Doodleday by Ross Collins

Gullane Children's Books, 2012. ISBN 9781862338470.
(Age Pre-school-6) Recommended. Harvey's mother leaves him with a warning not to doodle on Doodle Day, but Harvey has a stash of pencils hidden and decides that doodling is just what he want to do. To his surprise his doodle of a fly comes to life and takes over the kitchen. He then tries to get rid of the fly by drawing a spider who wasn't interested in flies but attacked his dad and so on, until in desperation he calls on his mother to help him out.
This is a very appealing and humorous story that will appeal to both young and old. Collins' text is well written and amusing and will keep a young reader engrossed as well as being lots of fun for the pre-school set to listen to. Harvey is an engaging little boy who is determined to prove his independence from his mother, but it is his mum who he calls on to fix things up. She proves to be up to the task and manages to finally contain the chaos with some quick thinking action.
The illustrations are just great. Harvey is drawn with spiky hair, while Mum has fantastic pointy-toed boots. There are lots of details to pore over and to enjoy. The combination of watercolour figures and background and Harvey's crayon doodling works really well and will stimulate the imagination of young children. They could have lots of fun drawing doodles of their own and working out what would be needed to fix up the resulting chaos if their doodles came to life.
I really liked the ending and was left wondering just what mischief Harvey would get up to next Doodle Day.
Pat Pledger