View source for Ruff and the Wonderfully Amazing Busy Day by Caroline Jayne Church

{{infobox2
|title=Ruff and the Wonderfully Amazing Busy Day
|author=Caroline Jayne Church
|reviewer=Ruth Ng
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-0007483570
|pages=32
|publisher=Harper Collins Children's Books
|date=July 2013
|aznuk=0007483570
|aznus=0007483570
|cover=0007483570
|website=http://www.carolinejaynechurch.com/
|video=
|summary=A sweetly drawn story about the joys of finding new friends.  Perfect for a gentle bedtime story.
}}
Ruff, a rather sweet little dog, is a happy fellow.  He pootles about, busy all day long and singing little songs to himself as he works.  But sometimes he wonders what it would be like to have someone else to sing with him.  Busy making himself a new pond in the garden one day he discovers a small mouse who appears to be rather cross about someone digging up his home...oh dear, Ruff!  Can he help the little mouse to find a new home to live in?

I do like sweet, simple stories like this one when they're done well.  This one for me, really, is all about the artwork which is just lovely.  Ruff is a small, cheerful little dog whom all toddlers will warm towards.  The mouse whose house is accidentally dug up by Ruff is named Hubble, which is surely the best mouse name ever!  Hubble is terribly cute too, with his oversized head and dear little nose!  All the colours are just slightly muted, and Ruff's ears look like they've been roughly crayoned-in.  There's a soft, happy feeling to the illustrations and as we read the story I enjoyed looking at what was going on in each one.

The story is cleverly done too.  It's a tiny bit sad (poor Hubble, with no home) yet at the same time it's funny because we know Ruff dug up Hubble's home.  It's fun to see Ruff rush around and make Hubble a new home and you know all along that the two animals are going to end up being good friends.  At the end of the book a new character is suddenly introduced, an angry little duck called Lottie who falls from the sky right into Ruff's new garden pond!  I liked Lottie.  She has a lot of rage inside of her!  Having been told by the other ducks that she's too small to fly to a new home with them she had tried anyway, but the fact that they were right, and she crash-landed in Ruff's pond, just infuriates Lottie even more!  Poor Lottie.  You can probably guess what happens since Lottie landed in a brand new pond, freshly made by Ruff who was previously somewhat in need of friends!

It's nothing earth-shattering, but sometimes what you really want, and need, is a nice gentle book to read to your frantic two year old after a long, exhausting day.  Look no further - this one certainly fits the bill!

If you enjoyed this you might also like the adorable Wobble Bear in [[Wobble Bear Says Yellow by Ian Whybrow and Caroline Jayne Church]]

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