It's my turn on the blog tour for What's That by Nigel and Robbie Lungemuss-Ward today and I'm very excited to share my thoughts on the book with you.
I reviewed Nigel and Freddie's first book 'Freddie's Impossible Dream' when it came out and I enjoyed it a lot. I loved the charm of it and the engaging story. If you haven't read it yet, I can thoroughly recommend it.
One of the things that charmed me what the back story of the father/son writing team.
'What's That?' charms as well. I still love the fact that Nigel and Robbie work together to produce books. Robbie was 10 when he made the illustrations for 'What's That?' and you can really see how his drawing has developed since he drew Freddie's Impossible Dream as an 8 year old. I think Nigel and Freddie are inspirational and their story shows children what is possible: you can achieve your dreams.
So on to the actual story of 'What's That?' It is essentially a simple story about using your imagination. It is inspired by a game Nigel used to play with his class to encourage divergent thinking and creativity (a game I am stealing by the way, it's a great idea!). The words and pictures interact perfectly to create a very enjoyable reading experience. This story could easily be enjoyed by children from all Primary ages as although it is quite simply told it does inspire deeper thinking and creativity in the reader.
Nigel has also provided some ideas at the back of the book for how it could be used to inspire writing as well as the back story behind the book. I really liked these and it's the back story in particular that I find inspirational.
On another note for any teachers out there-I can also recommend Nigel for an author visit. He is very engaging and the children will be filled with enthusiasm for reading and writing after his visit (my class were when he visited earlier this year).
What's That? is out on 21st July. You can preorder it now from Waterstones