Mr Tiger, Betsy and the Blue Moon by Sally Gardner
| Mr Tiger, Betsy and the Blue Moon by Sally Gardner | |
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| Category: Confident Readers | |
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Reviewer: Jill Murphy
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| Summary: Gorgeous fable with a big imagination and a glorious love of language. A lovely, funny story with beautiful illustrations and lots and lots and lots of ice cream! | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 192 | Date: October 2018 |
| Publisher: Zephyr | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1786697172 | |
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Betsy K Glory lives a rather wonderful life on a peaceful island where nothing horrible ever happens. Her father, Alonso, makes the most wonderful ice cream in every flavour you could imagine. Her mother, Myrtle, is a mermaid and comes to visit regularly, although she still lives in the sea. Betsy dreams of two things: firstly, about the circus owned by a tiger and whether it would ever come to her island and secondly, about a magical ice cream made from the berries of the Gongalong bush. One scoop of this ice cream can make wishes come true.
And then Mr Tiger and his circus arrive. And a journey is planned...
Oh, my goodness. I loved this story. It's imagination distilled and a love of language runs through every single page. Betsy's father is a human being and her mother is a mermaid and, despite their love for one another, marriage between a land and a sea dweller proved difficult and so they agreed to a parting of the waves. Teehee! Puns and jokes like this permeate the book and you'll find yourself stopping to laugh every five minutes. And the imagery is surreal and always beautiful: Betsy looked out of her window and up into a sweetshop of stars. Awww.
But of course, the story is the thing. And this one is fabulous - a little girl, her inventor father, her mermaid mother and a circus led by a tiger must sail away to a distant island, turn the moon blue and make ice cream that grants wishes, all to free the Gongalongs from an oppressive princess. It's quite the quest! There's magic and courage and invention and a host of eccentric characters - everything an imaginative child could want. Nick Maland's illustrations manage to be both lively and soothing and so full of detail that your eye will return again and again to pick up something new.
And there's more! Mr Tiger is printed in blue ink in Dyslexie and so is carefully designed to make reading easier and more fun. Sally Gardner is the founder of NuWord, which champions positive debate about dyslexia.
This one comes highly recommended by us.
If Mr Tiger appeals, I think you might also enjoy A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton, a sweet fable about friendship and trials with some lovely interactions between boy and bear and absolutely gorgeous illustrations. Good Dog McTavish by Meg Rosoff has an equally wonderful female central character and is dyslexia friendly.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Mr Tiger, Betsy and the Blue Moon by Sally Gardner at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Mr Tiger, Betsy and the Blue Moon by Sally Gardner at Amazon.com.
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