The More the Merrier
David Martin and Raissa Figueroa
Walker Books

Bursting with delicious movement words – stepping, galumphing, slipping and sliding, and wiggling, leaping, swooping and flying, skipping, even flappity-flipping – go the creatures in this book as we meet in turn Bear with kicking feet and bending knees, Moose going high, low, fast and slow,

Snake doing what it can, beat-loving Deer and round-eyed Owl.

Then come cute Baby Mouse drawn to the action as are Mouse’s friends with their “Hey diddle, diddle”. Round they cavort singing at the tops of their voices until sleep finally overcomes them and zzzzzzz.

Who could resist the call to action to head over to that forest and join Bear in following the infectious beat of the rhyming telling. Inspired by the dancing animals shown in Raissa Figueroa’s dynamic scenes, young listeners will probably also want to offer their own unique dance moves performed with similar abandon to the animal cavorters that grace the pages accompanied by David Martin’s joyfully upbeat, cleverly patterned text with its almost irresistible beat.

By the way, it’s also a great book for developing sound/symbol awareness. The foundation stage classroom potential is huge but more important, it’s a super story that supports the all-important message that playing with language is fun..