Over and Over Again - November 2019
'It's a book that will be read over and over again,' said a review in Child Education. They were right. I've read EACH PEACH PEAR PLUM , Janet and Allan Ahlberg’s classic picture book, many hundreds of times. Even now, each time I read it I find something new in it. For instance, today I find myself wondering about Robin Hood and the Wicked Witch and those arrows Robin fires at her as she flies past on her broomstick. They are very sharp arrows; the witch looks anxious and the cat seems scared and angry; the little blue birds look as if they’re putting the brakes on to stay out of the way. But Robin is smiling. And his victims must know that Robin is the world’s best shot. He's aiming to miss. Surely it’s a game? But maybe, just maybe, it’s not. Because, in this book, bears go hunting with their guns (not very effectively, to be sure) and Robin may be reading a book in his den, with picture of Maid Marian hanging from a tr...