Ouste!

by Sally Grindley

Tiens, il y a des panneaux qui disent de ne pas aller dans la forêt. Regarde, il est écrit «Attention aux ours ! Ouste !» Si on faisait demi-tour ?

Unknown Binding

First published September 5, 2013

About the author

I came into children's books originally as Editorial Director of a nationwide children's book club, though I had written and directed a children's play while a student at Sussex University, which was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe. I wrote my first two children's picture books in 1984 and was lucky enough that Anthony Browne wanted to illustrate the second - Knock Knock Who's There? It was published in 1985, is still going strong today and is one of my most successful.

Shhh! was published in 1991 and has known great success in France/Belgium in particular (close on 300,000 copies sold). It's success in the UK - it won the Children's Book Award - was hampered by the liquidation of its original publisher.

I became a full-time author in 1995 and now have some 150+ titles published, the most recent being L'Histoire du Soir in France, Belgium and Italy.

Feather Wars, published in 2003, was my first sortie into young fiction and was followed by the very successful Spilled Water, which has been published in some ten different languages and is very popular in schools as a class reader. It won the Nestle Smarties Gold Award (and I wound up being a 'Pointless' answer on the back of it!) Broken Glass came next and was a Sunday Times Book of the Week.

I'm currently working on picture books again and have plans to illustrate one of my own in the not too distant future - watch this space!

Reviews

[Nadene Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Keep Out! Bears About!’ is a book based on the classic story of Goldilocks and the three bears of which children will most probably already be aware of. It is about taking an adventure through the dark woods and not coming face to face with a bear. The book actively engages with the reader as if you are involved in the story. The book asks you not to carrying on even on the first page before continuing reading; ‘This book looks ever so scary. Are you sure you want to read it?’ and then throughout the book for example: ‘I think we ought to go back, don’t you?’, ‘Can’t we go back?’, ‘Don’t tell me you want to go in!’

The book allows for the children to lift up the flaps; where something could be hiding behind it creating suspense of what is going to be found. The book is good at building suspense and tension throughout which will make the children want to read on. The story ends up in a house where you see a baby bear sleeping, a mummy bear in the kitchen and 3 different size bowels of porridge linking in with the classic story. By this point the children may be able to predict what happens. What do you think will happen?

This book would be great for reading to a class in Key Stage 1, where they can be actively involved with the story and the flaps could be lifted by different children in the class to involve them further. The children can use inference and deduction skills to predict what is going to happen in the book from prior knowledge of a story they already know. Illustrations used compliment the narrative, setting the scene perfectly for the story.

This book could be used for role play allowing the children to have fun recreating the story. Overall, a fun, suspense building, enjoyable book.

[James Koppert · Rating 4 out of 5]

the kids loved it and asked to read it again and again

[Alice Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young children would love this story with the reluctant narrator scared to take them through the story! There would be lots of laughs and they could discuss their own fears. I liked the twist on the classic Goldilocks story.

[Sourimak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dans la pure lignée d'une histoire sombre de Ruth Brown, on suit ici les traces d'un ours en jouant le parent peureux qui s'inquiète de la suite des événements tandis que notre jeune intrépide nous invite à poursuivre l'aventure et ose lever les rabats à surprises. Un livre assurément interactif.

[Vita Tatarinova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Įdomiausia buvo tik tai, kas sliapiasi už užlenkto paveiksliuko.

[Dee-Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

My boys liked this book and were surprised and delighted when they found that it was based on Goldilocks. They read it themselves, then insisted that I read it to them and they loved the last page.

It is a different take on the original story in that the perspective has changed. The flaps work well and each one is interesting.