'Ernest' by Catherine Rayner - What WE Say...
I’ll admit I had never read a Catherine Rayner book before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect when I opened ‘Ernest’ with Ella. The very first page made me laugh as I read it “He is so large that he can’t fit inside this book”. The text is roughly laid out, the illustrations are sketchy, the paper looks like an old exercise book of graph paper. And the book is utterly, totally, sweetly charming. I had to comment on what was going on for Ella to follow the story on the first couple of reads (and we still have to ‘shimmy, shuffle and shunt’), but her older brothers (6 and 7) do seem to be mysteriously lurking whenever I read this one aloud – and I have noticed they are very eager to read ‘Ernest’ for Ella more than most other books on the shelf. The triumphant finale literally makes Ella leap to her feet and clap with joy, hooray-ing ‘THERE ‘e IS!!!’
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