'We sat at a table outside on the balcony overlooking the sea. It looked lovely as the sun set and made the water all red and the sky all pink and yellow and red.'
Craig has only ever been to Cape town once before with his parents, but then he was a baby himself. This time he is going with his own baby brother, Willy. And Willy is very good at getting himself into trouble.
This is an account of a charmingly chaotic holiday trip for a family told in a very reportage style - as a young child might write it but with perhaps greater fluency. It offers a lot of starting points for discussions on topics between a parent and a child in a read-aloud setting.
The very best aspect of this book is the stunning illustrations of the wonderful recipes which all relate to the story in some way. My favourite was the edible bunk beds - so creative and original! The book is worth snagging for those on their own, IMO.
'Mom persuaded Willy to give the chameleon to the man by promising to buy him and ice cream.'
The first issue for me with this book is its title. I'm sorry, I'm British and Willy is not an abbreviation of William we would ever use - any more than most of the English speaking world would use a certain abbreviation of the name Richard - and for the same reason. So the name of the book makes it unsuitable for children in the UK. We had the same problem with the film 'Free Willy' which was greeted in the UK with giggles and guffaws, not misty-eyed emotion.
The other issue I had was that the style of writing was so report like. Even exciting moments like the chameleon being grabbed is told in two sentences and nothing is made out of it. I was also a touch disturbed by the odd negative reaction when a Chinese tourist wanted to take a photo of the children and this was presented as something weird and creepy.
I think as a book to read aloud with parental input and discussion, it could be quite a good children's book and the recipes are clever and would enchant any child.
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