Thursday 27 January 2011

Sanji and the Baker













Our quest to hoover up every Korky-Paul-Illustrated book on the planet continues, as this week we struck gold at the Library by grabbing one of the few Korky Paul Picture Books we haven't seen yet. 

Sanji and the Baker is excellent, almost like a modern fable. Sanji the down-at-heel travelling adventurer takes up residence above a Baker's Shop. Every morning he wakes up to the delicious smells emanating from the Baker's wares. 

The Baker takes great exception to this and brings Sanji up before a judge for stealing his smells. 

The twist in the story at the end is superb. Even more superb is the fact that the book features a good dose of excellent Korky Paul cameos from various other books he's illustrated (yep, Winnie Witch is in the book as one of Sanji's generous friends). 

A winning attention to detail, a great moral tale and a rather original setting. Brilliant book. 

Charlotte's best bit: Winnie the Witch as a magical money lender

Daddy's favourite bit: Sanji's excellent steampunk smell-grabber

Rating: 5 out of 5