Troll Stroll

This should become a favourite read aloud story, one to which young children will quickly return and want to read for themselves. Familiarity with the traditional tale The Three Billy Goats Gruff will ensure the book becomes a real winner. Joining in the chant will provide opportunities for class or family participation, as well as for prediction of what will come next. Troll, bored of his diet of goats (despite his recipe book, 100 Ways to Cook Goats, seen in a picture,) decides to venture down from his lofty cave on the hillside (Hovel Sweet Hovel!) to the town below. Refer to the first end paper, where the beautiful water colour painting shows us the route he takes, and where his adventures begin. The rhyming text gallops along as victim number one hoves into sight, and is challenged by the big blue troll, standing astride the bridge.  “A guzzle! A gollop! Who wants to eat goats? I’ll chomp little children and chew up their coats.”  We see a tiny boy on his bike, viewed between the huge legs of the troll, being persuaded to wait for the car following behind, with two little children to chomp. Keen readers of the illustrations will spot the cunning number plate on the car! Here the illustration of the town is delightful, soft pastels fading to the lightest of brush strokes, trees and foliage added with wet paper technique to great effect. Troll, licking his lips, anticipates children with chips… but no, he is eventually stopped once more by the children, for next comes a …? What could be bigger and more overflowing with children than the school bus? Troll shouts, “Oh what slobbersome luck! Such scrumptious young morsels all covered in ….” He almost ends up as Troll Soup, but manages to escape back to his mountain hovel, thinking how tasty goat will be after all. The end paper glows with the softness of twilight, as the tale comes to an end. With rhyme and rhythm throbbing, it will surely be a story to read and share again and again.