rescue story is a lovely tale of best friends looking out for each other but is also a cautionary tale of little girls trying to help out and thinking that they know best but ultimately doing the wrong thing and doing more harm than good. Cue a gentle "mum knows best" sermon, as it can never do any harm !
As a mum, I really enjoyed reading it and sharing it with Sophie. But now I'll hand over the reviewing hotseat to Sophie.
Sophie's review :
Anna, Suzanne and Joe-down-the-road have fun playing Dingo the dog, mountain rescue and the super speed bike machine so it's funny to watch them because they're a bit naughty. I like the way they were trying to be nice and look after the rabbit but they were making it sick by accident without meaning to. It was a bit sad but I was happy that the rabbit was ok in the end. It was funny hearing mum tell me about when she was a little girl too ! I liked all the little drawings and the pictures of the maps and things too because they made the story more interesting and easier to understand.
star rating : 5/5
Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books (2 Sep 2010)
ISBN-10: 1847385966
ISBN-13: 978-1847385963
Other reviews you may be interested in :
Carlton Kids Augmented Reality Books
Children's Book Review - The Taming of Lola : A Shrew Story - Ellen Weiss
children's book review : Wild Rescue : Polar Meltdown - J. Burchett & S. Vogler
Book Review - Waking Beauty by Julie Parrish
No comments:
Post a Comment