Product Description

Clown finds himself thrown head-first into a dustbin with an assortment of other discarded toys. Bravely he takes charge of his fate and goes off in search of help - and a new home. Winner of the 1996 Bologna Ragazzi Award.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37117 in Books
• Published on: 1998-04-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
A charming book that could be characterized as "a silent film between book covers". Follow the fortunes of Clown, an exuberant fellow who starts out in a dustbin but ends up with a happy family in this inventive picture story. Master illustrator Quentin Blake has created an irrepressible character, an action-filled plot and an eloquent story that can be read on several levels--all without the use of a single word.

Customer Reviews

Heart-warming tale where you supply the words!
This wonderful story is told in pictures alone. Quentin Blake's cartoon style drawings are, as always, very expressive and lend themselves to a rich world of imagination. The bare bones of the story is that a group of toys are chucked out into the dustbin. Clown pulls himself out and sets out to rescue his friends by befriending anyone who will help. After a few very funny false starts, he is thrown through the window of a family who are finding it tough. The mother is exhausted and out at work, and a small girl and a baby are left to cope alone (without toys). Clown leads them to more toys and a bunch of flowers for mum. We can safely assume they all live happily ever after. In addition to being a very special book for children and adults, it is also a useful resource for those in education teaching children with English as a second language or others with special needs.

use in education
I used Clown with a year 3 class. There are so many possibilities. I used it to teach children drama, each group acted out a scene and then we put all the scenes together. I also used it to get children to add their own text and speech bubbles. These are only a couple of ideas but you can imagine that there are an endless list of ways that this book could be used in the classroom to promote creativity! Enjoy!

A wonderful picture story...
I was sorry to see that this wonderful book might be out of print. One of Blake's classics, it's a story without words, told in the way that only Blake can. The whole range of emotions are covered, with the best of happy endings. Reprint, please!