BooksforTopics Reading for Pleasure Recommendations
Today we feature a picture book called Little Green Donkey, a story that will resonate with readers who have ever needed encouragement to move away from the familiar and try new things. Review Panel member David tells us more….
Book Title: Little Green Donkey (available to order here)
Author/Illustrator: Anuska Allepuz
Publisher: Walker
Publication Date: April 2019
Most Suitable For: KS1
Reviewed By: David Keyte, Teacher & Reading Lead
A lovely little book that highlights the power of giving things a go, Little Green Donkey by Anuska Allepuz is sure to be a hit in classrooms this year.
This book centres around a little donkey who really does know what he wants. The little donkey loves eating grass more than anything else in the world and is determined to stick to what he knows. Despite warnings from his mother that he will turn green if he eats too much grass, and endless suggestions of other foods he may like, the little donkey’s mind is made up. It isn’t until later in the book that he realises that there may be more to life than grass.
This is a delightful book filled with wonderful illustrations and subtle yet powerful messages that readers will take from it. The story is one that would work very well indeed in key stage one, with it being a very accessible text, however does introduce examples of vocabulary such as ‘sheen’ for class discussion.
The way that this book mixes poetry and narrative is really appealing, with short and snappy rhymes bringing a humorous tone to the book. The two poems at key moments in the story would provide excellent classroom opportunity to compare and contrast them, with strong potential to use them as a stimulus for artwork.
There are plenty of ways that you could link this text to the curriculum, with particularly strong opportunities to discuss open-mindedness, risk taking and ‘trying new things’.
Opportunities to explore character emotion are endless in this book, with lots of scope to infer how the little donkey is feeling at different moments in the story.
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You can order Little Green Donkey online or from your local bookshop or library.
Many thanks to the publisher for sending us a review copy of this book and to David for reviewing it.
