Billy and the Beast

Product Information

Young readers will adore this hilarious story, packed with playful, energetic and simple to read text. If you were registered for the newsletter, you will now receive the Puffin Schools newsletter, which is filled with all the latest information about accompanying resources and upcoming shows.

Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen | Goodreads Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen | Goodreads

The book also contains many cross-curricular links and with the repetitive language and imagery, this children's book would be ideal for engaging EAL learners. The 'Stomped and crunched' parts have worked well when I've been reading with children before as it gives them a chance to act and join in. Energetic, giggle-inducing, and driven by a little girl’s wit, Nadia Shireen’s Billy and the Beast is a blast of picture book brilliance. Kids are usually afraid of dark and some unseen monsters (𝑁𝑜𝑤 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑦 𝑘𝑖𝑑𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑜 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑓𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑔𝑜 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑡 𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑤𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚). There's also an issue around the normalisation of sugar based snacking when you're trying to teach a child about healthy lifestyles!Thankfully, Billy is brilliantly inventive when it comes to persuading the Terrible Beast from doing a truly terrible thing, and her thought processes are great prompts to spark discussion when reading this aloud with little ones – what would you do? Although within the story itself, there is a limit of conversation which could be had due to it not really having a clear theme or moral to take away.

Billy and the Beast - Penguin Books UK Billy and the Beast - Penguin Books UK

As the most iconic and well-known children’s book brand in the UK today, we are always on the lookout for innovative ways to tell the world’s favourite stories and for brilliant new debut talent and brands that connect with today’s young readers, from newborn up to twelve years old. She studied law at university and then worked in magazine journalism; it was during this time that she started to draw again. Join Billy on her mission to defeat the Terrible Beast (and save those adorable little bunny rabbits too).Her debut book Good Little Wolf received a mention in the Bologna Ragazzi Opera Prima Award and won the UKLA Book Award. The content and ambition of the show remains the same: to give every pupil the opportunity to engage with authors and illustrators in their own classroom using the power of the internet. It's still all too unusual to see a brown girl star in such a brilliantly funny and very commercial picture book and Shireen has created Billy in fantastic style. While out on a lovely walk in the woods, Billy and her trusty sidekick Fatcat hear a terrible rumble. I have been trying to look for opinions of this book from people of colour and haven't been able to find any at all, so maybe this says something in itself.