Macmillan Children's Books Goat Goes to Playgroup

We absolutely love Julia Donaldson's books for toddlers and many of them are amongst our son's favourite books. With him due to start nursery in a few months time we were excited to order this book, especially in view of all the positive reviews. We were shocked and disappointed by this story and we won't be letting it anywhere near our little one!The book should be called "Goat has a really bad day at playgroup (and no-one comforts him)". In the story our identification figure, goat, is ridiculed for being silly, accidentally knocks down an easel, gets into a mess, accidentally spills his juice, falls off the swing and then to cap it all wets himself. He's left all alone in a puddle of urine and no-one comes to help him. (I kid you not - no pun intended). No wonder he doesn't want to join in with the other "children" at circle time at the end of the book!The story would have worked really well if all the mishaps happened to different child characters rather than them all happening to goat. Then the moral of the story could be "everyone makes mistakes, and it's OK". But no-one tells goat it's OK to make mistakes, he's just the butt of all the jokes in the story, which essentially feels really cruel to us.We're sure the story works fine for some children, but if I were a sensitive child it would completely put me off going to playgroup! For other children it would teach them to laugh at the unfortunate goat, so encouraging bullying.Like we said, sad, shocked, disappointed.

Great book really colourful my almost 3yold really likes it. Quick easy read but there are a few good talking points such as the goat wetting himself and being a bit naughty which he finds funny. I was pleasantly surprised when my son asked what was in the monkeys ear, which was a great opportunity to explain what a hearing aid was.

My 2 year old Grandson has just started pre school, one of his favourite animals is a goat, so when I saw this I thought he would like it, and he does. There are lots of talking points on each page, goat is a bit of a comedian so that is also appealing.

Lovely book for a toddler starting nursery or one developing language!Shame it came stinking of damp - not sure where they store the book before selling but it smelt awful. Unfortunately I have to stop my toddler from touching the book at all, and hoping the smell goes away.

Julia Donaldson always a hit! Lovely rhyming text, fun illustrations. Good for introducing idea of preschool to toddlers.