Hello Kitty and Friends - The Friendship Club - Review

One of the items in my BritmumsLive goodie bag was a very special book.  Hello Kitty & Friends, The Friendship Club.  The Friendship Club is the first in a series of 6 books, about everyone's favourite Sanrio Kitty and her friends and their adventures.

I settled down to read it with Squeaky.  OK, I didn't have a choice, she spotted it in my bag as soon as I got home & demanded we start reading straight away.  Hello Kitty is just one of those characters that somehow speaks to the psyche of small girls, and demands their attention.

In The Friendship Club, Hello Kitty and her twin sister Mimmy are starting their new school, with all the worries that go along with it, making new friends and finding their own identities in the school.  It's not without its difficulties, as in everyday life, but there's a great message about how to be a good friend, and what friendship is about.  Squeaky will be starting the nursery class in school in September, so this is well timed for her, and she loved the story.  Even I was quite engrossed towards the end, and I must confess to reading a chapter ahead to find out what was going to happen next!

The book is split into 6 chapters, between 10 to 20 pages each.  This makes each chapter about the right length for a bedtime story for a younger child, or for an independent reader to manage before getting tired & losing concentration.  The independent readers shouldn't struggle too much with the words, as the book is written simply to match with the target age group (5+, according to the back cover).  It's filled with black & white pictures, to maintain interest, and after the story finishes, there's a collection of activity suggestions to tie in with the book, and a teaser for the second book in the series - The School Trip.  There's even a competition in the back of the book, where the first 1000 readers to enter the secret code on the Harper Collins website can win a special prize.

Hello Kitty & Friends - The Friendship Club is released on 4 July 2013, published by Harper Collins.  It is available from Amazon and other retailers, with an RRP of £4.99.

Disclosure: I received this book free of charge in my BritmumsLive goodie bag. I was not obliged to review it, but by doing do, I have the opportunity to enter a competition.  I have not been told what to write and all opinions are my own. Links are provided for your convenience, I am not a member of any affiliate scheme and will not receive payment for their use.