Cave-baby and the Mammoth : Sally Sails the Seas : The Sand Dragon : Squelch! : Not-So-Silly Sausage : Nick's Birthday : Out Went Sam : Yummy Scrummy : Countdown! : One Wet Welly : Albert Liked Ladders : Billy on the Ball

At first glance this series appears to be aimed at the ‘first solo reading’ stage between picture books and longer texts that publishers at least, seem to feel should have that more grown-up, small portrait format. However, according to the publisher, these books are intended for the Foundation Stage. Certainly there is plenty of visual stimulation in the bright, full colour illustrations, which are constructed and sequenced to tell the story. In fact complete beginners could ‘read’ and enjoy them completely ignoring the text that is, in each case, of less than fifty words. So, they could be read and enjoyed by or with children in the foundation stage: they could equally well appeal to slightly older, less confident readers.

The stories cover a wide range of interests, My favourite five are the highly repetitive and predictable Yummy Scrummy, the story of a fly’s final feast until he becomes lunch, Not-So-Silly Sausage, which appeals to one’s sense of the absurd, Albert Liked Ladders, the illustrations to which have a continental stylishness, Cave-baby and the Mammoth wherein a plucky infant scares off a mighty mammoth and Countdown!, a small boy’s preparations for a bedtime lunar lift off.