The Story Shop: Blast Off!

The Story Shop - Blast Off! Comes with a warning… 'Contains aliens, black holes and super-stinky cheese!' is always going to grab an emerging reader's attention! This fun and adventurous story contains 3 mini stories which link on from each other. In a very normal High Street is the most unusual shop, a story shop! Packed full of props and plots, this shop leads the bravest of readers on an out-of-this-world space adventure. The first customer of the day is a small mouse (small in size, but a brave, skilled and boastful one at that!) Mouse has come to the shop for a story adventure; an awesome, amazing, incredible adventure that is out-of-this-world!

The shop owners, Wilbur and Ferret Fred, prepare the story pot with all the props the story will need, including a small, green alien, a jar of gooey yellow liquid, a dice, screwdrivers and lots of stinky cheese. Mouse is handed some (rather surprising) emergency supplies; biscuits, a toy shield and party poppers, and, after a quick stir, WHOOSH! and POP! and the adventurers were gone! What comes next is an addictive, humorous tale of daredevil Mouse and a cautious ferret who muddle their way through trouble with Gordon Zola on the moon, a tail-biting game of Tiddlywonks with Phoebe Fairplay, and some crazy inventions on Planet Cog.

This story is illustrated with black and white pictures which aid the reader in their understanding of the story. Many of the pages include differing fonts to emphasise speech, fear, excitement and sound effects. With its content, illustrations, contents page and text level, this is a brilliant text for all emerging readers and one that they will no doubt fully engage in. There's even a Story Shop quiz to take at the end to find out which adventure would best suit you. Will it be an abracadabra magical one, a shiver-me-timbers pirate adventure, a totally roarsome dinosaur one or an out-of-this-world space adventure?

144 Pages / Reviewed by Maria Faithorn 

Suggested Reading Age 7+