More Than A Bedtime Story (Walking Through The Jungle - Julie Lacome)

Member Name: krazykat2005

Product:	Walking Through The Jungle - Julie Lacome
Date:	02/10/08 (195 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Short and sweet, Lovely illustrations, Explores rhyme, animal noises and actions

Disadvantages: Not for one afraid of crocodiles SNAP SNAP

When my toddler threatened a tantrum upon leaving the local childrens centre this book was thrust upon him as a means to get him to leave without the usual screaming.

It's a fairly short book with a little rhyming paragraph on each double page spread paired with a picture of a little boy doing the action featured.

Each time the little boy explores the jungle using a particular action he "hears" an animal and we get a noise word to express this.

On the next double page spread we are shown the creature that made this noise and are told what it is and that it is apparently looking for it's tea.

Whilst on the surface this book might seem simple and perhaps you might think it would get boring quite quickly, there are actually a fair few learning opportunities within. We explore the jungle in the story, but we also explore rhyme, animal noises and the actions of the little boy that also relate to the animals.

As a play prop you can encourage your children to act out these animals, how they move and how they sound. You could even continue on from the rhymes provided by the book and explore how we think other animals might move.

We've used this book to discuss the various animals shown, wondering what they might quite like to eat for their tea and where they might like to go to sleep afterwards. Quite often we return to the how to tell the difference between a tiger and a lion debate as my son is quite certain tigers are lions and vice versa.

It is great as a bedtime story, it's nice and brief so getting them off won't take forever. Even my two and three quarter year old picked up on the repetitive rhyming paragraph and said it along with me after the first reading of this book. He loves when mummy makes the animal noises and likes to join in too. The only point I will make here is that my son has recently started being afraid of certain things at night, and sometimes I think this book and the insinuation that certain creatures might want to eat little boys for their tea can be a little frightening at bedtime.

The words are quite large and bold, so easy to see for mummies who have forgotten their glasses downstairs or in the dim bedroom at night. The illustrations of the animals are quite simplistic, but nice and colourful with interesting backgrounds to explore full of flowers, leaves, fruits and even a pink flamingo. The little boy is seen on a plain white background doing his chosen action, which makes it easier for little ones to see and copy if you want to join in with actions as well as words and noises.

I am pleasantly surprised by this book and even after two weeks of reading it I don't want to return it to the childrens centre. I never thought something as short and simple could provide so much opportunity for entertainment with my toddler, but it has been a firm favourite and watching my son go off and play "Walking Through The Jungle" by himself, even recalling some of the words, has actually made me quite emotional. He's starting to grow up and this is just the sort of book that they need to help them get there.

Summary: A simple but entertaining read, presents plenty of play opportunities