Hector

Text: Sarah Aspinall

Illustrations: Mark Barry

Year: 2011

Publisher: Templar Publishing, UK

Age: 6 - 8 years

No. of Pages: 32

Book Type: Picture Book

ISBN:  978 1 84877 204 5

Hector is creative and a dreamer. One day, he paints a bright, red car and introduces it to his friends as the car that will take him to faraway places.

The day he plans to leave, his friends decide to leave with him. They happily land up in a place with trees, houses and a big, blue sky.

Excerpt

A little while later, Hector’s friends, Pootle and Poppet, arrived. Hector showed them his new picture.

“What’s that?” said Pootle.

“My big, bright-red car,” said Hector. “It’s going to take me to faraway places.”

Miss Spider’s New Car

By David Kirk

Year: 1997

Publisher: Calloway and Kirk Company and Scholastic Press, New York

Age: 7 and above

No. of Pages: 36

ISBN: 978 0 59030 713 4

Mrs. and Mr. Spider are shopping for a car. With lyrical flamboyance and unbridled creativity, the book spins a web of fantasy and fun with a dash of adventure.

Their adventures are portrayed in the brightest hues of red, green, blue and more on glossiest paper. All of this is packaged in a hardback edition that’s bound to be a winner with many children even those who despise spiders and other creepy-crawlies.

In most books that have lyrical prose, big words tend to creep in. And they certainly have, here too.

Excerpt

“The wheel is out of date,” whooped Hop.

“Just like a dinosaur.

Our flexo-flea spring loaded legs

Are what you’re looking for.

Just pull the round brown throttle down

And hear the engine roar.