The Big Match by John O’Leary review by Lynda Waterhouse

This is an ideal book to kick off the football season with.

John O’Leary, a skilled author, illustrator and paper engineer lives close to Arsenal football stadium and he is fascinated by how his neighbourhood changes on match days as crowds of people all dressed the same appear at a certain time. Fast food and tacky merchandise stalls spring up in the street and the excitement and noise level builds up to a mighty roar as the game starts.

 This book is about the build up to the Big Match between Claws United and Rover City or Cats versus Dogs. There is a clock on each page and a countdown to kick off. The illustrations are the narrative with the text providing the jokes and additional information. Each page is literally bursting out with details from your own match ticket, to a rule book and lots of lift the flap surprises. The teams line up is hilarious with such names as Jack ‘the lad’ Russell.

 This is a book to pore over, to handle and manipulate and read over and over again.

But how does The Big Match end?

This is where the fun begins. Inside a hidden panel you find some straws and footballs and the final page transforms into a game of blow football where you get to decide the result!

The Big Match, revised edition (May 2012)is published by Tango Books ISBN - 13 -978-1857077

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