I’m always on the lookout for a new book to introduce Monkey to.  Anything to keep that passion going, to nurture his love of books.  I recently spotted The Tale of the Naughty Fox by Julian Kay, and thought it looked a bit different, something a 4 year old Monkey might quite like.

The Tale of the Naughty Fox is the first installment of the Tommy, Teddy and Parakeet stories and will be published on 28th April this year.

The first thing Monkey noticed was that The Tale of the Naughty Fox has photographs rather than illustrations.  That went down rather well.  The next big hit, being Teddy!  Anyone who knows Monkey knows that he has a bear called Teddy, we’re on version 3 now, but he is much loved and go everywhere with him.  He looks nothing like Tommy’s Teddy but Monkey was hooked.

We met Tommy, his Teddy and their friend Parakeet in their little house.  They live on a hill with a stream at the bottom of the garden.  Tommy wants to plant a wood full of flowers and trees around the house and we follow the three friends as their wood grows.

Monkey loves gardening, so again, he was chatting as we read the story.  As the plants and tree grew lots of other birds move in to the newly named Indigo Wood.  The friends then decide to make more friends, and start sewing and gathering things from around the woods to make them – a puppy dog, lamb, rabbit and a badger.

Everyone is having a wonderful time, but there is trouble ahead.  A rather naughty fox has spied all of the friends and fancies something tasty for dinner.  He persuades the new friends to venture into the forest away from the safety on Indigo Woods, even though Tommy had warned them not to stray.

I won’t ruin the rest of the story for you, but good always wins out in the end.  Monkey has loved me reading this story to him.  Over the next year as he starts his reading journey, we’ll be using this book a lot.  The text is large and clear.  The text is quite simple.  It’s a big hit here already, and I think it will be for a few years to come.When the 41 page hardback version of The Tale of the Naughty Fox is published through Troubador next month, it will be available to purchase for £9.99 from their website.  It would make a lovely present.
disclaimer:  we were sent this book in exchange for an honest review