Animal Lullabies

Description

It's night-time in the Animal Kingdom and time for all the animal children to go to bed. But animal children are every bit as restless as their human counterparts. How do their parents help them to sleep. What animal lullabies do they sing? Mandy Ross's original poems are linguistically rich and varied, creating affectionate and humourous sound-picturesout of an appealing mix of everyday language and nonsense words. Her engaging word play is admirably complemented by the vibrant watercolours of Krisztina Kallai Nagy. All children will love to imitate their favourite animals as they nestle to sleep, and the book finishes with a lullaby all human animals will love.

The linking theme in this collection of verses is animals and sleep - how they get to sleep or what they get up to in their sleep. 'Skunk' made me and my child reviewer laugh: 'Sweet dreams, scented dreams, my little skunkadee. All's well that ends well, my little stinkaree.' Verses two and three follow a similar pattern with some nice word play like 'pongaroo' and 'honkydoo'. We also enjoyed 'Dog': 'Sniff the bedding, and sniff the night, turn round to the left, and round to the right. Keep one eye open, as long as you're able, then dream of the scraps, dropped under the table.' This collection successfully conveys the restlessness often associated with bedtime. There is lots to enjoy here. * Nursery World *