ReadItDaddy's First Book of the Week - Week Ending 26th October 2018: "The Art and Making of The Greatest Showman" by Signe Bergstrom (Blink Publishing)

WhooooahhhOOOHoooahhOOOHHHAA!
Ladies and gents, this is the Book of the Week moment you've waited for! 

(WhooooahhhOOOHoooahhOOOHHHAA!)

Been searchin' for a book, your sweat soakin' through the floor?

(WhooooahhhOOOHoooahhOOOHHHAA!)

And in your local bookstore there's a book that you can't ignore!

(WhooooahhhOOOHoooahhOOOHHHAA!)

Take a breath, steel your mind, all other books are left behind!

Don't fight it, it's comin' for you, runnin' at ya!
Seize the moment, grab this book, don't worry about what comes after!

Your fever dream, can't you see it gettin' closer?
Just surrender 'cause you feel this book is takin' over!

It's informative, it's awesome, just get the cover open!
Like a smorgasbord of movie magic, books like this don't arrive too often!
The movie has already entered your very soul!
It's full of everything you ever wanted, so tell me do you wanna know?

OK I really can't keep up an entire rip-off of the movie's most catchy track, but the chances are that even if you're a grumpy old curmudgeon like me, you've been completely unable to avoid "The Greatest Showman" - and if your wife and child are completely in love with the movie, the chances are you already own the film and the soundtrack, and have to listen to it every time you go anywhere in your car.

Am I right? Well why not add a slice of book magic to that list as well with our first "Book of the Week" this week, "The Art and Making of 'The Greatest Showman'" by Signe Bergstrom.

Zendaya performed a lot of her own stunts in the movie. Is there nothing she can't do?!

We absolutely love process books, particularly 'behind the scenes' or 'production art' books for movies - and C (and her mum) are huge huge fans of "The Greatest Showman" so we jumped at the chance to review this one, and think it's going to be an absolute shoe-in for rapid addition to a lot of people's Christmas Pressie lists.

Tell me do you wanna go?

The book offers up tons of brilliant production stills, concept images and director / cast insights from all the major players in the film including Director Michael Gracey and stars Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron (C swoons at the very mention of Zac, oh dear!), Zendaya and many others.

Michael Gracey eyes up a scene in "The Greatest Showman"

Despite the film's initial fairly negative critical reception it's been something of a phenomena over the last couple of years, with "Singalong" showings selling out, and the movie and soundtrack nudging other titles off the top of the charts in both cases.

The book has been recovered and reprinted in time for the christmas run-up and we've all enjoyed digging behind the scenes to see some of the amazing work that went into making the movie magic happen.

We really enjoyed all the cast insights (and even despite being the only member of the family who really doesn't like the film, and in general doesn't like musicals at all, I thoroughly enjoyed all the production art and storyboarding stuff in the book, which shows just how talented the ensemble who worked on the film really were).

Without a doubt it's an absolute MUST if you've got "The Greatest Showman" fans in your family. Great for all ages, just get out there and grab a copy!

"The Art and Making of The Greatest Showman" by Signe Bergstrom is out now, published by Blink Publishing / Templar (kindly supplied for review).