Stalking the Postman
BookBairn is becoming obsessed with the postman. She loves 'playing postman' by delivering letters to her daddy; she loves posting letters in the postbox; she loves walking past the post depot/delivery office on her way to nursery. She genuinely stalked our new postman along the street on Tuesday, and thanks to him popping up to doors to post letters, she did well to keep pace with him. But mostly I think she loves when the postman brings her new books.
(A note to our postie - thanks for carrying all the heavy and frequent book parcels to our door, and thanks for smiling at BookBairn's delight, and waving from your van, and for thinking it was funny when she shouted "man again" when you appeared from someone's path during that stalking incident).
From the minute this book came through the letterbox and landed on the doormat, BookBairn simply couldn't wait to get her hands on it! And loves playing with it ever since! 'Boris Babysits!' (affectionately called "Borrrus!" in our house) by Sam Lloyd is the newest release in his series of Monster puppet books. In this latest installment, Monster Mummy is going shopping (good for her - she probably needs a break and I hope she picked up some nice new shoes and not just groceries) and, rather unwisely, leaves boisterous Boris holding the baby.
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Here Baby Monster is going down the chute! |
Fortunately, help is at hand for Boris, as little readers are asked to help out too. Purple Monster Baby is a lovely little puppet attached by a ribbon and can be stuck onto the pages with velcro tabs allowing little readers to easily manipulate the puppet. Boris inattentively bounces on the trampoline whilst Monster Baby climbs to the top of the slide - it's too high! And little readers need to come to the rescue and help her down. On the next pages Boris plonks Monster Baby in a stinky dog basket whilst he makes him sausages and the little readers have to help out with putting her in her high chair and feeding her. Then Monster Baby manages to poo on the floor so she needs help onto her potty and then into her bath. Finally, Boris falls asleep giving Baby her milk (I can't really criticism him here, I'm exhausted by milk-time too!) and you have to move her over into her cot and tuck her in before Mummy gets home. "Rat-a-tat-tat..." Monster Mummy quickly susses out the scenario and thanks little readers for their help asking them to be in charge babysitting next time.
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Lift-the-flap: Mummy Monster's home! |
The illustrations in the book are fabulously chaotic: each scene has so much going on and it's a wonder to behold. Lots of things that you can use the puppet to play with. BookBairn's favourite is putting the baby up and down the "chute" (slide) and putting the baby in bed and saying "sshhh shhh sleepies". This book is really helping encourage her early imaginative play! It's genius! Boris is the least scary monster you will ever see and reminds me of a cross between Mr Tickle (from Roger Hargreve's Mr Men series) and a fluffy pom-pom. His bright orange colour and goofy grin makes him incredibly endearing despite his irresponsible behaviour! He seems like the kind of character that no matter what the circumstances mishaps and mayhem just seem to follow him around. To see a great example of the trouble that Boris can get up to you should check out these fab photos over at Acorn Books (
here). Her pictures made me laugh out loud!
'Boris Babysits' is a great fun interactive book that will create laughter and play for little ones. Far from gimmick-y the puppet in this book allows little readers to truly engage with the story and encourages imaginative play. Love it!
But that doesn't mean I'd ever let Boris babysit!
Mummy and BookBairn x
*DISCLAIMER* We were sent 'Boris Babysits' from the publisher. All words and opinions are, as always, my own.
That looks like great fun for Grandpatents to play with too!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome to come play, just hope you are better babysitters than Boris!
DeleteOf course she loves the postman! He brings the best treats into the house!!
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right Mel!
DeleteLooks like this book will be good fun next time we are BookBairnsitting. Three cheers for BookBairn's postman who sounds like a very nice person.
ReplyDeleteOur postman (and lady) are awesome - they must be super strong!
DeleteWe love the Boris books in our house, must get the new one! Thanks for sharing with #ReadWithMe
ReplyDeleteI'd never encountered him before but he's fab! Love it!
DeleteI love this description of BookBairn stalking the postman. Hopefully it will be a while before she realises that the postman also brings bills!!
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Thanks Catherine! I hope so too!
DeleteSo lovely to see how much Book Bairn is enjoying this book and thank you for the link to our review. We haven't let Boris babysit again!
ReplyDelete#readwithme
No wonder! Thanks for the giggle! x
DeleteNo wonder! Thanks for the giggle! x
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