Tag Archives: Julia Donaldson

A Squash and a Squeeze

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We love A Squash and a Squeeze, by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, so we were really pleased to be sent a Let’s Read version to review.

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I’ve written here, here and here about how much we love the Let’s Read books, so I won’t repeat myself again, but I will just say again that as a teacher, parent and home educator I can’t recommend them highly enough.

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A Squash and a Squeeze is the story of a little old lady who is unhappy because her house is too small.  A wise old man tells her to take in all her farm animals one by one.  Then he tells her to take them out again, and she finds that “There’s no need to grumble and there’s no need to grouse.  There’s plenty of room in my house.”

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The story is brilliant for reading aloud, and seems to be just as appealing to nine year olds as to three year olds – in this house anyway.

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Thank you Macmillan, we love this book!

We were sent the book free of charge for the purpose of this review.

What the Ladybird Heard

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Following on from our review of the Let’s Read! version of Room on the Broom, we have been discovering some more books in the series.  What the Ladybird Heard is another excellent Julia Donaldson story which has been redesigned into an early reader format.

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Let’s Read! What the Ladybird Heard, Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks, paperback, £4.99, published by Macmillan

I love the concept of the Let’s Read! series – that you don’t need to alter the text of well-loved stories to make them more accessible to children who are learning to read.  Simply changing the font and redesigning the format can be enough to encourage children who are growing in reading confidence.

What the Ladybird Heard is the story of a farm full of noisy animals.  Two thieves come with a map and a key and a cunning plan to steal the fine prize cow, but a quiet ladybird saves the day.

When we had finished reading the story together Owl and Monkey took turns to read it themselves, and then the three older children drew some pictures.

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Thank you Macmillan, we really enjoyed this story!

We were sent the book free of charge for the purpose of this review.