Nadia has been shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. The illustrations are cute and bold colored, the characters are fun, I do think there could have been one more twist. Join Billy on her mission to defeat the Terrible Beast (and save those adorable little bunny rabbits too). Kids are usually afraid of dark and some unseen monsters (𝑁𝑜𝑤 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑦 𝑘𝑖𝑑𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑜 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑡 𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚).

Billy and the Beast - Penguin Books UK Billy and the Beast - Penguin Books UK

Then they walk home but all the forest animals have disappeared because a terrible beast wants to put them all in a soup. What’s more, as always, Shireen’s illustrations conjure character with energy, and in gloriously stylish tones. Join our community to get personalised book suggestions, extracts straight to your inbox, 10% off RRPs, and to change children’s lives. The characters are enterprising, the text surprising and the layout engaging, with paths that wind across the page and changes of perspective; and the pictures are humorous, not least the worried face of a fox dangling upside down.Billy is brave and smart and also black, which is great but isn't made into a big thing, which is even better.

Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen | The British Library Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen | The British Library

I noticed patterns such as the lists of three which creates pace, makes it catchy and more memorable. I don't mind that Billy has big hair with lots of things inside which is a bugbear of some other reviewers. Drawing and writing for a living is very much Nadia’s dream come true and we expect great things from this promising new author and illustrator. Billy’s power resides, at least partly, in her curly black hair, and it’s delightful to see a picture book feature a brown-skinned girl protagonist outwitting the rather stupid Beast. Billy and Fatcat go on a stroll through the woods but get hungry so Billy pulls some doughnuts out of her hair because she has big hair and has all sorts of things in there, a little like Claude has all sorts of things under his beret in the Claude the Dog books.Her debut book Good Little Wolf received a mention in the Bologna Ragazzi Opera Prima Award and won the UKLA Book Award.

Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen | Waterstones Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen | Waterstones

Their friends hedgehog, fox, mice and adorable bunnies were also caught by monster to fill his yummy soup. Our mission is to inspire children to feel they can be and do anything, and to create readers for life. During a forest walk, “which was something they liked to do now and then”, Billy and her ever-present sidekick Fatcat are unnerved by a terrible rumble. Be careful on which group of children you read this to, as some of the children might be a bit sensitive to happens in the book!

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