
Price: £7.99
Publisher: HarperCollinsChildren’sBooks
Genre: Fiction
Age Range: 5-8 Infant/Junior
Length: 64pp
Buy the Book
Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle
Illustrator: Robert TyndallI took a flick through to check for gollywogs then decided to put all my prejudices to one side and tackle this, the first new Noddy title since 1963. Personally I could wait another 47 years for the next one. Twee goblins, lots of mischief and a dull storyline keep this new title in a similar vein with its precursors.
And here’s where reviewing breaks down. Because I bet you anyone reading this to a child will find they ask for more. I bet you children will want this one again, when we’d want them to go for a healthy dose of metafiction. The fact is, this is part of the Enid Blyton game, and her granddaughter, Ms Smallwood, follows in that vein. The game is I review it, I don’t like it, I put it down – but children will adore this book and I will never be able to understand why. I have little positive to say about the return of Noddy other than to predict that this title will do really well. The game continues…