Thursday Book Club...with a twist...

Today Little Miss 4 and I headed to the Opera House to see Justine Clarke in her Pop Up Tour 2012. We were joined by our awesome friends Mrs L and Miss T.

Image from here

The show was thoroughly enjoyed by all four of us. We sang along to many of her hit songs including, Dancing Pants, The Gumtree Family, Dancing Face, Watermelon, I like To Sing, Happy Dog, Off To The Library and It's My Birthday Today.

After the show we even had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Justine. She signed copies of her new book for the girls and chatted to them about the show. Mrs L was definitely the most excited of the four of us though!

The Story

Image from here

The main aim of this year's show was to introduce us to the Gobbledygook. The character from her first and newly released book, The Gobbledygook Is Eating A Book, co-written with Arthur Baysting and illustrated by Tom Jellett.

The story is about a Gobbledygook that is ripping up pages and eating a book!

"Stop. Stop", shouts a little girl, "You don't eat a book. You slibbery, slobbery Gobbledygook". 

She teaches him that we read books not eat them by taking him on an adventure through a space travel book, recipe book, dinosaur book, clown book, penguin book, mon-story book, and lastly a drifty, dreamy fairytale book.

Then they are all tucked up in their beds, ready to snore some zeds.

The Author

Today Justine Clarke is surely one of the most recognised faces on Australian TV (or maybe that is just because she graces my TV screen a lot). She is a best-selling children's singer, acclaimed film star, seasoned stage actor and a constant presence on Play School. The Gobbledygook Is Eating A Book is her first book.

Arthur Baysting is a songwriter, screenwriter and comedian from New Zealand. I believe that The Gobbledygook Is Eating A Book may also be his first book.

Tom Jellett is an Australian illustrator, having drawn for a number of children's books, including The Littlest Pirate, My Dad Thinks He's Funny, Ted Goes Wild and Ted Gets Lost.

Our thoughts

This book is simple and fun. Very suited to the preschooler level. It teaches the story that books are for reading and enjoying...not eating! (insert ripping up). The illustrations are lovely, the Gobbledygook is depicted as the cutest monster and shouldn't be scary to any small children.

When I asked Little Miss 4 what she liked about this book, she replied, "Where Justine signed it". I asked her what part she liked inside the story, she replied, "When the Gobbledygook eats the book, that is funny".  (Here's hoping I don't find her eating a book in the near future.)

Are you a Justine fan?