The woods by Paul Hoppe

What do you do when you’ve lost your bedtime bunny? Why you march on out and find him!  Don’t worry that it’s the middle of the night and the only place left to look is the deep, dark woods!

In the search for his bunny, a young boy encounters many creatures   - a big, brown scary bear, two giants, a fire-breathing triple-headed dragon and a big, hairy, monster.  Each new creature is even scarier than the last!

How will he cope with these fearsome creatures? And, the big question, who has his beloved bunny?

Appeal of this title to a beginner reader

If your child likes to feel a little scared by the unknown or indeed by big, brown scary bears and hairy monsters, then this is definitely the book for them.

The cover first grabbed Tessa’s attention. She pointed out the “scary eyes watching the boy” but was not at all put off and choose this book over the many others read this week as her ‘Top title.’

It covers your classic children’s themes  -  “Don’t be afraid of the dark” and “With a little help from my friends”  and covers them brilliantly, with humour, exaggeration and sensitivity. And there is a lovely little twist in the tale, too.

‘The Woods’ is a fun read aloud with lots of repetition and obvious places for kids to join in. Tessa particularly loved the anticipation  “And we weren’t afraid at all. Until…  

We ran into a “SCARY, FIRE - BREATHING TRIPLE- HEADED DRAGON “ 

She recognises a change in font size and boldness means more emphasis when reading aloud  - giving her free licence to feign terror with horrified  “aghhhhhhhhs”  in all the appropriate places.

But her favourite part was using her most scariest voice to repeat the descriptions of each new character, for example  “a big! brown! hairy! BEAR! “  This book is reassuring, not scary and most young readers will love it too. Great fun!