Animals Archives - Page 15 of 25

The Only Way Is Badger
by Stella J Jones & Carmen Saldaña

This beautifully illustrated book about a group of woodland animals is extremely topical and we love it!

Badger is very proud of being a badger and he thinks that badgers are best. So much so that he thinks that everyone should be a badger! To try and make this a reality he builds a wall around the forest and puts posters up on all the trees encouraging the other animals to ‘be more badger’.

He’s a very confident public speaker so when he tells everyone that badgers are best the animals begin to wonder if he could be right and they question their own identities.

Sun
19 ^th

Lauren Koala By Glenn Lawrence & Annie Barber

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In the last few months we’ve read some fantastic self-published books and ‘Lauren Koala’ (which was recommended to us by one of our Facebook followers) is one of our faves.

The story is about a little koala called Lauren who loves to make people feel better by giving them a hug. All of the animals in the jungle know that if they feel sad Lauren will be there to comfort them. As a result, it’s a happy, joyful place filled with love.

One day, Lauren Koala hears about a rhino who is very sad because his mummy died when he was little. Determined to help, she sets off on a long journey to find him, cuddling lots of other animals along the way.

Wed
15 ^th

Mrs Mole, I’m Home! By Jarvis

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Morris the Mole has had a tough day at work and all he wants to do is get home to his family – the problem is he can’t find his glasses anywhere! He burrows in what he believes to be the direction of home but he keeps getting it wrong, again and again and again.

Each time he pops up into a house he shouts ‘Mrs. Mole, I’m Home!’ but it’s never the right house. He visits a burrow full of rabbits, a tree full of owls and a swamp full of crocodiles. He even ends up in Antarctica!

Finally he smells a familiar smell – worm noodles! Surely this must be his house, and where on earth are those glasses?

Sun
05 ^th

Blue Chameleon By Emily Gravett

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Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett is a really simple book but we have spent hours reading it and talking about all the questions which the beautiful illustrations present you with.

At the start of the story the little chameleon is feeling blue because he doesn’t have any friends. Each of the following pages shows him trying (and failing) to make friends with a different animal or object the only way he knows how – by changing colour!

He turns yellow to chat to a banana but the banana doesn’t want to talk. He rolls himself up and dons purple spots to speak to a spotty ball but the ball isn’t interested. The same goes for a brown boot, a green grasshopper, a goldfish and many many more. Will poor chameleon ever find a friend? (Spoiler alert – yes he does!)

Sat
04 ^th

Quick Quack Quentin By Kes Gray & Jim Field

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Quick Quack Quentin by Kes Gray and Jim Field always gives us the giggles!

Quentin is a duck with a very unusual problem. His quack has lost an A so he can only say quck. He goes to the doctor for help but the he can only offer him a D, O, C, T, O or R and those letters don’t help him at all.

Bemused, Quentin heads to a nearby farm to see he can borrow their A – but they’re not interested in becoming a frm and the farmer doesn’t want to be a frmer. He speaks to a dog, a hen, a pig and a bull who let him try out their vowels but a quock, a queck, a quick and a quuck just don’t sound right. What is poor Quentin going to do?

Fri
03 ^rd

The Magical Wood By Mark Lemon & Maia Walczak

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I’m breaking my own rules with this book as I confess it isn’t one which I have read with Ivy. It’s a tiny bit old for her just yet (the recommended age range is 3-8) but it’s an important book covering a difficult topic so I am sharing it in the hope it may be helpful to you, our followers.

The Magical Wood was written to help small children deal with the emotions they may feel around bereavement, particularly the death of a close family member.

The wood is a beautiful place which is home to a family of trees. It’s a happy place visited by lots of little animals who love to play and splash in the river. One night there is a terrible storm and when the tree family wake up they discover that the Strongest Tree (one of the oldest trees in the wood) has fallen in the night and is no longer alive. The trees know that their lives have now changed forever and many tears are shed. How can they continue without the Strongest Tree?

Wed
01 ^st

Tabby McTat By Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

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We have been reading Tabby McTat to Ivy since she was about 6 months old and it’s still one of her all time favourites. When she was tiny she was just drawn to the illustrations of the cats (one of them looks a little like ours) but now she’s older she loves the story and knows the little song off by heart!

Tabby McTat is a scruffy little street cat who belongs to a busker. He loves his life wandering the streets of London with his owner, and he enjoys singing along when the busker performs. An unlucky chain of events result in the two friends being accidentally separated and McTat ends up living with a girl cat called Sock.

Sock and McTat become the best of friends and soon they end up with a small litter kittens. McTat loves his cosy new life but he never forgets the wonderful busker. One day he decides that he simply has to find out what happened to him so he kisses his little family goodbye and sets off in search of his old pal.

Fri
27 ^th

Lunchtime By Rebecca Cobb

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This beautifully illustrated book by Rebecca Cobb is perfect for all of you parents out there who (like us!) struggle to get your child interested in sitting down and eating their meals.

The little girl in the story is very busy painting and playing with her toys, so when her mums calls her to tell her that lunch is ready she really doesn’t want to go and eat. She’s having far too much fun to stop for boring old food! Reluctantly she leaves what she’s doing and sits and stares at her lunch, looking grumpy, without eating a bite.

But then she spots a crocodile under the table. Then a bear. Then a wolf. The three fierce animals are VERY interested in her lunch, explaining that her soup, apple and sandwich are much more tasty than little children (who actually taste pretty disgusting). They gobble up her lunch and then thank her heartily for the lovely meal.

Thu
26 ^th

Zog By Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler

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The combination of dragons and girl power make this one of our favourite collaborations between Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.

Zog is a big orange dragon who loves going to Dragon School. He’s really enthusiastic about his classes but he just can’t quite get things right. He bumps in to trees whilst learning to fly, gives himself a sore throat trying to roar and accidentally sets his wing on fire whilst attempting to breathe fire. Fortunately each time he hurts himself a little girl appears with a bag of bandages and plasters and she fixed him right up.

When he gets to Year 4 the dragons have to learn how to capture a princess. Again Zog struggles until he discovers that his wonderful friend is in fact a princess herself. She allows herself to be captured in order to help him out and Zog gets a golden star from the teacher. She becomes a valuable member of the school, tending to the dragon’s ailments with the help of her trusty medical bag.

Wed
25 ^th

A River
by Marc Martin

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I bought this book based solely on the beautiful cover and when it arrived I loved it – but if i’m honest I wasn’t sure if it would hold Ivy’s attention. I was very wrong!

The story is about a little girl, living in a city who likes to watch the river through her bedroom window. As she sits there she imagines the journey the river takes as it moves towards the ocean.

The illustrations are a joy and my initial assessment that it might be a bit old for Ivy was immediately proved wrong when we read the book together and she was completely memorised by the pictures. The river moves from the city to patchwork fields, then through rolling mountains, over a waterfall and in to a jungle rich with animal life. Finally we move through mangroves of crocodiles before reaching the ocean and gazing at the sea life beneath the little girl’s imaginary boat.

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