Wednesday, 27 April 2011

Children's Book review : Ping and Pong : Grow - Amy Trevaskus



Last week, I reviewed the first book in the Ping and Pong series called Splash and the girls loved it - not to mention Pierre, who tried to eat the book ! (You can read that review here.) They were over the moon when the lovely author, Amy Trevaskus, offered to send us their latest adventures in the new book Grow. Well, obviously we said yes !

I love it when the girls take storybook characters off the page and into the real world. It shows that the book has really captured their imagination and inspired their own creativity. Well, the girls loved Pong's naughty streak in Splash and giggled away at his silly antics. This weekend we went to visit the circus zoo (they still have animals in circuses here in France, which is very sad, and you can go to see the animals in their cages and enclosures) and the girls were overjoyed to be able to handfeed lettuce to the elephants. That was surreal - it's like feeding sweet wrappers up the hoover tube ! While they were waiting for their turn, they started giggling excitedly and saying that if Pong had been there, he'd have been swinging off the big top ropes. And standing up on the elephant's back and hanging off his tail. And jumping in his enormous pile of poo ! Lovely ! There's a reason why his mischievous streak appeals to the girls !

But anyway, back to the book. The girls came to Grow as if they were catching up with news of old friends. This time, the adventures take place in Lucy's grandparents' allotment and they all learn about the creatures that live in the garden as well as how to grow vegetables. The girls were wide-eyed at the fact that Lucy's grandparents could see Ping and Pong (they'd assumed they were invisible to grown-ups) and loved the bit where they go for a ride in a flowerpot carried by bees !

The illustrations yet again perfectly complement the story and are full of details that bring it all to life. We've already read the book several times and the girls have asked if we can buy the next one in the series when it comes out. I think that says it all really !

star rating : 5/5

RRP : £6.99


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1 comment:

  1. This looks FAB, great review...would love for my girls to also read this one.

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