It’s time for … Duggee! The characters of the extremely popular preschool animated TV series are back and this time they have a lot of activities planned for you. Their presence in Hey Duggee — The Official Annual 2024, is guaranteed to keep the young and the old preoccupied for a long time, just like the TV show everyone adores.

If you don’t know who Duggee is, well you are missing something huge. He is a friendly brown male dog who is also the leader of the Squirrel Club, featuring a talkative octopus named Betty, a curious brown mouse Norrie, an enthusiastic hippopotamus Roly, and an easy-going green crocodile named Happy. More friends join them in their adventures and you can be one too, if you manage to get your hands on this book.

There is no time restriction for this annual and that’s what makes it great. It features brand-new badge stories, fun and games, besides teaching a few things on the sidelines. The activities on these pages range from making cut-outs to helping one or more characters finish a job. It could be matching two similar items from a bunch to finding the odd one out, or even helping one of the characters to complete a maze. There might be an activity featuring colours, alphabets or even numbers, depending on what you like!

Add to that a handful of crazy badge stories and you are guaranteed to have a great time, with Duggee and friends. Be it teaching the ‘squirrels’ how to play crazy golf to making them go through the rituals so that they can earn the Cheese Badge and the Shadow Badge, this book is full of interesting stuff that will develop or enhance your skills.

That’s not all, after each story there is an activity related to that story which keeps the readers engrossed in mental activity. After all, who would not be able to answer questions related to a golf course after the crazy golf story, or pick out blue things after reading a story where one of the characters turns blue.

My favourite adventure is the one where the participants go time travelling, at the roll of a dice. The activity resembles Snakes and Ladders more than the actual time machine, but when you are playing it with friends, the gamesmanship will make it all the more interesting. To top it off, the text is as simple as the narration in the animated series, making it a must-go-through book for the youngsters in the house.

Some activities might involve seeking help from a grown-up, but, trust me, it will be worth it. After all, you can’t handle scissors, glue, A4 cards, wrapping paper and string if it was handed to you for an activity, right? Once you are through the activities, there will be only one thing left to do — Duggee Hug for all!

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 27th, 2024