Tag Qu Lan

Little Chimpanzee / Little Whale / Little Monkey / Tiny Tadpole

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Little Chimpanzee
Anna Brett, illustrated by Rebeca Pintos
Little Whale
Anna Brett, illustrated by Carmen Saldaña
Words & Pictures

These are the latest additions to the Really Wild Families series of fun, informative interactive books for children and adults to share.
Having introduced itself, Little Chimpanzee invites readers to spend a day exploring its African rainforest home and meeting the sociable family community comprising father, mother, older brother, aunts, uncles and cousins. The creature narrator explains how chimpanzees care for and groom each other and talks about the social structures and relationships in the group , including how they communicate with one another.There’s a spread about chimp conservation and another about the vital work of Jane Goodall and the chimps in Gombe Stream National Park.
The narrative is followed by a quiz and a craft activity. A charming, effective way for young children to find out about our nearest relative, while gently reminding them of the importance of caring for creatures in the wild; vibrantly illustrated with gentle humour.

The Little Whale of the title introduces itself and the rest of its pod of humpback whales and readers join their annual journey from warm waters to search for the cold waters of the Antarctic Ocean where there’s plenty of food. On the way we learn about how the creatures move, their external features, breathing, breeding, diet and feeding,

possible predators and whale song.
Following the story are the usual factual spread, a look at conservation, a craft activity, a quiz and we meet Migaloo, a albino humpback that lives off the Queensland coast of Australia. Carmen Saldana’s underwater illustrations are beautiful and really add to the book’s appeal.

Narrative works really well as a means of transmitting information to young children and these are additions to the Amazing Animal Tales series that also successfully use this approach along with straightforward facts found beneath the flaps.

Little Monkey
illustrated by Caroline Rabei
Tiny Tadpole
illustrated by Qu Lan
both written by Anne Rooney
Oxford Children’s Books

Little Monkey is a spider monkey and we first encounter him high in the rainforest treetops clinging round his mother’s tummy as she moves from branch to branch. Lifting the full-page flap reveals two pages of information and a simple question to further engage listeners.
As the story continues there is information about feeding, what this entails.and how it changes as he becomes more independent, an independence that makes him want to go off exploring by himself.

Anne Rooney’s way of presenting the information is appealing and perfectly pitched for an Early Years audience, the special skill being the combination of the two styles, with Caroline Rabei’s delightful illustrations containing just the right amount of detail.

The Tiny Tadpole also lives in the rainforest but further south than the monkey family. Herein we follow the transformation from tadpoles hatching out of the protective jelly eggs and the growth and changes that ensue in their habits and in the care provided by the mother frog,

until the tiny black dot has become a froglet. This one is illustrated using a rich colour palette by Qu Lan and every picture is bursting with life.

Baby Owl

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Baby Owl
Anne Rooney and Qu Lan
Oxford Children’s Books

The adorable-looking white fluffy owlet that emerges from an egg, the Baby Owl featured in this book doesn’t stay like that for long. With Daddy owl’s hunting and feeding regime, the owlets soon outgrow the nest, venturing out onto the tree branches. Baby Owl however, isn’t quite ready to catch his own insects. He ends up on the forest floor in a heap and has to climb all the way back to the nest by means of his sharp beak and claws.

Soon though, the owl parents leave their little ones to hunt for their own dinner and off goes Baby Owl in search of food.

Flying is fun, he decides and eventually with mouse in beak, back he goes to show his parents his prey. After consuming same, he settles down and falls asleep warmed by the rising sun..

As with previous titles in the series, young children will absorb quite a bit of information from the well-written narrative but characteristic of the Amazing Animal Tales are the flaps beneath which additional facts are presented as well as occasional questions, which add to the book’s interactive nature. In this one, youngsters will learn that an owl can turn its head nearly all the way round and can see all of its own back. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this is certainly one to add to early years collections.

Baby Polar Bear

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Baby Polar Bear
Anne Rooney and Qu Lan
Oxford Children’s Books

In this latest of the Amazing Animal series, we follow a recently born Baby Polar Bear cub and her twin as they take their first forays away from the Arctic den their mother has built. They’re a playful pair and both stay close to Mummy Bear as they frolic in the thick snow.

One morning their mother leads them away from the den on a long journey across the icy terrain. The little ones take care not to stray too far away in case of wolves.

Eventually they reach the sea and the cubs delight in chasing the birds and Baby Bear takes a tumble into the chilly water. Brrrrr! After some splashing for a while, it’s time for the cubs to snuggle up together under the star-filled sky. All this is told in the narrative part of the text while facts about the bears are found beneath the gate-fold flaps of this cleverly designed book.

The illustrations are gorgeous and Anne Rooney’s engaging text with its interactive element, is pitched perfectly for the intended young audience; to add to fun, there’s also a Bonaparte’s gull to find on every spread.

A book I’d strongly recommend for both home and class use.

Amazing Animal Tales: Little Tiger / Amazing Animal Tales: Baby Koala and Bugs / Space

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Amazing Animal Tales: Little Tiger
Anne Rooney and Carolina Rabei
Amazing Animal Tales: Baby Koala
Anne Rooney and Qu Lan
Oxford Children’s Books

These, first of a new series, follow the survival stories of baby animals. You can use them either as narrative stories of each animal baby or, if you open the flaps (four per book) as a combination of story and information. Each has the additional interactive feature of a creature to look for on every spread and sometimes, a question which needs some investigation by the child to answer.
Little Tiger lives in the Asian tropical rainforest and when we first meet him, is snuggled up with his mother and fellow cubs in a safe warm den.
We then see the cub being suckled before venturing outside into the sunlight of the noisy habitat where there’s time for some playful fighting with the other cubs. There’s a near encounter with a noisy elephant after which Mama carries her tired cub back to the den. However this protectiveness can’t continue and Mamma Tiger must teach her cubs to hunt if they are to thrive.

That still leaves time for some playfulness and a quick dip before sleep time.

The Australian Bush is the setting for Baby Koala. This little joey, like other koalas, spends all its time in the eucalyptus trees sleeping and feeding, either suckled by its mother, or about nine months later, eating eucalyptus leaves. Dangers come in the form of hungry owls and forest fires caused by the intense heat but Mum koala still keeps a protective watch on her Baby Koala, even after it’s outgrown her pouch and instead is carried on her back.

The texts are engaging and will hold a young child’s interest and the illustrations from, in Little Tiger, Carolina Rabei and in Baby Koala, Qu Lan include lots of detail of the flora and fauna of the animals’ respective habitats to explore and talk about. Both titles would be good additions to foundation stage collections and home bookshelves.

Written in a totally different style and for an older audience:

Bugs
Space
Noodle Fuel and Rich Watson
Little Tiger

These two titles in a new Brain Bursts series are characterised by comical illustrations, simple, with quirky edge diagrams, and contained within fact boxes, a wealth of information is presented in a light-hearted style, complete with speech bubbles from the bugs themselves.

It’s incredible to read on the opening page of Bugs that insects make up almost three quarters of all animal species on Earth. Then after an introductory spread readers meet among others, bees, ladybirds, grasshoppers and crickets, damselflies and dragonflies, moths and ants. Can you believe that there are estimated to be ten quadrillion ants on our planet – 10,000,000,000,000,000 – that is indeed a ‘very big number’. I was amazed to discover that there are more than 10,000 different ant species.

Among the most bizarre facts though is one found on the ‘Top Ten Weird Bugs’ spread: did you know that honeybees have hairy eyeballs? There’s also a fun activities page, instructions on how to play Beetle – a game I’ve not played since I was a child – and a final glossary.

Space is similar in tone and covers such topics as stars and star maps, satellites, space travel, space junk (apparently there are such unlikely things as a pair of pliers and a spatula floating around somewhere in space), black holes and red dwarfs. Several space scientists and cosmonauts make an appearance and the book ends with some activities and a glossary. 

‘Boredom-free guaranteed!’ is claimed on the cover: I can’t imagine any child being bored by either of these books.