"Trolls have exceptionally good eyesight in the dark and can see nearly everything - even tiny insects crawling on the ground - but all Walter could see was the river and the arched bridge above him."

We've not reviewed a book for a while so i jumped at the chance to review 'Its Walter under the bridge' by Dion Child and Graeme Bowen based solely on the fact i liked the illustration on the cover. What I loved about this book was the personal aspects of it. Real life locations and a real life character, with personal photos makes this children's story a magical read. 

The book follows Walter the troll, obviously he's not the real life character (but the boys don't need to know that). A happy character who is loved by everyone he meets and is friends to all of the local animals. He lives under a bridge and has a modest home where he is content. That is until three unfriendly trolls  turn up and bully him until he leaves. The story is great but I had an issue with this. I don't like bullies but walking away at the first sign of trouble leaving friends behind did not seem like a good life lesson, I'm just hoping there is a sequel to rectify this. 

The story then follows Walter as he searches for a new bridge to live under. The book is very well written and both Opeie and Seth were hooked from start to finish. Walter eventually meets Charlie (the real life character) a dog that lives near Witney bridge, the two become friends and I'm sure you can guess what happens. 

The story is great but it left the boys asking 'but what happened to the bad trolls', my favourite part of the book was the illustrations and I thought the colouring page and 'flip flap learning activity' was a really nice touch. There are pages in the book that show you the ideas for the illustrations using photos, Seth found this very interesting and asked if we could take photos and draw them which we will do very soon.

Again the personal feel to the story really made it a joy to read and made me think of the bridge just down the road from us, so we wrapped up (because its freezing out at the moment) and took a trip to read the book under our bridge just like Walter.