Christopher's Caterpillars by Charlotte Middleton

Christopher's Caterpillars by Charlotte Middleton
Buy Christopher's Caterpillars by Charlotte Middleton at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Jo Heffer
Summary: Christopher Nibble and his friend Posie are two guinea pigs that loves football and gardening. One day they discover six caterpillars munching their dandelions and decide to keep them as pets. They look after them in little jars and become quite attached to these little creatures. One morning though they realise that the caterpillars have disappeared. What on earth could have happened to them? It certainly is a mystery and the two friends decide to turn into detectives in order to solve it.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 32	Date: February 2012
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 9780192732316
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Christopher Nibble, a charming little guinea pig, loves gardening with his friend Posie. When they find six munching caterpillars on their plants though they decide that they cannot stay and choose to keep them as pets instead. They make a list of the things that they think that the caterpillars will need such as woolly socks and mini hairbrushes. When they visit Mr Rosetti, who runs the local café, he puts them straight and suggests that they get some clean jars, juicy leaves, twigs, and make lids with holes in them instead. They now know exactly what to do in order to look after their new pets and they do – very carefully.

Because they have been so loving and caring with the caterpillars, they are completely mystified when one day the caterpillars disappear. They hunt high and low and make some wonderfully colourful posters to put up all over the town of Dandeville. Luckily, Mr Rosetti sees the posters and invites the two guinea pigs over with their jars to explain what has happened. The lids are removed and six beautiful butterflies fly up into the air.

This is a lovely story book and a great way of explaining how caterpillars turn into butterflies. The story is told in a very simple way and the two guinea pigs are very engaging characters. It is lovely the way that they do not know what has happened to the caterpillars and the way that the mystery gradually unfolds. For young children sharing this book, it really is an amazing discovery.

All the pages are very attractive with some delightful illustrations. They are all bright and colourful and all help to tell the story. There is just the right amount of text on each page and some words are big and bold in order to draw attention to them. There are also some delightful descriptions such as:

'Not a single wriggling caterpillar to be seen. Not a single munching sound to be heard.'

There are also lots of examples of different types of writing such as lists, posters and emails. My daughter loves these and although she generally likes me to read to her, she always insists on reading all of the bits that are a little bit different. This is always a great way of sharing the reading with your child.

Overall, this is a lovely book and one that I am sure that will appeal to children of all ages.

If this appeals to your child they will almost certainly want to read more about this entertaining character so why not also take a look at Christopher Nibble by Charlotte Middleton

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You can read more book reviews or buy Christopher's Caterpillars by Charlotte Middleton at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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