Paddington Goes to Town

Paddington Goes to Town by Michael Bond is a very funny book for 7 year olds about a bear who takes every single word at face value.

What happens

It's the eighth Paddington book, and it opens on a wedding day. Paddington has been asked to be an usher. He's so pleased that he volunteers for a bath, which startles the whole family.

Jonathan works out the trouble first. Paddington thinks an usher's job is to keep everyone 'ush! So the church sits in total silence under his hard stares (even the vicar looks impressed).

Then word goes round that the wedding ring has vanished. Paddington has a very good idea where it is, and that's the problem. Sucking his paw doesn't help. Neither does a smear of marmalade from his emergency jar. Who would you ring at a moment like that?

Next door, Mr Curry has suddenly taken up golf. There's a prize at the golf club's open day for the ball that travels farthest. So Paddington ends up as his caddie. It's that or be reported for an unlucky poke in the eye with a bean stick!

Golf turns out to be full of words that mean something else. A tee isn't tea. Addressing the ball has nothing to do with stamps. Paddington tries his very best with all of it, and Mr Curry gets crosser and crosser.

That's what makes these stories such fun. Paddington's logic makes perfect sense to him, and your reader will be right there with him while the grown-ups go purple. Mrs Bird, the Browns' housekeeper, quietly sees through everything (she usually does).

The golf leads straight on to a hospital visit. Paddington goes by himself with a basket for Mr Curry and ends up lying on a doctor's couch by mistake. It's a wonderfully silly muddle.

The sentences are long and wordy, with plus fours and other old-fashioned things along the way. That makes it a lovely one to read aloud, and a confident reader will enjoy it alone too. If your reader likes being one step ahead of the main character, they'll be giggling long before Paddington works it out.

What to read next

If they'd like to go back a book, Paddington at Work is in the library too. It begins on an ocean liner, with Paddington dozing over his marmalade on the way home from Aunt Lucy's birthday in Peru.