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BfK No. 245 - November 2020
BfK 245 November 2020

This issue’s cover illustration is from The Day I Fell into a Fairytale by Ben Miller, illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini. Thanks to Simon and Schuster Children’s Books for their help with this November cover.
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By clicking here you can view, print or download the fully artworked Digital Edition of The BfK Poetry Guide October 2020 .

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Special Delivery

Elliot Kruszynski
32pp, PICTURE BOOK, 1908714794
Under 5s Pre-School/Nursery/Infant

What a laugh aloud tale! The author- illustrator has worked out a repetitive format which very young children will soon grasp. A tortoise rings the bell. ‘Ding dong! Special delivery! I’m delivering a new baby to this address.’ We see a baby mouse being delivered to an astonished bird, who says, ‘I’m sorry there’s been a mistake. That’s not my brother.’ ‘No, No, I’m afraid I don’t make mistakes. This is the right house. Bye bye.’ More strange deliveries are repeated, with the same text each time; the mouse is followed by a kitten, then a puppy, a walrus, a baby giraffe and even a baby elephant! Poor bird. She tries her best to keep all the babies happy, but on a double spread we see lots of tears - and havoc from all these delivered babes. Thank goodness, when the bell next rings a delivery company manager (a large grey stork) is on the doorstep. He explains that his assistant, a sorry looking tortoise, has made a few mistakes.... And so, a crowd of irate parents are reunited with their youngsters… (‘Hello angel,’ calls mother elephant through a window.) And thankfully, there is a very special delivery for the bird. This is the kind of book which demands an immediate re-read. Further examinations show just how skilfully the author has paced the story, building up a tension and engaging youngsters in the reading by the clever use of repetition. His page layouts change as the story builds, from a sparse first page, in limited colour palette to the chaos of the overflowing page before the deliveries are corrected. There is so much to enjoy, and very young children will join in the repeated text eagerly. Opportunities too for dramatic production, in pre-school situations!

Reviewer: 
Gwynneth Bailey
5
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