Disclosure: We were sent the Hannah The Spanner Books free for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own. This post may contain affiliate links see our disclosure policy for more information.
When ex-cricketer Stuart Simmonds’s daughters were little he made up a series of stories following the adventures of Hannah The Spanner for them, he made a promise that one day they’d be published. Earlier this year that promise became a reality, the first two books in the series were published and were so successful that two more soon followed.
There are now a whole series of books available in the Hannah The Spanner series, perfect for readers between the ages of 4-9 years old and us grown-ups too of course.
Stuart wrote the books with bedtime in mind, he wanted to create stories that not only children would enjoy but adults too. Bedtime reading is something we feel passionately about here at the Webster’s so we were more than happy when we were asked to review two books from the series. We were very kindly sent Hannah The Spanner And The Dancing Bear and Hannah The Spannah And The Robot written by Stuart Simmonds and illustrated by Bill Greenhead. We couldn’t wait to get stuck in and join Hannah on her amazing adventures.
Hannah The Spanner Book Review
Hannah The Spanner And The Dancing Bear
In this amazing adventure, Hannah meets a bear who has escaped from Bumbag’s zoo, he’s no ordinary bear though, this one loves to dance. Hannah does everything she can to stop Mr. Bumbag the zookeeper from capturing the bear and returning him to the zoo but that sneaky zookeeper knows exactly how to entice the bear out of his hiding place.
We really enjoyed this adventure, Daisy and Jake thought that Mr. Bumbag was hilarious and they enjoyed guessing along with Hannah about where the bear might be hiding. I absolutely loved the illustrations, they are so different than the usual illustrations you get in kids’ books. They reminded me more of graphic novels and comics which is something we all really enjoy in a book. I also really liked that Stuart has written such modern stories that include mobile phones and viral videos but with a throwback to a good old boombox for us grown-ups.
Hannah The Spanner And The Dancing Bear is a fantastic and fun bedtime story with lots of giggles included.
Hannah The Spanner And The Robot
On this adventure, Hannah The Spanner meets a friendly robot with no feet and a boy called Aubrey who has plans to ruin Halloween. Hannah’s Halloween goes from bad to worse when she has to sit next to annoying, noisy and farting Aubrey at school and at home, Dad is too busy trying to fix the internet so he can watch football to make tea so Hannah can go trick or treating. When there’s a loud bang from the garden Hannah The Spanner goes to investigate finding a very hungry robot without any feet. We follow them on their adventures trick or treating and defeating the awful Aubrey who is determined to ruin Halloween.
Robots and Halloween are two of our very favourite subjects so a book containing both was sure to be a big hit with us. We loved this story, it’s so funny and gave us lots of laughs. Daisy and Jake thought Aubrey was hilarious but they did feel bad for Hannah having to sit next to him. The kids absolutely love Halloween and most of our bedtime reading in October includes spooky tales so this book fits in perfectly.
Again I really enjoyed the humour in the story and the illustrations are awesome, the characters really come to life and are definitely relatable we have all known Aubrey!
We will definitely be adding more books from the Hannah The Spanner series to our bookshelves, they are so much fun to share together.
What We Loved About Hannah The Spanner Books
- The adventures that Hannah The Spanner goes on and the characters she meets along the way
- The colourful and fun illustrations
- That the stories are great for kids and adults alike
- With how modern the stories are, the kids can really relate to them
- The dedications at the front of the books from Stuart to his daughters
- That both stories gave us a good giggle
Where You Can Buy Hannah The Spanner Books
The two Hannah The Spanner books we reviewed and others in the series are available to buy from:
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