Tag Danielle McLean

Mind Your Manners, Dinosaurs! / One Little Bug

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These are two recent board books from Little Tiger – thanks to the publisher for sending them for review.

Mind Your Manners, Dinosaurs!
Danielle McLean and Gareth Williams

A fun book with cutaway pages that introduces toddlers to some basic table manners as one by one five little dinosaurs assemble around the table for their dinner. On the recto of each, one of the five dinos is introduced and beneath a flap, which is an integral part of the illustration, is a sentence that moves the action forward. Turn over and on the verso that same dinosaur is now seated and showing how to ask politely for something, while on the recto we meet dinosaur number two. This same pattern continues until all five little dinosaurs are sitting ready to eat and Mother Dinosaur reminds them all of a few additional basic manners and wishes them ‘Bon Apétit’.

Cleverly constructed, cheerily illustrated and with a simple upbeat text that praises the little ones appropriately, this offers interactive learning for the very young.

One Little Bug
Becky Davies and Jacob Souva

This lift-the-flap board book offers a good way to introduce very young children to minibeasts, along with of course, seeing the real things in the wild. Little ones will discover the best places to look for bugs and how to collect some for observation. There’s information about the amazing homes some bugs construct, for instance, black garden ants build nests with different chambers for different purposes, as well as a look at how humans can build a bug hotel – a safe insect habitat to be used for living or hibernation purposes. Readers also find out about the abilities of some of our back garden dwellers: did you know for example that a cockroach is able to live without a head for up to a week and also survive under water for more than half an hour?

There’s plenty to explore on every spread as a lot of additional information is hidden beneath the flaps and adults will need to help them digest some of the text, so this is definitely not a book to hurry through.
Altogether a beautiful introduction both visual and verbal, to the natural world.

Board Books for Christmas

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Here are three festive board books from Little Tiger – thanks to the publisher for sending them for review

Nibbles Christmas
Emma Yarlett

Nibbles gets all jolly and festive in this romping, chomping seasonal countdown wherein he topples the row of 10 robots, sings along with the 9 red birds , counts sleeps left till the big day with the help of the 8 stars, bounces around with the 7 bunnies and so on, taking a quick bite whenever he gets the opportunity, till we reach 1 big box beautifully wrapped and labelled. I wonder what could be found inside … It will surely be a surprise.
Emma’s mischievous toothy creature is a delight whatever the time of year so youngsters will love to meet him sporting his Santa’s hat in this rhyming Christmassy counting book.
There’s more counting fun in

Five Christmas Friends
Danielle McLean and Rosalind Maroney

Little ones can meet Santa driving his sleigh above the rooftops (just the one of course), two playful snowmen friends, 3 elves busily making presents in the workshop, four singing robins and five flying reindeer touching down alongside a house all lit up with strings of lights in this die-cut and slider book. As they manipulate the sliders, tinies might like to join in with some of Danielle McLean’s words by “ho! ho!’-ing a greeting to Santa Claus, shivering along with the snowmen, tap tap with the elves, singing along with the robins and ‘knock knock knock’-ing at the door of Little Mouse’s house where the reindeer have stopped, all of which are shown in Rosalind Maroney’s bright, jolly scenes.

What Are Santa’s Elves Made Of?
Becky Davies illustrated by Louise Angelicas

For those toddlers who stop and wonder what Santa’s special little helpers are really made of, this board book has the answers.
Having shared the book and enjoyed the final surprise pop-out spread, grown ups might even try baking some gingerbread shapes and adorning them just like the jolly elves shown herein, with their outfits made of sweets. These could then be stored away in a tin till the big day and then the lid opened at teatime to the sound of those magical jingle bells mentioned in Becky Davies rhyming narrative, with everyone present making a Christmas wish.