Willy the Champ (Willy the Chimp)

Bought for my year 2 class.. they love Anthony Browne books.

This is another of Anthony Browne's stories about the character Willy. It has a super message for children and the illustrations are a delight as always.

I bought this for a literacy lesson for my class. It delivered everything I hoped it would. An excellent story.

I'm not sure what to think of this book. I'm not a massive fan of the Willy the Chimp books although I've come to enjoy quite a few of them. 'Willy the Champ' is a story which seems a bit similar to 'Willy the Wimp'. The paperback is quite small, around A4 in it's width (if you hold an A4 sized paper upright) although shorter than A4 in height. It's filled with thick and glossy pages which themselves have lots of very colourful images.The story starts by showing us what Willy likes to do, listen to music, read and visit the park with his friend Millie. But Willy isn't really good at anything that the gorillas are good at. He tries to be sporty, like them, and do what they are good at such as bike racing and football but Willy isn't like the others. Plenty of kids could easily relate to Willy's character in this book, I certainly wasn't the sporty type at school and I can instantly recognise that feeling of not being good at anything the other kids are good at. The story is very short and it seems like Willy won't be good at anything until he faces a bully called Buster Nose.The way Willy deals with Buster Nose is funny and it's an okay ending to the book, but this just didn't seem as good a story as other Willy books I've read. Any message of standing up to a bully and managing to overcome them in this way seems to be lost a little in this tale and I'm not sure a lot of kids would understand any message the book has, instead enjoying the basic story and pictures more.I like the illustrations. There are funny and many of the pages have a surreal feel to them such as a gorilla in the park taking a banana for a walk! I do like all the pictures though the way that some of the gorillas look in the pool or Buster Nose himself are a bit strange. The book was originally printed in the 80s though and some of the strange outfits of the gorillas in the books might be due to that.Although I like the illustrations, I just didn't like this story as much as the other Willy books I've read and I'm not sure all kids would enjoy this book.-Thanks to Walker Books for a free copy (as part of the Anthony Browne Collection).

My kids love it, even my 9 year old thought it was very funny. I would recommend it to anyone.

Another brilliantly illustrated book about Willy the unassuming chimp who keeps trying to fit in. An absolute favourite with kids.

Really good book

Willy is finding it difficult to work out what he is good at. He tries his hand at football, swimming and even cycling. He spends time with his friend Millie trying all sorts of different activities but doesn't seem to be that great at anything. One day he is walking down the road and all the other children in the neighbourhood become afraid of a large shadow. Willy just stays in the same spot and them a big gangster type scary figure is standing in front of him. This large chimp is called Buster Nose. He tries to punch Willy and he ducks out of the way and ends up punching Buster. Buster runs home to his mother and the other chimps declare Willy a Champ. Willy eventually feels like his a champ.I received this book from Walker Publishers for review purposes. My daughter is a trainee teacher at a SEN school where I am sure the children there will love the book. It has great pictures that are clear to see, bright and vibrant and show the story in great detail.

Very fortunate to find a replacement for this book lost in a school’s transition during Covid 19 closures. Brand new and could not be more pleased.

Great book, good quality too.