Changes

{{infoboxinfobox2

|amazonukaznuk=<amazonuk>1444011308</amazonuk>|amazonusaznus=1444011308|cover=<amazonus>1444011308</amazonus>

Young Timothy has been drummed out of his mother's kitchen by her and his sisters, so he cannot join in with their baking. Instead , he goes to the garden and devises chocolate porridge – a lot of mud, plus some other ingredients. But only when he's happy with his craft does he begin to realise that not even calling mud chocolate porridge makes it edible. Oh , what is a boy to do?

This book for emergent readers really does fit the bill. There's an issue to discuss after a joint reading session, about gender stereotypes and siblings picking on each other, but principally there is a great narrative. This , in fact , is a cut-down version of a story almost as old as I, but has ageless pleasures and still has relevance. It loses nothing in its entertainment, as it builds industriously alongside Timothy's working, and perfectly balances the pause before we learn what chocolate porridge is actually good for.

Nor has it lost any spark in the writing. ''The sun was splashing the [garden] stones with hot gold. There was a lawnmower waiting to clash his teeth in the grass.'' You don't expect such lyricism in a book that generally reduces itself to one or two sentences a page. The rest of the pages , of course , are the illustrations, and these would complement any picture book for any age bracket. There's a great range of facial expressions for Timothy, showing the young dreamer happy while hard at work.

[[The Dragon's Dentist by John McLay]] is a similarly excellent offering from the same publisher. Slightly younger children will enjoy [[Boom, Baby, Boom, Boom! by Margaret Mahy and Margaret Chamberlain]].