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 Product Description
"Each Peach Pear Plum. I spy Tom Thumb!" In this engaging, interactive book for the very young, familiar nursery-rhyme characters such as Mother Hubbard and Baby Bunting sneak their way into the gentle drawings. Even young children who might not know all the fairy-tale stars can find them lurking in the cupboard, on the stairs or deep in the woods. In the happy finale, the whole cast meets up for plum pie in the sun, where the little one on your lap will gleefully find everyone.
Customer Reviews
Lovely and gentle, 03 Aug 2008
Such a lovely board book and in my opinion it's perfect for babies and toddlers of any age really.
It's especially good for reading before a daytime nap (or any winding down time) as the beautiful rhymes and gentle illustrations can be quite soothing.
My 2 year old daughter loves it and I highly recommend it.
Buy it and you'll soon see...it will come out from the bookshelf time and time again.
amazing book let down by presentation, 26 Jan 2008
As all the other reviews say, this is an out and out classic children's book - a must have.
This copy, however, is dreadful. The paper is thin and overly glossy, making it difficult to get to the next page and it could do with being bigger as it's really all about the pictures. I bought where the wild things are at the same time and that is amazingly presented, highlighting the problem with this further. This seems like a pamphlet or concert programme - cheap.
Save money and get the board book. It's smaller but the pictures are sharper.
Charming, 14 Sep 2007
What a perfectly charming book. Children love the bouncy rhyme and they recognise many famous characters such as tom thumb and cinderella. Statistics show that if a child is not interested in a reading by the time they are 7 they never will be. This is a brilliant introduction to literature!
Lovely for young children, 06 Apr 2007
This is a lovely book for young children. Mine love looking on every page for the hidden character, and the rhyming text is great and easy to remember so little ones can join in when they've heard it a few times.
My 3 kids love this one!
Read this as a child, 13 Sep 2006
I read this book when I was in nursery school and 20 years on I still love it, this is one that my children will read. The rhyme is simple yet effective, the pictures are beautiful to look at and enjoyable as you follow the story and find the characters. A must have in every family.
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Mixed Up Fairy Tales
Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
*Best price found from Amazon Marketplace seller
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*Amazon: £3.06
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Customer Reviews
Lovely and gentle, 03 Aug 2008
Such a lovely board book and in my opinion it's perfect for babies and toddlers of any age really.
It's especially good for reading before a daytime nap (or any winding down time) as the beautiful rhymes and gentle illustrations can be quite soothing.
My 2 year old daughter loves it and I highly recommend it.
Buy it and you'll soon see...it will come out from the bookshelf time and time again.
amazing book let down by presentation, 26 Jan 2008
As all the other reviews say, this is an out and out classic children's book - a must have.
This copy, however, is dreadful. The paper is thin and overly glossy, making it difficult to get to the next page and it could do with being bigger as it's really all about the pictures. I bought where the wild things are at the same time and that is amazingly presented, highlighting the problem with this further. This seems like a pamphlet or concert programme - cheap.
Save money and get the board book. It's smaller but the pictures are sharper.
Charming, 14 Sep 2007
What a perfectly charming book. Children love the bouncy rhyme and they recognise many famous characters such as tom thumb and cinderella. Statistics show that if a child is not interested in a reading by the time they are 7 they never will be. This is a brilliant introduction to literature!
Lovely for young children, 06 Apr 2007
This is a lovely book for young children. Mine love looking on every page for the hidden character, and the rhyming text is great and easy to remember so little ones can join in when they've heard it a few times.
My 3 kids love this one!
Read this as a child, 13 Sep 2006
I read this book when I was in nursery school and 20 years on I still love it, this is one that my children will read. The rhyme is simple yet effective, the pictures are beautiful to look at and enjoyable as you follow the story and find the characters. A must have in every family.
Great simple entertainment, 07 Jul 2008
This got my 3 1/2 year old laughing in delight at the silly results of his page choices. He would not let me put it down, and though I had initialy bought it as a present for someone else, i will have to buy another copy. He was thrilled to know which stories the pages came from, and mixing them up brought him great entertainment. A big hit.
The perfect gift, 23 May 2008
I can't think of a more wonderful gift for any child. This book has everything - from lovely illustrations to a link to familiar fairytales, great opportunity for humour, creativity .... what more could one want? My daughter has entertained herself and the whole rest of the family endlessly with this book and it's such a pleasure as a parent, too, to be able to sit down and have some fun with fairy tales from a slightly different perspective.
A brilliant, high quality children's book!, 09 Mar 2008
This is yet another of Hilary Robinson's fabulous children's books and as a Pre-School (Nursery) teacher, it's one that I love sharing with children and a book they relish. The delicious pleasure and the infectious laughter they explode with from the hilarious permutations of the stories is a delight to share.
Well done Hilary and Nick...this is a brilliant book that even the adults get a great giggle from as they read it to their children!
LOVE IT!!
Amazing, 29 Oct 2007
My children entertained for more than 30 minutes.
It is a good book then.
They have to make their own story.
Great concept
Hilarious, 26 Jul 2006
A fantastic book that takes well know fairy tales and allows you to mix them up. It has kept my kids, (a boy aged 5 and a girl aged 9) amused for hours - not to mention their parents. It is an excellent book for encouraging beginner or reluctant readers as it allows them to choose what they want to read, and then delivers it in short phases, with good picture clues. An example.. Jack...grew and grew to the size of a house...and dreamt about marrying...Little Red Riding Hood's Granny. I will be buying a stack of these books as they will make excellent birthday presents!
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Customer Reviews
Lovely and gentle, 03 Aug 2008
Such a lovely board book and in my opinion it's perfect for babies and toddlers of any age really.
It's especially good for reading before a daytime nap (or any winding down time) as the beautiful rhymes and gentle illustrations can be quite soothing.
My 2 year old daughter loves it and I highly recommend it.
Buy it and you'll soon see...it will come out from the bookshelf time and time again.
amazing book let down by presentation, 26 Jan 2008
As all the other reviews say, this is an out and out classic children's book - a must have.
This copy, however, is dreadful. The paper is thin and overly glossy, making it difficult to get to the next page and it could do with being bigger as it's really all about the pictures. I bought where the wild things are at the same time and that is amazingly presented, highlighting the problem with this further. This seems like a pamphlet or concert programme - cheap.
Save money and get the board book. It's smaller but the pictures are sharper.
Charming, 14 Sep 2007
What a perfectly charming book. Children love the bouncy rhyme and they recognise many famous characters such as tom thumb and cinderella. Statistics show that if a child is not interested in a reading by the time they are 7 they never will be. This is a brilliant introduction to literature!
Lovely for young children, 06 Apr 2007
This is a lovely book for young children. Mine love looking on every page for the hidden character, and the rhyming text is great and easy to remember so little ones can join in when they've heard it a few times.
My 3 kids love this one!
Read this as a child, 13 Sep 2006
I read this book when I was in nursery school and 20 years on I still love it, this is one that my children will read. The rhyme is simple yet effective, the pictures are beautiful to look at and enjoyable as you follow the story and find the characters. A must have in every family.
Great simple entertainment, 07 Jul 2008
This got my 3 1/2 year old laughing in delight at the silly results of his page choices. He would not let me put it down, and though I had initialy bought it as a present for someone else, i will have to buy another copy. He was thrilled to know which stories the pages came from, and mixing them up brought him great entertainment. A big hit.
The perfect gift, 23 May 2008
I can't think of a more wonderful gift for any child. This book has everything - from lovely illustrations to a link to familiar fairytales, great opportunity for humour, creativity .... what more could one want? My daughter has entertained herself and the whole rest of the family endlessly with this book and it's such a pleasure as a parent, too, to be able to sit down and have some fun with fairy tales from a slightly different perspective.
A brilliant, high quality children's book!, 09 Mar 2008
This is yet another of Hilary Robinson's fabulous children's books and as a Pre-School (Nursery) teacher, it's one that I love sharing with children and a book they relish. The delicious pleasure and the infectious laughter they explode with from the hilarious permutations of the stories is a delight to share.
Well done Hilary and Nick...this is a brilliant book that even the adults get a great giggle from as they read it to their children!
LOVE IT!!
Amazing, 29 Oct 2007
My children entertained for more than 30 minutes.
It is a good book then.
They have to make their own story.
Great concept
Hilarious, 26 Jul 2006
A fantastic book that takes well know fairy tales and allows you to mix them up. It has kept my kids, (a boy aged 5 and a girl aged 9) amused for hours - not to mention their parents. It is an excellent book for encouraging beginner or reluctant readers as it allows them to choose what they want to read, and then delivers it in short phases, with good picture clues. An example.. Jack...grew and grew to the size of a house...and dreamt about marrying...Little Red Riding Hood's Granny. I will be buying a stack of these books as they will make excellent birthday presents!
Delicious Miniature, 09 Aug 2008
On the state of the nation's punctuation: this sounds like the kind of essay topic a prefect would award a wayward junior as punishment for some minor infringement ("500 words on the inside of a ping-pong ball", etc). However, this book turns out to be a funny, clever and witty tragi-comic diatribe.
Simply a wonderful book for learning punctuation, 01 Apr 2008
A gem of a book. I would recommend this book for just about anyone who's wanting to improve their punctuation, as well as those who feel they need to refresh or even re-learn the art of punctuation.
It's a great and easy read and can even be used as a decent reference.
You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way, 28 Jan 2008
How does a book about how to use commas and colons properly have lodged itself at No 1 on bestseller lists? Maybe Lynne Truss' books success shows that it is not just a few reactionaries who care. Truss agrees it's selling off the internet and stickler-types probably don't do their shopping on the internet. Lynne Truss wonders if there might be readers whose higher education has given them at least a guilty conscience about what they have not been taught, suddenly thinking that perhaps it does matter and I wouldn't mind knowing this stuff. Those copies stacked in Waterstone's might show that there are plenty of people who want to be, as Lynne Truss puts it, 'virtuous'.
While Truss says that 'despair' gave this book its impetus, she does not sound despairing either in print or in person. The title itself is a joke, about an irate panda who walks into a cafe, orders a sandwich, eats it, draws a gun and fires two shots into the air. The waiter finds the explanation for this erratic behavior in a badly punctuated wildlife manual which the bear leaves behind: Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! tells you the rules, but is also full of jokes and anecdotes. It is a sort of celebration of punctuation. You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way. She speaks of the delights of the semi-colon with relish. She has listened to the man from the Apostrophe Protection Society (yes, it exists) but does not sound like a member of any such group. "I was so worried when I wrote the book that people would assume that anyone interested in this subject would be small-minded". --Lynne Truss.
I don't really know where punctuation is going. But this is a very good moment to look at it and see what state it's in. The internet and emails have come along very conveniently for people who didn't learn punctuation and can therefore get by. Punctuation helps give rhythm and a tone of voice to writing, and Truss thinks it no accident that readers of emails often find it difficult to pick up the tone of the person who's written it, with all those dashes. The grace notes get lopped off and it becomes very bald. So people start needing exclamation marks and capital letters, desperately trying to express a tone of voice.
A joy to read, 17 Jan 2008
This book was a joy to read for me, and it was also research at the same time. I never realized how many punctuation errors people make. Some of these errors drive me crazy, too. I can't stand when people confuse their, there, and they're. This book was good research for me because I wrote my own book about English grammar, but only one chapter deals with punctuation.
Brandon Simpson
I now know I'm not alone..., 08 Jan 2008
By my title, I mean that I know there are other people out there who care about punctuation as much as I do! Truss writes with passion, verve and clarity about the decline in punctuation and the repercussions of this often infuriating issue. I read it from cover to cover in a few days and enjoyed her witty (often self-deprecating) humour and the illustrative examples of awful punctuation peppered throughout the book. Great for those with an interest in language, or simply anybody who wishes to take pride in the English language and its delightful nuances that are granted by correctly applied punctuation!
In relation to another reviewer's comments, this isn't a reference book and doesn't claim to be one; if you're after a desktop reference for punctuation then look elsewhere.
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Blind Faith
Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
*Best price found from Amazon Marketplace seller
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*Amazon: £0.77
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Customer Reviews
Lovely and gentle, 03 Aug 2008
Such a lovely board book and in my opinion it's perfect for babies and toddlers of any age really.
It's especially good for reading before a daytime nap (or any winding down time) as the beautiful rhymes and gentle illustrations can be quite soothing.
My 2 year old daughter loves it and I highly recommend it.
Buy it and you'll soon see...it will come out from the bookshelf time and time again.
amazing book let down by presentation, 26 Jan 2008
As all the other reviews say, this is an out and out classic children's book - a must have.
This copy, however, is dreadful. The paper is thin and overly glossy, making it difficult to get to the next page and it could do with being bigger as it's really all about the pictures. I bought where the wild things are at the same time and that is amazingly presented, highlighting the problem with this further. This seems like a pamphlet or concert programme - cheap.
Save money and get the board book. It's smaller but the pictures are sharper.
Charming, 14 Sep 2007
What a perfectly charming book. Children love the bouncy rhyme and they recognise many famous characters such as tom thumb and cinderella. Statistics show that if a child is not interested in a reading by the time they are 7 they never will be. This is a brilliant introduction to literature!
Lovely for young children, 06 Apr 2007
This is a lovely book for young children. Mine love looking on every page for the hidden character, and the rhyming text is great and easy to remember so little ones can join in when they've heard it a few times.
My 3 kids love this one!
Read this as a child, 13 Sep 2006
I read this book when I was in nursery school and 20 years on I still love it, this is one that my children will read. The rhyme is simple yet effective, the pictures are beautiful to look at and enjoyable as you follow the story and find the characters. A must have in every family.
Great simple entertainment, 07 Jul 2008
This got my 3 1/2 year old laughing in delight at the silly results of his page choices. He would not let me put it down, and though I had initialy bought it as a present for someone else, i will have to buy another copy. He was thrilled to know which stories the pages came from, and mixing them up brought him great entertainment. A big hit.
The perfect gift, 23 May 2008
I can't think of a more wonderful gift for any child. This book has everything - from lovely illustrations to a link to familiar fairytales, great opportunity for humour, creativity .... what more could one want? My daughter has entertained herself and the whole rest of the family endlessly with this book and it's such a pleasure as a parent, too, to be able to sit down and have some fun with fairy tales from a slightly different perspective.
A brilliant, high quality children's book!, 09 Mar 2008
This is yet another of Hilary Robinson's fabulous children's books and as a Pre-School (Nursery) teacher, it's one that I love sharing with children and a book they relish. The delicious pleasure and the infectious laughter they explode with from the hilarious permutations of the stories is a delight to share.
Well done Hilary and Nick...this is a brilliant book that even the adults get a great giggle from as they read it to their children!
LOVE IT!!
Amazing, 29 Oct 2007
My children entertained for more than 30 minutes.
It is a good book then.
They have to make their own story.
Great concept
Hilarious, 26 Jul 2006
A fantastic book that takes well know fairy tales and allows you to mix them up. It has kept my kids, (a boy aged 5 and a girl aged 9) amused for hours - not to mention their parents. It is an excellent book for encouraging beginner or reluctant readers as it allows them to choose what they want to read, and then delivers it in short phases, with good picture clues. An example.. Jack...grew and grew to the size of a house...and dreamt about marrying...Little Red Riding Hood's Granny. I will be buying a stack of these books as they will make excellent birthday presents!
Delicious Miniature, 09 Aug 2008
On the state of the nation's punctuation: this sounds like the kind of essay topic a prefect would award a wayward junior as punishment for some minor infringement ("500 words on the inside of a ping-pong ball", etc). However, this book turns out to be a funny, clever and witty tragi-comic diatribe.
Simply a wonderful book for learning punctuation, 01 Apr 2008
A gem of a book. I would recommend this book for just about anyone who's wanting to improve their punctuation, as well as those who feel they need to refresh or even re-learn the art of punctuation.
It's a great and easy read and can even be used as a decent reference.
You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way, 28 Jan 2008
How does a book about how to use commas and colons properly have lodged itself at No 1 on bestseller lists? Maybe Lynne Truss' books success shows that it is not just a few reactionaries who care. Truss agrees it's selling off the internet and stickler-types probably don't do their shopping on the internet. Lynne Truss wonders if there might be readers whose higher education has given them at least a guilty conscience about what they have not been taught, suddenly thinking that perhaps it does matter and I wouldn't mind knowing this stuff. Those copies stacked in Waterstone's might show that there are plenty of people who want to be, as Lynne Truss puts it, 'virtuous'.
While Truss says that 'despair' gave this book its impetus, she does not sound despairing either in print or in person. The title itself is a joke, about an irate panda who walks into a cafe, orders a sandwich, eats it, draws a gun and fires two shots into the air. The waiter finds the explanation for this erratic behavior in a badly punctuated wildlife manual which the bear leaves behind: Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! tells you the rules, but is also full of jokes and anecdotes. It is a sort of celebration of punctuation. You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way. She speaks of the delights of the semi-colon with relish. She has listened to the man from the Apostrophe Protection Society (yes, it exists) but does not sound like a member of any such group. "I was so worried when I wrote the book that people would assume that anyone interested in this subject would be small-minded". --Lynne Truss.
I don't really know where punctuation is going. But this is a very good moment to look at it and see what state it's in. The internet and emails have come along very conveniently for people who didn't learn punctuation and can therefore get by. Punctuation helps give rhythm and a tone of voice to writing, and Truss thinks it no accident that readers of emails often find it difficult to pick up the tone of the person who's written it, with all those dashes. The grace notes get lopped off and it becomes very bald. So people start needing exclamation marks and capital letters, desperately trying to express a tone of voice.
A joy to read, 17 Jan 2008
This book was a joy to read for me, and it was also research at the same time. I never realized how many punctuation errors people make. Some of these errors drive me crazy, too. I can't stand when people confuse their, there, and they're. This book was good research for me because I wrote my own book about English grammar, but only one chapter deals with punctuation.
Brandon Simpson
I now know I'm not alone..., 08 Jan 2008
By my title, I mean that I know there are other people out there who care about punctuation as much as I do! Truss writes with passion, verve and clarity about the decline in punctuation and the repercussions of this often infuriating issue. I read it from cover to cover in a few days and enjoyed her witty (often self-deprecating) humour and the illustrative examples of awful punctuation peppered throughout the book. Great for those with an interest in language, or simply anybody who wishes to take pride in the English language and its delightful nuances that are granted by correctly applied punctuation!
In relation to another reviewer's comments, this isn't a reference book and doesn't claim to be one; if you're after a desktop reference for punctuation then look elsewhere.
Not good., 03 Oct 2008
Ben Elton is not the writer George Orwell is. Unfortunately, he is not even a good writer. He's just a popular one. Ironically, his populist works will be read by all the people he hates in this novel.
This book is simplistic - there are no literary merits, and no hidden meanings. It won't get read for a second time by anyone hoping to find a new theme. They aren't there. As others have said, there is nothing subtle or discreet here.
For instance, Elton could make all kinds of comments on the nature of people who go around half naked all day long, but (apparently) the author is only disgusted by the fat ones. NOT the character, but the author. In fact, if he wants to make any individual utterly without redeeming features, he makes them fat. A bit like the way a schoolboy might point and giggle.
This kind of mealy-mouthed nastiness is exactly what Elton is having a (loud) pop at. Such a shame he doesn't recognise his own failings.
We all have our little sacred cows and our whipping boys. It's a shame that Mr Elton's are so obvious.
An absolutely terrible book, 23 Sep 2008
This is the worst book I've ever read. Stupid, ridiculous, anything but thoughtful. Save your money!
Very different , 19 Sep 2008
Having just read a very turgid novel, it was a relief to read Blind Faith as a flowing original view on a futuristic society. It is a great comment on modern paranoia transgressing into a fake plastic society based on the Internet generation hooked on reality TV and dismissive of inoculation as evil. Some great Ben Elton humour throughout and another original offering - Ben's only ever written 1 book that I have not enjoyed to date (Dead Famous)
Certainly Worth Reading!, 15 Sep 2008
[Plot spoiler warning : this review mentions some elements of the plot]
I saw an advert for this book on a bus shelter one day and decided to buy it based purely on the sub-title on the cover :
`If you thought you understood the world we live in, think again ...'
That intrigued me greatly and I made a mental note of it there and then.
I thought it was going to be a factual book and I was surprised on looking up Amazon that it was a novel, but I decided to purchase it anyway. I have never read any of Ben Elton's book, but I generally found this to be excellent and would highly recommend it. Though it's not to be taken too seriously, there is much in it that does reflect, albeit in hilarious terms, many aspects of our society today. For example the propensity to record everything digitally, plastic surgery, over-eating, Jerry Springer type TV confessional shows, group hugs at work, and emoting about one's feelings. And its all set in a future where sea levels have risen so much that cities like London have been reduced to an Archepelago. Elton writes brilliantly and I found his accounts of everyday situations in this nightmarish future world to be utterly hilarious and displaying a very vivid imagination. I am surprised that a number of people in these reviews didn't find it funny. Though perhaps this just says how funny his other books must be.
The last book I read before this one was `Young Stalin' by Simon Sebag Montefiore, and I wonder how many people who have read that book have also read this book (now there's an interesting DegSep problem for analysis!). But I found a strange connection between these two books in places - the small secretive resistance movement and its library of books and the desire to lend these books to others reminded me of the pre-revolution Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, including Stalin himself (a prolific book-lender), which also I read about in the `Young Stalin' book. Also the `Conspiratsia' described in that book was to be found also in Elton's book, in the highly duplicitous actions of Sandra Dee, the government spy. The aspects of `who can you trust' in these dangerous revolutionary situations is conveyed well in Elton's book, through the Sandra Dee character, and it is this very theme that has much to do with the nature and brutality of the Stalin regime which killed 25 million, largely innocent, Russian people. Elton shows a good understanding of revolutionary politics.
On the subject of religion, do religions really encourage this sort of self-promotion and self-indulgence ? I would have thought they would be teaching their flock to evangelise about the religion rather than draw attention to themselves.
Also isn't the reason for all the digital recording simply the affordability and availability of these technologies ? To my mind it is amazing that such technology can be so widely available. It is truly shameful that such sophisticated technology can be used for such innane purposes - underlining man's mischievious `primate' origins. The sad fact is that material wealth and comfort really doesn't forge `good characters' - more challenging experiences do so.
Also isn't the western world very `stuck up' on the notion of privacy ? Isn't our capitalist system founded on the notion of private property ? Privacy is our national obsession, surely ? What about that good old British `privat hedge' to keep those neighbours at arm's length ?
Sandra Dee's cynical view of humanity is one of the most depressing world views I have ever read anywhere in my life. By any spiritual standard at all this would be classed as total blasphemy - namely the wholesale denigration of the value of virtually the entirety of humanity. To assert that it is not worth doing anything `good' for humanity at all because of its extreme moral decrepitude is the blackest pessimism imaginable. Likewise is the assertion that humanity would make all the same mistakes all over again, if given the chance to try.
I was disappointed with the ending to some extent. I think Elton may have succombed to very temptation he so sardonically described in his book, namely by giving his audience a very bloody, dark and violent conclusion. There is so much more that could have been done with the conclusion to this book and I'm sure Elton could have done it brilliantly. Its just like he ended it in something of a hurry. But perhaps though he felt despite the humour that it was a dark novel and didn't want it to be any longer.
All in all though its well worth a read.
vision of the future?, 30 Aug 2008
Not as funny as some of Ben Elton's other offerings, but still worth a read. An eerie glimpse of what could be if we don't stop watching reality tv shows!!
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Screen Burn
Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
*Best price found from Amazon Marketplace seller
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*Amazon: £4.74
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Customer Reviews
Lovely and gentle, 03 Aug 2008
Such a lovely board book and in my opinion it's perfect for babies and toddlers of any age really.
It's especially good for reading before a daytime nap (or any winding down time) as the beautiful rhymes and gentle illustrations can be quite soothing.
My 2 year old daughter loves it and I highly recommend it.
Buy it and you'll soon see...it will come out from the bookshelf time and time again.
amazing book let down by presentation, 26 Jan 2008
As all the other reviews say, this is an out and out classic children's book - a must have.
This copy, however, is dreadful. The paper is thin and overly glossy, making it difficult to get to the next page and it could do with being bigger as it's really all about the pictures. I bought where the wild things are at the same time and that is amazingly presented, highlighting the problem with this further. This seems like a pamphlet or concert programme - cheap.
Save money and get the board book. It's smaller but the pictures are sharper.
Charming, 14 Sep 2007
What a perfectly charming book. Children love the bouncy rhyme and they recognise many famous characters such as tom thumb and cinderella. Statistics show that if a child is not interested in a reading by the time they are 7 they never will be. This is a brilliant introduction to literature!
Lovely for young children, 06 Apr 2007
This is a lovely book for young children. Mine love looking on every page for the hidden character, and the rhyming text is great and easy to remember so little ones can join in when they've heard it a few times.
My 3 kids love this one!
Read this as a child, 13 Sep 2006
I read this book when I was in nursery school and 20 years on I still love it, this is one that my children will read. The rhyme is simple yet effective, the pictures are beautiful to look at and enjoyable as you follow the story and find the characters. A must have in every family.
Great simple entertainment, 07 Jul 2008
This got my 3 1/2 year old laughing in delight at the silly results of his page choices. He would not let me put it down, and though I had initialy bought it as a present for someone else, i will have to buy another copy. He was thrilled to know which stories the pages came from, and mixing them up brought him great entertainment. A big hit.
The perfect gift, 23 May 2008
I can't think of a more wonderful gift for any child. This book has everything - from lovely illustrations to a link to familiar fairytales, great opportunity for humour, creativity .... what more could one want? My daughter has entertained herself and the whole rest of the family endlessly with this book and it's such a pleasure as a parent, too, to be able to sit down and have some fun with fairy tales from a slightly different perspective.
A brilliant, high quality children's book!, 09 Mar 2008
This is yet another of Hilary Robinson's fabulous children's books and as a Pre-School (Nursery) teacher, it's one that I love sharing with children and a book they relish. The delicious pleasure and the infectious laughter they explode with from the hilarious permutations of the stories is a delight to share.
Well done Hilary and Nick...this is a brilliant book that even the adults get a great giggle from as they read it to their children!
LOVE IT!!
Amazing, 29 Oct 2007
My children entertained for more than 30 minutes.
It is a good book then.
They have to make their own story.
Great concept
Hilarious, 26 Jul 2006
A fantastic book that takes well know fairy tales and allows you to mix them up. It has kept my kids, (a boy aged 5 and a girl aged 9) amused for hours - not to mention their parents. It is an excellent book for encouraging beginner or reluctant readers as it allows them to choose what they want to read, and then delivers it in short phases, with good picture clues. An example.. Jack...grew and grew to the size of a house...and dreamt about marrying...Little Red Riding Hood's Granny. I will be buying a stack of these books as they will make excellent birthday presents!
Delicious Miniature, 09 Aug 2008
On the state of the nation's punctuation: this sounds like the kind of essay topic a prefect would award a wayward junior as punishment for some minor infringement ("500 words on the inside of a ping-pong ball", etc). However, this book turns out to be a funny, clever and witty tragi-comic diatribe.
Simply a wonderful book for learning punctuation, 01 Apr 2008
A gem of a book. I would recommend this book for just about anyone who's wanting to improve their punctuation, as well as those who feel they need to refresh or even re-learn the art of punctuation.
It's a great and easy read and can even be used as a decent reference.
You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way, 28 Jan 2008
How does a book about how to use commas and colons properly have lodged itself at No 1 on bestseller lists? Maybe Lynne Truss' books success shows that it is not just a few reactionaries who care. Truss agrees it's selling off the internet and stickler-types probably don't do their shopping on the internet. Lynne Truss wonders if there might be readers whose higher education has given them at least a guilty conscience about what they have not been taught, suddenly thinking that perhaps it does matter and I wouldn't mind knowing this stuff. Those copies stacked in Waterstone's might show that there are plenty of people who want to be, as Lynne Truss puts it, 'virtuous'.
While Truss says that 'despair' gave this book its impetus, she does not sound despairing either in print or in person. The title itself is a joke, about an irate panda who walks into a cafe, orders a sandwich, eats it, draws a gun and fires two shots into the air. The waiter finds the explanation for this erratic behavior in a badly punctuated wildlife manual which the bear leaves behind: Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! tells you the rules, but is also full of jokes and anecdotes. It is a sort of celebration of punctuation. You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way. She speaks of the delights of the semi-colon with relish. She has listened to the man from the Apostrophe Protection Society (yes, it exists) but does not sound like a member of any such group. "I was so worried when I wrote the book that people would assume that anyone interested in this subject would be small-minded". --Lynne Truss.
I don't really know where punctuation is going. But this is a very good moment to look at it and see what state it's in. The internet and emails have come along very conveniently for people who didn't learn punctuation and can therefore get by. Punctuation helps give rhythm and a tone of voice to writing, and Truss thinks it no accident that readers of emails often find it difficult to pick up the tone of the person who's written it, with all those dashes. The grace notes get lopped off and it becomes very bald. So people start needing exclamation marks and capital letters, desperately trying to express a tone of voice.
A joy to read, 17 Jan 2008
This book was a joy to read for me, and it was also research at the same time. I never realized how many punctuation errors people make. Some of these errors drive me crazy, too. I can't stand when people confuse their, there, and they're. This book was good research for me because I wrote my own book about English grammar, but only one chapter deals with punctuation.
Brandon Simpson
I now know I'm not alone..., 08 Jan 2008
By my title, I mean that I know there are other people out there who care about punctuation as much as I do! Truss writes with passion, verve and clarity about the decline in punctuation and the repercussions of this often infuriating issue. I read it from cover to cover in a few days and enjoyed her witty (often self-deprecating) humour and the illustrative examples of awful punctuation peppered throughout the book. Great for those with an interest in language, or simply anybody who wishes to take pride in the English language and its delightful nuances that are granted by correctly applied punctuation!
In relation to another reviewer's comments, this isn't a reference book and doesn't claim to be one; if you're after a desktop reference for punctuation then look elsewhere.
Not good., 03 Oct 2008
Ben Elton is not the writer George Orwell is. Unfortunately, he is not even a good writer. He's just a popular one. Ironically, his populist works will be read by all the people he hates in this novel.
This book is simplistic - there are no literary merits, and no hidden meanings. It won't get read for a second time by anyone hoping to find a new theme. They aren't there. As others have said, there is nothing subtle or discreet here.
For instance, Elton could make all kinds of comments on the nature of people who go around half naked all day long, but (apparently) the author is only disgusted by the fat ones. NOT the character, but the author. In fact, if he wants to make any individual utterly without redeeming features, he makes them fat. A bit like the way a schoolboy might point and giggle.
This kind of mealy-mouthed nastiness is exactly what Elton is having a (loud) pop at. Such a shame he doesn't recognise his own failings.
We all have our little sacred cows and our whipping boys. It's a shame that Mr Elton's are so obvious.
An absolutely terrible book, 23 Sep 2008
This is the worst book I've ever read. Stupid, ridiculous, anything but thoughtful. Save your money!
Very different , 19 Sep 2008
Having just read a very turgid novel, it was a relief to read Blind Faith as a flowing original view on a futuristic society. It is a great comment on modern paranoia transgressing into a fake plastic society based on the Internet generation hooked on reality TV and dismissive of inoculation as evil. Some great Ben Elton humour throughout and another original offering - Ben's only ever written 1 book that I have not enjoyed to date (Dead Famous)
Certainly Worth Reading!, 15 Sep 2008
[Plot spoiler warning : this review mentions some elements of the plot]
I saw an advert for this book on a bus shelter one day and decided to buy it based purely on the sub-title on the cover :
`If you thought you understood the world we live in, think again ...'
That intrigued me greatly and I made a mental note of it there and then.
I thought it was going to be a factual book and I was surprised on looking up Amazon that it was a novel, but I decided to purchase it anyway. I have never read any of Ben Elton's book, but I generally found this to be excellent and would highly recommend it. Though it's not to be taken too seriously, there is much in it that does reflect, albeit in hilarious terms, many aspects of our society today. For example the propensity to record everything digitally, plastic surgery, over-eating, Jerry Springer type TV confessional shows, group hugs at work, and emoting about one's feelings. And its all set in a future where sea levels have risen so much that cities like London have been reduced to an Archepelago. Elton writes brilliantly and I found his accounts of everyday situations in this nightmarish future world to be utterly hilarious and displaying a very vivid imagination. I am surprised that a number of people in these reviews didn't find it funny. Though perhaps this just says how funny his other books must be.
The last book I read before this one was `Young Stalin' by Simon Sebag Montefiore, and I wonder how many people who have read that book have also read this book (now there's an interesting DegSep problem for analysis!). But I found a strange connection between these two books in places - the small secretive resistance movement and its library of books and the desire to lend these books to others reminded me of the pre-revolution Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, including Stalin himself (a prolific book-lender), which also I read about in the `Young Stalin' book. Also the `Conspiratsia' described in that book was to be found also in Elton's book, in the highly duplicitous actions of Sandra Dee, the government spy. The aspects of `who can you trust' in these dangerous revolutionary situations is conveyed well in Elton's book, through the Sandra Dee character, and it is this very theme that has much to do with the nature and brutality of the Stalin regime which killed 25 million, largely innocent, Russian people. Elton shows a good understanding of revolutionary politics.
On the subject of religion, do religions really encourage this sort of self-promotion and self-indulgence ? I would have thought they would be teaching their flock to evangelise about the religion rather than draw attention to themselves.
Also isn't the reason for all the digital recording simply the affordability and availability of these technologies ? To my mind it is amazing that such technology can be so widely available. It is truly shameful that such sophisticated technology can be used for such innane purposes - underlining man's mischievious `primate' origins. The sad fact is that material wealth and comfort really doesn't forge `good characters' - more challenging experiences do so.
Also isn't the western world very `stuck up' on the notion of privacy ? Isn't our capitalist system founded on the notion of private property ? Privacy is our national obsession, surely ? What about that good old British `privat hedge' to keep those neighbours at arm's length ?
Sandra Dee's cynical view of humanity is one of the most depressing world views I have ever read anywhere in my life. By any spiritual standard at all this would be classed as total blasphemy - namely the wholesale denigration of the value of virtually the entirety of humanity. To assert that it is not worth doing anything `good' for humanity at all because of its extreme moral decrepitude is the blackest pessimism imaginable. Likewise is the assertion that humanity would make all the same mistakes all over again, if given the chance to try.
I was disappointed with the ending to some extent. I think Elton may have succombed to very temptation he so sardonically described in his book, namely by giving his audience a very bloody, dark and violent conclusion. There is so much more that could have been done with the conclusion to this book and I'm sure Elton could have done it brilliantly. Its just like he ended it in something of a hurry. But perhaps though he felt despite the humour that it was a dark novel and didn't want it to be any longer.
All in all though its well worth a read.
vision of the future?, 30 Aug 2008
Not as funny as some of Ben Elton's other offerings, but still worth a read. An eerie glimpse of what could be if we don't stop watching reality tv shows!!
Funniest book I have read for a while, 07 Mar 2008
I am always a little suspicious when a book tells me I will "laugh out loud" because often as not I find myself reading it stone faced waiting for nuggets of wit that never seem to come.
This book genuinely does what it says on the cover. Due mostly to a hugely funny use of over the top metaphor and comparatives.
Similar to Clarkson but funnier and ruder. Buy it, you won't regret it.
The funniest book I have ever read, 26 Nov 2007
This man's grasp of language, his misanthropy and his FURY make him the funniest non-fiction writer there is. "Screen Burn" is an absolute masterpiece of bile, wit and (in fact) refusal to burp along with the "It's just a bit of fun, innit?" mentality that poisons so much modern TV.
His reviews also prove just what an assured judge of quality he is, as he comes out in favour of programmes which have since been hailed as classics.
He is compulsively readable and magnificently, blisteringly funny.
Good read at work!!., 30 Nov 2006
Screen Burn is a collection of scathingly funny observations about TV programs taken from a popular uk newspaper from 2001-2004;and compiled into one big book.Charlie Brooker wrote the articals,and of course is the author of the book(screen burn).The articles are all in nice bite size 1-3 page chunks;so like me you can pick it up and put it down when it suits you and not loose the plot,or have the agony of putting it down when it was just getting good.Some storys had me laughing out loud,and some that i could not relate to didn't;either way you know at some point you will come across one sooner or later that will satisfy you entertainment needs.
Charley Brooker also makes you say to your-self,"yes!! it's about time someone said that about that program and this person".He certainly gives some of his 'victims' a good hiding, and pays compliments where it's due.
The reason i gave this only three stars is because he can rant a bit to much,and could write a bit more about some of the TV programs that i myself thought were a load of old tosh....yes i know, hows he supposed to know that, but.. well some people are never happy are they....I recommend this book if you want a bit of fun when you are board and want some TV junk therapy....
I think I wet myself!, 27 Sep 2006
Having to commute to work on the same bus as school kids Is a nightmare, you really wish for a baseball bat sometimes! Thankfully there's Screen Burn to dispense with the vitriol at the world on my behalf! Thank you Charlie!! Every day I would be almost wetting myself laughing to myself on the bus while reading this, venting of the spleen. Give this man a primetime show on the Beeb NOW!!!
TV OD, 07 Aug 2006
Absolutely laugh out loud funny.Normally books collecting various reviews/columns together can be heavy going but Charlie will have you in stitches,all targets are available for termination and he wears his heart on his sleeve.His ire is particularly reserved for Us the general public when we deign to enter the TV world through programs such as Pop Idol etc.We deserve it!(Probably)And he is a man who genuinely understands what the word "celebrity" means.In other words it's used far too often these days in the wrong context.A great read ,funnier than Clarkson.
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Customer Reviews
Lovely and gentle, 03 Aug 2008
Such a lovely board book and in my opinion it's perfect for babies and toddlers of any age really.
It's especially good for reading before a daytime nap (or any winding down time) as the beautiful rhymes and gentle illustrations can be quite soothing.
My 2 year old daughter loves it and I highly recommend it.
Buy it and you'll soon see...it will come out from the bookshelf time and time again.
amazing book let down by presentation, 26 Jan 2008
As all the other reviews say, this is an out and out classic children's book - a must have.
This copy, however, is dreadful. The paper is thin and overly glossy, making it difficult to get to the next page and it could do with being bigger as it's really all about the pictures. I bought where the wild things are at the same time and that is amazingly presented, highlighting the problem with this further. This seems like a pamphlet or concert programme - cheap.
Save money and get the board book. It's smaller but the pictures are sharper.
Charming, 14 Sep 2007
What a perfectly charming book. Children love the bouncy rhyme and they recognise many famous characters such as tom thumb and cinderella. Statistics show that if a child is not interested in a reading by the time they are 7 they never will be. This is a brilliant introduction to literature!
Lovely for young children, 06 Apr 2007
This is a lovely book for young children. Mine love looking on every page for the hidden character, and the rhyming text is great and easy to remember so little ones can join in when they've heard it a few times.
My 3 kids love this one!
Read this as a child, 13 Sep 2006
I read this book when I was in nursery school and 20 years on I still love it, this is one that my children will read. The rhyme is simple yet effective, the pictures are beautiful to look at and enjoyable as you follow the story and find the characters. A must have in every family.
Great simple entertainment, 07 Jul 2008
This got my 3 1/2 year old laughing in delight at the silly results of his page choices. He would not let me put it down, and though I had initialy bought it as a present for someone else, i will have to buy another copy. He was thrilled to know which stories the pages came from, and mixing them up brought him great entertainment. A big hit.
The perfect gift, 23 May 2008
I can't think of a more wonderful gift for any child. This book has everything - from lovely illustrations to a link to familiar fairytales, great opportunity for humour, creativity .... what more could one want? My daughter has entertained herself and the whole rest of the family endlessly with this book and it's such a pleasure as a parent, too, to be able to sit down and have some fun with fairy tales from a slightly different perspective.
A brilliant, high quality children's book!, 09 Mar 2008
This is yet another of Hilary Robinson's fabulous children's books and as a Pre-School (Nursery) teacher, it's one that I love sharing with children and a book they relish. The delicious pleasure and the infectious laughter they explode with from the hilarious permutations of the stories is a delight to share.
Well done Hilary and Nick...this is a brilliant book that even the adults get a great giggle from as they read it to their children!
LOVE IT!!
Amazing, 29 Oct 2007
My children entertained for more than 30 minutes.
It is a good book then.
They have to make their own story.
Great concept
Hilarious, 26 Jul 2006
A fantastic book that takes well know fairy tales and allows you to mix them up. It has kept my kids, (a boy aged 5 and a girl aged 9) amused for hours - not to mention their parents. It is an excellent book for encouraging beginner or reluctant readers as it allows them to choose what they want to read, and then delivers it in short phases, with good picture clues. An example.. Jack...grew and grew to the size of a house...and dreamt about marrying...Little Red Riding Hood's Granny. I will be buying a stack of these books as they will make excellent birthday presents!
Delicious Miniature, 09 Aug 2008
On the state of the nation's punctuation: this sounds like the kind of essay topic a prefect would award a wayward junior as punishment for some minor infringement ("500 words on the inside of a ping-pong ball", etc). However, this book turns out to be a funny, clever and witty tragi-comic diatribe.
Simply a wonderful book for learning punctuation, 01 Apr 2008
A gem of a book. I would recommend this book for just about anyone who's wanting to improve their punctuation, as well as those who feel they need to refresh or even re-learn the art of punctuation.
It's a great and easy read and can even be used as a decent reference.
You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way, 28 Jan 2008
How does a book about how to use commas and colons properly have lodged itself at No 1 on bestseller lists? Maybe Lynne Truss' books success shows that it is not just a few reactionaries who care. Truss agrees it's selling off the internet and stickler-types probably don't do their shopping on the internet. Lynne Truss wonders if there might be readers whose higher education has given them at least a guilty conscience about what they have not been taught, suddenly thinking that perhaps it does matter and I wouldn't mind knowing this stuff. Those copies stacked in Waterstone's might show that there are plenty of people who want to be, as Lynne Truss puts it, 'virtuous'.
While Truss says that 'despair' gave this book its impetus, she does not sound despairing either in print or in person. The title itself is a joke, about an irate panda who walks into a cafe, orders a sandwich, eats it, draws a gun and fires two shots into the air. The waiter finds the explanation for this erratic behavior in a badly punctuated wildlife manual which the bear leaves behind: Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! tells you the rules, but is also full of jokes and anecdotes. It is a sort of celebration of punctuation. You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way. She speaks of the delights of the semi-colon with relish. She has listened to the man from the Apostrophe Protection Society (yes, it exists) but does not sound like a member of any such group. "I was so worried when I wrote the book that people would assume that anyone interested in this subject would be small-minded". --Lynne Truss.
I don't really know where punctuation is going. But this is a very good moment to look at it and see what state it's in. The internet and emails have come along very conveniently for people who didn't learn punctuation and can therefore get by. Punctuation helps give rhythm and a tone of voice to writing, and Truss thinks it no accident that readers of emails often find it difficult to pick up the tone of the person who's written it, with all those dashes. The grace notes get lopped off and it becomes very bald. So people start needing exclamation marks and capital letters, desperately trying to express a tone of voice.
A joy to read, 17 Jan 2008
This book was a joy to read for me, and it was also research at the same time. I never realized how many punctuation errors people make. Some of these errors drive me crazy, too. I can't stand when people confuse their, there, and they're. This book was good research for me because I wrote my own book about English grammar, but only one chapter deals with punctuation.
Brandon Simpson
I now know I'm not alone..., 08 Jan 2008
By my title, I mean that I know there are other people out there who care about punctuation as much as I do! Truss writes with passion, verve and clarity about the decline in punctuation and the repercussions of this often infuriating issue. I read it from cover to cover in a few days and enjoyed her witty (often self-deprecating) humour and the illustrative examples of awful punctuation peppered throughout the book. Great for those with an interest in language, or simply anybody who wishes to take pride in the English language and its delightful nuances that are granted by correctly applied punctuation!
In relation to another reviewer's comments, this isn't a reference book and doesn't claim to be one; if you're after a desktop reference for punctuation then look elsewhere.
Not good., 03 Oct 2008
Ben Elton is not the writer George Orwell is. Unfortunately, he is not even a good writer. He's just a popular one. Ironically, his populist works will be read by all the people he hates in this novel.
This book is simplistic - there are no literary merits, and no hidden meanings. It won't get read for a second time by anyone hoping to find a new theme. They aren't there. As others have said, there is nothing subtle or discreet here.
For instance, Elton could make all kinds of comments on the nature of people who go around half naked all day long, but (apparently) the author is only disgusted by the fat ones. NOT the character, but the author. In fact, if he wants to make any individual utterly without redeeming features, he makes them fat. A bit like the way a schoolboy might point and giggle.
This kind of mealy-mouthed nastiness is exactly what Elton is having a (loud) pop at. Such a shame he doesn't recognise his own failings.
We all have our little sacred cows and our whipping boys. It's a shame that Mr Elton's are so obvious.
An absolutely terrible book, 23 Sep 2008
This is the worst book I've ever read. Stupid, ridiculous, anything but thoughtful. Save your money!
Very different , 19 Sep 2008
Having just read a very turgid novel, it was a relief to read Blind Faith as a flowing original view on a futuristic society. It is a great comment on modern paranoia transgressing into a fake plastic society based on the Internet generation hooked on reality TV and dismissive of inoculation as evil. Some great Ben Elton humour throughout and another original offering - Ben's only ever written 1 book that I have not enjoyed to date (Dead Famous)
Certainly Worth Reading!, 15 Sep 2008
[Plot spoiler warning : this review mentions some elements of the plot]
I saw an advert for this book on a bus shelter one day and decided to buy it based purely on the sub-title on the cover :
`If you thought you understood the world we live in, think again ...'
That intrigued me greatly and I made a mental note of it there and then.
I thought it was going to be a factual book and I was surprised on looking up Amazon that it was a novel, but I decided to purchase it anyway. I have never read any of Ben Elton's book, but I generally found this to be excellent and would highly recommend it. Though it's not to be taken too seriously, there is much in it that does reflect, albeit in hilarious terms, many aspects of our society today. For example the propensity to record everything digitally, plastic surgery, over-eating, Jerry Springer type TV confessional shows, group hugs at work, and emoting about one's feelings. And its all set in a future where sea levels have risen so much that cities like London have been reduced to an Archepelago. Elton writes brilliantly and I found his accounts of everyday situations in this nightmarish future world to be utterly hilarious and displaying a very vivid imagination. I am surprised that a number of people in these reviews didn't find it funny. Though perhaps this just says how funny his other books must be.
The last book I read before this one was `Young Stalin' by Simon Sebag Montefiore, and I wonder how many people who have read that book have also read this book (now there's an interesting DegSep problem for analysis!). But I found a strange connection between these two books in places - the small secretive resistance movement and its library of books and the desire to lend these books to others reminded me of the pre-revolution Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, including Stalin himself (a prolific book-lender), which also I read about in the `Young Stalin' book. Also the `Conspiratsia' described in that book was to be found also in Elton's book, in the highly duplicitous actions of Sandra Dee, the government spy. The aspects of `who can you trust' in these dangerous revolutionary situations is conveyed well in Elton's book, through the Sandra Dee character, and it is this very theme that has much to do with the nature and brutality of the Stalin regime which killed 25 million, largely innocent, Russian people. Elton shows a good understanding of revolutionary politics.
On the subject of religion, do religions really encourage this sort of self-promotion and self-indulgence ? I would have thought they would be teaching their flock to evangelise about the religion rather than draw attention to themselves.
Also isn't the reason for all the digital recording simply the affordability and availability of these technologies ? To my mind it is amazing that such technology can be so widely available. It is truly shameful that such sophisticated technology can be used for such innane purposes - underlining man's mischievious `primate' origins. The sad fact is that material wealth and comfort really doesn't forge `good characters' - more challenging experiences do so.
Also isn't the western world very `stuck up' on the notion of privacy ? Isn't our capitalist system founded on the notion of private property ? Privacy is our national obsession, surely ? What about that good old British `privat hedge' to keep those neighbours at arm's length ?
Sandra Dee's cynical view of humanity is one of the most depressing world views I have ever read anywhere in my life. By any spiritual standard at all this would be classed as total blasphemy - namely the wholesale denigration of the value of virtually the entirety of humanity. To assert that it is not worth doing anything `good' for humanity at all because of its extreme moral decrepitude is the blackest pessimism imaginable. Likewise is the assertion that humanity would make all the same mistakes all over again, if given the chance to try.
I was disappointed with the ending to some extent. I think Elton may have succombed to very temptation he so sardonically described in his book, namely by giving his audience a very bloody, dark and violent conclusion. There is so much more that could have been done with the conclusion to this book and I'm sure Elton could have done it brilliantly. Its just like he ended it in something of a hurry. But perhaps though he felt despite the humour that it was a dark novel and didn't want it to be any longer.
All in all though its well worth a read.
vision of the future?, 30 Aug 2008
Not as funny as some of Ben Elton's other offerings, but still worth a read. An eerie glimpse of what could be if we don't stop watching reality tv shows!!
Funniest book I have read for a while, 07 Mar 2008
I am always a little suspicious when a book tells me I will "laugh out loud" because often as not I find myself reading it stone faced waiting for nuggets of wit that never seem to come.
This book genuinely does what it says on the cover. Due mostly to a hugely funny use of over the top metaphor and comparatives.
Similar to Clarkson but funnier and ruder. Buy it, you won't regret it.
The funniest book I have ever read, 26 Nov 2007
This man's grasp of language, his misanthropy and his FURY make him the funniest non-fiction writer there is. "Screen Burn" is an absolute masterpiece of bile, wit and (in fact) refusal to burp along with the "It's just a bit of fun, innit?" mentality that poisons so much modern TV.
His reviews also prove just what an assured judge of quality he is, as he comes out in favour of programmes which have since been hailed as classics.
He is compulsively readable and magnificently, blisteringly funny.
Good read at work!!., 30 Nov 2006
Screen Burn is a collection of scathingly funny observations about TV programs taken from a popular uk newspaper from 2001-2004;and compiled into one big book.Charlie Brooker wrote the articals,and of course is the author of the book(screen burn).The articles are all in nice bite size 1-3 page chunks;so like me you can pick it up and put it down when it suits you and not loose the plot,or have the agony of putting it down when it was just getting good.Some storys had me laughing out loud,and some that i could not relate to didn't;either way you know at some point you will come across one sooner or later that will satisfy you entertainment needs.
Charley Brooker also makes you say to your-self,"yes!! it's about time someone said that about that program and this person".He certainly gives some of his 'victims' a good hiding, and pays compliments where it's due.
The reason i gave this only three stars is because he can rant a bit to much,and could write a bit more about some of the TV programs that i myself thought were a load of old tosh....yes i know, hows he supposed to know that, but.. well some people are never happy are they....I recommend this book if you want a bit of fun when you are board and want some TV junk therapy....
I think I wet myself!, 27 Sep 2006
Having to commute to work on the same bus as school kids Is a nightmare, you really wish for a baseball bat sometimes! Thankfully there's Screen Burn to dispense with the vitriol at the world on my behalf! Thank you Charlie!! Every day I would be almost wetting myself laughing to myself on the bus while reading this, venting of the spleen. Give this man a primetime show on the Beeb NOW!!!
TV OD, 07 Aug 2006
Absolutely laugh out loud funny.Normally books collecting various reviews/columns together can be heavy going but Charlie will have you in stitches,all targets are available for termination and he wears his heart on his sleeve.His ire is particularly reserved for Us the general public when we deign to enter the TV world through programs such as Pop Idol etc.We deserve it!(Probably)And he is a man who genuinely understands what the word "celebrity" means.In other words it's used far too often these days in the wrong context.A great read ,funnier than Clarkson.
funny but short, 25 Oct 2007
The content is funny but in a juvenile kind of way, would appeal to pre-teens. Very short but thats to be expected for the money. More of a stocking filler gift.
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Customer Reviews
Lovely and gentle, 03 Aug 2008
Such a lovely board book and in my opinion it's perfect for babies and toddlers of any age really.
It's especially good for reading before a daytime nap (or any winding down time) as the beautiful rhymes and gentle illustrations can be quite soothing.
My 2 year old daughter loves it and I highly recommend it.
Buy it and you'll soon see...it will come out from the bookshelf time and time again.
amazing book let down by presentation, 26 Jan 2008
As all the other reviews say, this is an out and out classic children's book - a must have.
This copy, however, is dreadful. The paper is thin and overly glossy, making it difficult to get to the next page and it could do with being bigger as it's really all about the pictures. I bought where the wild things are at the same time and that is amazingly presented, highlighting the problem with this further. This seems like a pamphlet or concert programme - cheap.
Save money and get the board book. It's smaller but the pictures are sharper. Charming, 14 Sep 2007
What a perfectly charming book. Children love the bouncy rhyme and they recognise many famous characters such as tom thumb and cinderella. Statistics show that if a child is not interested in a reading by the time they are 7 they never will be. This is a brilliant introduction to literature! Lovely for young children, 06 Apr 2007
This is a lovely book for young children. Mine love looking on every page for the hidden character, and the rhyming text is great and easy to remember so little ones can join in when they've heard it a few times.
My 3 kids love this one! Read this as a child, 13 Sep 2006
I read this book when I was in nursery school and 20 years on I still love it, this is one that my children will read. The rhyme is simple yet effective, the pictures are beautiful to look at and enjoyable as you follow the story and find the characters. A must have in every family. Great simple entertainment, 07 Jul 2008
This got my 3 1/2 year old laughing in delight at the silly results of his page choices. He would not let me put it down, and though I had initialy bought it as a present for someone else, i will have to buy another copy. He was thrilled to know which stories the pages came from, and mixing them up brought him great entertainment. A big hit. The perfect gift, 23 May 2008
I can't think of a more wonderful gift for any child. This book has everything - from lovely illustrations to a link to familiar fairytales, great opportunity for humour, creativity .... what more could one want? My daughter has entertained herself and the whole rest of the family endlessly with this book and it's such a pleasure as a parent, too, to be able to sit down and have some fun with fairy tales from a slightly different perspective.
A brilliant, high quality children's book!, 09 Mar 2008
This is yet another of Hilary Robinson's fabulous children's books and as a Pre-School (Nursery) teacher, it's one that I love sharing with children and a book they relish. The delicious pleasure and the infectious laughter they explode with from the hilarious permutations of the stories is a delight to share.
Well done Hilary and Nick...this is a brilliant book that even the adults get a great giggle from as they read it to their children!
LOVE IT!! Amazing, 29 Oct 2007
My children entertained for more than 30 minutes.
It is a good book then.
They have to make their own story.
Great concept
Hilarious, 26 Jul 2006
A fantastic book that takes well know fairy tales and allows you to mix them up. It has kept my kids, (a boy aged 5 and a girl aged 9) amused for hours - not to mention their parents. It is an excellent book for encouraging beginner or reluctant readers as it allows them to choose what they want to read, and then delivers it in short phases, with good picture clues. An example.. Jack...grew and grew to the size of a house...and dreamt about marrying...Little Red Riding Hood's Granny. I will be buying a stack of these books as they will make excellent birthday presents! Delicious Miniature, 09 Aug 2008
On the state of the nation's punctuation: this sounds like the kind of essay topic a prefect would award a wayward junior as punishment for some minor infringement ("500 words on the inside of a ping-pong ball", etc). However, this book turns out to be a funny, clever and witty tragi-comic diatribe. Simply a wonderful book for learning punctuation, 01 Apr 2008
A gem of a book. I would recommend this book for just about anyone who's wanting to improve their punctuation, as well as those who feel they need to refresh or even re-learn the art of punctuation.
It's a great and easy read and can even be used as a decent reference. You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way, 28 Jan 2008
How does a book about how to use commas and colons properly have lodged itself at No 1 on bestseller lists? Maybe Lynne Truss' books success shows that it is not just a few reactionaries who care. Truss agrees it's selling off the internet and stickler-types probably don't do their shopping on the internet. Lynne Truss wonders if there might be readers whose higher education has given them at least a guilty conscience about what they have not been taught, suddenly thinking that perhaps it does matter and I wouldn't mind knowing this stuff. Those copies stacked in Waterstone's might show that there are plenty of people who want to be, as Lynne Truss puts it, 'virtuous'.
While Truss says that 'despair' gave this book its impetus, she does not sound despairing either in print or in person. The title itself is a joke, about an irate panda who walks into a cafe, orders a sandwich, eats it, draws a gun and fires two shots into the air. The waiter finds the explanation for this erratic behavior in a badly punctuated wildlife manual which the bear leaves behind: Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: Why, Commas Really Do Make a Difference! tells you the rules, but is also full of jokes and anecdotes. It is a sort of celebration of punctuation. You can't help cheering it on, because it has done such a good job in its humble way. She speaks of the delights of the semi-colon with relish. She has listened to the man from the Apostrophe Protection Society (yes, it exists) but does not sound like a member of any such group. "I was so worried when I wrote the book that people would assume that anyone interested in this subject would be small-minded". --Lynne Truss.
I don't really know where punctuation is going. But this is a very good moment to look at it and see what state it's in. The internet and emails have come along very conveniently for people who didn't learn punctuation and can therefore get by. Punctuation helps give rhythm and a tone of voice to writing, and Truss thinks it no accident that readers of emails often find it difficult to pick up the tone of the person who's written it, with all those dashes. The grace notes get lopped off and it becomes very bald. So people start needing exclamation marks and capital letters, desperately trying to express a tone of voice. A joy to read, 17 Jan 2008
This book was a joy to read for me, and it was also research at the same time. I never realized how many punctuation errors people make. Some of these errors drive me crazy, too. I can't stand when people confuse their, there, and they're. This book was good research for me because I wrote my own book about English grammar, but only one chapter deals with punctuation.
Brandon Simpson I now know I'm not alone..., 08 Jan 2008
By my title, I mean that I know there are other people out there who care about punctuation as much as I do! Truss writes with passion, verve and clarity about the decline in punctuation and the repercussions of this often infuriating issue. I read it from cover to cover in a few days and enjoyed her witty (often self-deprecating) humour and the illustrative examples of awful punctuation peppered throughout the book. Great for those with an interest in language, or simply anybody who wishes to take pride in the English language and its delightful nuances that are granted by correctly applied punctuation!
In relation to another reviewer's comments, this isn't a reference book and doesn't claim to be one; if you're after a desktop reference for punctuation then look elsewhere. Not good., 03 Oct 2008
Ben Elton is not the writer George Orwell is. Unfortunately, he is not even a good writer. He's just a popular one. Ironically, his populist works will be read by all the people he hates in this novel.
This book is simplistic - there are no literary merits, and no hidden meanings. It won't get read for a second time by anyone hoping to find a new theme. They aren't there. As others have said, there is nothing subtle or discreet here.
For instance, Elton could make all kinds of comments on the nature of people who go around half naked all day long, but (apparently) the author is only disgusted by the fat ones. NOT the character, but the author. In fact, if he wants to make any individual utterly without redeeming features, he makes them fat. A bit like the way a schoolboy might point and giggle.
This kind of mealy-mouthed nastiness is exactly what Elton is having a (loud) pop at. Such a shame he doesn't recognise his own failings.
We all have our little sacred cows and our whipping boys. It's a shame that Mr Elton's are so obvious. An absolutely terrible book, 23 Sep 2008
This is the worst book I've ever read. Stupid, ridiculous, anything but thoughtful. Save your money! Very different , 19 Sep 2008
Having just read a very turgid novel, it was a relief to read Blind Faith as a flowing original view on a futuristic society. It is a great comment on modern paranoia transgressing into a fake plastic society based on the Internet generation hooked on reality TV and dismissive of inoculation as evil. Some great Ben Elton humour throughout and another original offering - Ben's only ever written 1 book that I have not enjoyed to date (Dead Famous) Certainly Worth Reading!, 15 Sep 2008
[Plot spoiler warning : this review mentions some elements of the plot]
I saw an advert for this book on a bus shelter one day and decided to buy it based purely on the sub-title on the cover :
`If you thought you understood the world we live in, think again ...'
That intrigued me greatly and I made a mental note of it there and then.
I thought it was going to be a factual book and I was surprised on looking up Amazon that it was a novel, but I decided to purchase it anyway. I have never read any of Ben Elton's book, but I generally found this to be excellent and would highly recommend it. Though it's not to be taken too seriously, there is much in it that does reflect, albeit in hilarious terms, many aspects of our society today. For example the propensity to record everything digitally, plastic surgery, over-eating, Jerry Springer type TV confessional shows, group hugs at work, and emoting about one's feelings. And its all set in a future where sea levels have risen so much that cities like London have been reduced to an Archepelago. Elton writes brilliantly and I found his accounts of everyday situations in this nightmarish future world to be utterly hilarious and displaying a very vivid imagination. I am surprised that a number of people in these reviews didn't find it funny. Though perhaps this just says how funny his other books must be.
The last book I read before this one was `Young Stalin' by Simon Sebag Montefiore, and I wonder how many people who have read that book have also read this book (now there's an interesting DegSep problem for analysis!). But I found a strange connection between these two books in places - the small secretive resistance movement and its library of books and the desire to lend these books to others reminded me of the pre-revolution Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, including Stalin himself (a prolific book-lender), which also I read about in the `Young Stalin' book. Also the `Conspiratsia' described in that book was to be found also in Elton's book, in the highly duplicitous actions of Sandra Dee, the government spy. The aspects of `who can you trust' in these dangerous revolutionary situations is conveyed well in Elton's book, through the Sandra Dee character, and it is this very theme that has much to do with the nature and brutality of the Stalin regime which killed 25 million, largely innocent, Russian people. Elton shows a good understanding of revolutionary politics.
On the subject of religion, do religions really encourage this sort of self-promotion and self-indulgence ? I would have thought they would be teaching their flock to evangelise about the religion rather than draw attention to themselves.
Also isn't the reason for all the digital recording simply the affordability and availability of these technologies ? To my mind it is amazing that such technology can be so widely available. It is truly shameful that such sophisticated technology can be used for such innane purposes - underlining man's mischievious `primate' origins. The sad fact is that material wealth and comfort really doesn't forge `good characters' - more challenging experiences do so.
Also isn't the western world very `stuck up' on the notion of privacy ? Isn't our capitalist system founded on the notion of private property ? Privacy is our national obsession, surely ? What about that good old British `privat hedge' to keep those neighbours at arm's length ?
Sandra Dee's cynical view of humanity is one of the most depressing world views I have ever read anywhere in my life. By any spiritual standard at all this would be classed as total blasphemy - namely the wholesale denigration of the value of virtually the entirety of humanity. To assert that it is not worth doing anything `good' for humanity at all because of its extreme moral decrepitude is the blackest pessimism imaginable. Likewise is the assertion that humanity would make all the same mistakes all over again, if given the chance to try.
I was disappointed with the ending to some extent. I think Elton may have succombed to very temptation he so sardonically described in his book, namely by giving his audience a very bloody, dark and violent conclusion. There is so much more that could have been done with the conclusion to this book and I'm sure Elton could have done it brilliantly. Its just like he ended it in something of a hurry. But perhaps though he felt despite the humour that it was a dark novel and didn't want it to be any longer.
All in all though its well worth a read.
vision of the future?, 30 Aug 2008
Not as funny as some of Ben Elton's other offerings, but still worth a read. An eerie glimpse of what could be if we don't stop watching reality tv shows!! Funniest book I have read for a while, 07 Mar 2008
I am always a little suspicious when a book tells me I will "laugh out loud" because often as not I find myself reading it stone faced waiting for nuggets of wit that never seem to come.
This book genuinely does what it says on the cover. Due mostly to a hugely funny use of over the top metaphor and comparatives.
Similar to Clarkson but funnier and ruder. Buy it, you won't regret it. The funniest book I have ever read, 26 Nov 2007
This man's grasp of language, his misanthropy and his FURY make him the funniest non-fiction writer there is. "Screen Burn" is an absolute masterpiece of bile, wit and (in fact) refusal to burp along with the "It's just a bit of fun, innit?" mentality that poisons so much modern TV.
His reviews also prove just what an assured judge of quality he is, as he comes out in favour of programmes which have since been hailed as classics.
He is compulsively readable and magnificently, blisteringly funny. Good read at work!!., 30 Nov 2006
Screen Burn is a collection of scathingly funny observations about TV programs taken from a popular uk newspaper from 2001-2004;and compiled into one big book.Charlie Brooker wrote the articals,and of course is the author of the book(screen burn).The articles are all in nice bite size 1-3 page chunks;so like me you can pick it up and put it down when it suits you and not loose the plot,or have the agony of putting it down when it was just getting good.Some storys had me laughing out loud,and some that i could not relate to didn't;either way you know at some point you will come across one sooner or later that will satisfy you entertainment needs.
Charley Brooker also makes you say to your-self,"yes!! it's about time someone said that about that program and this person".He certainly gives some of his 'victims' a good hiding, and pays compliments where it's due.
The reason i gave this only three stars is because he can rant a bit to much,and could write a bit more about some of the TV programs that i myself thought were a load of old tosh....yes i know, hows he supposed to know that, but.. well some people are never happy are they....I recommend this book if you want a bit of fun when you are board and want some TV junk therapy.... I think I wet myself!, 27 Sep 2006
Having to commute to work on the same bus as school kids Is a nightmare, you really wish for a baseball bat sometimes! Thankfully there's Screen Burn to dispense with the vitriol at the world on my behalf! Thank you Charlie!! Every day I would be almost wetting myself laughing to myself on the bus while reading this, venting of the spleen. Give this man a primetime show on the Beeb NOW!!! TV OD, 07 Aug 2006
Absolutely laugh out loud funny.Normally books collecting various reviews/columns together can be heavy going but Charlie will have you in stitches,all targets are available for termination and he wears his heart on his sleeve.His ire is particularly reserved for Us the general public when we deign to enter the TV world through programs such as Pop Idol etc.We deserve it!(Probably)And he is a man who genuinely understands what the word "celebrity" means.In other words it's used far too often these days in the wrong context.A great read ,funnier than Clarkson. funny but short, 25 Oct 2007
The content is funny but in a juvenile kind of way, would appeal to pre-teens. Very short but thats to be expected for the money. More of a stocking filler gift. Brilliant, we have still not stopped laughing!, 15 Aug 2007
I ordered this book for my son who is 5 and in-between picture books and older books that have 'no colour on them so they must be boring' books.
They really appealed to his sense of humour and had us roaring with laughter. Now he likes to read during the day as well as at bedtime and my husband and i fight over who is going to read to him. Hilarously funny and i reccommend them to any adult or child who enjoys a really good laugh.
Fantastic! A Work of Pure Genius!, 16 Nov 2004
Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy: Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets Pt.1 is, simply put, the greatest book written since the dawn of time. The storyline is sensational, the written style is marvellous, the enthralling quality of the book is superb, and the overall presentation of this book is spectacular. I simply cannot find enough superlatives to describe how good this book is! you'll have to buy it for yourself to know exactly how i feel, but i assure you, when your eyes glance the cover of this book, you will not be able to put it down until you have finished it, and when that moment comes, the climax will leave you with a feeling so satisfying that you will feel at one with the world. Another stroke of genius from the authorial legend that is Dav Pilkey! This book is truly amazing! This is an absolutely essential purchase for any appreciative follower of classic literature! You will find out for yourself when you have read it! I can honestly say i have never read a work of art like it and now that i have i feel my life is complete and i feel a responsibility to alert the world of the unique talent and originality of the said author. Funny, 05 Feb 2004
This is the funniest book I have ever seen and I really reccomend that you buy it. I have read all of the captain underpants series and they are fab! preshrunk cottony, 21 Jan 2004
Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 2: Revenge of the Ridiculous Robo-Boogers (Captain Underpants (Paperback))Â Â Dav Pilkey (Illustrator) if you want or need all thats preshrunk and cottony then go and buy some underwear for gods sake. if don't wear a pair of underwear read this book it will inspire you to wear preshrunk and cottony underwear EVERY DAY!!! this is a book that will make you want to get a curtain with black dots on it tie it around our neck and go running around in your underwear (please not in the public).
a must for 9 year old boys, 29 Dec 2003
I have no idea what this book is about - I got it and a couple of others in the series for a friends son - he spent the entire time he stayed with us reading these books and loved them - enough said!
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Customer Reviews
Lovely and gentle, 03 Aug 2008
Such a lovely board book and in my opinion it's perfect for babies and toddlers of any age really.
It's especially good for reading before a daytime nap (or any winding down time) as the beautiful rhymes and gentle illustrations can be quite soothing.
My 2 year old daughter loves it and I highly recommend it.
Buy it and you'll soon see...it will come out from the bookshelf time and time again.
amazing book let down by presentation, 26 Jan 2008
As all the other reviews say, this is an out and out classic children's book - a must have.
This copy, however, is dreadful. The paper is thin and overly glossy, making it difficult to get to the next page and it could do with being bigger as it's really all about the pictures. I bought where the wild things are at the same time and that is amazingly presented, highlighting the problem with this further. This seems like a pamphlet or concert programme - cheap.
Save money and get the board book. It's smaller but the pictures are sharper.
Charming, 14 Sep 2007
What a perfectly charming book. Children love the bouncy rhyme and they recognise many famous characters such as tom thumb and cinderella. Statistics show that if a child is not interested in a reading by the time they are 7 they never will be. This is a brilliant introduction to literature!
Lovely for young children, 06 Apr 2007
This is a lovely book for young children. Mine love looking on every page for the hidden character, and the rhyming text is great and easy to remember so little ones can join in when they've heard it a few times.
My 3 kids love this one!
Read this as a child, 13 Sep 2006
I read this book when I was in nursery school and 20 years on I still love it, this is one that my children will read. The rhyme is simple yet effective, the pictures are beautiful to look at and enjoyable as you follow the story and find the characters. A must have in every family.
Great simple entertainment, 07 Jul 2008
This got my 3 1/2 year old laughing in delight at the silly results of his page choices. He would not let me put it down, and though I had initialy bought it as a present for someone else, i will have to buy another copy. He was thrilled to know which stories the pages came from, and mixing them up brought him great entertainm | | |