Tag the importance of teamwork

Molly, Olive and Dexter: You Can’t Catch Me! / Dance with Oti: The Turtle Tango

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These are both new titles featuring popular characters from previous stories: thanks to the publishers Walker Books for sending them for review.

Molly, Olive and Dexter: You Can’t Catch Me!
Catherine Rayner

In this third episode in the lives of a trio of residents of a garden oak tree, Molly the hare, Olive the owl and Dexter, the fox, Dexter asks his friends to participate in a game of chase. First to be ‘it’ is Olive but she’s super speedy and soon catches Molly. When she’s the chaser, Molly finds her fast feet and before long she’s got Dexter, well and truly.

The bump leaves the fox feeling all dizzy and after a bit of chasing in a tired tizzy too. Determined to do something to show his vulpine prowess, he does something that perplexes his pals and in so doing proves he too is a worthy participant in the game of catch.

And the winner? What do you think? …

As always, Catherine’s watercolour scenes are superb; every spread makes the reader want to slow right down and linger over it. Young listeners too will appreciate the artistry as well as enjoying the playfulness of the chase.

Dance with Oti: The Turtle Tango
Oti Mabuse and Samara Hardy

Having learned to dance the Bird Jive, the Lion Samba and the Penguin Waltz, Mrs Oti’s pupils have a new challenge.

Prior to their performance at the grand opening of the aquarium, Mrs Oti takes the members of her dance class to see the marine creatures that are kept in its watery world. They enjoy watching the rainbow fish, wobbly jellyfish, scuttling crabs, the enormous shark and the turtle family. One of the class, Poppy, is concerned about the baby turtle and it’s the turtles that give their teacher an idea for the performance.

Back at the dance studio, the children enjoy emulating the fin flapping fish, the wobbly wobbly jellyfish and hear some sound advice from Mrs Oti. Advice that proves to be particularly important come the big day on stage when there’s a mishap just before the titular Turtle Tango grand finale.

After the show, along with congratulation from their teacher, each of the performers receives a special surprise thank you present.

After enjoying the vibrantly illustrated story, listeners too can learn the finale dance by following the step by step instructions on the last double spread..

Flooded

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Flooded
Mariajo Ilustrajo
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books (First Editions)

Full of water, wit and a little one’s bit of wisdom is this debut picture book from Mariajo Ilustrajo, about a city inhabited solely by animals. It happens one summer beginning on a day just like all the others except that the entire place is rather wet. Initially all the residents except one are happy to use the excess of water as a chance to splash about in wellies and carry on with life as normal, merely making it a topic of conversation and a source of fun.

As the water level keeps on rising there remains a lone voice that shows increasing concern as most others become further involved in their own issues, until that is, some of the smaller animals start having problems.

Eventually a small volume of water has become an enormous problem, impossible for anyone to ignore; but is there anybody that knows what should be done? Happily yes and at last that little creature is able to voice a simple (and we readers would think, obvious), solution. With the entire population working as a team …

the plug is extracted and the drowning of the city is finally halted. Yes, new problems arise and have to be dealt with, but happily now community collaboration rules and solves …

This tale of pulling together in times of need is wonderfully illustrated by an exciting newcomer using ink and graphite and digitally coloured. The text is kept to a minimum allowing the wealth of funny details in each scene to do much of the storytelling.

Meet the Grumblies

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Meet the Grumblies
John Kelly and Carmen Saldaña
Little Tiger

The three Grumblies are an argumentative lot as their name suggests, and that’s despite having an easy life with food readily available courtesy of the bread bushes and fruit trees, and a constant supply of fizzy juice from the pond.

This primitive trio lead a low-tech existence and like nothing better than to bicker about the relative merits of the stick, the rope and mud.

These articles are put to the test when suddenly a huge and very hungry Gobblestomp breaks into their clearing and proceeds to devour their precious crops and slurp up their bubbly beverage.

Sticks bounce harmlessly off the hairy pachyderm;

the rope fails to slow it down and as for mud, it’s far too shallow to halt its progress.

Time for Grumble-Stick, Grumble-Rope and Grumble-Mud to cease squabbling, pool resources and come up with a plan perhaps; and so, overnight, they do.

The trio’s teamwork proves highly successful stopping Gobblestomp in its tracks

but there’s more than one change afoot in the village for it’s not only the Grumblies who see the error of their ways …

John Kelly’s daft neanderthal tale demonstrates the importance of teamwork and there’s plenty to giggle over in Carmen Saldaña’s animated artwork.