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The Troll

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Book Synopsis

A laugh-out-loud pirate adventure from the stellar picture-book partnership of Julia Donaldson and David Roberts.

The Troll longs for a juicy goat to eat – but he’s stuck with boring old fish for supper. Bother! Meanwhile, Hank Chief and his pirate crew love fish, but without a decent recipe their slimy, soggy dinner is even worse. If only they could find their buried treasure and pay for a ship’s cook . . . but it seems they’ve sailed to the wrong island. Again.

Watch the fun unfold as two very different worlds collide in The Troll, a gloriously comic story from Julia Donaldson and David Roberts, the creators of the highly acclaimed Tyrannosaurus Drip.

Our Review Panel says...

The Troll is a truly delightful picture book by national treasure Julia Donaldson, and a book that we absolutely love at BooksForTopics HQ.

The story offers a fresh perspective on a familiar grumpy character, adeptly mixing the well-known troll from the traditional Three Billy Goats Gruff tale with a fun pirate story arc. The hungry troll, perpetually stuck with a fish diet and constantly outsmarted by goats, finds his path crossing with a rough-and-tumble crew of equally food-limited pirates.

The genius of this book lies in how these two seemingly separate storylines run in perfect parallel, leading to a wonderfully gleeful conclusion. David Roberts’ quirky, characterful illustrations are full of humour, perfectly complementing Donaldson’s witty, rhyming text.

This is a fantastic KS1 read-aloud that holds a unique charm, making it highly recommended.