There comes a time in every child's life where they go through that phase of throwing open their toy cupboard, wailing and moaning that they have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO PLAY WITH despite the fact that the cupboard is literally overflowing.
Young Lulu has had this problem ever since she was a baby. You see, her very generous family and friends loved to spoil her rotten, bringing her all sorts of toys (usually of the cuddly variety) and games to keep her amused. One toy is very special, her favourite bear called Jupiter (that has to be the coolest name EVER for a teddy!) but Lulu steadily collects a mountain of others.
Bears, cats, weird gonk things, walking talking robots, soldiers, cars. It becomes too much for Lulu and her room is full to overflowing. When it comes to bedtime there's barely room for Lulu to squeeze in next to all her toys.
There's only one thing for it. Lulu hits on an absolutely brilliant idea to rid herself of this mountain of clutter. Can you guess what Lulu's brilliant idea is?
Heidi Deedman's story is one that most parents (and quite a few kids) will wholly identify with (we found ourselves nodding through the whole book). Come Birthdays and Christmas Time, it gets absolutely crazy when we suddenly have to find house room for another stack of toys so we always take cues from Lulu's idea in this book, definitely the only thing to do!
Charlotte's favourite bit: When Lulu performs her good deed for the day, a gasp as Charlotte thought one particular toy had been given away by mistake...(brilliant moment in the book, that!)
Daddy's favourite bit: A beautifully well observed tale of what happens when excess gets out of control, but spun into a rather delicious moral tale of what to do if you've got more than anyone else. Yes, we like this one a lot!
(Kindly sent to us for review by Walker Books)
"Too Many Toys"
Written and Illustrated by Heidi Deedman
Published by Walker Books
Publication Date: 5th November 2015