Been a bit of a slight radio silence on Book Monsters lately. This is what life does, gets in the way, and when life gets in the way of books, well that’s quite unacceptable! So I’m fixing this travesty by catching up on several missed, wonderful book reviews!
First up today is The Frog Olympics written by Brian Moses and illustrated by Amy Husband and published by Wayland Books. Brian Moses is up there as one of my favourite poets and favourite Twitter people. We also have lots of his books in our library, including the fab Dinosaurs Have Feelings series (worth checking out) so the chance to look at his new book was one I jumped at.
The Frog Olympics follows a group of quirky frogs as they compete in a huge array of sporting adventures to win medals. These include, of course, leapfrogging, longest tongue, a furious tadpole race and much more.
I love the writing here, it’s a rhyming poetry style picture book, which has great rhythm and the poetry flows really well when read out loud. There is brilliant use of repetition with the phrase “At the Frog Olympics”. This is so useful for younger children, they get to learn and enjoy stories through repetition and it allows them to participate by shouting out the repeated phrase. I love of interaction from children when reading books out loud in the library, so this little detail is a gift. The Frog Olympics is ideal for younger readers, it has short sentences, presented in a nice clear and bold type.
The illustrations by Amy Husband are just gorgeous. They are bright, bold packed with colour and movement. You really get a feel for the action and playfulness at the olympics. Every single frog has a different look making this a great book to leapfrog off (see what I did there) into a craft activity with children designing their own style frog character.
One of the things I enjoyed most about this wonderful book, aside from the great fun packed story, is the fact that it celebrates diversity in a way young children will really get. Frogs are coming from far and wide to join in, they all look different, they all have the chance to win. They are all happy and getting along. I’m all for a bit of competitiveness, this is the real world after all, but for young children, it’s great to present a playful and enjoyable angle to competition. I have to say I also adored the fact that an elderly frog won a first prize, a fabulous example to set children.
Although The Frog Olympics is an anytime read, it is also the perfect book to bring out when the Olympics are on to help explain to young children about this huge event in a very accessible form.
All round quirky, entertaining, fun filled hopping-tastic picture book for young children!
To get to know Brian Moses and Amy Husband better do check out their websites:
– http://www.brianmoses.co.uk
– http://brian-moses.blogspot.co.uk
– http://www.amyhusband.co.uk
This is published by Wayland Books, check out their website for more:
– https://www.hachettechildrens.co.uk/homepage_waylandbooks.page
The Frog Olympics is out now and available from all good bookstores, including Hive.
– www.hive.co.uk
Thank you for reading this ribbiting Book Monster Review.
