Author & Illustrators
Every so often a picture book comes along that captures a childhood trait with beautiful aplomb. This vibrant, wittily illustrated and written story tells of Mabel, a small child who does ‘things’ and every time blames the ‘alligator’.
Interpreting whether the alligator is Mabel’s imaginary naughty friend or actually an alligator causing chaos is a dilemma for the reader, and is eventually cleared up, along with some surprises along the way.
This is a fantastic book, illustrations and text meeting wittily and pithily so that one really won’t suffice without the other. Mabel and her parents’ body language is astute and accessible, the grandmother is drawn as young (a rarity), and the creators have made excellent use of the page. An outstanding picture book about acting out and telling the truth – all with a lot of fun.
This is a wonderfully zany tongue-twister of a book that children will love. It is based on counting and a story of two (or is it three?) mixed-up queues of animals, and yet the whole premise is so wonderfully absurd I found myself chuckling out loud.
The reader knows what they are queueing for if you look and listen carefully at the beginning, and the moose and the geese are wonderfully portrayed; a huge amount of the story is also told in the pictures (just as amusing as the words).
It is essentially a story of that most British of things – queuing! Simon, the goose who appears to be in charge, gets more and more irate and confused as everyone swaps lines and each of the characters who mess him about also has strong characteristics, as well as being fun to follow what they do on each page. One goose even very sensibly brings a fold-up chair with him to sit and wait!
This is also a counting book, and the counting is part of the fun. I read it to a group of EYFS children, who loved it, particularly when I got my words muddled and said goose instead of moose and vice versa. This one will be asked for again and again and each time the children will get something new from it.
review
Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:
Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?
yes
Curriculum links (if relevant)
Curriculum links (if relevant)
Any other comments
Any other comments