Just So Stories

Penguin Random House

November 2019

• ISBN: 9781760896348
• Imprint: Puffin
• Format: Hardback
• RRP: $19.99

This is just adorable! Of course Mem’s story about the arrival of a little usurper in the family is just delightful and  will resonate with so many small children but aside from that. those glorious illustrations! They remind me so much of Jeannie Baker’s Polar of many years ago (does anyone else remember that one?).  This little fuzzy bear family with all the accoutrements for a little home with tiny props is just the most wonderful thing I’ve seen for ages.

Roly Poly is a very happy young bear with his own room and his own bed, his own walrus tooth with which to play and his own fish to eat after he’s been fishing through the ice hole. You can well imagine his complete and utter disbelief when he wakes up to find a tiny brother in the bed with him. His resistance to having a younger sibling is palpable as he continually rejects little Monty time after time – until ,that is, there is an almost catastrophe when the little brother is castaway on a ice floe. Luckily Roly Poly does not take his resentment of his sibling quite that far and after a brave rescue the two finally achieve a bond.

Some children cope very easily with the arrival of a new sibling and others do struggle with it. Whichever is the case little readers will immediately connect with this and I can assure will absolutely adore those illustrations.

HIghly recommended for small humans from early childhood upwards.