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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Bolds by Julian Clary and David Roberts (view source)
Revision as of 14:21, 27 July 2015
, 14:21, 27 July 2015no edit summary
The Bolds, Mr and Mrs and their two small children, live in an ordinary semi-detached house in suburban Teddington. They have jobs; Mrs Bold designs and sells flamboyant hats and Mr Bold writes jokes for Christmas crackers. But they are most definitely not an ordinary family. Oh no! They are in fact hyenas. So far they have managed to successfully pretend to be human beings. Although very hairy and prone to laughing a lot they have kept the truth (and their tails!) a secret from everyone. But their grumpy next door neighbour, Mr McNumpty, is growing suspicious and then a trip to the local safari park has repercussions. Will the Bolds' carefully long kept secret be revealed?
When a celebrity, the basis of whose fame may be regarded somewhat at odds with children's fiction, announces that he is to write a children's book you may well wonder what to expect. I am delighted to say that I think that Julian Clary, self-styled ''national trinket'' has produced an absolute gem of a book. At times laugh-out-loud funny this very enjoyable story also gently pokes fun at humans' superior attitude towards animals. As the author demonstrates, animals can be very intelligent but their intelligence may manifest itself in a different way to our own. It also has an underlying theme of tolerance and acceptance of those who may be a little different.
From the opening pages when we are assured that this story is ''absolutely true…every word'' this jolly story zips along in chapters of manageable length for younger readers. The overall look of the book is very appealing and this is largely due to the wonderful illustrations by David Roberts. The recent growth in highly illustrated fiction for the younger age group works so well at engaging readers. So often I watch children open a book that they probably could manage but they are then put off by dense text on every page. ''The Bolds'' has an illustration on most pages and the text is spaced out and different fonts used to emphasise and entertain.
