Joan Davies

(Copy was provided to read and review.)

Plonk surely is unusual and on a positive note, I love the artwork and of course, the cute Plonk in particular.
The animal is cheerful to look at and quite unique. Apparently the author used the coin of a farthing to create its unusual shape. The brightly coloured red boots and the red hat, which the animal wears, stand out, too.
My preschoolers were also very excited and had a lot of fun, when it was time for them to draw their own Plonk.

The story itself has on one hand a witch, a gnome and a fairy to offer and children will love it.

On the other hand, it’s quite a sad story and the sadness continues for most of the book.
Luckily, all ends well, but it takes our Plonk some journey to get there.

He lives on an island far away, all by himself and feels very lonely. A witch comes along one day and takes the animal to her castle. There Plonk has to work very hard for her and again he is very sad.
When he finally runs away, it’s not really a relieve, as next, first a pony man and then a farmer will do the same thing, force our Plonk to work for them and I started thinking, will the poor guy ever see a light at the end of this endless tunnel of arduous labour.

Then he meets the wee gnome, who asks for a ride home and when Plonk is happy to oblige, he receives for the first time help in return. The gnome gets in touch with the fairy, which then offers Plonk a boat and off he is, back to his beloved island.
Sadly, being back home means he’s now lonely again, but the fairy has another surprise in store…..

There is a lot of running away from A to Z and it goes on for too long for my liking, but Plonk also learns important things. Once he steals fruit from the witch and later the fairy will teach him, he should not steal. Of course, he also sees, that helping others pays off in the end and the ending is simply lovely.

Would I recommend Plonk? Actually, yes!
I found Plonk just very unusual indeed. The animal is so different, the imagination of my group went wild. The kids loved to invent their own Plonk stories and adventures.… (meer)