Small Elephant’s Bathtime
Tatyana Feeney
Oxford University Press
Tatyana Feeney has created another endearing character, this time in the form of a small pachyderm. Said animal enjoys water in many contexts but despite his mother’s best efforts, most definitely NOT in his bath. Small he might be but Little Elephant has a strong will and, when crossed, a bad temper.

So, when Mummy Elephant is almost out of ideas for cajoling her young offspring into the bath, she knows it’s time to enlist the help of Little Elephant’s Daddy.

It’s a good job then that he is prepared to make a fool of himself in a good cause and it certainly does the trick where Little Elephant is concerned.

Gentle humour, minimal colour and lots of white space allow the visual narrative to make maximum impact and the well chosen words are spot-on.
Yet one more Feeney winner for the very young.

Whale in the Bath
Kylie Westaway and Tom Jellett
Allen & Unwin
Bruno is a boy with a fertile imagination. Ordered upstairs for his nightly bath, Bruno the narrator of this tale is confronted with an enormous whale languishing in the tub, making liberal use of Bruno’s bubble-gum scented bubble bath which it has the nerve to complain about – the cheek of it. Bruno endeavours to explain his problem to sister Ally, his Mum, his elder brother and then his Dad (whose back scrubber the whale also purloins) but to no avail. Well, what would you say to the boy who’d reported a bear under the bed …

 

 

 

 

 

and a walrus in the backyard only recently?
The whale is in no hurry to complete his ablutions no matter how much Bruno urges him and has the cheek to criticize the facilities to boot: “It’d be quicker if you has a bigger bath. I feel like I’m washing in a bucket.”

Under pressure from Dad to be in the bath in five minutes, Bruno confronts the whale again only to learn he could still be in for a very long wait, whereupon the creature finally comes up with an alternative solution – power shower anyone?

With a great read-aloud text, gloriously retro illustrations rendered in suitably muted shades, a terrific finale and a chucklesome take on children’s imaginations this one has much to offer teachers in the classroom as well as readers at home.
Children could have great fun writing the story from the whale’s viewpoint or possibly taking another scenario – making the bed, brushing their teeth or doing their homework perhaps.

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