Read Billie B Brown 25 – The Best Day Ever free for 7 days. £7.99/month after - less than a paperback.
Sally Rippin's Billie B Brown The Best Day Ever is a short, warm story for 5 year olds about a school bazaar that goes from brilliant to scary and back again.
Do you know what the B in Billie B Brown is for? This time it's Bazaar!
Billie is so excited she's jumping up and down like a kangaroo. There's face painting and fairy floss, a jumping castle and a book stall run by her teacher. Best of all there's the Super-Dooper Snake ride. Billie is a bit scared of rides, but she and her best friend Jack have promised to go on it together.
At the bazaar, though, Billie is far too excited to hang about. She runs off with Ella and Rebecca to get her face painted. She asks for a flying rainbow unicorn with butterfly wings (it costs extra, and she has just enough coins).
It takes ages. By the time Billie opens her sparkly eyelids, her friends have gone. She can't find Jack or her teacher either. The playground is so busy and noisy it doesn't even feel like school anymore.
This is the bit that will ring true for lots of little ones. Billie feels scared and alone, and she cries. It's handled really gently and it doesn't last long, but a child who worries about getting lost might want a hug nearby.
Where does she go? To her favourite place in the whole school, of course. I won't say more than that, except that Jack is exactly the kind of best friend everyone wants.
The sentences are short and simple, so it's a lovely one for new readers to try on their own or to share at bedtime. There are some very funny touches too. The face-painter can't believe Billie would leave with a unicorn that has no legs!
It's also a gentle way into a real conversation. What would your child do if they lost sight of you somewhere busy? Billie's story makes that an easy thing to talk about without it feeling scary.
This is one of the later Billie books. If your reader likes her, you can go right back to where it started with the first Billie B Brown collection, where she and Jack have a falling-out over who's allowed to play football.
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