The Smartest Giant in Town

My son is now 27 months old, and his language is continually improving. He doesn't understand every word and story I read, and can get bored of long passages of text (even in his favourite Thomas books!) but he really appreciates rhythm and rhyme in a story. I decided, after seeing a couple of her books last year, that now would be a good time to try Julia Donaldson.The story is simple enough - a giant tires of wearing the same old raggedy clothes and decides to smarten himself up with a new outfit. He is very pleased with his smart, new look. However he gives away the new clothes item by item in order to help others less fortunate than he, until his new outfit is almost gone! What will he do without it?Now this story is not written in completely the same style as her other books we have read - there is not the same emphasis on rhyming couplets throughout the story (aside from the Giant's Song which is developed throughout the book). However there is a beautiful rhythm all through the book, and it relies on a simple theme - "It's not what you look like, it's what's inside that counts".Educationally, there are a variety of animals to meet, each item of clothing plays a part and some interesting situations are come across, all in a very entertaining manner. My son also gets worried for the poor mice who have lost their house - a good sign that he is engaged in the story.All in all a lovely book, ideally for a child over 2.(*Note: this book contains no Giant Nudity, and is suitable for little giants.)

My three year old loves all Julia Donaldson books so it was important to add this to the collection. He loves the stories and engaging narrative. This was no different. Buy and keep to encourage reading always.

Fantastic book sent with no plastic. Hurray!

Julia Donaldon's books are just wonderful. We love them all, from the Gruffalo to Zog. This book is all about a giant who gets laughed at for wearing rags, but who decides to get spruced up. Then we find out that the reason he was in rags was that he has a big heart... At the end there's a lovely coming-together of all the characters, in a lovely ending that the kids will enjoy.Like all of her books, these are like auditory silk. The meter of the rhyme is soft, melodic, and the book sticks to simple, easy-to-listen words, so the kids can follow along. The artwork is lovely, and you can point things out which apply to the story. There's also a few other little extras in the picture that imaginative kids can talk along to.Great for the bed time. As the book draws to a close, the story becomes all warm and fuzzy, and the rhyme winds down to a lovely peaceful conclusion that'll help settle the kids and get them off to sleep.

My son enjoyed this book a lot and you can’t really go wrong with Julia and Axle . From a readers perspective it’s not my favourite of theirs and the words don’t seem to flow as nicely as their other books .

I’m a big fan of Julia Donaldson so I didn’t think this book would disappoint. My son always asks me to read this book! It’s funny, we like to talk about the animals on each page and I would also make a great gift.

Fab

Another amazing book in this series. Grandchildren love them. Illustrations were fantastic too.