Kitchen Disco
Clare Foges and Al Murphy
Faber & Faber Children’s Books
Did you know that the contents of your fruit bowl comes to life and parties while you’re fast asleep? No?

Me neither; but that’s what happens in this totally zany, rhyming disco dancing story.
Off the wall it may be, but this book totally rocks it socks off as lemons tap dance on the tap and break dance on the chopping board (what fun the author had writing this),

the super cool pineapple high fives to show his approval of other fruit; and grapes – a silly bunch – boogie in a conga and their ‘conga line gets longer!’

Told in rhyming couplets, the story starts gently as the family begins to slumber and then bursts into life moving and shaking until sunrise when the fruit take to their bowl for some well-earned shut eye. Suitably crazy illustrations by Al Murphy document the whole event and I love the way the artist uses small vignette style pictures in the middle of the page at the start and then latterly, the pages begin to explode as those citrus guys take to the floor. And there’s a further pre-dawn explosion courtesy of some human intrusion and– yes – a glitter ball;: now I wonder where they got that from?

So, as the chorus says, ‘SHAKE IT LIKE A MANGO/ PARTY LIKE A PEAR? WIGGLE LIKE AN APPLE, / HEY!/ AND DANCE LIKE YOU DON’T CARE.’
Simply FRUITASTIC!

Nearly as bonkers in its own way is:

What are you going to wear, Pascal?
Magali Le Huche
Twirl Books
Pascal platypus has a problem: he’s got nothing to wear. Does that sound familiar? It’s certainly something I feel at times. Pascal seeks help from his friends and each is ready with a suggestion or two.

But each item of clothing is problematic to Pascal: it’s too tight,

too itchy, or too special , until he asks Ringo that is. Could he be lucky this time? Ringo has made something especially for Pascal but oops!

You need to put it on the right way round, Pascal. Never mind, that outlet might have just the thing …
It does, but on opening his wardrobe, we see that his perfect pants seem to bear more than a little resemblance to everything the endearing platypus already has.

Nothing to read? Perhaps like Pascal, you might try borrowing in the first instance unless of course, you know somebody just like him: then, this extended joke would make the perfect present.

Use your local bookshop