The Jelly that Wouldn't Wobble

A few months ago Eddie came out of school with great excitement bellowing 'It's Jelly Day! It's Jelly Day!'. They had made jelly at school ('red, orange, green'). They had walked like jellies at school ('you have to walk all wibbly!') They had talked like jellies at school ('you have to talk all wobbly!') They had undertaken the serious taste testing of jelly at school too ('orange is best'). Jelly day. I was really jealous. I wanted me some of that jelly fun.

Today is a bank holiday and it's raining because that is what the weather does now (may need to find a Noah's Ark How To guide to review this week) and Bill and the husband have gone to admire the forces of destruction at the Imperial War Museum so it's time for Eddie to show me how it's done and share a bit of his jelly expertise. Thankfully we have just the book to inspire us in the form of 'The Jelly who Wouldn't Wobble' by Angela Mitchell and illustrated by Sarah Horne; a pleasingly silly tale of a dessert who seems determined to cheat destiny.

89 year old imperious Princess Lolly has ordered her favourite pudding for her birthday party but when the chef carries out the magnificent red royal jelly it turns out to have other ideas. It doesn't want to be eaten and refuses to wobble. Prodding, rocking and scaring the jelly don't work and it falls to the smallest guest to think laterally about what will make a jelly shiver when all else fails.
I'll admit to feeling a little sorry for the jelly. It brought to mind the cow in Douglas Adams' 'Restaurant at the End of the Universe' who comes to your table and recommends different cuts from itself. The boys, predictably enough, had no such compunction; pudding is pudding whether it has eyes and opinions or no.  They were particularly impressed by the reward of 1001 chocolate sovereigns earned by the smallest guest for producing the necessary wobble.They'd make poor moral vegetarians but serviceable mercenaries apparently.

In truth Sarah Horne's jelly is drawn with a great grouchy menace that suggests it might well eat you if you didn't get in with your spoon first. It also looks delicious. I guess I might as well have a piece too. It is Jelly Day after all- it would be rude not to.

Having enjoyed this smile-inducing silliness I then followed the instructions of the Jelly Master. We walked like jellies.

We made and wobbled our own jelly; orange because that is Officially the Tastiest, bunny-shaped because that is Officially the Cutest.
It was much more co-operative than Princess Lolly's.

and then we ate it. It was delicious.

Should you be feeling a little grey and gloomy this rainy May I can thoroughly endorse the Jelly Day Cure. Get wobbling.
'The Jelly That Wouldn't Wobble' by Angela Mitchell, illustrated by Sarah Horne, pub. Maverick
isbn 978-1-84886-079-7
Disclosure: We received our copy by kindness of the publisher. Our opinions are our own.
I suddenly recall an infamous plate of lime green jelly gone wrong from my school canteen. Not only did that Not Wobble it was quite possibly sentient too. Cubes of it were discovered stuck to pieces of playground equipment for months afterwards.