Pat Hutchins (1942–2017)

How does one start out with "Rabbit is having a party tomorrow," and end up with "Rabbit is reading his poetry tomorrow?" Simple! Pass the message from person to person (or animal to animal, as is the case here), and it will become progressively more garbled as it travels along from one to the next. This certainly proves to be the case with Rabbit's "surprise" news, creating a series of misunderstandings that make it difficult for him to get his friends to come to his party...

Another basic show more concept-book from English children's author Pat Hutchins, The Surprise Party addresses itself, with amusing results, to the errors that accumulate in the course of spoken communication - what we call "the game of telephone," here in the states. I picked it up, initially, because I'm planning to read The Silver Christmas Tree, and the characters from that book were apparently first introduced here. As is proving to be the case with many of this author's titles (Rosie's Walk, Which Witch Is Which?), I found it far more appealing, than I had expected to, enjoying both the idea and the execution. A great, non-didactic way of introducing the idea of errors of transmission, this is also just a fun animal story, with colorful and appealing artwork. show less

Follow That Bus! Is a great adventure story for kids. It has bank robbers, mistaken identity, kidnapping, baddies in (bad) disguise, a car/tractor chase, a hilarious policeman and a pack of dogs. And aniseed balls. The story takes place on a school trip to the farm, when the class unwittingly becomes embroiled in a bank robbery, which of course, they eventually foil to become the heroes of the day.

It's genuinely funny. There are some great characters amongst the children - particularly the show more determined Avril and the fanciful Jessica, who will make kids chuckle as well as working well to move the story along. The best character by far is the bumbling community policeman - I can vividly remember reading this part to my younger sister when she was probably 6 and I was 12, and us both being doubled up with laughter.

And of course, one of the best things about the book are the great illustrations by Laurence Hutchins (Pat's husband). The front cover alone is enough to make you pick up the book, but the black and white pictures are full of humour and energy and have an almost comic book feel to them, matching the story perfectly.

Follow That Bus! remains in print, 41 years after it was first written in 1977. This is probably because (with the exception of aniseed balls - what happened to those?!) there is very little in the story to suggest the era. It reads pretty much like a book that was written recently. Even the drawings hold up. Great stuff all round. show less

Don't Forget the Bacon! by Pat Hutchins is a picture book about a boy sent on his own the market for the first time. His mother recites the list along with some actions she hopes will help him remember the list. Then at the end she includes, "Don't forget the bacon," presumably because she almost forgot to add it to the list.

Along the way the boy tries to recite his mother's list. The interesting walk down the high street is understandably distracting. Like a game of telephone his list show more becomes muddled with each iteration.

An antique shop is nearly the final blow to his mother's list. But he eventually sorts it out. He remembers the correct list and does his shopping. Except...

While the humorous review preserved on the Internet Archive admonishes the boy for what he forgets, I think the real moral of the story is to write things down! If for some reason you can't, make sure the person running the errands can repeat the entire list before leaving. Don't trust hearing it once to be enough for it to stick. show less

The plot is the sort of repetition that little children love. Two children come home and sit down to a big plate of cookies - twelve cookies for two children! But the doorbell rings (and rings and rings) and their cookies dwindle from twelve for two to twelve for four, to twelve for six, and finally twelve cookies for twelve children. You can see the subtly less happy expressions on their face when the doorbell rings YET AGAIN. What are they going to do - break their cookies in half?

No, it's show more grandma. Somehow, using her magic powers of being a grandma, she's shown up with more cookies for everybody. Awww.

There's not that much to the story, which makes it perfect for the smaller child. Sometimes little kids like short, simple stories they can predict. And of course, note the diversity of the kids - not all picture books have a diverse cast, so that's always a nice bonus. show less