The Weasel, Puffin, Unicorn, Baboon, Pig, Lobster Race

by James Thorp, Angus MacKinnon (Illustrations)

The Weasel Puffin Unicorn Baboon Pig Lobster Race race is a psychedelic children's story best described as, 'Doctor Doolittle meets Sergeant Pepper'. It's a zany story of a race as feverishly competitive as any held before or since.

All manner of dastardly plans and cheats are concocted by the beasts including custard trampolines and banana diggers (the swines!). The Unicorn alone respects the rules. Admirable, yes, but in this weasel-cheats-puffin world what chance of victory does that give him?

Beautifully illustrated by Angus MacKinnon this anarchic and riotous story by James Thorp is an unmissable treat for all.

Genres: Picture Books

56 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

James Thorp is a writer and musician. He lives in London.

Reviews

[Richard Edgworth]

“The Weasel, Puffin, Unicorn, Baboon, Pig, Lobster Race began one pinky morning as the sun climbed into space.”

This story follows the bizarre race organised by none other, the queen, and officiated by a rather observant snail. The poem itself is fast paced with a simple rhyming scheme which helps bring alive the wacky, disorganised shamble that is the race.

The illustration style is simple but compliments the content perfectly, with the manic grinned creatures all striving to outdo each other as their methods for winning, or rather cheating, become ever more elaborate as the poem reads on. That said, I think the illustrations would benefit from a bit more depth, with maybe some more hidden items that children can search for, as although the style is simple, I don’t necessarily think the content has to be too.

I read this to a year 2 class and they really loved it. It offers a chance for children to join in also, with there being a repeated line every couple of pages. For this reason, it was also an excellent way for making the children aware of the rhyming scheme that is in this book. I think this book could suit children up to lower key stage 2, but I imagine there will be many older children that could benefit from this when writing their own poetry.

“So joining all the berries using scrambled egg for glue, he sailed off down the river on a raspberry canoe.”

[Howard Brazier]

As a child of the 60's, I loved this book as it conjured up memories of Doctor Suess, and The Beatles Yellow Submarine (with a touch of Wacky Races). More importantly, what did my two boys think?
Although I read it to them, initially, this book was quite easy for my six year old to read, and he was happy to read it to his younger brother. The repetition in the rhyme helped with this. The excellent illustrations made the book very easy to follow, and was therefore ann all round hit.
We're already looking forward to the next one. More please.

[Angel Torres]

This book is absolutely insane, amazing, crazy and awesome!

The rhymes are fun and funny, the rhythm is great and fast, the plot is weird and artistic, the art is original and amazing and the moral is true and kind.

This is the best of the best!

[Nohemí González]

This is visually stunning the illustrations are perfect, I think I enjoyed the art more than the story but I give it 5 stars because of the drawings.