Greg Pizzoli | Red Reading Hub – Jillrbennett's Reviews of Children's Books

One Happy Tiger
Catherine Rayner
Little Tiger Press
What a delight to have Augustus back and between the sturdy covers of a wonderful board book. Everything about this is splendid from the look and feel of that cover through to Augustus’s sublime smile as he watches the movements of his ten friends on the final spread.
In between, he starts off sitting alone and then we see a sequence of encounters with 2 bugs (beetles I think); 3 birds with bright plumage; 4 ‘floating butterflies’;

5 dragonflies hover above his head. Augustus then bounds off leaving 6 large footprints and moves through a rain shower dancing with 7 ‘plump raindrops’ …

relaxes to watch 8 bees; splashes into the pool to tease 9 fish before clambering out to dry off in the sun and greet his friends all together.
This is a board book, (based Catherine Rayner’s Augustus and His Smile), that looks, apart from its sturdy card pages like a real picture book; and its shape is truly satisfying too. Adults will get as much pleasure as the toddlers they share this one with.

Colours: A walk in the countryside
Rosalind Beardshaw
Nosy Crow
Published in collaboration with the National Trust, this is another delightful countryside walk wherein readers accompany two toddlers on a joyful nature ramble; this time, it’s colour-related. We join the children as they exuberantly run down a slope surrounded by green – look closely and you’ll see a cricket and a butterfly on the plants. They stop to observe a ladybird on a grass stem in a poppyfield; then notice an orange-tip butterfly by a stone wall; a group of ants attracts the attention of the boy while the girl views a black bird through her binoculars. Their walk continues apace till picnic time, when they have a snack before moving on, all the while keeping their eyes open for interesting sightings such as …

A veritable paintbox of twelve colours and an entire rainbow are part and parcel of their rural ramblings. Awe and wonder for tinies: if this doesn’t inspire an adult to take their young infant out into the countryside on an observation walk, which may or may not mirror that of the children in this lovely little book, I’d be very surprised.

My Little Cities London
Jennifer Adams and Greg Pizzoli
Chronicle Books
Board the bus and take a tour of London. Ten of its famous landmarks are featured in this board book although none is named until the final spread whereon there is a ‘cast in order of appearance’ style briefing about each one depicted. The whole thing is beautifully presented, the text being in rhyming couplets; and the font changes on each spread.

Concepts such as new/old, many/few, soft/hard (rain) are introduced in relation to The Tower of London, the Shard, Trafalgar Square (many pigeons), the Natural History Museum (few dinosaur skeletons), and the two final spreads show wonderful illuminations – the London Eye

and Big Ben – against the night sky.
Altogether a class act, with so much to see and so much to talk about: that’s London. Author, Adams, and illustrator, Pizzoli, have, for toddlers, done it proud.

I’ve signed the charter

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That’s (Not) Mine
Anna Kang and Christopher Weyant
Hodder Children’s Books
The Anna Kang/Christopher Weyant partnership take the two characters – one large and one small – from their wonderful You Are (Not) Small and feature them in this equally hilarious incident from childhood.
The ownership of a big comfy chair is in dispute as the two furry creatures both claim it as theirs. Big, with needles a-clicking – is occupying said chair at the start of the book when in bursts Small. The squabble starts to escalate (parents and early years teachers will immediately recognise the scenario) with the knitter refusing resolutely to budge …

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But then in comes Small wheeling a deliciously squeaky, revolving office chair: guess who wants a go …

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and is more than happy to leave his previous perch, hurl himself onto the inviting-looking alternative and ZOOM wildly … oops! – till there comes the inevitable – tee hee! Argument over: err, no: it looks as though it’s starting all over again …

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Will those two ever sort things out?

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Well yes –but … there’s a lovely final twist to this delicious cracker of a tale. A brilliant lesson in sharing and taking turns but equally it’s a perfect book for beginner readers. The dialogue is punchy, the humour spot on and the illustrations wonderfully expressive. It’s a universal experience – emotionally intense – that deserves a universal readership.

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What’s An Apple?
Marilyn Singer and Greg Pizzoli
Abrams Appleseed
If you’ve never thought beyond the title question, your immediate response will probably be, ‘It’s the fruit of an apple tree.’ So it is; but this little book takes a look beyond the obvious, although it does start there. ‘You can pick it.’ we are told on the first page but thereafter the imagination starts to take over, as a girl and boy explore all manner of possible uses for apples alongside the conventional ones. You can, so we’re told, kick it, toss it and use it to play skittles with …

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or even baseball perhaps. Or why not try a spot of juggling, although you’ll need rather more than one for this

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as you would if you follow some of the other suggestions. Apple sauce requires a fair few of the fruit, as does making juice or even apple bobbing. You can give an apple a wash – always advisable especially if you intend using it for a smile …

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you might even give it a bit of a cuddle. My favourite suggestion though is this one …

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although I’m totally in favour of this ‘You can eat it anyplace.’ sentiment too.
The quirky rhyming text is easy to read, making the book a good one for early reading and Greg Pizzoli’s illustrations are sure to bring on a smile, or many.
As a beginner reader wouldn’t you much rather read something fun like this that a dull scheme book?

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