Beauty and the Beast is my all time favourite Disney movie. I remember watching it for the first time when I was a little girl and so desperately wanting to Belle! I used to ask my mum to do my hair like Belle and I even had a Belle Costume and shoes to match!
Now that I’m an adult my love for Beauty and the Beast hasn’t faltered. It’s still my favourite movie and Belle will always be my favourite princess. So much so that when we go on our family holiday to Disneyland Paris later this year, I’ll be making it my mission to meet Belle and have my photo taken with her. I’d like to meet Prince Adam or the Beast too, but I don’t think he makes many appearances!
Anyway, as I’m a ‘Book Buddy’ for Parragon Books when they recently asked if anyone would like to review a Disney Beauty and the Beast, ‘Write, Inspire, Create’ book, I jumped at the chance!
The 160 page paperback is full of enchanting characters, unusual places and exciting story ideas. All of the colourful characters from Beauty and the Beast are included inside to help you or your kids create stories, poems, diary entries and more!
Inside the front cover you’ll find ‘The Decider Dice’. This can be pushed out and made into a dice. This is a character dice so it has Lumiere, The Beast, Gaston, Belle, Mrs Potts and Cogsworth on. You can use the dice to help you decide which characters to use.
The first few pages inside the book is entitled ‘Wonderful beginnings’. These pages can be used to create the start of your story. A few different options are given such as, ‘Once upon a time there lived…’, Long ago, in a land far away there was a…’ etc. There’s a page entitled ‘Middle’ which is where the adventure begins! You can roll the dice twice to pick two characters, then imagine they have set off on a journey through the woods to an enchanted castle. The rest is then up to you!
You then have the ‘Happily ever after endings’ page. This page says ‘Stories often end with a problem being solved, or a plan working out. Here are some words and phrases you can use when you’re writing an ending’.
The next few pages asks questions to help you with your story. Asking if you can think up a new invention that would make your life easier. You then have some characters profile pages which gives the character profile for both Belle and The Beast, then some blank character profiles for your own characters, in addition to some handy ‘describing words’ to help describe your characters.
The book is full of helpful information and ideas to get you thinking about your story. Each page is colourful and throughout the book you’ll find pictures of your favourite characters. You have a ‘Heroes and Villains’ section which lets you write a list of good characters and bad characters. You can even draw them too!
There are also sections for you to write different types of stories such as a love story or a spooky one!
I particularly like the ‘Pick and Mix’ page which asks you to pick any three cards and then make a story out of them. In addition to the character decider dice at the front of the book, you can also find a location decider dice at the back which can help you choose where your story is set.
Overall, I have to say that this book is superb! There are so many ideas and inspiration to help you create your very own stories and characters. It’s beautiful put together and I can see many children and adults alike really enjoying this book.
For the purpose of this review I was sent the above. All views and opinions are 100% own.
