Grumbug

Adam Stower has illustrated many books for children, including Bottoms Up!, winner of the Red House Picture Book Award. His own books include Slam!, Silly Doggy! and Naughty Kitty!, both of which were longlisted for the Kate Greenaway.

It's great to see the characters from Troll and the Oliver return for a second story about hungry trolls and cake. At the end of The Troll and the Oliver, Oliver and Troll have gone into business together running a cafe selling cake to hungry trolls. But when Oliver's little sister disappears up Munch Mountain - where the Grumbug lives - he and Troll set off after her, taking a special supply of cake with them. Children will love following the clues in the story that lead Oliver towards his sister. Sure enough, she is at the top of Munch Mountain - but is the Grumbug really as big and as green and as mean as people think...? Once again Adam Stower excels at juxtaposing the text and the images so that the child reader knows more about what is going on than some of the characters in the story - they will delight in pointing out the clues to the existence of a rather large creature in the mountains, even if Oliver doesn't believe it exists... The rather wonderful array of trolls in the story could also be used to encourage children to create their own troll or other cake-guzzling creature!