Product Description

Charlie Cook is reading a book about a pirate captain, who is reading a book about Goldilocks, who is reading about a knight, who is reading about a frog . . . From kings and queens to aliens and ghosts, there's something for everyone in Charlie's amazing book! Entertaining and original – another winner from the best picture book team in the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #708 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

About the Author

Julia Donaldson is one of the UK's most popular children's authors. In addition to the modern classic, THE GRUFFALO (0 333 71093 2), her most recent collaborations with Axel Scheffler include THE SNAIL AND THE WHALE (0 333 98224 X) and THE GRUFFALO'S CHILD (1 405 02046 6). Julia is also the author of the young fiction series, PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE, and is much in demand for her brilliant events for children at schools, libraries and literary festivals.

Axel Scheffler has achieved worldwide acclaim for his humorous illustrations, which are published in over 30 countries. He has enjoyed particular success in his collaborations with Julia Donaldson, for which their many awards include the Smarties Gold Prize, the WH Smith Children's Book of the Year, the Blue Peter Best Book to Read Aloud and Children's Audio Book of the Year. He is also the best-selling illustrator of novelty books such as THE BEDTIME BEAR (1 405 04993 6).

Customer Reviews

Wow! Another cracker.
My son (3) and daughter (5) saw this in the bookshop, recognized Axel Scheffer's style and pleaded with me to read it there and then. So I did and we all loved it. Donaldson's books are always great and usually fantastic. This one is definitely at the top end of this spectrum. The story moves, with trademark rhythm and rhyme, along a bookshelf and in each a character is reading..from the next one... so in the book Charlie reads, a character is reading a book and so on until the story comes full circle via pirates, burglars, aliens, a friendly ghost, Goldilocks, royalty with a giant cake birthday cake. Each theme appeals to preschool children, and each book visited looks different and inviting, and it is great for boys especially. Although it's a clever concept the story is straightforward, and it seems less wordy than, say, The Gruffalo. The children love flicking back to the very beginning and following the progress of the story on the end-papers. And let's be honest, so do I! A must-have for all children of 2-5.

Wonderfully creative storytelling
My three-year-old daughter got this book for her birthday from someone who spotted that she was a big fan of Donaldson's Gruffalo books. It has the same melodic rhyming text as those, and a unique story:

Charlie Cook's favourite book is about a pirate - who finds a book on a desert island that is about a....

And so each double spread is a mini story of its own, and they all link together and eventually come full circle.

Whilst my daughter likes the characters and the stories, she's too young (at the moment) to notice all the detail. A book being read by a baddie in prison has got loads of quirky doodles in the margin, and a book found by a crocodile has got teeth marks in the corner - very clever.

Every time we read it I always see something new - and I'm always tickled by a great rhyme with 'encyclopaedia'.

Highly enjoyable at every reading (and I've done lots!)

best book since The Gruffalo
This is a story about a story - something children under 3 probably won't get but which those over it will love. A small boy reads his favourite book, a pirate tale in which another character reads their own favourite book, and so on - until CHarlie himself appears back in someone else's favourite book. It's a little like the Ahlbergs' classic, Each Peach, Pear, Plum in that it plays with fairytale characters such as Goldilocks; and a little like their It Was A Dark & Stormy Night. What it's really about is the pleasure of reading, but children will just love it for its rollocking rhymes ands Scheffler's bright, funny, magical pictures - stuffed with the kind of detail that is fun to spot. One to read again and again before bedtime!