Cave-baby and the Mammoth

Review also includes:

Sally Sails the Seas, Stella Gurney and Belinda Worsley, 978-0237528935

The Sand Dragon, Su Swallow and Silvia Raga, 978-0237529291

Squelch!, Kay Woodward and Stefania Colnaghi, 978-0237528959

Not-So-Silly Sausage, Stella Gurney and Liz Million, 978-0237528751

Nick’s Birthday, Jane Oliver and Silvia Raga, 978-0237528966

Out Went Sam, Nick Turpin and Barbara Nascimbeni, 978-0237528942

Yummy Scrummy, Paul Harrison and Belinda Worsley, 978-0237528768

Countdown!, Kay Woodward and Ofra Amit, 978-0237529277

One Wet Welly, Gill Matthews and Belinda Worsley, 978-0237529284

Albert Liked Ladders, Su Swallow and Barbara Nascimbeni, 978-0237529307

Billy on the Ball, Paul Harrison and Silvia Raga, 978-0237529260

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.