Today I’m excited to be part of the blog tour for a lovely little book called Home Alone Harry by Jerry Rhodes and Rachael Messiter and illustrated by Nicky Hill. Thank you to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for asking me to be part of the tour. I received a copy of the book but was under no obligation to review the book and all thoughts are my own.
My Review:
This really is a fabulous little book!! The first thing that jumps out is the brilliant illustrations, they really bring the story to life and help to engage a young reader.
I love how this book teaches children how to be around a pet dog, especially if they are getting a new pet. I wish this book had been around when I got my dog and my children had such a tough time giving her space and time to sleep etc without being bothered. It isn’t easy for excited children to do that so anything that helps them to understand why that is so important is great in my eyes.
But whether you have a dog or not, I think that most children will delight in reading this book, it is targeted at three to six year olds and I think that is a fair age range, although younger children would no doubt enjoy it too even if they didn’t understand it as well as they might.
This is the first book featuring the Thunkies and I hope that it is the first of many, these really are books to look out for!
Blurb:
Harry is a mischievous young dog, adored by his family, Mum, Dad, Maisie (8) and Max (5). When the family leave him on his own he creates chaos, and Dad cries out, “That bad dog must go!” Alone and sad in bed that evening, Max asks, “Can anyone help?” The Thunkies respond to his call. They help the family learn how Harry, as a dog, thinks completely differently from them. There is a surprising game “Home Alone Harry” that the family play together, which helps resolve Harry’s behavioural problem.
Written for children aged 3 – 6 years, the book is bursting with vivid, colourful illustrations and uses a rich vocabulary. The aims of the book are threefold: to delight readers, to show through the story how the Thunkies cartoon characters help the family realise that dogs don’t think like humans, and to reveal the wisdom of respecting the dog’s world-view.
The educational substance of the book arises from the research and teaching of its two authors. They demonstrate that we can learn to understand how dogs really think even though as humans we all think differently. The registered names of the research are Amichien® Bonding and Thunkies®.
Jerry Rhodes Author Bio:
Jerry Rhodes’ life-long research and teaching is the inspiration behind ‘Home Alone Harry’, this first book in a series for children featuring the cartoon characters, Thunkies®. After completing his degree and teacher training at Oxford University, Jerry’s career as a school-master was cut short by polio. He changed course to a management career in industry, discovered his talents for creativity, and formed his world-wide consultancy to collaborate with international organisations. A special project with Philips led to the discovery of ‘Thinking-Intentions’, to which he has now given the playful name, Thunkies®. Jerry writes his books from his weather-beaten old farmhouse in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds.
Rachael Messiter Author Bio:
Rachael Messiter, a Dog Listener, uses the approach known as Amichien® Bonding pioneered by Jan Fennell. Rachael has her own practice, Talking Paws, based in Staffordshire. Previously she lived with wolves for close on two years in Colorado, USA, to learn how packs work. She has identified a group of issues that dog owners experience that are due to the well-meaning but flawed behaviours of owners, rather than ‘nuisance’ dogs. How to properly avoid and resolve such troublesome issues will be the theme of each book in the series Thunkies® love Dogs
Nicky Hill Illustrator Bio:
Nicky Hill is an illustrator and storyteller from Winterbourne near Bristol. Her artwork is featured throughout the Thunkies® Love Dogs books, bringing a bright, vibrant style that captures the imagination. A great lover of animals both wild and domestic, Nicky also illustrates and writes her own series of books about ‘The Wotton Pack’; a group of inquisitive pooches who spend their days and nights having many adventures. She currently lives with her own pack of three dogs in Wottonunder-Edge, a small town in Gloucestershire, where she also co-runs the shop called ‘The Collective’.
Want To Know More?
Website – https://thunkies.com/
Shop – https://shop.thunkies.com/
Facebook – @thunkies
Instagram – @thunkies
Pinterest – thunkiesteam
Elizabeth Jade was born in 1998 in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, England, but moved with her family to Wellington in Somerset when she was very young. She has one older brother.
The Beedog: An Insect Discovery in Portugal
Addie is an avid traveler, and once went on a solo journey to fifteen countries in one year. When she encounters something unique, she writes about it. Her first published picture book, The Beedog, is about a curious insect that she found in southern Portugal.
When a tiny orphaned bear cub is adopted by Polish soldiers during World War II, little does anyone know that little Wojtek will become one of the bravest fighters of them all. As the soldiers train to take part in some of the fiercest fighting of the war, Wojtek grows up, providing headaches and laughter in equal measure as he learns to drink beer, chase horses and wrestle with his human friends. But at Monte Cassino, as the Allies try and dislodge German troops from their mountain-top eyrie, Wojtek, now a fully signed-up solider with his own rank and number, comes into his own, dodging the bullets to carry ammunition to his comrades as they inch their way to victory. After the war, the Polish solders move to Scotland. Wojtek comes too and soon becomes the centre of attention in a new country. But with hostilities ended, how long can he keep his freedom? Best-selling children’s author Jenny Robertson explores the themes of friendship and trust in this moving and inspirational story.
‘Believe in yourself, for you are unique!’
It was over 10 years ago, during a marketing exercise to promote a new theatre company whilst studying Performing Arts, that the idea of Stripey Enid came to Natasha.
Nick Jones is an author based in Cheshire, UK, but originally from Bristol. He has written a series of joke books and an illustrated children’s book. His first joke book, Gagged and Bound, was written during the summer of 2014 and was published by Full Media Ltd later in the year to critical acclaim, garnering positive reviews from numerous book review websites such as Reader’s Favorite and The Bookbag. A follow-up, Gagged and Bound 2, was released a year later and received a similarly positive response, and in 2017 Nick returned with the third instalment. Nick returned with a very different book, Sarah’s Shadow, in December 2017. He has several new books in the pipeline including two picture books and a children’s joke book.
Marion Adams has been writing for as long as she can remember, usually for fun and sometimes for money as well. She started her career as an in-house copywriter with a publisher and now works as a freelance proofreader and editor. It’s her dream job because she’s paid to read all day (and eat dark chocolate). Over the years, she’s written all kinds of things for both adults and children, some serious and some less so, with published work including magazine stories, articles, poems, plays and non-fiction books.
Four little Londoners, Hope, Jun, Lea and Parth, come from a different cultural background, are good friends living in London. They are travelling to the iconic places around the city in search of magic hats to cure Mr Globe’s headache.
Winnie Mak Tselikas is a believer in diversity. Born and raised in Hong Kong, she studied engineering, worked in commercial sales and in 2011 switched to education upon moving to London. There, she met her half-French, half-Greek husband and they had a son, who now has family in China, France, Greece, HK, the UK and the US. Winnie considers her son to be a world citizen rather than of a particular nationality or culture. Inspired by her family and London’s diversity, she founded One Dear World and created the lovely adventures of Mr. Globe and the little Londoner dolls.
I’m Danny, a Poet/film maker/musician and all round creative human from Birmingham.
If only I could read faster 