Book of the month: The little old lady who cried wolf

Baby’s book purchase this month is “The little old lady who cried wolf” by Simon Puttock and Nicola Slater.

Publisher: Macmillan Children’s Books
ISBN: 978-1-4060-1923-1 (HB)
Where we found it: Exclusive Books
Price: R75

The book is about a bored old lady, a van full of zookeepers, the police, fire-fighters and some mystery guests.

Baby initially read the story at the bookshop, and she laughed so much she decided it was the book purchase of the month. It didn’t lose its luster after a second or third reading either.

I liked it because the events could very well have happened right here in Johannesburg, and Baby could easily read it for herself, or read it with friends. It also touches on what she needs to do if there is a crisis in a home.

Generally, the basic rule in our home is that she pushes the emergency buttons to our security company if there's a problem. There are individual buttons to clarify whether there is a fire, a medical emergency or burglars. But what happens if she's visiting my mother's house / her bio mother? How will she ask for help?

The little old lady who cried wolf is well written, combines elements of a fairytale and modern life, a cautionary and something funny in a 24-page, heavily illustrated package.

The search for Narnia books

This weekend we also looked for The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. This week at school Baby watched the movie version of “The lion, the witch and the wardrobe” and she was very impressed when I told here there were piles of stories on the same theme. Wanted to know more about the adventures of Aslan, Peter, Susan, Lucy, Edmund and company.

I remembered seeing some collections on sale some time back, so this weekend we checked them out. The easy-to-read series of books ( bound in a collection) was too pricey for my pockets and the one book collection that was affordable was too big and heavy. It’s definitely not something that Baby could read by herself if she wanted to.

I think Baby and I will have to create her collection one book at a time, and get our copies second-hand.