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Monday 28 November 2011

Ralph Is Not A Spy by Corinne V. Davies

Illustrated by El Ashfield

Maybe, but he's sure lots of fun!!
Review by The Mole

Ralph plays chess. OK, but he plays so well he plays grand masters and beats them! The International Chess Academy want to know how he does it and sets out to kidnap both Ralph and his sister. McBond makes Ralph aware of the plan and so they set out to foil their plans.

I HATE doing this but in 2011 this HAS to be my favourite 7+ book particularly for boys.

Written entirely in verse there is almost 1 laugh per verse and with about 4 verses per page we are talking a serious measure of laughs in this book.  But hang on there, hold hard, the laughs are not restricted to the verses! The pictures don't just complement the telling of the story, they add to it with things not said in the words appearing in the pictures and making yet more laughs! The pictures themselves will appeal to the reader but are well detailed with plenty of humour and each one is an important asset to the book.

While a child will almost certainly enjoy reading and joining in, the younger spy would really enjoy having it read to them until the activities come along when they are sure to want to do them for themselves. And be honest, poetry should be read aloud to get the most from it, and I challenge adults to read it without joining in the laughter!

Add to that the number of activities for the young reader to get involved in through the book - cracking codes, designing spy gadgets, choosing aliases etc - and then the activities at the end of the book this book will provide hours of fun for the young spy during holidays.

This really has to be my favourite 7+ book for 2011!


Publisher - Ral Publications
Genre - Children's 7+

Buy Ralph is (not) a Spy from Amazon

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