View source for Whizz Pop, Granny Stop! by Tracey Corderoy and Joe Berger

{{infobox2
|title=Whizz Pop, Granny Stop!
|author=Tracey Corderoy and Joe Berger
|reviewer=Trish Simpson-Davis
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978 0 857631312
|pages=32
|publisher=Nosy Crow
|date=September 2012
|aznuk=0857631314
|aznus=0857631314
|cover=0857631314
|website=http://www.traceycorderoy.com
|summary= A winner of a story for Grannies everywhere, to enjoy with their grandchildren from three years up!  Granny can prove somewhat inept as a witch, but there’s no doubt that she’s a winner with her granddaughter.  Feminine bias, but boys too will laugh at the lavatorial humour.
}}
Grannies come in for a lot of negative press.  Absent-minded geriatric, witch with a black cat, spoiling the kids, always getting it wrong ... you know the stereotypes.  Well I’m fighting back.  I latched onto this book, of course, as a granny.  And in this neatly rhyming story, Granny, as seen through the practical eyes of her small grand-daughter, is all these things as well as being notably peculiar.  Tracey Corderoy has pretty much got us metaphorically taped!  

Granny is as lovable an old biddy as you could wish to meet, and very well-intentioned in her magic, but …  The little girl just wishes Granny would be more normal. Unfortunately Granny’s ineptness occasionally overtakes her spells, so, for example, Flopsy the rabbit disappears as well as the poo.  And did she really have to go as far as changing her own little budding-ballerina into a swan?  Even just walking down the street in an ordinary kind of way can be difficult when you’re accompanied by a flock of bats, cats and frogs. Children from three upwards will love the humour in the bizarre situations Granny creates with a wave of her magic wand.

But Granny, despite her shortcomings, has a confident smile and knows just how to  create a best-ever birthday party with a very unusual theme.  Underpinning the narrative is the strong message of love with which Granny envelopes her grandchild.  Her granddaughter knows she has someone very special to ''love awfully much'' in return.  

I loved the frenetic, contemporary illustrations by Joe Berger, who seems equally on the ball whether he targets adults or children (just check out his [http://www.joeberger.co.uk/ website]!).  There’s loads of interest in the drawings for pre-readers to pick up on each page, however often the book’s read.  There’s lively language, interesting word shapes for sight vocabulary and plenty of easy phonic rhymes to guess from contextual clues.  

Here’s a celebration of grannydom which is definitely a winner for me. For more from Tracey Corderoy, try [[Squish Squash Squeeze! by Tracey Corderoy and Jane Chapman]].
 
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending this book.

[[Never Say No to a Princess! by Tracey Corderoy and Kate Leake]] is just as enjoyable.

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[[Category:Tracey Corderoy]]
[[Category:Joe Berger]]