It is both a thought-provoking and exciting well-paced story which explores themes such as belonging and what it means to be important to someone. Despite the deeper themes of consumerism and what it means to be human it isn’t all darkness and seriousness there is plenty of humour, sometimes that crude humour that children love about bodily functions and such and there is also a lot of warmth and friendship making this a fabulous book about finding your own feet and who means something to you and why. His picture book The Best Birthday Present Ever won the Dundee Picture Book Award and he has illustrated a number of iconic fiction covers such as Piers Torday's The Lost Magician and Jenny McLachlan's The Land of Roar . Events propel the narrative along at a fast pace so readers are never likely to be bored, and build to a quite unexpected ending that explores the nature of true friendship, love and connection. This book would be a welcome addition to any classroom, either as a class read or shared reading texts.

Even when we are just standing on the bridge looking out at an empty sea, keeping a close watch on the waters and skies for the feared Tommies. In 1976 Buchheim released the book U-Boot-Krieg (U-Boat War), a story of his trip on U-96 and U-309. Boot has become a ‘real’ consciousness with feelings and questions but is not valued because he resembles a toy the not shiny latest high tech which may resonate with young children who may feel the same that their thoughts and worries are dismissed as unimportant.

The characters are cool; I like Killer the unicorn because the left eye is a button and Sucky the octopus has plungers for tentacles.

Along the way, they’ll unlock wisdom for those of us navigating our own coupledoms, and for those still seeking their perfect match.

From what I remember the movie stayed pretty true to the novel, but the book loses out on all the German hotness because no one even speaks German really, outside of a few occasions.