Gertrude and Toby's Friday Adventure

This book is cute and whimsical, with multiple fairy tales woven into the story. I enjoyed the humorous dialogue and illustrations. The illustrations really made the book!

Gertrude the goat and her best friend Toby the tortoise are adventurers. No sitting around on the boring farm for them! They love to explore, and every Friday they sneak off the farm for some extra fun.

This is a great introduction to this series. In this book the friends briefly meet up with several fairytale characters such as Red Riding Hood, Jack, the Wicked Witch and more. They head to Bay Hale town to get sweets and unbeknownst to them, they actually steal them. When the owner keeps Toby as a hostage while Gertrude finds the money to pay for the sweets, Gertrude sets a chain reaction in place. Kids will enjoy this book and its comical series of events. The illustrations are very simple, but assist in the telling of the story. A good book for school, class and public libraries.

A cute story about two friends, a goat and a tortoise. It had the feel of a fable/fairy tale. I'm excited to see what the next few books look like as they are perfect for young kids.

Gertrude and Toby are a goat and tortoise with adventure on their minds. In this first installment of the Gertrude and Toby Fairy Tale Adventure series they grab the opportunity of sneaking off to market while the farmer is away. These two (especially Gertrude) think with their stomachs and soon get themselves into trouble when they can't pay for their snacks.
This is a delightful tale. I read this to my 5 year old who then point blank refused to sleep until I could promise her I could read the next installment. So many thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this and the next two installments! This is a gentle and amusing tale that I feel could appeal to quite a wide range of ages. It's suggested for 6 - 8 but for a bedtime story it's suitable for younger. The pictures are really well illustrated, they are quite cartoon like but which really appealed to my daughter. The Fairy Tale characters were immediately recognisable before we had read who they were. We're both looking forward to the next installment.

This is a great little book, the story is a twist on the traditional fairy tales that used to be told. There is a good moral to the story and the characters are great, looking forward to reading the rest of the series!

I loved it. I was anxious to turn the page to see happened next. A real adventure with some very cute "guest stars"! It was fun and spunky. The characters are likable and cute. The illustrations are not the most colorful or cutest I have seen but yet they fit the book perfectly. I plan to review the next two in the series and if they are as good as this one I will be buying all three and very likely each addition to the series as they are published.

Very clever! Young readers will enjoy identifying the characters from fairy tales who make guest appearances in the story. I will definitely be adding this book to the library collections at both schools where I work as the librarian.

Gertrude and Toby's Friday Adventure
Written by: Shari Tharp
Illustrated by: Jim Heath

I received an e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and Atlas Publishing in exchange for my honest review.

I loved this charming little book! It is perfect for young readers who have already mastered the traditional fairy tales (around age 6 or 7 and up). Young people of this age like to play around with familiar stories and give them a twist. You can develop this by encouraging funny or goofy renderings of familiar songs. They love this sort of game! This skill is exactly what Ms. Tharp develops in her first book in a new series. It is an enchanting mashup of multiple fairytales.

Plot:
The story is about a young goat (Gertrude) and turtle (Toby) who are best friends and have adventures together. Friday is their day for doing something "big". One Friday they decide to go to the Hay Bale Market for goodies/ candy. Along the way, the friends encounter several familiar fairy tale people (Red Riding Hood, the Wicked Witch, Jack and the Beanstalk, etc.). The author never gives their full names. The reader receives clues such as "girl wearing a red hood" or a witch with dangerous apples. I know that children will be so tickled with themselves when they discover the character names for themselves.

Gertrude and Toby's eventually make it to the market but naively don't realize that they must pay for their candy. Young children will certainly sympathize. Toby is kept by the shopkeeper until Gertrude can come up with the funds. She races back down her path and re-encounters all the characters from earlier. They eagerly help our young hero. There is also a lovely little twist at the end which added another layer of fun to the story.

Illustrations/ Characters:
The illustrations in this book were lovely little water colors in shades of yellow, brown, red, and green. They help flesh out the world and give further visual clues to the story plot. Gertrude and Toby are adorably drawn with human-like faces and large, sweetly innocent eyes. All the characters in the book are drawn with their own personalities. For instance, the shop keeper shows a comical range of facial expressions that convey exactly what is occurring in the book even without words.

Overall:
I highly recommend this book and can't wait to read the rest of the series.

This is the first book in the Gertrude and Toby series and introduces readers to these two unique friends. Young readers who are familiar with fairy tales will probably enjoy this book more than ones who do not know about Little Red Riding Hood, the Gingerbread Man, and others. Teachers will want to read the traditional fairy tales to the class and then introduce Gertrude and Toby. This will be a great book to use for predicting. The illustrations are colorful and add to the story. All in all, this is a fun book to read and share with children. Recommended for classroom libraries and all elementary school libraries.

Gertrude the goat and Toby the tortoise are fast friends who live at McFarland farms. Every Friday they enjoy going on an adventure. This Friday, they plan to sneak off the farm and into town to chow down on some candy. On their way into town Gertrude and Toby meet a variety of characters and when they get to the store they realize they might have a problem that some of the characters they met might be able to help them with.
A fun adventure with many unexpected twists and turns. I and the little one loved this unlikely duo, showing that friends come in all shapes and sizes. As Gertrude and Toby go on their quest for treats, they meet some recognizable fairy tale characters. This made a fun question and answer game as to which story each character came from. Gertrude comes up with an inventive way to use gifts from each character they meet in order to solve their problem, resulting in a funny and exciting ending. Colorful and whimsical illustrations follow the story nicely and tie everything together.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.