Alpaca in the Park

The toy rabbit Alpaca is a firm favourite with our infants and this one has been a popular as the others. The story, of how Alpaca gets left behind in the park and nearly taken away by various people who find him, has a pleasant tension about it and his plight quite worried the more tender-hearted among the class. The strength of these stories lies in their hero. Alpaca always behaves like the toy he is; he is helpless and has to lie around waiting to be carried, he can't talk and so can't respond; but at the same time the text lets us feel what he must be thinking and feeling so that there is a kind of external and internal narrative. This makes for thoughtful reading and the clear and lively pictures support this depth of meaning. A satisfying book, both for listening and reading.