Product Description

Ben and Bella are having such a lovely, splashy time in the big red bath that soon everyone wants to join in the fun! But will there be room for all the animals . . . even Hippopotamus? A riotous story – brought to life by young, bright, friendly illustrations from a bestselling, award-winning artist.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17998 in Books
• Published on: 2005-03-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

The Children's Bookseller 19 March 2004
Repetition,rhymes and the energy of the whole thing make this ideal for reading aloud - to loads of rubba-dubba giggles.

The Bookseller 19 March 2004
The exuberant splashy illustrations by Adrian Reynolds are among his best to date.

From the Author
I have a big red bath just like the one in this book. My grandchildren love bathing in it with ALL their bath toys. Splish! Splash! Splosh! One day they frothed up so many bubbles I could hardly see them, or their toys, or even the big red bath! Where had they gone? What if ...?

Customer Reviews

Again Grandma!
The bath, in the life of a very young child, is a special place and bathtime an opportunity for exploration, discovery, recklessness and bouts of laughter. The repeated experience is hugely significant in the child's development but, it seems, taken for granted, certainly in literary terms - until now. Julia Jarman captures all its delights in her wonderful book. And she accomplishes this with such exuberance and sensitivity to what will enchant AND amuse a child that it is little wonder that the story is valued by children, parents and teachers.

This is a big, bright book with colourful illustration, rich in fascinating detail but clear and instant in its appeal. Left to themselves little ones pour over the pictures but soon, and yet again, they want the story.

The vocabulary, often onomatopoeic, is always appropriate and the bouncing rhythm and clever rhyming verse hold the children in thrall. Each page increases the excitement and then there's the sigh of satisfaction at the end, followed by 'Again'. I know. I've read the book countless times.

As an ex-teacher I could 'bang on' about its other virtues: promotion and reinforcement of language development and pre-reading skills, the stimulation of the pleasures to be found in books. This will reassure those parents anxious about the right sort of material for their children.

I prefer to stress the real strength of this book. It offers a happy - in fact I would go so far as to say a truly joyful - shared reading experience. My seven grandchildren and their parents enjoy it enormously and it's given me some precious times too.

My granddaughter's favourite
This book is perfect for reading aloud, which is one reason I like it so much. My grandchildren adore it, and I like to think that it's not only the lovely text and the brightly-coloured pictures that are so delightful, but also my action-packed rendering of the poem.For this book is a poem: a swinging-along, join-in-the-chorus type of poem and it always goes down a treat. The subject matter (a bathtime in which everyone joins in) segues from the ordinary to the faintly mad to the totally fantastical and then comes home again to normality. Just the thing for Christmas, if you like cuddling up in a big armchair and letting rip.

Bathful of fun
This is a brilliant book for young children to read or have read to them. It was voted a 'big success' by my class of Year 4 children [8 & 9 year olds] when we reviewed it. Imaginative ideas, rhyming words and phrases, fabulous illustrations and a great sense of fun make this book an excellent one to have on your child's shelf.