Pat Thomson (1) (1939–)

This book really curveballed me. Mostly because I spend a lot of time reading modern kids books that are full of warm fluffy 'we should realise that when people are different and it seems to be annoying, it's actually a super-power that will save the day and we will learn to love and celebrate their diversity'. Whereas in this classic 1990s story Russell's weirdness is annoying, people get annoyed at him, and he learns to squash his weirdness, stop being annoying and just suck it up.

This is show more made amusing and lighthearted by the fact that Russell's really annoying behaviour is speaking in rhyme.

Poor Russell! Stop masking, find some friends who love you for who you are, and enjoy speaking in rhyme as God intended you to. But, err, a bit of self awareness that if you prattle around in cheerful rhymes while other people are in the middle of annoying and upsetting things it is going to land badly doesn't seem a terrible thing. show less

I've enjoyed reading the other Pat Thomsons, but they're not as good as Rhyming Russell. Still, Alex stealing things from his family and repurposing them in the most unlikely ways is a fun tale!

I don't understand the parrot's solution. Or why the boy is so fussy and spoiled. Still, it's funny in its own way,and illustrations of the grandparents as hippies is great.

Do note that it seems as if there are two sides to Niki Daly: the one who does generic cartoony 'western' books and the one who does lovely stories set in southern Africa.

Great phonetic and semantic words for building areas of language development. A feast for Wall Words. The illustrations are characterized by bright bold colors, shapes are large and clearly defined, pictures are uncluttered, and spacious. The characters are hilarious!