Poo in the Zoo

Poo in the Zoo

By Steve Smallman & illustrated by Ada Grey
Published by Little Tiger Press

There’s too much poo in the zoo and Zoo Keeper Bob is exhausted. There’s tiger poo, lion poo, prickly porcupine poo, plummeting giraffe poo and even bouncy kangaroo poo! Steve Smallman and Ada Grey are back with their latest, hilarious book, Poo in the Zoo. What will Keeper Bob do when a mysterious glowing poo turns up, is it from outer space? Children will love this fun, poopy picture book.

Join Bob McGrew, a keeper at the zoo. Keeper Bob loves animals but it’s not always fun working at the zoo because he has to push around a cart all day shovelling up the POO! There is so much poo; Lion’s poo, bouncy kangaroo’s poo, drippy droppings from a fat wombat, flying bits of bat’s poo and a pongy pat of panda poo. But when it’s time to muck out Iguana’s enclosure, a tired Keeper Bob slips on a banana, and a cheeky Iguana makes a run for it. The Iguana causes havoc in the cafeteria, eating everything in sight, including lime lollies and all the cake from the cake stand and he think’s he can’t eat any more when he spots some sparkly fireflies and gobbles them up as well. Iguana’s bum starts to glow, and with a funny face he plopped a huge, glowing poop on the floor. Shocked at the poo, Iguana soon dashes back to his cage. 

When Zoo Keeper Bob finds the huge glowing poo, he’s never seen a poo like this and thinks it must be from outer space. It isn’t long before everyone has heard about the glowing poo and flock to see it. A Hector Gloop turns up who is a poo collector and wants to show Keeper Bob his Poo Museum. Filled with huge poos, tiny poos, even mammoth and a rare dragon poo, Hector Gloop wants to buy the glowing poo. Keeper Bob sold the poop and spends the money wisely on a robot pooper scooper. No more scooping poop for Keeper Bob McGrew.

Poo in the Zoo is hilariously funny, and with a rhyming text, you will enjoy reading this out loud to little ones with its cheeky word play. Ada Grey’s illustrations are bold, with cute fun characters and she has managed to illustrate all of the different types of poo rather tastefully! 

This poop filled picture book will have you and your little ones roaring with laughter at all of the poo antics that goes on at Bob McGrew’s zoo. Recommend at ages 3+, you can buy Poo in the Zoo at all good bookshops or online here. Visit the blog all this week for more Poo in the Zoo fun, with an exclusive interview from Steve Smallman tomorrow. There will also be the opportunity to win a signed copy of the book which I'll announce on my twitter account today, so get following to find out more!

Animal Flash Cards: ABC

Animal Flash Cards: ABC

By Camilla de le Bédoyère 
Published by QED Publishing

QED have just released a gorgeous Animal Flash Card Series, by Camilla de la Bédoyère. Flash cards are a great way for children to learn the basic elements and memorize them through short repeat sessions.

The Animal Flash Card: ABC includes 20 double sided cards which can be used for interactive learning. Each card is beautifully illustrated with an animal, for example: A is for angelfish, B is for butterfly, C is for chameleon etc. Each card also has an animal fact on the back, great for animal lovers and introducing some that might not be as well known, such as a quetzal, a bird that eats fruit, insects and lizards or an umbrella bird who gets it’s name from the crest on their head. 

The cards are a good size for handling and a good thickness. The animal illustration and text used for the alphabet are stunning.  Even when the cards are no longer needed, these cards are so pretty they will look great inside frames on walls or in a classroom.

This flash card series are recommended for ages 3+ and though my daughter is too young yet, the colours and pictures of animals kept her attention for a few minutes but I definitely look forward to using them later on with her.

The Animal Flash Cards series are available in all good bookshops and available to buy online.

Animalium Activity Book

Animalium Activity Book

Illustrated by Katie Scott 
First published by Big Picture Press

Wow! You’re going to love this Animalium Activity Book, its bursting with interesting facts, fun puzzles and will definitely offer hours of entertainment to little artists. 

This beautiful activity book is meant to complement the popular hardback, Animalium by Katie Scott. Part of the Welcome to the Museum series and recommended at ages 7+. Filled with creative colouring, fun drawing activities and design, as well as fascinating facts and puzzles from around the world. Answers can be found on the back of puzzle pages. Each activity page is stylishly laid out and would look great on any child’s wall.

Katie Scott’s detailed illustrations are stunning and I love the muted colours used for the backgrounds and borders. I’m going to find it hard giving this to Aoife when she’s older, as I’m very tempted to complete it myself! As an animal lover, I found this extremely interesting and loved looking through it. I think I’m going to be buying Animalium and look forward to further exploring the animal kingdom with Aoife.

Animalium Activity Book is available in all good bookshops and to buy online.

DOT. Magazine - Vol. 1 The Shapes Issue

DOT. is the new creative magazine for littles ones, aimed at girls and boys under the age of 5. It’s fun and creative, and if you have an eager to learn child, then this magazine is a nice alternative to an activity book. 

The theme for the first issue is Shapes and covers a whole section aimed at learning about a variety of different shapes, giving information about the number of sides, examples of objects that are that shape and offering a space for children to practice drawing the shapes themselves. 

The magazine also offers activity suggestions, little illustrated stories, jokes, recipes and much more. Illustrations are by Anorak’s chief designer Anna Dunn. I love her style and the colours used, it’s bright, bold and looks fun. There are other guest illustrators as well who have created little stories throughout the magazine.

Advertised as the Happy Mag for Creative Kids, it definitely is, and I know children will look forward to receiving this through the post, something to brighten any dull day. Issue 2 is due out in August so catch this issue whilst its still out or get a subscription from here.

Little Tiger’s day out at the Zoo!

Last weekend, Aoife and I were given the chance to meet authors and illustrators and read latest picture books with Little Tiger Press. But not only that, there were crafts, coffee, pastries and face painting. There was also some roaringly good tiger cupcakes! This was all followed by a trip to London Zoo.

Little Tiger Press are publishing some fantastic books this month and August, which I shall be reviewing later on in the month. We were lucky enough to meet Steve Smallman, author of Poo in the Zoo, which he read out loud and had everyone in stitches. The lovely author, Tracey Corderoy and illustrator, Tim Warnes of More, were there helping little ones make and dress their own little Archie. We missed Jane Chapman, author and illustrator of No More Cuddles but there was lots of activities sheets for the little ones to enjoy.

I also had the chance to chat to author, Caroline Crowe, whose first book Pirates in Pyjamas, will be coming out in August, illustrated by Tom Knight. We also met Jenna Harrington, author of Katie McGinty Wants a Pet! Another first time book. It was great to find out what gave them their inspirations for these two fun picture books.

Aoife and I loved our visit to London Zoo - We were able to see the penguins swimming around, watch the big bird display and saw so many animals. And with the lovely weather, we spoilt ourselves and enjoyed some ice cream. A very fun day! Thank you to everyone at Little Tiger Press who helped arranged this lovely day and it was great meeting you all!

Captain Falsebeard in a Very Fishy Tale

Captain Falsebeard in a Very Fishy Tale

By Fred Blunt 
Published by Puffin

This is Fred Blunt's picture book debut, and what a treasure it is! 

The story begins with Captain Falsebeard discovering the legendary Crossbone Treasure, and him and his loyal crew rowing it back to their ship, the Pretty Polly. But it isn't long until a mean looking parrot spills all to Captain Falsebeard's arch enemy, Admiral Swinetoes!

So Admiral Swinetoes hatches a fool proof plan to steal the booty from Captain Falsebeard, with hilarious consequences. A mermaid is caught by the crew of the Pretty Polly and it isn't long until the mermaid is revealed as one of Swinetoes crew. The treasure is taken and Captain Falsebeard quickly discovers that Swinetoes is behind the nickin' of his new found wealth. But with the use of a flock of parrots, an invasion is sent towards Swinetoes and its not a pretty one! With Admiral Swinetoes covered from head to toe in parrot poop, Captain Falsebeard reclaims his treasure and the crew celebrate with a spot of fishing (avoiding any catching of mermaids).

I couldn't help but have the Captain Pugwash theme tune play in my head as I read this (even as I'm writing this review the tune is on autorepeat in my noggin!). Fred's illustrations are bold, energetic and full of character, and I can see a string of great picture books to come from this great talent. Children of all ages will find fun, adventure, buckets of pirate talk and cheeky laughs on every page - the parrot poo incident towards the end had me in chuckles.

I'm sure this isn't the last we'll hear from Captain Falsebeard, I can see a franchise forming on the seven seas! And if you'd like to win a place at the book launch aboard the Golden Hinde later this month, simply tweet a photo (using hashtags #CaptainFalsebeard #SuperfanGood) of your child dressed as a pirate with a false beard for the possibility of winning a ticket aboard the mighty galleon on launch night or a signed book. Good luck me hearties! 

Captain Falsebeard in a Very Fishy Tale is available to buy in all good bookshops and online at the Puffin website.

The Cloudspotter

The Cloudspotter

By Tom McLaughlin 
Published by Bloomsbury

This is Tom McLaughlin's second picture book for Bloomsbury, his first being the magnificent The Story Machine. The Cloudspotter is another imaginative tale about a boy who would rather have adventures in the sky.

Meet Franklin, or as everyone else knows him, The Cloudspotter. Franklin doesn't have many friends, and instead of playing spends everyday with his head in the clouds. He spots big clouds, squeaky clouds, sneaky pretend-they-can't-see-you clouds and angry clouds. But The Cloudspotter doesn't just spot clouds, he has adventures in them!

Some of his adventures consisted of swimming with giant jellyfish, driving racing cars and being the KING OF THE CASTLE. However it all changes when a scruffy dog turns up. The Cloudspotter thinks the dog might be after his clouds and so he tries his best to avoid her. But everywhere The Cloudspotter goes the scruffy dog goes too. 

Enough is enough when the dog starts appearing in his cloud adventures and hatches a plan to get rid of her. And that plan takes the form of a hot air balloon, with the poor old scruffy dog being bundled into it! It's not long until The Cloudspotter starts to feel lonely and realises the scruffy dog wasn't actually after his clouds but was lonely like him too. Luckily the hot air balloon does get too far and the scruffy dog and The Cloudspotter are reunited, leaving them to have their adventures in the sky together.

This is a lovely book about friendship and learning how to share your interests with other people. The story isn't too dissimilar to Oliver Jeffers Lost and Found, but with Tom being Oliver's cousin I don't think he'll mind too much. The illustrations are classic McLaughlin, with the cloud spreads having a dreamy quality to them. A lovely story to accompany any rainy day this summer holiday. 

The Cloudspotter is available to buy now at all good bookshops and online at the Bloomsbury website.