The Cook and the King – Julia Donaldson and David Roberts (book review and GIVEAWAY)

Hi! I’m back. With another book review. And this time, I have THREE copies to give away!

So let’s fast-forward the intro and get right into it, shall we?

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The Cook and the King / Julia Donaldson and David Roberts

(Macmillan Children’s Books, 2018)

There once was a very hungry king
Who needed a cook like anything.

But cook after cook just isn’t good enough. Could the shuffling, shaking Wobbly Bob get the job?

This book was a winner with my children before we even read it. “Julia Donaldson!” my daughter screamed. “This will be a good one! Her books are sooooooo good!”

The king of the story struggles to find a new cook. Nothing they prepare is quite right, and some things are terribly wrong. (Sausage-infused jelly, anyone?)

He finally spots Wobbly Bob, who is a bit of wimp. In fact, he quickly displays his fear of… well, everything! Fishing, digging, chopping, frying… you name something that a cook should be able to do, and Wobbly Bob is scared of it.

The king turns out to be an understanding king, helping Wobbly Bob every step of the way. Or maybe he’s just so hungry that he doesn’t notice that the ‘helping’ is actually ‘all of the doing of all of the things’. Either way, it’s a fun story, with the rhythmic perfection and catchy repetition you’d expect from Julia Donaldson.

(My son has already adapted one of the repeated phrases for the ultimate in cheekiness. When asked to brush his teeth, he’ll often reply with, “Help! Help! I’m feeling scared! I’d love to brush if I only dared!”)

The Cook and the King is now top of our reading pile each evening. A cook costume may even be in the works for Book Week next week. It fits the theme perfectly, because this book is a treasure!

You can purchase The Cook and the King from Booktopia here, or from Book Depository here. You can find out more about the book from the publisher, Macmillan. Or you can enter to win your very own copy below!

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GIVEAWAY!

Thanks to the team at Macmillan, I have three copies of The Cook and the King to give away!

For your chance to win one of the three copies, leave a comment below answering the following question in 25 words or less:
If you woke up to find yourself king,
What would you need like anything?

(If you’d like some general tips on winning games of skill, head to my post on how to win 25-words-or-less competitions. I’ll help you out with tip four: my children will be choosing the winners.)

{Here comes a whole lot of fine print stuff. Yawn. This competition is open to Australian entrants only, and delivery must be to an Australian address. This competition is based on skill. My judgement is final, and no correspondence will be entered into. Unless you have read The Cook and the King and would like to discuss it in detail. In which case, let’s correspond! The prize is one of three (3) copies of The Cook and the King, RRP $24.99 each (total prize pool $74.97). Three winners will be selected. Competition opens 6.00pm 13 August 2018 and closes 11.59pm 19 August 2018, AEST. Yawn. The winners will be contacted and must respond within three days to claim their prizes. The winners will be announced in an update to this post when they have confirmed. The prizes are provided by Macmillan and will be sent by Macmillan directly. Yawn. The end. Zzzzz.}

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* This is not a sponsored post. I received a copy of The Cook and the King from Macmillan for the purposes of review, and they will provide the giveaway copies. All views are my own. Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you click to purchase the item, I may earn a little commission, but you won’t pay any extra.