Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book

Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler(illustrator)
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.
We are big fans of Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler and my four year old is busy ensuring we get the whole collection as quickly as possible!
While this story doesn’t capture the interest of Samuel, who is almost three, like a lot of Donaldson/Scheffler books do, Joshua who is four and a half really enjoys it. Told, as usual, in rhyme and with fabulous illustrations this story goes round in a full circle, starting with Charlie Cook who is curled up in a cosy chair reading his favourite book, in which the main character finds a book… As it goes on, each character in each book goes on to find a book in which is the next main character.
Maybe that sounds confusing, but you quickly get into it and on first reading it’s a surprise to find out what’s on the next page.
Verdict:You can’t fail to be drawn in by Julia Donaldson’s wonderful poetry and Alex Scheffler’s fabulous illustrations and while this may not be quite suitable for very young readers, I think older pre-schoolers will really enjoy it.
Reviewed by Lesley