Who’s for dinner?

Author: Claire Freedman

Illustrator: Nick East

Year: 2012

Publisher: Little Tiger Press, London

Age: 4 and above

No. of Pages: 32

ISBN: 978 1 84895 488 5

Simply hilarious. Must read. And see, I might add – the illustrations are uproarious too!

City Fox lands up at a friendly little farm where Hen, Duck, Lamb and Bull live ‘hap-hap-happy’ lives.  

Terrified at the prospect of ending up as the City Fox’s meal, the farm animals come together to outfox the predator. :-)

Excerpt

Fox trembled in terror.

“You? A ch-ch-chicken?” he whimpered.

“But I thought foxes were meant to EAT chickens!”

Bull snorted and pointed his huge horns right at Fox.

“If foxes EAT chickens,” he bellowed “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?”

Tom’s Tail

Author: Linda Jennings

Illustrator: Tim Warnes

For Ages: 3 and above

No. of Pages: 28

Publisher: Little Tiger Press, London

Year: 1995

ISBN: 978-1-58925-383-4

Children of the television and Internet era have a huge problem – they are bombarded with messages that seem to indicate that they could be really happy if they changed a wee bit of this or that of themselves. I liked this book, because it addresses just that – accepting yourself for who you are.

Little Tom is a perfectly made piglet but he has a problem with his tail. His kind-hearted farm friends try several remedies until Tom realizes, through a series of mishaps, that his tail is just fine, the way it was meant to be.

This is definitely a book for your personal library.  

Excerpt

“Tell you what,” said Sam, picking himself up.

“Why don’t I take hold of your tail and you can lead me along. That should straighten it!”

So Tom took Sam for a walk, past the pigsties and over the buttercup meadows.

“That’s enough!” squealed Tom. “Let me go!”

PING!

Back sprang the tail to its usual curly-twirly self. 

The GOBBLE GOBBLE MOOOOOO Tractor Book

Author and Illustrator: Jez Alborough

Year: 2010

Publisher: Harper Collins Children’s Books, London

Age: 2 and above

No. of Pages: 32

ISBN: 978-1-93527-966-2

Yes, the book does have an odd name but it really is a simple story of some farm animals who are out to have some silly fun with the farmer’s tractor.

Meet Sheep, the first to get the brilliant idea. Then Cat, Turkey and the rest of the gang use their vocal chords to make a ruckus loud enough to sound like a tractor at full throttle.

A sweet, nutty story guaranteed to keep your little ones engaged. Did I mention, the book has a spread-out that details all the animals up to their ludicrous antics? 

Excerpt

‘Can I come too?’ said Mouse.

‘I can do the wheels! The great big wheels which go round and round with a SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK…

‘Wait for me!’ said Goose. ‘I can do the horn, which shouts, “Get out of the way!”

cock-a-doodle-hooooooo!

Author: Mick Manning

Illustrator: Brita Granstrom

For Ages: 4 and above

No. of Pages: 32

Publisher: Little Tiger Press, London

Year: 2007

ISBN: 978-1-56148-568-0

Put an owl into a hen-house and what do you get? An unbelievably bold story and an unlikely hero.

So, one stormy night, an owl walks into a hen-house and thus starts a comedy of errors finally ending in the hens accepting him as their very own special cockerel.

This is a fun story for little ones. :-)

Excerpt

Owl got cross. He’d had enough.

He was hungry and he was fed up with the silly hens. So he said, “I’m an owl, not a fowl! Owls aren't hens. We hoot in the moonlight. We don’t peck corn, we catch … we catch …”

“Rats!” squawked a hen, peering into the hen house. 

Wild West Willy

By Daniel Postgate 

Year: 1999

Publisher: Picture Lions, Great Britain

Age: 5 and above

No. of Pages: 32

ISBN: 978 0 00664 671 9

Book Type: Picture Book

It’s a hilarious Wild West tale all right! :-)

The simple townsfolk of a brand new town, with errr… no name yet, has been overtaken by Big Bad Bob Bear and his cronies. From then on, it’s a classic tale of David vs. Goliath with a happy, contented ending.

If your children are into cowboys and the Wild West, or not, this book makes for good reading. 

Excerpt

Next morning, Mexican Chicken rode into town.

“Okay, Big Bad Bob, it’s time to go,” ordered the Chicken.

“Mexican Chicken!” barked Big Bad Bob’s fox. “My favorite!”

And he chased that Chicken right out of town. 

Horse up a Tree

Author: Martin Waddell

Illustrator: Jonathan Allen

Year: 2006

Publisher: Big Cat Collins, London

Age: 2 and above

No. of Pages: 32

ISBN: 978 0 00723 596 4

Now this was a great “sounds” book for our toddler from the Collins Big Cat Phonics Series (Yellow Band 3). The children got to say “Quack-quack! Cluck-cluck! Baa-baa!” with every turn of a page and they wanted to read it over and over again.

A horse has got stuck up a tree. The farmer and his animals try to help the stranded horse down. They use a ladder, then a rope and so on. When all attempts fail, gravity comes to the rescue.

Excerpt

Farmer got some hay.

“Jump on the hay!” Farmer said to Horse.

They all jumped on the hay to show Horse what to do.

Quack-quack! Cluck-cluck! Baa-baa!

Horse looked at the ground far below.

Horse shook his mane and said nay!

Other books in this series include:

• Cat and dog in a mess
• Frog or toad?
• Hansel and Gretel
• How to grow a beanstalk
• Muck it up!
• Puff the pup
• Sam and the nut