Animal stories for under fives - perfect for my bag of tricks! (Animal Stories for Under Fives - Joan Stimson)

Member Name: karlsm93

Product:	Animal Stories for Under Fives - Joan Stimson
Date:	01/06/09 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A great little book for a low price that is so handy to pull out.

Disadvantages: Text is small.

When I qualified as a teacher I started out as a 'sub' (substitute teacher) in a variety of local schools. You never knew what to expect when you arrived at a class (unless it was one in which the main teacher was frequently off), and therefore it was vital to have a bag of tricks with you. This bag of tricks consisted of stories, games, worksheets etc etc that would suit both younger and older primary school children and one of these books was 'animal stories for under fives'.

Now the majority of children that I would have taught in schools were the little ones, and so even though the title of the book suggests this is merely for those under five, I have found that children, even up to age of about 7/8 will still listen to and enjoy the various stories in this book.

This is a ladybird publication, and contains 8 short stories, all written by Joan Stimson, and all illustrated by Colin and Moira MacLean. At the time I paid the RRP price on the reverse of the book ie £1.99 in my local Easons. There are also other similar short story books by the same author including, bedtime stories for under fives, farmyard stories for under fives and even monster stories for under fives.

As I said, there are 8 stories in this small book, the longest only being 8 pages. It must be said however, that this is not a book for children (particularly under fives) to read alone, and I would suggest that even a 6 or 7 year old would find this difficult to read unaided. This rather, is a book to be read TO children or WITH children. Due to its size, (its dimensions are approx 18cm by 12cm) it is ideal to share with a child one to one.

However, as mentioned, I bought this book to have in my bag of tricks to pull out at story time, and I have to say the children that I met always seemed to enjoy the different stories, frequently asking for 'one more'.

These are the eight stories in the book:
Brown Bear's visit
Hippo hiccups
The singing lion
A surprise for a tortoise
Which flamingo?
Flop learns to swim
Crocodiles do climb trees
Teamwork

As you will notice a different animal features in each one.
Here is a little taste of each story.

*Brown bear's visit*
Brown bear is very grumpy and bored with the same old things, until he goes over to his cousin bear's house on the other side of the moutain, but will he like it?

*Hippo hiccups*
Rather than a story this is actually a poem about a hippo who can't get rid of his hiccups, so he tries out different ways ot get rid of them.

*The singing lion*
Little lion loves to sing but can't quite sing in tune. None of the other animals want to a singsong with him, until the snake comes up with a great idea.

*A surprise for tortoise*
Nimble and Leaf are very old tortoises, and soon Leaf was going to be 100 on her birthday. Nimble wants to think of a very special present but all the animals are sleeping and don't want to listen or help, that is until the next morning, when they realise Nimble has seen them do some silly things whilst asleep.

*Which flamingo?*
Again, this a poem, rather than a story about a row of flamingoes and a toucan. The flamingoes want to know who has the knobbliest knees and the toucan is under pressure to decide.

*Flop learns to swim*
Flop the penguin goes on his first swimming lesson with his dad, but when he sees others swimming he doesn't want to have a go in case they laugh at him. Flop's dad becomes very very sad and Flop has to think of a way to cheer him up. but will he have a go at swimming again?

*Crocodiles do climb trees*
Snappy is a little embarrassed by his mum who keeps climbing trees, much to Snappy's insistance that crocodiles don't climb trees. When he meets a new friend he is very worried about his mum doing something stupid and climbing a tree, but will his new friend think his mum is silly?

*Teamwork*
This poem finishes the book, telling the story of two leopards who worked together to help count each others spots.

All in all, for the low price of this book, I think it is excellent value and a useful addition to any child's nighttime book stand. The stories are short enough to keep a young childn's attention, which just the right amount of ilustrations to help explain the enhance each story. The stories/poems themselves are full of useful information about animals and their habitats and without realising it, children can learn quite a lot about a variety of animals just by reading these short stories. A fabulous book to keep handy.

Summary: Perfect little bedtime book for children up to age of 7/8.