Rover: Big Book - Softcover

Rosen, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408864231 ISBN 13: 9781408864234

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2015

Synopsis

Now in fantastic new big book size - perfect for shared reading lessons. Humans can be so confusing, especially when you're a dog. I live with a family of humans, you see. A big man-human, a big lady-human and a little girl-human. Well, one day the lady-human's tummy started getting bigger and bigger. Then - and you won't believe this - suddenly her tummy got smaller, but there was another human living with us! And the big humans won't let me anywhere near it! Honestly, I don't know what all the fuss is about ...'Fresh and entertaining, and ultimately enlightening' Scottish Sunday Herald

About this title

About the Author

Michael Rosen is a best-selling children's novelist and poet, a writer for newspapers and magazines, a television and radio broadcaster and a previous Children's Laureate. Michael has written over 140 books, and worked alongside illustrators such as Quentin Blake (Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly and Gravy, 9780747587385), Helen Oxenbury (We're Going on a Bear Hunt, Walker Books) and Nick Sharratt (Dear Fairy Godmother, Walker Books). www.michaelrosen.co.uk Neal Layton is a hugely popular author-illustrator of picture books, and is most well-known for the Emily Brown books (Orchard). Neal won the Smarties Award with his book Oscar and Arabella (Hodder Children's Books). Michael and Neal also worked together on Rover (9780747546894), the first book in this greatly funny canine series. Neal lives in Portsmouth with his family. www.neallayton.co.uk

From Publishers Weekly

In this comical tale, it's the canine narrator who calls his pet human "Rover." Rover and her doting parents (whom the dog names Rex and Cindy) have many unusual customs. At the park, for instance, Rover "keeps losing her ball, but I always bring it back for her" (a thought bubble shows Rex calling, "Fetch boy!"). One day, the family goes to the beach (where "humans rip off lots of their clothes. Then some of them run around like crazy, and some lie down and pretend to be dead"), and Rex and Cindy fall asleep in the sun. When the parents awaken, Rover is missing. Although the unflappable narrator doesn't understand the fuss, he blithely locates the girl. Rosen demonstrates a silly sense of humor as he imagines an animal's logic, and he strongly conveys the parents' anxiety when Rover gets lost, despite some avoidable repetition (the TV is a "loud, colored box," and on the next page, the car is "the family box"). The illustrations, however, are the real draw here. As in his Smile If You're Human, Layton exhibits an intuitive sense of an outsider's perspective. He offers a dry counterpoint to the goofy proceedings with a deliberately clumsy, charcoal-gray scribble that mimics a child's technique. He covers his gestural sketches with wide brushstrokes in a beach-umbrellaAbright palette, making no effort to stay within the lines. The crude, exuberant images mirror the emotional charge of the drama in which the narrator learns to guard his pet. Ages 6-up. (May)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1408864231
• ISBN 13: 9781408864234
• Binding: Paperback