Evie
and Pog. Two very best friends. A girl and a dog.
Creative arts and crafts play a big role in the
third book of the Evie and Pog
trilogy, Evie and Pog Party Perfect. There
are also new words to be learnt and lots of imaginative entertainment to share
within these three stories.
We open again onto the floor plan of the tree
house, where six year old Evie and her best friend Pog the pug live, next to
Granny Gladys’ large old house.
Granny is a clean freak who carries her dust buster
everywhere to remove any mess that spoils her surroundings. Her knitting
needles are constant companions in case of an emergency. She loves baking.
Evie loves movement and noise. She uses her cymbals
to get people’s attention.
Like Granny Gladys, baking and knitting are two favourites. Most of all she loves the daisy spot grass at the base of her tree house.
There are times when she finds joy in acting like a
dog.
Pog favours drinking tea and reading the newspaper.
He adores vegies - especially broccoli, and loves dress ups.
Evie’s friend Noah arrives with his dad Mr Pooch
and the two sausage dogs. Miss Footlights, her teacher, follows with news to
share. It is an opportunity for Evie to run and play and trip! She always trips! Evie is a great idea
person. All of these great ideas are put on paper. They include the use of glitter
a-plenty, balls, paint, noise and certain chaos!
The end-of-year Book Parade is planned. The theme
is Celebrations. The Puppy School is
joining in. Granny Gladys is thrilled to be knitting the costumes.
Pog has won best dressed every year. With the
puppies joining in, there will be a lot of competition. Surprises hover in the
background waiting for their queue.
In the second story, plans are being drawn up for
the forthcoming Art Show. Wood, nails
and wool form the creative board born from Evie’s free-style imagination. Their
plans are interrupted by a cluster of seven kittens at the window. Food is
offered to them but it’s the wool they are interested in. Soon they need to be
snipped out of a tangled mess by Granny Gladys.
How much damage can countless nails, endless
hammering, and wool-winding cause? Can an artistic outcome emerge from the
ruins? What will they do with the seven kittens now sleeping in socks? What will
the judge, the tooty snooty posh Mr
Arty Farty, think of their artistic flair?
Party
Time rounds things up. Evie and Pog are baking for the
Puppy School one year anniversary. It’s to be a surprise. Granny Gladys circles
the area with her ever-present dust buster.
Lots of surprises are planned along with a special
one for Granny Gladys’ birthday. First there are stories and pictures to gather
for the Puppy School Anniversary Storybook. Then there are Pog’s cupcakes to
make, shoes laces to be tied, and Evie’s unavoidable tripping which lands her
in the pond with the frogs. However will they get her out? Can a new scientific
contraption be the answer?
Can a day have too many surprises? Will all the surprises fit into the schedule?
These first three books in the series are filled with energy and built on
imagination and inventiveness. The delightful, expressive, illustrations visually
enhance the clever text. Fun and chaos
blend with the hilarious antics of all the interesting characters to form an
entertaining link of stories for younger readers.
The Evie and Pog books represent unconventional
characters able to exist in harmony and friendship despite their differences
and preferences. They can be read independent of the others. I love this
series, as will readers who enjoy a bit of crazy in their reads.
Title:
Evie and Pog: Book #3 Party Perfect
Author/Illustrator:
Tania McCartney
Publisher:
HarperCollins, $12.99
Publication
Date: 20 April 2020
Format:
Paperback
ISBN:
9781460757956
For
ages: 6+
Type:
Junior Fiction
