Just before Christmas, we received some lovely books to review featuring Mr Hendrix, a very cute Pomeranian puppy, who is friends with Kitty the Toy Cat and Sid the (draught excluder) Snake.
The first of the books, Mr Hendrix and the Half Eaten Mince Pie, is a lovely Christmas-themed story that was perfect bedtime reading in the run up to the big day.
Pierre was very excited to discover that Father Christmas puts in an appearance - "the real one", he told me, presumably as opposed to the farty one in Nicholas Allan's Father Christmas Comes Up Trumps book that we also reviewed !
The mince pie story is very cute - naughty Mr Hendrix just can't resist biting into the mince pie that has been left out for Santa - and the cheekiness appealed to Pierre, as well as discovering that Father Christmas has a sense of humour.
As a parent, I love the fact that the each of the stories incorporates little life lessons, such as keeping away from hot ovens, and also opportunities for practising basic skills such as naming the colours of baubles and counting them, or counting the number of doggie treats lined up, along with the characters in the book.
The second book that we discovered (which is actually the first in the series) was Mr Hendrix and The House That Talked, in which the puppy and his friends get up to all sorts of adventures, including almost being eaten by an armchair, when Olivia, his owner, has gone to work. The stories are great fun to read aloud, with sound effects (such as Sid's hissing or a whooshing fairy in the Christmas book) and a ridiculous French accent that you have to put on to read Kitty's parts. Giggles guaranteed at bedtime !
Another feature that really appealed to Pierre - not least because it meant putting off bedtime for another few minutes after finishing the story ! - is that each book ends with a few pages of activities.
There are colouring pages.
And Pierre's favourite are the mazes.
He was also incredibly impressed when Mr Hendrix sent him a Christmas card and a little Christmas gift !
It's a lovely series of books that young children will enjoy listening to and that I genuinely enjoy reading at storytime, made even more enchanting by the cute illustrations. The stories are fun with some educational content thrown in for good measure and the characters are very appealing. I love the imaginative world of a draught excluder and toy cat having adventures with Mr Hendrix, an aspect which vaguely reminds me of Bagpuss and all the toys that used to come to life in the TV series of my childhood, and which is a great way of nurturing children's sense of make-believe and storytelling.
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : £5.99
for more information : www.MrHendrix.com
Disclosure : I received the books in order to write an honest review.
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What great books - lovely :)
ReplyDeleteSound like great books. Love of dogs and the benefit of life lessons make these books really appealing.
ReplyDeleteRachel Craig