Snack, Please! by Georgie Birkett - #bookreview

 

When she was a baby, Gertie LOVED food. She would eat mashed-up veg, mushed-up fruit...smooshed-up anything really...

As Gertie got older, she would still eat most things... and once she even ate a slug! (Yuck!)

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Tired of chopping fruit, cubing cheese, fishing rice cakes out of a backpack and generally fielding incessant snack requests? Then Snack, Please! is the book for you – all about the joy of making and sharing food, together!

Gertie LOVES snacks: sofa snacks, bath snacks, bedtime snacks … it’s a snack life! She abandons almost every mealtime in favour of snacking. Her daddy can’t help but feel frustrated – how can he convince her to try new food? Or to even talk about something other than snacks? A day in Granny's allotment might just provide all the inspiration that's needed. In this funny, warm companion title to Carry Me!, Georgie Birkett explores small children’s exasperating eating habits and, once more, through a very endearing father-daughter mouse duo, she perfectly captures the ups and downs of parenting life.

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When the lovely people at Walker Books sent me a copy of this book, I was instantly attracted by the title. The reason being that "snack" was my grandson's first word. He completely skipped "mama, dada" and "nana" and went straight in at "snack." Clearly a boy who knows his own mind.

As you will see from the quote above, Gertie, the main character in the book, eats a slug! This brought to mind a slightly horrific occasion when my son did the same thing when he was little. Thankfully, I had got to him before he actually swallowed!  So, you can understand why this book resonated with me. 

It is such a lovely book too. It's characters, Gertie and her Daddy are delightfully portrayed, both in words and illustration. There is so much that children will find in the artwork to support the text as it is shared with them.

The book is aimed at a pre-school audience, but early readers will enjoy reading this too. It is amusing to read, and I think most little ones will identify with Gertie and her love of snacks.

I cannot wait to share this with my grandson, who is two. It is delightful book which I highly recommend.

About the Author:

Georgie Birkett is an illustrator and writer of many children’s books, she won the Booktrust Early Years award with Is This My Nose? and was longlisted for the Kate Greenaway medal. She lives in Lewes in Sussex with her one husband, two sons and two cats. She absolutely loves working in her garden cabin with one of the cats sleeping by her side.

(book and media courtesy of the publisher)

(all opinions are my own)