Jon gives this one thousand stars. "Or one hundred zillion stars."

The turtles' facial expressions were the best. ( )

Mr Hopper is desperately in love with his neighbour Mrs Silver who spends all her time doting on her pet tortoise Alfie. When Mrs Silver says she desperately wants to see Alfie grow bigger, Mr Hopper is determined to make it happen. Which he does with a backwards poem (because the language of tortoises is backwards - obviously - said night and day. And then by actually buying all the tortoises available at a bunch of pet shops and replacing Alfie with a slightly bigger tortoise every week for eight weeks. I enjoyed the silliness and creativity Mr Hopper demonstrates in solving the problem. Mrs Silver, so impressed by him, agrees to marry him and they all live happily ever after.

I generally don't really like Roald Dahl's books. They just don't grab me, for all I do like Quentin Blake's illustrations. But this was a surprising read. It wasn't the best thing ever, but it was a funny little love story and I was amused reading it.

It's a short book but one of his better ones. 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3 stars. ( )

Essentially, this story is quite immoral. An old man is far too shy to ask the widow next door to marry him, so instead he attempts to win her love through lies, trickery and lots and lots of tortoises (tortoi? Tortie?). He succeeds, and they get married.

Still, a clever and charming little children's story, and Roald Dahl is worth a read no matter what age you are. ( )

This barely has any of the charm of Roald Dahl's better works, and the cuteness and so-so storytelling only last for so long even in such a short book. ( )

En la vida del señor Hoppy hay dos amores: las flores de su balcón y su vecina, la señora Silver. ¡Pero es un secreto! Ella solo está pendiente de su tortuga Alfie, que crece muy despacio. El señor Hoppy quiere hacer feliz a la señora Silver. ¿Qué se le habrá ocurrido?