View source for Time For Dinner by June Morley

{{infobox2
|title=Time For Dinner
|author=June Morley
|reviewer=Kerry King
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-1849564397 
|pages=32
|publisher=Top That! Publishing
|date=September 2011
|aznuk=1849564396
|aznus=1849564396
|cover=1849564396
|website=http://www.junemorley.co.uk/space.php
|video=
|summary=''Yum, yum,'' said Fly. ''I do love dinner time!''  It's time for dinner and all of the animals are very hungry!  But, with the cat looking hungrily at the bird, the bird looking hungrily at the spider, and the spider looking hungrily at the fly, will anyone end up on the dinner menu?
}}

I was beginning to wonder when I would see a book that addressed the sticky (pardon the pun) issue of the food chain.  I mean, the reception and pre-schooler set seem pretty au fait with being cooked and eaten by giants whose sleep is disturbed, or by nasty, warty, smelly old witches who live in the woods waiting for a hapless brother and sister to wander past the door, so I was very keen to see how Morley got into the detail of this particular stumbling block.

The spider in this particular story stops spinning her web and invites a passing fly to come and take a rest in its sticky strands.  The fly isn't daft; he knows what that means but the spider says that she's off for a little scurry and the fly will be perfectly safe.

When the bird sees the spider, she stops tidying her nest and, thinking the spider will make a tasty snack, invites her to rest in its twiggy interior.  The spider isn't daft; she knows what an invitation like that means coming from a bird, but the bird says that she's off for a little flutter and that the spider would be perfectly safe.

And so on.  Until we hit the top of the food chain and a lovely, wry smile spreads across your face.  Who says a 4 year old can't understand irony?

''Time For Dinner'' is a nice, quick little read, though to be truthful, I think you'll find that for most 4 year olds, it probably raises more questions than it answers, but with that said, it's a nice way to lead into a discussion as to the ins and outs of the food-chain, what we see in the supermarket on the shelves and where it comes from (and in our case, this also led on to why some of the children in my daughter's pre-school class don't eat meat or can't eat dairy, etc.).  So we enjoyed it very much because as I mentioned, the story itself is probably only a four minute read which still gave us time for the question and answer session afterwards.

Beautifully, colourfully and imaginatively illustrated, I heartily recommend ''Time for Dinner'' because it's very gentle, rather fun and includes all of the characters that your little one will see every day (fly, spider, bird, cat, dog) and in some cases, all in the same house!

For further reading and whilst we are on the subject, why not take a look at [[There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly by Simms Taback]] - if you're 35 or above, you'll remember the song from when you were a kid.  In our house, our preference is for the sing-song variety of rhyming verse.  [[How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? by Jane Yolen]] and the particularly charming [[Oliver Who Would Not Sleep by Mara Bergman and Nick Maland]] are especially fine examples.

Lastly, we at Bookbag would like to extend our thanks to the generous boys and girls at Top That! Publishing for sending us this copy to review.

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