Inside Your Outside!

Review also includes:

If I Ran the Rainforest, Bonnie Worth, ill. Aristides Ruiz, 978-0007284825

These Dr Seuss inspired books put the fun into learning to read and into finding out information too. They do this partly by using a jolly rhyming text which not only helps with word prediction but also keeps up momentum for the young reader. We find the following rhyming information about the human brain in Inside Your Outside!:

‘It sends information

to all parts of you

and does millions of things

no computer can do!’

The illustrations move things along as well. In If I Ran the Rainforest there are vibrant pictures of the birds and animals, but also information book type diagrams – for example of buttress roots and of the four floors of a rainforest, all helpfully labelled and annotated. Other non-fiction text features include the chart on transpiration with a bullet point summary of processes, an index and ‘further reading’ suggestions.

Above all, the device of the Cat in the Hat himself as narrator works well, giving the books continuity and a good dollop of humour.