Small Knight and George and the Royal Chocolate Cake, by Ronda Armitage

A small knight and his even smaller pet dragon, George, live in an old castle. One day a letter arrives from the king, saying that he and the queen will be visiting and would like a party to be arranged. He particularly requests that Big Cook make her special chocolate cake.

Everyone begins to make preparations, with Small Knight and George distributing the invitations. Soon the chocolate cake is ready, and it is huge. However, the delicious smell wafting from it reaches the wild brigands in the dark woods. Indignant that they have not been invited to the party, they creep into the castle in the middle of the night and steal the cake.

Dad Knight orders Small Knight to go in search of the brigands and bring back the cake. Small Knight doesn't feel in the least bit brave, but his love of chocolate cake spurs him on. With George behind him on his horse, he sets off to the wild woods, singing a song. After a while he encounters the band of brigands who declare themselves to be very wild and very hungry. Small Knight bravely shouts at them to leave the cake alone. He cleverly tells them that if they behave, they can come to the party. His idea miraculously works, so that cake is taken back to the palace and the spruced up brigands are allowed at the party. When they have eaten their fill, everyone plays kick-a-ball.

'Small Knight and George and the Royal Chocolate Cake' starts off seeming rather traditional in many ways, but stands out because Small Knight achieved his aim not by fighting but by being friendly and generous towards the brigands. I was at pains to stress this concept to a group of four-year-old children and suggested that they might learn a thing or two from Small Knight's methods, but I think I was being over-optimistic. Perhaps the story needed to be read a few more times to drum the message home. Ronda Armitage is, nevertheless, to be commended for depicting such friendly, peace-loving characters.

There is slightly more text per page than some picture books, but the font is large and the background is always white for the story itself. The letter from the king appears on a pale yellow scroll in handwriting which is easy to read as it is not cursive. There are a few words and phrases that are set in a large font for emphasis, and coloured speech bubbles are interestingly used when Dad and Mum Knight and Big Cook are watching out for the brigands just before the party. The flavour of a medieval manuscript is suggested by a particularly large first letter decorated by George on many pages. Adults might appreciate this detail more than young children. The vocabulary is fairly straightforward, although understandably there seemed to be just one four-year-old boy in my group who knew what a portcullis was. This is definitely a story to be read aloud rather than a book for a child who is learning to read.

The illustrations for 'Small Knight and George and the Royal Chocolate Cake' are by Arthur Robins.

They are full of humour and in a style that will appeal readily to young children. Apart from the first picture of the wild brigands hiding in the woods, they are all very bright and colourful. The fact that they are not my favourite picture-book illustrations is almost bound to be a good sign; I'm too old to appreciate what today's pre-school children are likely to enjoy most.

I am always on the lookout for picture books that can be used as a basis for a drama session, and 'Small Knight and George and the Royal Chocolate Cake' proved to be ideal. Most young children enjoy pretending to be wild brigands and eating chocolate cake at parties. It would probably work well even with quite a large group that need a lively activity.

This is a book that might appeal more to boys than to girls, but the fun illustrations and imaginative story should make it one worth at least borrowing from the library to read to any young child. I particularly liked Ronda Armitage's idea of inviting the brigands to the party rather than fighting against them, so I would recommend adding it to any children's library on that basis alone.

Small Knight and George and the Royal Chocolate Cake

Ronda Armitage (author), Arthur Robins (illustrator)

Paperback, 32 pages

Orchard Books, 2009

ISBN 9781846169137

Price £5.99 (Amazon £4.19)

George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl

Any child who has been left to the tender mercies of a difficult elderly relative will immediately identify with Roald Dahl's hero, eight-year-old George. George's family have a farm and there are no friends around to play with at weekends. When his mum goes shopping one Saturday morning, George is left alone with his obnoxious Grandma.

It would be hard to have any feelings of tenderness for George's Grandma. She moans constantly and never has a smile or a kind word for George. Even when he makes her a cup of tea, she grumbles about the sugar and makes a fuss about having a saucer and a teaspoon, even though George has already stirred the tea for her. After criticizing George for growing too fast, she scares the living daylights out of him by suggesting she has magic powers that could make his fingernails drop off and teeth grow there instead.

George rushes off and shuts himself in the kitchen to plan what he might do to 'shake the old woman up a bit'. He has a wonderful idea. He is due to give Grandma a spoonful of her medicine at eleven o'clock, and he decides to concoct a magic medicine to replace her usual one. George bursts into poetry as he hatches his plan. He goes from room to room in the house with a large saucepan, emptying in all the lotions and potions he can lay his hands on, with the exception of those in the forbidden medicine cupboard. George's Marvellous Medicine contains everything from shampoo to floor polish to canary seed. Even the shed and the garage are raided for anything from sheepdip to engine oil. George cooks it all up on the stove and finds himself chanting a magical verse.

The time comes for Grandma to have her spoonful. As soon as she swallows it, she shoots up out of her chair and then comes straight back down again. When she complains that she is on fire, George pours water down her throat. Strange things happen after this, and Grandma ends up several times her normal height with her head sticking up through the roof of the house.

Most boys would be in terrible trouble for causing such commotion but George's dad, being a farmer, wonders if he can use the medicine on his animals to make them super sized too. There might be a problem, however: will George be able to remember exactly what ingredients and in what quantities were in his original Marvellous Medicine? If not, might the medicine have different consequences?

Roald Dahl has created a fantastic tale in 'George's Marvellous Medicine'. Any reader will feel revulsion towards the nasty piece of work that is George's Grandma, and children in particular will sympathize with George's plight at the outset and cheer him on as he concocts his weird and wonderful mixture. Descriptive language and imaginative ideas will delight and entertain readers young and old.

As always, Quentin Blake's illustrations make a distinctive contribution to 'George's Marvellous Medicine'. Grandma certainly resembles a witch, and we see her aghast as she shoots out of her chair, then deformed in various ways as the medicine works its magic. Little George is sketched in the simplest of ways, yet his expression conveys immediately his feelings at different points in the story, whether scared, delighted or amazed.

'George's Marvellous Medicine' is just over a hundred pages long, but the text is set in a large font and there are so many illustrations that the book will not be daunting for a young independent reader. The sentences are on the whole quite short, and there is a fair amount of dialogue to keep a child interested. The longest chapter is about twelve pages, but even then progress is fast because of the number of illustrations.

This is not a story that has to wait until a child is old enough to read it alone, of course. It is a wonderful one to be shared between parents (or grandparents) and their children as a read-aloud book. As it was first published in 1981, some parents may remember it from their own childhood; if not, it will be a hilarious discovery for two generations at a time.

There is, it should be noted, a word of caution at the beginning of the story, warning readers that they should not attempt to concoct George's Marvellous Medicine at home!

George's Marvellous Medicine

Roald Dahl

Puffin Books

Paperback, 128 pages

ISBN 014132273X

Price £5.99 (Amazon £3.89)

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