Bees & Beetles
Nia Gould and Molly Littleboy
Little Tiger

A surprising amount of information about bugs, in easily digestible portions, is found on the pages of this sturdy, split page ‘flip-flap’ book, the second in a series for the very young.

Children will enjoy being able to change the scenes by flipping the cut portions of the alternate pages to create a different but related scene for first ants, the second showing the inside of a nest; 

then spiders – the start and finish of a web. Following this, youngsters will encounter several different creepy crawlies – dragonflies, grasshoppers, beetles, fireflies and ladybirds on and among flowers in a meadow; transforming the habitat they’ll discover snails and slugs, earwigs, centipedes and below ground level, wriggling earthworms. Bees come next and finally various caterpillars and butterflies.

A useful book to support a minibeasts theme; one that is frequently explored by foundation stage learners.

Presenting information to young children in an entirely different, but equally effective way are

Not Just Another Book about Farm Animals
Not Just Another Book about Things That Mooove
Noodle Juice, illustrated by Jake McDonald
Noodle Juice

In the first the author offers facts in mouth- watering morsels about farms, and their livestock in a humorous style, with contributions from the animal residents along the way. There are spreads featuring hens, pigs, horses, sheep, cows, turkeys, ducks, geese, goats and even llamas. Did you know that you can tell whether a turkey is male or female by examining its poo?

Jokes abound – these are as likely to appeal to adults as the intended young audience and Jake McDonald’s illustrations are suitably comical.

The same is true in the second book that begins by giving a simple definition of transport and goes on to present spreads on myriad modes of moving from place to place. The information is presented by a cow narrator that seems to have a penchant for puns. Here’s an example. 

Readers will encounter feet (as in walking), boats, cycles, trains, cars, buses, trucks, planes, helicopters and rockets all of which have bovine drivers or pilots.

The busy final spread of both books asks ‘Can you find …’ In the farm book, readers have to try and spot the farmer; in the transport book there’s an elephant to locate.

Wacky fun for fact fanatics.