Slightly Annoying Elephant By David Walliams

I bought this book for my four year old who loves reading, especially these fun picture books (Julia Donaldson is a firm favourite). I'd not read any of this series of books before, but DW was suggested by a teacher friend of mine who said her class loves them. It was a bit of a random toss up as to which book we chose, but I ended up settling on this, thinking I couldn't really go wrong whichever book I chose. I was wrong. I didn't really enjoy this book much. I get that DW is trying to be funny and quirky and give the book a bit of an edge, but I didn't like the elephant character at all. He was just rude and not in a fun way. it's also a bit boring. Having said that, my son did enjoy it but it's not one he will always think of reading unless I remind him we have it. I can only imagine there are better DW books out there but I'm a little bit put off buying them.

The pictures are nice, but David Walliams is a terrible author. The story makes little sense, is littered with grammatical errors, has no learning point and is simply about an angry elephant. My child was upset at the end of the bok and asked me "what was the point of the story Dad?" Everyone seems to think they can write children's books - most can not - and David Walliams certainly can not.

I was on the hunt for some longer picture books for my new Year 1 class who are at that inbetween phase of being too old for the pre-school classics but slightly too young to appreciate chapter books yet (certainly in a group situation). David Walliams' picture books fit the bill perfectly for this age group. They're humorous (especially for children - Walliams seems to know exactly the type of humour children appreciate) and the illustrations are bold and attractive.This is one of our favourites of Walliams' picture books, along with The Bear who went Boo. The repetitive chant of 'Silly Boy' throughout went down particularly well with the children.

Disappointing really, bit of a rip of The Tiger Who Came To Tea for a start. Also, the elephant has no redeeming features at all. My young boys were quite sad at the end of the story and don’t want to read it again. We enjoyed the First Hippo On The Moon and There’s A Snake In My School but this was disappointing.

Bit of an accident buying this. I ordered it just because it's David Walliams, and so far everything I've seen by him is brilliant. So is this, but my children are eight and ten (the youngest still enjoyed it!), and I didn't realise it was aimed at a younger audience. That said, it is highly entertaining for any child, say, between two and seven as the book is about a foot square and is filled with hilarious pictures of elephantine antics.This is a book for sitting your toddler on your lap and reading the words while you both giggle at the pictures.