Billie B Brown 21 – The Grumpy Neighbour

Sally Rippin's Billie B Brown The Grumpy Neighbour is a gentle story for 5 year olds about a brand-new football and a lady everyone says is mean.

What happens

Billie has shin guards, a stripy top and a super bouncy new ball. Do you know what the B in Billie B Brown stands for this time? Ball, of course!

She's playing at the park next to Jack's cousins' house. Then the ball bounces off Jack's head and sails right over a fence.

Uh-oh. That's Grumpy Gertie's garden. The cousins say nobody EVER gets their ball back from her.

Billie isn't worried. She marches up and knocks on the door, very polite. The lady shouts that kids kick balls into her garden every single day, and slams the door.

Billie feels shaky. Then the shaky feeling turns into a hot, cross one. It's her new ball!

Things don't get much better at home. She plants her very own vegetable patch, carefully, one seedling at a time. Then baby Noah crawls over and pulls every single one out. Poor Billie decides it's the worst day ever (and bursts into tears).

What I love is how the book names the feelings. Shaky, then mad, then sorry. It's very easy for a small child to say "that's how I felt!"

Noah says sorry the only way a baby can, with his favourite teddy. And Mum wonders out loud whether Gertie might love her garden too. What happens to it every time a ball comes flying over?

That question gives Billie a super-dooper idea. You'll have to read it to find out what it is.

The sentences are short and the whole story is quick to get through. The narrator keeps asking your reader questions too ("She is very brave, isn't she?"), which makes it lovely to share out loud. It could also suit a child who's just starting to read on their own.

It's a later book in a long series, but everyone is introduced as if you're meeting them for the first time.

What to read next

If they're keen for more Billie straight away, The Hat Parade has her and Jack making funny hats out of shoeboxes for the school parade.