What Will You Be? (Guess What I'll Be - Anni Axworthy)

Member Name: tb4ms

Product:	Guess What I'll Be - Anni Axworthy
Date:	27/03/08 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great educational book & lovely illustrations.

Disadvantages: None.

This book is one of four in a series of books by Walker Books by Anni Axworthy:

Guess what I am
Guess what I'll be
Guess where I live
Guess who my Mummy is

- The Book -

This is largely a non-fiction book in which children are encouraged to follow the verbal and visual clues to guess what the animal behind the hole is, e.g.

'What will I be? This is me, I'm called a tadpole. One day I'll have four webby feet, big bulging eyes and I'll eat beetles, flies and worms.'

This double page is full of illustrations of the things described with a peep-hole cut out showing a small section of the animal that the tadpole will turn in to.

Turn the page and you are greeted by a large frog with a little bit of information about the frog, e.g. they live on land and water.The same system is used throughout the book with the following animals included:

chick / flamingo
caterpillar / butterfly
calf / walrus
grub / honey-bee

At the end of the book there is a double page that asks the reader to help 'unjumble' the animals and put them with their 'young' which is aimed at testing and reinforcing what the children have learned from the book.

- Illustrations, Style and Format -

The illustrations are very large, bright and colourful which totally appeal to young children. It's largely aimed at pre-school children from 2 years upwards and is a great educational tool. Children particularly like the peep-hole feature where they can see parts of the adult animal and when they turn the page, a section of the baby animal.

Each young / baby animal is given a double page with clues as to what they will grow in to and each adult animal is also given a double page with information about them on it, e.g. walruses live in large groups called herds etc..........

My only disappointment with this book is that more animals could perhaps have been included but when you consider the age range it is intended for then perhaps it's just the right length for younger children's concentration levels.

- My verdict -

All four books in this series are excellent tools for teaching children about animals, they are fun, bright and interesting which is a 'must' for holding children's attention.

This book is well worth a trip to the library for, if not take a look at amazon where used and new hardcover copies are from just 6p!
My paperback version ISBN: 0-744577446 was £3.99 and worth every penny!!

Summary: A super book which appeals to young children and educates them!!