BooksforTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations
Review
Book Title: Oi Aardvark (available here)
Author: Kes Gray
Illustrator: Jim Field
Publisher: Hachette
Publication Date: September 2020
After the phenomenal success of the Oi Frog and Friends series – which now has has sold over 1.2 million copies – it’s hard to believe that an all new set of animal rhymes could be brought into existence. The award-winning series includes Oi Frog!, Oi Dog!, Oi Cat!, Oi Duck-billed Platypus! and Oi Puppies!, and each book is based on the premise of instructing an alphabet of animals where to sit. Can Frog really make it all the way from A-Z this time, introducing a whole new menagerie of creatures requiring rhyming offerings on which to rest their weary backsides?
It turns out he can. Some of his selections remain pleasingly predictable for little ones who love finishing the sentences in these books (crocs can sit on clocks and baboons can sit on balloons). The humour is layered, as Frog’s friends cat and dog start to egg Frog on to think of more and more peculiar choices – with obscure animals and smart rhymes that are guaranteed to raise a chortle from children and adults alike. My favourites include quetzals will sit on pretzels and x-ray tetra will sit on seabeds, seaweed, seashells, coral, shippers et cetera!
There’s an opportunity through the giggles to learn about a host of less well known creatures as well as to make predications about the chosen sequence of animals and their rhymes. A handful of well-informed readers may already have come across jerboas, kudu or uakaris or could easily find out what these creature are – but if you don’t know what a zillyzinkzikker is or what it sits on, you’ll really need to read from A-Z to find out for yourself…
We’ll never grow tired of this creative tongue-twister series of stories that make for perfect read-it-together books for families and classroom settings – it’s ridiculously good fun that takes ‘the cat sat on a mat’ to a whole new level of hilarity.
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Follow along with the mammoth alphabet-themed blog tour this week to read more about Oi Aardvark and make sure you follow the whole alphabet of bloggers!
Many thanks to the publishers at Hachette for sending us a review copy.
You can order Oi Aardvark online or from your local bookshop.
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Where next?
> Visit our Reading for Pleasure Hub
> Browse our Topic Booklists
> View our printable year group booklists.
> See our Books of the Month.
