Number Garden / Noisy Construction / All the Things a River Can Be

These are all new Little Tiger interactive board books: thank you to the publishers for sending them for review.

A group of animal friends are shown around the number garden by Marigold the tortoise. With a fold-out to explore on every spread, small children will enjoy accompanying them and in so doing they can practise their counting skills to ten and respond to the other questions too.
First stop is the orchard, followed in turn by a hot-house and a rockery, then it’s off to the pond, a vegetable patch and the tour finishes in the meadow with a picnic.
Vibrant art work with just the right amount of detail for the very young (including minibeasts to spot), together with the interactive nature of the words make for a fun book to share with tinies. There’s a final spread whereon Marigold gives some extra facts about the six locations visited.

A rather unlikely subject for a board book but when shared with young children, this one, with its moving pieces and flaps, will likely lead to lots of learning.
In its half dozen spreads little ones can find out what makes a river special. People sometimes think of a river as a road, an inland waterway whereon they can travel in various kinds of boat. It also provides a watery habitat for lots of animals including many kinds of birds, fish, mammals and amphibians as well as plants, some aquatic, others that grow along the river banks. Some humans too make their home on rivers, choosing to live in houseboats. On its journey from source to mouth a river moves at different speeds, sometimes a slow trickle, at other times fast flowing and fierce. People who explore river beds can find all manner of interesting things such as coins, jewels and possibly even ancient remains.
The final spread brings together many of the activities people might do on a river visit, things that give them pleasure including boating, swimming and watching wildlife.

Look Up!

Look Up!
Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola
Puffin

Young Rocket, the narrator of the story and an aspiring astronaut is for ever looking upwards; her head’s ‘always floating in the clouds’ her mother tells her.

Inspired by Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, the little girl has two missions, the longer term space-travelling one and one much more immediate.

She is determined to get her older brother Jamal who is charged with taking her to the park to see the meteor shower, to stop staring at his mobile and direct his gaze upwards to view the spectacle.

He though, isn’t the only one of the town’s screen-obsessed characters; but despite this, Rocket wants everyone to join her in viewing the phoenix meteor shower that night at the park.
As she prepares, the girl shares with readers facts about the cause of meteor showers, the size and composition of meteors and when best to view a shower.

As portrayed in Dapo Adeola’s splendid digital illustrations, the main character is a real personality sporting funky star-stud earrings, orange space suit, and so excited about the prospect of the meteor shower that she is able to enthuse the entire neighbourhood – even finally her brother; while Nathan Byron’s story interweaves Rocket’s enthusiasm for all things space with the tension within her family fuelled by the sibling relations.

But will the townsfolk ever get to see that promised spectacle? It’s certainly a long wait …

A wonderfully uplifting celebration of STEM, especially space topics, as well as a timely reminder that setting aside screens facilitates one’s reaching for the stars and achieving one’s ambitions.