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The Girl, the Bear and the Magic Shoes

by
,
Lydia Monks

The Girl, the Bear and the Magic Shoes Reviews | Toppsta

Book Rating: 4 based on 4
4 Reviews
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A glittering magical adventure about a girl, a bear and some very special shoes from the bestselling creators of What the Ladybird Heard and Sugarlump and the Unicorn . When Josephine leaves the shoe shop after buying some new running shoes, she hears an unusual sound - Click-click! Click-click! A bear with a backpack is following her! Luckily for Josephine, her new shoes are anything but ordinary - these are magic shoes. But can they help her escape the bear when there's a mountain, a bog and even a lake in her way? The Girl, the Bear and the Magic Shoes is an exciting adventure from the stellar picture-book partnership of Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks, creators of What the Ladybird Heard . Written in fast-paced, engaging prose that's full of action and imagination, and with a delightfully unexpected ending, this gorgeously glittery book is one to enjoy over and over again. Enjoy all the stories from Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks: Sharing a Shell, The Princess and the Wizard, The Rhyming Rabbit, The Singing Mermaid, Sugarlump and the Unicorn, Princess Mirror-Belle and the Dragon Pox, What the Ladybird Heard, What the Ladybird Heard Next and What the Ladybird Heard on Holiday .

The Girl, the Bear and the Magic Shoes Reviews | Toppsta

9781447275978

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16th January '19
I read it to FreddyBoggis aged 6 aged 6
The Girl, the Bear and the Magic Shoes 9781447275978
5 stars
This is another great book, from a great author. Really nice glittery illustrations too. Josephine gets some new shoes, but suddenly she is being chased by a bear. Up a mountain and all sorts of places but when she thinks she can't do something her new shoes start taking and tell her that she can. Eventually the bear does catch up with her, but he's not as bad as she thought. 
2nd December '18
I read it to RCHogan aged 4 aged 4 & to AIHogan aged 3 aged 3
The Girl, the Bear and the Magic Shoes 9781447275978
4 stars
This book is the latest offering from Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks and was the first in the book advent calendar from Toppsta. My three year old was initially reluctant to read it because she didn’t like the look of the bear! However we ploughed on anyway as my son was very keen to get stuck in.
The prose flows in Donaldon’s signiature bouncy rhymes and it’s pleasant to read out loud. They both sat throughout the story in its entirety. The language is fairly simple and manageable for the children to follow.
The illustrations are gorgeous; very bright and really appealed to my children.
The story follows a girl who buys a magic pair of shoes and what happens when a bear begins to follow her. It’s a fairly sweet tale but didn’t really capture our imagination as much as some of the pair’s previous books have and I found the reason for the unexpected ending fell a little flat. That said, my son enjoyed this so much he took it to bed to look at it again. He said he liked the girl because he likes to run too and he’d like to have some magic shoes himself!
Overall, it’s a sweet story that we’ll definitely read again but not our favourite.
2nd January '19
I read it to Pre-schoolA aged 2 to 4
The Girl, the Bear and the Magic Shoes 9781447275978
4 stars
The Girl, The Bear and the Magic Shoes is a fun story of a little girl Josephine who believes she is being chased by a bear and how her magical shoes will change to fit the situation. We were excited to read this book as Julia Donaldson books are some of our favourites both for me to read and what the children prefer to listen to. It was a nice story which is fun for the children to listen to but it wasn't as unique as most of Julia Donaldson's other books which was a shame and seemed to follow a similar story to We're Going On A Bear Hunt. The children enjoyed seeing all the different shoes Josephine would wear and it was nice to see them all different colours and styles of shoes as it's something that could help the children learn the colours and the children weren't all certain what each of the types of shoes were so it got them thinking about why she needs those kind of shoes for that part of her journey. It was nice that we got to find out why the bear was following her at the end and it gave us a chance to talk about how we might have been judging the bear and that he hadn't really done anything wrong which is a good lesson for them to learn. We didn't get to find out much about the characters in the book but it was nice to have a diverse range of characters, we did find the bear looks a bit angry though which put some children off the book. The illustrations in the book are fantastic and full of lots of brightly coloured pictures and with the added glitter the children loved looking at the book. It was nice to have the added detail of some characters from other Julia Donaldson books into the images as the children got very excited when they found the Gruffalo welly boot etc. This book made the children feel happy and with the familiarity of the pictures and story we found it was a great book to calm the children down when we first read it to them in the new environment of the church before our nativity. The bright colours and simple story really helped them feel comforted and happy as most Julia Donaldson books do, not one of her best books but still a lovely read that the children enjoyed reading. We look forward to reading more of her books in the future!
19th November '18
I read it to Dixie aged 5 aged 5
The Girl, the Bear and the Magic Shoes 9781447275978
3 stars
We love Julia Donaldson, however, we both felt that this story was lacking depth.
The ideas are fun, but it's more of a quick read rather than a story book.
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About Julia Donaldson

Julia Donaldson Biography

Exciting news for Julia Donaldson, as she has just been made a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the New Year's Honours List 2018. This is after being made an MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 2011. 

Julia Donaldson is a highly talented author of some of the best-loved children’s boo...

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About Lydia Monks

Lydia Monks Biography
Lydia Monks is a bestselling illustrator and author of children’s books, best known for her collaborations with author Julia Donaldson. Many of their books have become household favourites, including [url=https://toppsta.com/books/details/what-the...

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