Book review: Ready Steady Mo! by Mo Farah
A rush of celebrities are following in David Walliams’s brilliant footsteps and writing children’s books.
In recent months Olympic cyclist Chris Hoy and former Home and Away star Isla Fisher have thrown their hats into the literary ring.
The Big Biscuit Bike-Off is the third in Hoy’s Flying Fergus series about a boy with a big imagination and a passion for bikes while Isla Fisher’s Marge in Charge is the comic tale of an anarchic babysitter who causes mayhem.
Now, just in time for Rio, comes Ready Steady Mo! by double Olympic gold medallist and father-of-four Mo Farah – and it’s fantastic. Created in collaboration with author Kes Gray and illustrator Marta Kissi, it’s a stunning picture book with a wonderfully upbeat message.
Ready Steady Mo! is written in rhyme and tells the story of Little Mo and his compulsion to run (ending of course with him doing the Mobot). As the book says: “Run to the kitchen, Run to the sink, Run for a sandwich, Run for a drink.”
I showed it to my 21-year-old son, a keen advocate of encouraging children to take up sport, and he beamed with approval. “It’s the perfect picture book to get children up on their feet,” he said.
I couldn’t agree more. It’s sure to get children running – and reading.
Ready Steady Mo! by Mo Farah (Hodder Children’s Books, £6.99)