View source for That's Mine! by Michel Van Zeveren

{{infobox2
|title=That's Mine!
|author=Michel Van Zeveren
|reviewer=Ruth Ng
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=4.5
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-1877579271
|pages=36
|publisher=Gecko Press
|date=February 2013
|aznuk=1877579270
|aznus=1877579270
|cover=1877579270
|website=
|video=
|summary= Lovely, fun jungle animal pictures and a really humourous story too!
}}
I've come to look forward to picture books published by Gecko Press.  They always seem to come up with something a bit different, and this book is no exception.  This is the story of an egg, found by a small green frog who claims it for his own.  But then snake says it's his egg, and eagle says it's his egg.  Just whose egg is it?!

Each animal lays claim to the egg, ''It's mine, it's mine!'' until they begin to have a little tussle over it.  Suddenly the egg is flying through the air and it bounces off the top of elephant's head!  Poor elephant has a lump on his head, and he grumpily demands to know whose egg it is, and so of course suddenly all the animals claim it ''isn't'' their egg any more, all pointing the finger at frog!  Elephant kindly hands the egg over to frog, much to the frustration of the other animals, but then suddenly the egg starts to crack.  Can you guess what comes out of the egg?  Yes, that's right, it's a crocodile!  And she takes one look at the frog and declares ''Mine!''

I really enjoyed how simple but effective this story is.  It's very easy to follow what's going on, so even the smallest of toddlers can join in, and since 'mine' is often one of the first words and concepts children discover it's easy for them to understand the fight over the egg.  As a grown up you can sense what's coming, but I like the element of surprise at the end for children on seeing the little crocodile pop out and running after the frog!

The illustrations are really lovely, just very simply drawn but cute and appealing characters.  I'm not sure that eagles live in the jungle, but that doesn't really matter.  My favourite character was old elephant who gets the lump on his head from the bouncing egg!  I love his ouch expression, and how suddenly all the animals are shiftily trying to look very innocent and not at all to blame for the flying egg!

This is a fun story to read aloud.  It doesn't take long, and because it's enjoyable it stands up to being re-read several times over.  I think it would also work well as a story for nurseries and playgroups to share with groups of children as the humour is so easy to understand and it ends with the fun of the baby crocodile trying to eat the frog!

If you'd like to try some of Gecko Press' other books then take a look at 
[[The Magical Life of Mr Renny by Leo Timmers]] or [[The Fishing Trip by Beatrice Rodriguez]].  You might also enjoy [[You Can Do It, Bert! by Ole Konnecke]].

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