Bamboozled by David Legge

Scholastic, 2015. ISBN 9781743620212
(Age: 4+) Highly recommended. Award winner. Grandparents. Wit and Humour. When a young girl visits her grandfather, she feels that something is odd but cannot quite figure it out, and this contrasts amazingly with what the reader sees on every page. Readers will smile broadly at the topsy-turvey nature of the house in which her grandfather lives. No ordinary place, there is lawn instead of carpet, animals in the most unusual places, people seem to lean out of the picture frames on the walls, the inside of the house sometimes feels like the outside, but she still cannot see what is different.
They do the things people do when they visit. They have morning tea with freshly baked cakes and play cards; she helps with the housework and does some gardening with her grandfather. The watercolour illustrations are filled with things for the readers to look at and laugh about, sharing what they see with others in the group. They will laugh out loud turning the pages eagerly to see what else Legge has added to this topsy-turvey place.
This edition republished for its twentyfirst year, will intrigue and delight a new generation of readers as they find all the differences in grandpa's house and ponder over the one difference the granddaughter can see.
A welcome addition is a note from David Legge outlining where his ideas for the book came from, and showing some of his drawings as the ideas developed, including photographs of the people he used as the models for his characters and a photo of himself at work. Children will simply love this house and the gentle relationship between the grandfather and his granddaughter, culminating in her realsising what the one difference is. Along the way, readers will see grandfather looking after himself doing most of the work around the house, a child visiting and helping and the sorts of things people do when visiting. This book contains a lovely image of day-to-day activities set against an improbably hilarious house, one that will keep children chuckling for a long time after the book is read.
Fran Knight