spots | Red Reading Hub – Jillrbennett's Reviews of Children's Books

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The Naughty Naughty Baddies
Mark Sperring and David Tazzyman
Bloomsbury Children’s Books
One baddie’s bad enough but four ‘Naughty Naughty’ ones is something else, especially if it’s this particular quartet – a motley bunch if ever there was one.

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These NNBs especially enjoy creeping and they excel in same: sometimes, or rather, this time, their creeping leads to a big fat nothing: they simply can’t find a single naughty thing to do no matter how hard they try, or where they look.
So, ideas are discussed and Four’s plan is the favourite. It entails bouncing from their trampoline to their Badmobile and thence into a helicopter, then parachuting over a certain palace and there doing a spot of ‘spotnicking’ which will leave her royal highness’s pooch, er, spotless.
They have plans for putting to use their swag bag of spotty spoils too …

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Can those dastardly deed doers execute their mischief though; or might there be a chance that they’ll be spotted and apprehended in the act of thievery?

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If so, can they talk their way out of trouble and who will get the last chuckle? Um, that one’s easily answered: it’s anyone who is lucky enough to read or hear this wickedly funny book read aloud.
The combination of Sperring’s super-silly story that is brimming over with word-play, and Tazzyman’s terrific, rib-tickling visuals is a fabulous treat for all who encounter the outrageous shenanigans of the awesomely awful foursome. Bring it on baddies!

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The Very Cold, Freezing, No-Number Day
Ashley N. Sorenson and David Miles
Familius
Talking numbers are certainly an innovative device for reader engagement, particularly when they send out a desperate-sounding cry across what looks like a snowy landscape. Who can resist that plaintive H -E-E-E-E–L-L-L-P-P-P-P–! plea as the numbers fall from the clocks and are scattered across the ground?

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“We’re NUMB. B-B-B-BRRRRR!” they continue from the blocks of ice surrounding them … “Unless we warm up, time stops.” With such things as birthdays at stake, young children are unlikely to ignore the warning. Fuelled by their motivation to participate in the rescue, children free the numerals and with the thaw, the colours change from chilly blues and purples to warmer hues: greens, yellows, oranges …

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and tiger striped. Here they’re hiding among thick foliage, so counting, tracing and even soft blowing are required to further warm them up …

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until finally success – 20 is reached and it’s time to celebrate …

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David Miles’ clever use of colour transports readers from chilly climes to ferociously hot ones, as they’re swept along by their textually-driven actions.

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Let’s Play!
Hervé Tullet
Chronicle Books
Readers will find it hard to resist the invitation issued by the sunny yellow dot – a dot that enjoys exercise moreover – to join it on a journey filled with fun, feelings and a sense of freedom as it leaps, loops, lurches, hides, …

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hops and hurtles its way through, and on one occasion off – the book’s pages, encountering thrills, hazards and horrors in so doing.

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What makes this one work is the tacit pact made at the outset between painter Tullet and player, the reader, whose head even becomes a landing place for the errant dot at one point. Crazy but lots of fun nevertheless and a wonderful demonstration of creativity unbound.

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