How would you walk through the jungle? !!!! (Walking Through The Jungle - Julie Lacome)

Name: tobymummy

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Product:	Walking Through The Jungle - Julie Lacome
Date:	25/04/08 (115 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: language development, word repetition, great pictures

Disadvantages: none

This book was the second one that Toby received in his 'Bookstart' bag following his 2 year developmental check.

Written by Julie Lacome, 'Walking through the jungle' follows a little boy, (which I assumed you pretend it's actually the child looking at the book) and his journey through the jungle.

A double page is used for each part of the story, where most books I've seen have the writing on one half and the picture on the other; this is divided into ¼ double page writing and ¾ double page picture. Each double page then alternates between the boy on his journey and an animal in the jungle. (Not sure what I mean! Here is the first few pages to give you an idea.)

Walking through the jungle,
What do you see?
Can you hear a noise?
What could it be?
(Picture of boy walking)
Ssssssss

Over there!
A snake
looking
for his tea.
(Picture of snake in jungle)

Creeping through the jungle,
What do you see?
Can you hear a noise?
What could it be?
(Picture of boy crawling)
Grrrrrrrr

You probably get the idea now. The only words that changes each time are the movements, the name of the animal and their sound: because of this it makes it a great story for the children to join in with: they could pretend to be the animal, making noises etc.

I'm not going to tell you all the animals or how it finishes, as that would spoil the story, if I've left you wondering, then you'll have to get hold of a copy yourself.

Whilst reading this story to Toby, I have made a point of pointing to his eyes and ears when asking the questions about seeing and hearing, as these concepts should be learnt by children. When questioning - what could it be? We look puzzled and Toby puts his finger to his lips to show he is thinking, although he does this a fair bit during the story and occasionally in other situations, it makes me laugh every time.

The words are a fairly large font, so when a child is learning to read, this makes reading this book a bit easier. The pictures are clear and bold, and show the picture of the whole animal, not just their head, like so many books I've seen recently.
Before you turn the page, or your child turns the page in our house, you can encourage the child to guess what animal is coming up next, by making the sound written in the story, if your child can't guess it from that, there's nothing stopping you from making a noise which your child recognises. For example, Toby doesn't recognise a monkey as making a 'chitter chatter' but he does know 'oo oo.'

Overall this is a great story for children of all ages. I've read it several times already and love to see Toby's reactions to the animals. I'm sure before I know it he'll be still looking at it for many years and even reading it to me.

Although we got our copy free, it retails at £5.99 and I have seen it on Amazon for less than this price.

Published by Walker books www.walkerbooks.co.uk

ISBN: 9780744536430

Bookstart - www.booktrust.org.uk or www.booktrusted.com

Nicola xx 25/04/08

Summary: Take a walk or leap through the jungle and see what you can find.