Who are you, Stripy Horse? by Jim Helmore and Karen with CD read by Imedla Staunton

A few months ago a family donated over 10 boxes of children's books to our school library.  We were happy to pass many on to other schools with limited library budgets but of course we kept a few treasures for our own school and one of these was Who are you, Stripy Horse.  As a bonus this copy has a CD with the story, games and songs.

Stripy horse reminds me of many other toy shop book characters such as Arnold in Arnold the Prickly Teddy, Albert Le Blanc by Nick Butterworth, Ruby and Little Joe by Angela McAllister, Corduroy by Don Freeman and the Blue Kangaroo series. Stripy Horse lives in an antique shop.  One evening he wakes up.  "In the tick tock quiet, a shaft of moonlight tickled the nose of something sleeping."  In the tradition of Are you my mother by PD Eastman and The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek by Jenny Wagner, the little toy sets off on a journey around the shop enlisting the help of a number of companions who are determined to establish his identity.

These companions include Muriel, a lampshade hummingbird, Hermann, a drought excluder and Roly and Pitch, a pair of salt and pepper penguins.  Everyone agrees Ming the wise will have the answer.  As the group cross the shop stripy horse inadvertently knocks a number of precious china items from the shelves.  We see each piece smashed into small pieces and so by the time our little troop reach Ming I was certainly holding my breath. Have you guessed Ming is precious Chinese vase.

You might also enjoy Bill in a China shop which you can find on our poetry shelves.

This book is from a series.  We have two titles in our school library and I plan to include them in my story repertoire next term.  Here is a web site for the author.  I notice Oh, No Monster tomato comes from the same team.

There seems to be quite a bit of merchandise around this little fellow which is something I usually resist but I would love a little toy for my collection.