Description
By Lee Pritchett
ISBN: 978-1-84747-950-1
Published: 2009
Pages: 75
Key Themes: depression, OCD, children’s writing, fantasy, magic
Description
‘The Tale of Greta Gumboot and Other Stories’ is an exciting collection of magical, illustrated fantasy children’s tales about the adventures of brave (and not so brave) boys, girls, wizards, witches and talking animals. The stories are set in strange and wonderful worlds, sparkling with magic. There’s also a selection of children’s rhyming stories like poetry that will hopefully provoke the odd bout of joyous laughter and the occasional gasp of surprise. These include some of my favourites the Epheline stories. He’s part cat, part Elephant, particularly cute, furry and purple as they come. He has the ability to let out a magical musical whistle, that sends children safely to sleep back in there own soft, warm beds. He prefers only to come out at night and is about to make some wonderful new friends in the woods and the park. Aimed at boys and girls ranging in age from five years old to nine. There’s plenty of fun and adventures for any child. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it…
About the Author
Lee Pritchett was born in 1986, on the Isle of Wight. He went to school there and then proceeded to study IT at college. Soon after college he was diagnosed with OCD. At the age of twenty He wrote a children’s story based on a family member for a bit of fun called ‘The Tale Of Hammy Telling And His Tiny Little Telling Tummy’. With this, the first children’s story he’d written in his adult life coming in the short list of the academy of children’s writers’ competition, he decided to study with them and he is now striving to become a successful and respected writer of children’s literature. With the support of a loving family he’s finally got his first book out there…
Book Extract
Greta Gumboot was a particularly plump, rather wicked little witch. She had a lonely life, living in a stuffy little cottage at the edge of a large, lush green forest. Greta had quite peculiar taste in cloths. She always wore a large black pointy hat over her bright red hair, a long purple dress and big brown boots. Greta devoted her life to searching for the perfect tasty treat. Every day she went out into the woods and by the power of her dark wand an unlucky forest creature would become her next delectable bite to eat.
Last Tuesday she changed a chubby old rabbit, who was actually a rather nice fellow, into a Belgian chocolate bunny. Then she nibbled his ears off one by one. The following day it was Cyril the snakes turn. In a bright flash of light he became a very large, very sticky, particularly sweet candy cane. Greta loved candy canes and gobbled it down as fast as she could, along with three jelly worms, which a few minutes earlier had been real slimy wriggling earthworms. She topped of the day with some crunchy butterfly biscuits, with purple and white icing. Only moments before they had been pretty butterflies fluttering about joyfully, enjoying the sunshine and the forests beautiful bluebells, primroses and daffodils.
Now on that Thursday something very strange happened to Greta, while she was in the woods. She was creeping her way through some beautiful rhododendron bushes, with their large, sweet smelling bunches of pink, blue and white flowers. She hoped to find some poor unsuspecting soul to turn into her next mouth-watering treat. She sprang out into a little clearing, hoping to catch someone unawares, and instead she got a surprise of her own. A deep bellowing voice from nowhere, echoed all around her.
“I” said the voice “Am Julius Beetroot, keeper of the ultimate treat!”
“Ahh!” screamed Greta, with shock “who’s that?”
She raised her wand to defend herself.
“I’ll tell you again.” Said the voice “I am Julius Beetroot! And if you lower your wand I may allow you a taste of heaven itself. A treat far greater and more magical then anything any witch could ever conjure!”
Greta lowered her wand slowly.
“I’m listening,” she said with a sly smile. A cute, little red squirrel skipped out from among the trees dressed in a blue cape. Greta was greatly surprised when the mighty voice of Julius Beetroot echoed from its tiny lips
“Follow me!” he instructed heartily.
Greta raised her wand
‘Mmm chocolate squirrel.’ she thought ‘My favourite!’
Will Kalif fantasyguide.stormthecastle.com (verified owner) –
The Tale of Greta Gumboot and Other Stories by Lee Pritchett
This is a fun book for children with tales of wizardry and magic. It is full of stories about dragons, unicorns and more. It also includes some enchanting rhymes. I enjoyed this book and it is suitable for children and adults of all ages. The stories, rhymes, and illustrations were all done by Lee. It is a nice creative work.