
Price: £7.99
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
Genre:
Age Range: Under 5s Pre-School/Nursery/Infant
Length: 32pp
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We are the Wibbly
Illustrator: Jane McGuinessThis tale (or tail!) is told from the perspective of one egg as he moves from being part of ‘the wibbly’ aka frogspawn to gradually transforming into a frog. The wibbly is a happy secure place and our little egg experiences a strong sense of togetherness within it. He is very shocked when his fellow eggs leave the wibbly, develop tails, legs and arms before him and he has an even bigger shock when it happens to him too. ‘Oh my Crikeys! I is bursting out of the wibbly.’ He finds there is fun to be had and new skills to learn at each stage in his development including ‘water flying ‘and ‘air swimming.’ But he also has to navigate the dangers all around him from ‘spiked hunger munchers’ under the sea to ‘furry danger monsters’ above ground.
There is lots of humour in the language which will appeal to some readers though others may find it a little contrived and overdone. There is humour too in the delightful illustrations which convey both the drama and tranquillity in the story beautifully.
As well as the engaging story young readers will learn about the different stages of a frog’s development. The inclusion of a life cycle fact file or diagram at the back of the book could have been a useful addition to consolidate this.