Murray and Bun by Adam Stower, published by Harper Collins
This is the start of an adorable new series for early readers which seamlessly brings together humour, magic, adventure and heart.
The faintly ridiculous (a sticky-bun-turned-still-sticky-bunny, a slightly hapless wizard and a Viking with a love of boiled eggs but no spoon) is met with a wholesome message (caring for and helping others and working together) in this pacy and funny adventure as we see Murray (a rather lazy cat) and Bun (the aforementioned and rather exuberant ex-bun) tumble unwittingly (and in Murray's case rather unwillingly) into adventure.
Because sometimes Murray's catflap leads to the garden but more often than not, thanks to wizard Fumblethumb's unpredictable magic, it leads to other times and places...
In this first book of the series, Murray and Bun find themselves having to brave Troll Island and the Gobble-You-Up-Woods on a quest for a missing Viking. Expect (hilarious) longboats (and not so long boats), terrible trolls with carrots up their noses, a Chasm of Certain Death (with no bridge), super stinky Vikings and more eggs and herrings than one book ever really needs!
It's so much fun and a total delight to read, which is a good job as Peapod returns to it often! We love the illustrations too, of which there are loads, making this a wonderful chapter book for fans of the sort of lively, visual humour in comics such as DogMan or Bunny vs Monkey; this brings the craziness, expressive illustration and speech bubble-type exchanges we'd expect to see there into chapter book form brilliantly.
It's an absolutely adorable and completely crazy caper with wonderful characters, energetic illustrations, puns and silliness and a great, fast-paced quest for little ones to be drawn into.
We also love the bonus bits at the end, especially the drawing how to and top ten picnic items (much conversation was had here!)
Peapod says (SPOILER ALERT, PEAPOD!): "I liked it when they rescued Eggrik. And had a party."
It's also the first book he has picked up to try reading aloud himself (aside from his school) and, with a bit of help, he's read most of it to us which makes this book extra special in our house ❤️
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