This book rocked up at exactly the right time as my youngest son is currently obsessed with playing his drum kit and dancing around to his favourite Black Sabbath songs! My pre-schooler really enjoyed this story, particularly when he learnt what was hidden in the woods. I liked the vibrant illustrations and humour within and the way it highlighted ... Read morethe transformative power of music.
Library Girl
Library Girl and Book Boy Blog
Suitably zany, action-packed, wilder than wild, illustrations accompany Tom Knight's boogying extravaganza. Get your ear plugs ready, your bodies bopping and join the fun. Some of those spirited scenes certainly got me going.
Red Reading Hub
Author and illustrator Tom Knight, the magical master of gloriously comical picture books, has conjured up an anarchic odyssey of music and mayhem... and you might want to join in the fun! Little ones will be plugging in their guitars, waving their arms in the air, wiggling their bottoms and jumping for joy when they meet the wildest band in town and get stuck into Jimmy's wild dancing extravaganza! A beautifully illustrated, uplifting and inclusive picture book about making friends and discovering your wild side!
Pam Norfolk
Lancashire Evening Post
Jimmy Finnigan's Wild Wood Band is a great story for showing how important it is to follow your dreams and it also conveys the positive effect that music can have in life. Jimmy loves music and wants to start a band but when he can't find anybody in his village to join him he ventures into the wild wood... We love the way that Jimmy changes his look from nice and neat to 'rockstar' as the story progresses, the humour in the illustrations portrays the change in the way that he does his hair and wears his school tie. We love Tom Knight's illustrations and it's hard to pick favourites. I love the pictures of Sergeant Marchant who, due to the low crime rate in the village, spends a lot of his time knitting for an unusual clientele!! My daughter loves the picture of the animals practising their different instruments, she especially loves the big bear who plays the drums. Jimmy Finnigan's Wild Wood Band is a fabulous story to include in a school topic on music and instruments. Children could choose an animal and a musical instrument and paint them for a classroom wall display. Painting to music is a fun classroom activity and can really inspire children to get creative and feel the beat of the music as they paint.
Catherine Friess
Story Snug
Jimmy Finnigan's village is the nicest place you've ever seen. It' - the only thing that spoils it is the woods. Jimmy dreams of being a musician and wants to start a band, but no one in the village wants to join. So he starts to look further afield for band members... and the only place left to look is the wild wood. Will Jimmy be safe - and will he achieve his ambition? A super story about determination, the power of music and the impact it has.
Parents in Touch
Get your metal on with a fantastic story of a kid who just wanted a bit of rock-star-style excitement in his plain ordinary life... In Jimmy Finnigan's Wild Wood Band life is perfectly ordinary and fine. Jimmy lives in one of those villages where the grass is always cropped to exactly the right size, the school is full of well behaved pupils who love the place so much they even come in on Saturdays (a thought that had Charlotte ROARING in absolute outrage!) Jimmy, however, gets fed up one day with nothing much to do, and goes exploring in the loft. There he finds his parents vinyl collection (and a lovely bonus nod to the late great David Bowie amongst others). Jimmy's dad patiently shows him how to play those funny old disks - and Jimmy's life completely changes. From then on, it's a life devoted to learning the guitar, thrashing out power chords and making a heck of a racket. Jimmy doesn't stop there, he goes on a recruitment drive and wants to form a rock and roll band. But after venturing into the deep dark wood (where children are warned not to go), he finds his band mates in a rather unexpected place after hearing some calamitous music coming deep from within the trees. Has Jimmy finally found his Wild Wood Band? What will the prim and proper villagers all think, let alone Mum and Dad! We utterly loved this one, it's about time we had a children's book celebrating some thumpin' rock and roll and Tom has worked in some lovely little references to the great performers here and there. Above all though, it's a story that might just win kids away from learning the recorder, and make then want to pick up an electric guitar or sit behind a drum kit instead. YAY! Charlotte's best bit: The funny policeman who keeps knitting little sweaters for all the animals in the village (including a rather fetching one for Jimmy's new bandmate Bear) Daddy's favourite bit: For those of us who've picked up a guitar and rocked out, or those yet to discover the delights of fantastic music, this is a belting little story full of brilliant moments.
Read It Daddy Blog
The mix of traditional picture book spreads and comic features such as panels and speech bubbles bring a brilliant dynamic and pace to this enjoyable tale. Jimmy's great facial expressions are one of the many fun details within the artwork which will delight young readers. Though a great read for budding rock stars, it is nonetheless first and foremost a tale of embracing not only our own wild side but those that we might perceive as different, and proves that music does indeed bring people together. ?
Melanie McGilloway
Armadillo Magazine
Jimmy Finnigan Lives in the nicest village in the world. The grass is neat, the people are neat and Muffington's cake shop has been serving exactly the same cakes since 1923. Everything changes when Jimmy goes into his parents loft in search of a 'nice board game'. There he finds their old record collection. From then on, he wants to form a band. Every time he puts a poster up advertising for fellow band members it is taken down, but not before the creatures living in the Wild Wood see it. Jimmy and the Wild Wood beasts form a band and when the townsfolk enter the woods to rescue Jimmy they find themselves dancing wildly to the music. From then on the village is a changed place: 'It's still a really nice place to live, but now it's just a little bit wild too.' This is an attractively illustrated picture book that captures the spirit of the prim and proper village and contrasting witchy darkness of the Wild Woods. Children could create their own 'wild' music by considering how to emanate the sounds of the forest with percussion instruments.
Practical Pre-School
Show Less