We have had the best day today
Playing with words and pictures
Linked to one of our new favourite stories
The Beastly Bunch
This is a deliciously funny riot of a book
With cute and quirky animal characters
Having a ball
There is so much to love about this book
And so much for little readers
And their grown ups
To learn from it
But above all this book is
An absolute joy to read aloud
And has really grabbed our imaginations
And fired up our creativity
The Beastly Bunch
Written by Leisa Stewart-Sharpe
Illustrated by Pippa Curnick
And published by Penguin Kids
Is a rich, vibrant party of a picture book
With important messages about
Friendship, diversity, prejudice and inclusivity
The story begins with Flo the fabulous flamingo
Throwing one of her perfect pool parties
For all the cute and clever creatures in the town
This is a perfect party
That must go perfectly
Being more perfect
Than any other perfect party that has gone before
Therefore there is a long list of rules
With more rules on signs all around
And the most important rule of all
Is that her neighbours are not welcome
Not invited
Not allowed
Flo does not like her neighbours
She decided on sight that they would be
Bitey, smelly, spitty and dirty
And that was that!
As the party progresses
It becomes clear to the reader
And her guests
That Flo is more worried
About keeping up appearances
Than being a real friend
Flo is unkind and dismissive
Too focused on the glitz and glamour
Rather on the other animals
Her neighbours decide to have a party of their own
With DISCO music
(I loved introducing my children to the song
D I S C O
While flicking through the brilliant beastly bash pictures
With my little bookworms
Soon Flo’s guests hear and smell the party next door
And decide to make a break from Flo’s pink paradise
To the wild party next door
When Flo realises what has happened
She is distraught
Finally the animals from both sides of the fence
Stand up to Flo
And tell her why they are unhappy with her
Flo understands that she has not been a very good friend
She has not been very kind
She has been selfish
She has judged people on their appearance
She has made bad decisions about people
She has worried more about how things look
Than how things are, how people feel
And how she treats people
Flo learns an important lesson about friendship
The importance of kindness
Of looking past first appearances
Past our own prejudices
To really get to know people
And to be a good friend
And find true friendship in return
Oh I love this book so much
And my children do too
There are some magical moments
In this brilliant and beautiful book
A sequence with the snake’s fangs
That had Edie’s heart in her mouth
An inflatable crocodile that might be more
Than at first it seems?
The scene when the animals are escaping
Pink Paradise under, over and through the fence
The endpapers filled with selfies and photos from the parties
The DJ pig stole my heart!
So many perfect little details
In Flo’s pink paradise
The expressions of the animal characters
Are just amazing
Everytime we read this book
We find something new to delight in
A must read for young readers
We have taken so much from this book today
We have …
Created a crazy animal alphabet with alliterative animal phrases with a party theme
Made animal fact cards for animals from the story
Drawn selfies that we think the animals might have taken at the party
Made recipes for birthday cakes for each of the animals – based on what they would eat in the wild or in captivity (we stole this idea from Animal Park)
Wrote our own extreme party rules
Made an animal themed party playlist and had a boogie
Wrote recipes for friendship and guidelines for being a good friend
Talked about the importance of kindness and inclusion
What a brilliant day we have had with this wonderful book
So honoured to have kicked off the book tour for Leisa and Pippa
Tomorrow it is the turn of Esther @mrsbrownsbookbox
Head on over to Instagram to follow the rest of the tour