Dylan the Shopkeeper

Guy Parker-Rees

DYLAN THE SHOPKEEPER is the second picture book in a series featuring an exuberant stripy dog, who just loves to play. Created by bestselling illustrator Guy Parker-Rees, Dylan is a joyous new character who uses playing and fun to help toddlers explore and understand their world. Today Dylan is playing at being a shopkeeper. It’s all great fun, until his friends, Jolly Otter and Purple Puss, decide they want to be shopkeepers, too! Dylan’s friend, Dotty Bug, also appears on every page, encouraging readers to join in with the story.
Last year the world was introduced to Dylan, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees in his first book, Dylan the Doctor. It was a beautifully wonderful book about a dog and his animal friends enjoying imaginative play as they treated wounds and Dylan became a “doctor” for the day. It was bright, colourful and easy to read. Along with being fun and creative, I absolutely loved that this book invites the reader to join in with the story too, asking them questions on each of the pages.
Fortunately, Dylan the Shopkeeper is just as good as the first book in this series. In this book Dylan finds an old till drawer and so he wants to become a shopkeeper and use his till. The book follows his play as he invites his friends to purchase things from his shop. Things don’t go exactly to plan and it’s all dealt with so brilliantly, just as you would imagine young children would actually behave. Thus allowing the reader to truly immerse themselves in the story.
On top of that, this book is once again full of bright illustrations and full of creative play. It is fun, entertaining and I am certain that it would keep children interested from start to finish. I absolutely loved the story from start to finish and could definitely re-read it over and over – a very important thing for a children’s book as most likely a child will want to read it again and again! It is full of hope, friendship and imagination.
Basically, this is a wonderful picture book that I would definitely recommend and cannot wait to share with my neice!
Reviewed by Faye