Posts Tagged: humour


8
Jul 09

REVIEW: The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss

the-cat-in-the-hat-by-dr-seuss“The Cat in the Hat” and “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back” were two of the books I’d lined up in our home library. Recently, my toddler asked me to read “The Cat in the Hat”.

“The Cat in the Hat” starts off with a boy and his sister, Sally stuck at home alone on a rainy day with nothing to do. As they sit staring out of the window, a Cat with a hat walks in and promises the kids “lots of good fun that is funny” and “good games we could play”.

The kids’ pet fish senses trouble and tries to advise the children to chase the Cat away but the cunning Cat stays on and starts his tricks:

  • balancing on a ball;
  • balancing an umbrella, the pet fish, a book, a cup and saucer, a cake and MORE and MORE things!

Of course, they soon come tumbling down creating a big mess…But the Cat introduces Thing 1 and Thing 2 who “help” to clean up…

Review: My boy *loved* watching the Cat balance the various items and got excited at the HUGE mess and of course, the two Things who cause even more havoc around the house.

As he learned the words of various things found around the house, he also learned about keeping his playthings back where they belong and tidying things up.

The best is that Dr. Seuss has managed to turn this simple children’s adventure into such an educational and fun story to read!

THE CAT IN THE HAT COMES BACK

the-cat-in-the-hat-comes-back-by-dr-seussThe boy and his sister, Sally are asked by their Mother to help shovel snow off the driveway when the Cat shows up and tells them to continue with what they are doing – HE’s going into the house to “find something to do” O_O

The Cat ends up eating a cake in the bath tub with the water running! The boy chases the Cat out of the tub, only to find a PINK ring all around it. What’s worse, the Cat takes the Mother’s dress to clean the ring…

The rest of the story deals with how the Cat and and his troop of 26 “Little Cats” (named letters A – Z) tried to get rid of the PINK stain which spreads itself all over the house and the compound.

Review: Another exciting adventure with the Cat minus the Fish. Here, the book goes through letters of the alphabet and being responsible on their own.

My boy seemed to identify with the boy in the book because he was horrified too when the Cat used the Mother’s dress to clean the spot and also when the pink spot jumped from one place to another and grew so humongous that even the snow in the yard was PINK!

I think he felt as relieved as the kids were when the Cat restored the snow to its original, clean white :-)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Fantastic children’s books! Grab a copy from my Amazon Bookstore


29
Apr 09

REVIEW: Matilda by Roald Dahl

matilda-by-roald-dahl I stumbled upon this book at the library and couldn’t wait to start reading it since I’d watched the movie starring Danny DeVito and when I was 18.

“Matilda” is the story of a little genius girl born into the wrong family – father is a crookish (and sexist) salesman who tries to think of ways to cheat his customers while her mother is a vain, silly woman who enjoys watching soap soap operas and playing Bingo.

Although she is a whiz at mental math, her father, who thinks that girls should only look pretty and take care of the family (like her mother), even accuses Matilda of cheating when she mentally calculates the dishonest profits he gets from selling his cars!

To get back at her mean father, Matilda plays hilarious tricks on him and lucky for her, he never finds out just WHO did them…I had such a good laugh reading about them!!!

At the age of 4, the brilliant little girl toddles her way to the public library and with the help of the nice librarian, Mrs. Phelps, she reads her way through the entire children’s books section and moves on to the classics of English literature…

Alienated by her family, Matilda finds a kindred spirit in her teacher, Miss Honey, who realizes that she has a child prodigy in her class.

However, the school headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, is NOT the usual headmistress who takes pride in seeking out the smart or intelligent students. Instead, she dreams of starting a school with NO children!!! Amazing, isn’t she?

I’m not going to spoil the book by revealing the storyline further but rest assured, “Matilda by Roald Dahl” is a great read for 8 – 10 year old girls and boys because Dahl conjures up such amazing, imaginative and hilarious situations between the children and the adults.

Pre-teens will enjoy reading this book from cover to cover!

Rating: ★★★★½

Now that I’ve read the book, I can say that the movie followed the storyline quite accurately although a thin woman, Rhea Perlman, is casted as Matilda’s mother instead of a plump woman.

Danny Devito’s FANTASTIC as Matilda’s father, of course :-)

Matilda by Roald Dahl
ISBN: 0-590-99683-5
Publisher: Scholastic (Penguin)


13
Feb 09

REVIEW: Love from Nicky by Hertha von Gebhardt

love-from-nicky

I found this secondhand book in the family bookshelf back home and had a delightful time reading this old book last month! As I am reviewing the book from memory, please forgive me for any factual errors…

“Love from Nicky” is translated from German and it’s about 9 year old, Nicky, whose parents are actors. Due to their unconventional careers, Nicky does not see his parents on a daily basis as his father sleeps in late and stars work in the afternoons.

His Mum works in another town thus Nicky spends a lot of time with his nanny at home when he’s not at school.

As I read the book, I got the impression that Nicky is a bright, curious and thoughtful boy. Also, he’s a plain-speaking boy as is expected for someone his age.

For his birthday, Nicky receives a beautiful box of letter-writing paper and envelopes from his Granny and his father suggests that he uses them well. Although Nicky loves writing letters (especially to his out-of-town Mummy), he’d rather do it in the company of his father.

The first letter Nicky writes is to thank his Granny for the present. Later, Nicky observes that situations around him are not what they ought to be and so, he takes action into his own hands by writing to the person in question.

One of these letters are in response to a bookstore owner’s “survey” asking his young patrons to list down their favourite books and also to inform him of any other books they might be interested in.

In his childish innocence, Nicky writes to the bookstore owner to tell him how can he be expected to know which is his favourite book in the book store if he only has the chance to see the cover?

Also, Nicky gives the bookstore owner some suggestions for the bookstore from a child’s point of view. To his surprise, Nicky is invited to the bookstore where he expects to be scolded!

Instead, the bookstore owner tells Nicky that he’s interested in his suggestions and will open up a children’s reading corner AND invites him and a friend (preferably a girl) to read there daily.

Nicky can’t believe his luck and he’s sorry he has to read in the children’s corner with his best friend’s sister (as best friend is in the hospital with appendicitis?) – hahaha, Nicky is at THAT age where boys don’t like girls and vice versa, you know?

The bookstore owner kindly puts a plate of cookies for the children to snack on as they read and soon, more and more children visit the bookstore to read at the children’s corner…

I shall have to stop here as I don’t want to give the story away but safe to say that “Love from Nicky” is a really enjoyable book because it’s about the adventures of a young boy and his letters to the people around him!

Although Nicky gets into scrapes now and then, which gets his Dad upset with him, life turns out well in the end and yes, Nicky still continues to write his letters :-)

I don’t think “Love from Nicky” is in print anymore but I’d certainly like to save this book for Lucas to read when he’s older! And yes, I HOPE a movie producer in search of inspiration for a children’s Christmas movie would consider this book!!!


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