A wonderful, lighthearted and funny story that is perfect for children and adults to read together.

The story talks about family dynamics in a relatable and charming way, and how the concept of time can be very different: moving agonisingly slowly one day, impossibly fast another, and the idea that there is always time to do things. Just maybe not the thing you should be doing right then.

I enjoy the fact that the family depicted is of a single father and his two children. I like that the family is a little messy, but full of love. And I really enjoy that the most important time is the children’s storyline with their father.

The illustrations are beautifully done, with simple and calming watercolour-esque designs.

This book would make a perfect accompaniment to parent-child reading, or even as a discussion piece for learning to tell the time.

A creative and sweet adventure to help Pod find something to make her happy. Along the way Pod finds two friends who try to help her find the thing that will make her less lonely.

The story is a wonderfully written tale of the love found in friendship and how to handle big feelings.

The illustrations are wonderful and unique, full of colour and interesting designs that grip the reader and give plenty of space for individual interpretations.

A beautifully imaginative take on picture books!
I loved the illustrations and the art style, the mixture of photographs, text and sketches really work well together to create this imaginative world. The use of colour as the book progresses also works well.

The story itself is inspiring and gripping, almost poetic in nature, it uses the sound of an old fairytale to give an almost prophetic quality to the importance of reading and books.

I would recommend everyone reading this short story, no matter what age, and will definitely use it as a teacher.

I put this book on my List as I had read another book by the author that really impressed me, however this one fell flat in my opinion.

The book is sweet and a nice easy read, full of sound and colour and humour. However where I think the book falls short is the moral or rather the entire point of the story. The story follows the forest animals mission to get rid of the big blue thing (a camper van) off of their hill.
Of course they succeed with the help of some smaller animals and bugs, but that is the entire arc. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of gripping point or moral besides the general working together, which isn’t really a main point even so. Of course not all books need a moral, but in my opinion that is what makes a good and enjoyable book: the feeling of understanding and thought that’s comes from the journey of a story.

CW for this book (though not gone into in following review): Hinted scenes of Sexual Harassment & Abuse. Rape; no explicit scenes. Emotional Abuse, Physical Abuse, and Familial Abuse. Familial death. Representation of Eating Disorders. Heavy hinting of LGBTQ+ hate and rejection. Abusive Patriarchal systems.

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I picked up this book from the Library on campus where I get my children’s books from and expected maybe an 7-11 age friendly novel. I was HUGELY mistaken.

I would place this in YA Fiction. In my personal opinion, 14+ although from my own reading experience as a more mature reader I can imagine Imight have read this around the age of 12 at a push.

The book deals with a lot of mature themes including those mentioned as content warnings as well as mild sexual exploration.
Every single one is handled in an honest, raw and sensitive way. The book is beautifully written. The scenes mentioned are uncomfortable to read and left me with that kind of sick feeling I have previously experienced with books specifically tackling the topics as their main themes. I applaud O’Niell for her ability to intertwine an already existing and well known folk story with the modern setting and realistic issues.

I took a while to really get into the novel. I was having some issues getting gripped and wasn’t really enjoying the fact that I knew how the story would unravel. Until we got well in, just over half way, and O’Neill really amped up all of her own twists and added fiction.

I was pleasantly surprised by the ending. I had hoped to avoid the cliché happy ending after all of the individuality that the book had added to the tale; I was not disappointed. I wouldn’t say the ending was /unhappy/, it was indeed a good outcome, but the ending I wanted to avoid was far far away.

I was left feeling empowered. Something I have rarely experienced from closing a book’s pages. And I would encourage anyone who has personal experience with any of the above (and feels comfortable exploring it in a safe setting) to give this book a chance. I think the emotional struggle of the harder scenes were entirely worthwhile for the healing process that I found at the end. A true credit to the intentions and ability of the author.

An environmental book that discusses with children’s he impact that we have on our world, disguised as a wonderful tale of greed and games between two boys.

The book itself is a rather nice and sweet story. The writing style is simplistic, the illustrations are dream-like and soft, and the characters are very easy to understand.

Beneath the surface however, the book holds a wonderful moral message about the ways we treat our world, and what is truly important to us.

A great way to initiate a discussion with children, without too many facts and real-life expectations.

A personal classic - I remember reading this story to the nursery children all the time, and at one point could read this from memory.

Read in seminar by the Lecturer as an example of using storybooks in phonics classes - this book is a perfect example of easy, rhyming and empathetic stories which children can quickly grasp and use to learn in other hidden ways.

I absolutely adored this story!

I fell instantly in love with the art style - which is what we were focusing on in seminar whilst being read this book by the lecturer.

The story itself is sweet, easy to understand, emotive and holds a kind of universal sci-fi nostalgia in its own unique way.

And the protagonist is a wonderful little example for all children to empathise with.