I’m (almost) Never Bored
Anna Milbourne and Åsa Gilland
Usborne

This is a wonderful celebration of the power of childhood imagination, in this case called into play when one wise father decides to curtail a little girl’s screen time. Furthermore his response to his daughter’s “I’m BOOORED!’ is “Oh, that’s great … being bored comes right before having a Really Good Idea.” And so the young narrator discovers, first when she spies a large cardboard box among those her dad is unpacking. This she turns into a magic train by using coloured pens

and then most importantly, in the company of Mr.Unicorn, imagining a wonderful adventure that involves visiting all manner of strange places – a land of wibbly-wobbly jellies, for instance.

Fortunately the girl’s mother is of the same mind and she responds in similar fashion to her daughter’s complaints about being bored. This time pens and mind conjure up a massive monster with a seemingly insatiable appetite. And so it goes on until our young narrator is sufficiently convinced by what she’s been told by her parents that she is ready to give a confident reply to the boy next door’s “I’m bored!” and you won’t need to use much imagination to guess what she says …

Åsa Gillard has clearly used her imagination to bring Anna Milborne’s text to life in exuberant scenes (with strategically placed die-cuts) of the little girl’s wonderfully playful flights of fancy.
If any parents/ carers have doubts about the necessity to limit young children’s screen time, then this story will surely convince them to do so. Most certainly a smashing book to share both at home and in foundation stage settings.