50 Utterly Silly Stories from Miles Kelly Books (age 7+)

50 Utterly Silly Stories is a huge collection of short stories and extracts for children written by a host of authors including Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll and L Frank Baum. The stories have been gathered together by Belinda Gallagher and this epic 512 page book is beautifully illustrated throughout, starting with the outside cover.

My 7 year old is now a competent reader and loves books. He's desperate for new things to read, and enjoys fiction as well as factual books, and given completely free choice from the Miles Kelly website he chose 50 Utterly Silly Stories.

All of the stories are either about the bizarre and strange, or simply ARE bizarre and strange. It actually took a while for my young man to get the hang of this as he's very logical and rule-driven. I actually think as in life quite often things don't make sense, it's a useful concept to get to grips with.

The text is sometimes varied and sometimes standard, with different fonts and styles, including some really quite difficult and antiquated language from authors such as Edward Lear alongside modern tales which are less challenging for a younger reader.

The illustrations throughout are lovely. Modern and bright and really very funny. 6 different artists all contribute to 50 Utterly Silly Stories, and the styles compliment each other very well.

50 Utterly Silly Stories is split into 5 distinct sections:

• Nonsense and Gobbledegook
• Tricks And Tomfoolery
• Sillies and Simpletons
• Baffled Beasts and Bamboozled Birds
• Scarily Stupid, Dangerously Dumb

My 7 year old's favourite section at the moment is Sillies and Simpletons, with stories including Mr Vinegar by Joseph Jacobs, about a man who goes to sell a cow, ends up with a stick and then even loses that.

My favourite section is  Tricks and Tomfoolery, with an extract from Five Children and It by E Nesbit where children wish for wings and end up flying around the countryside.

A truly lovely book, with stories to suit everyone, and plenty to introduce your child to different styles of writing and use of English. Challenging in parts for even the best of 7 year old readers, but varied enough that they can move on and come back later without frustration, this has plenty to offer children and young people up until the age of 10 or 11 and even older.

50 Utterly Silly Stories is published by Miles Kelly and has an rrp. of £11.24.