Animal Noises by Nicola Killen

Animal Noises by Nicola Killen
Buy Animal Noises by Nicola Killen at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Zoe Morris
Summary: A stunningly beautiful and well designed lift the flap book, this would make a wonderful present for a child and their parents.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 10	Date: August 2013
Publisher: Egmont
ISBN: 978-1405262873
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Sometimes a picture book comes along that is so beautiful, it’s almost wasted on slobbering, grubby-fingered toddlers. This is one such book. Animal Noises is one of the prettiest board books I’ve ever seen. It is a lift-the-flap book of, you’ve guess it, sounds made by animals.

Each page starts with the sound and a hint about the animal’s personality – so for example we have

This wise bird goes TWIT TWOO!

Life the flap on the opposite page and, yep your hunch is confirmed. It was an owl, as confirmed by both the printing of the word, and a picture of the bird himself, sitting proudly and quite seriously atop a branch.

One of the nicest things about this book is the way the animals are shown not just standing there, but actually interacting with their natural environment. So the monkey is swinging through the trees, the lion is trekking through the long grass, the bee is heading off, leaving his flowers behind. Something else I thought lovely was the way each facing page has a hint of the animal before you lift the flap – a tail poking out being the most common one – so there are multiple ways to read this book as the child develops, from making the sound to peeking at the edge of the picture before the whole thing is revealed.

This is a really well thought out book. The animals chosen have obvious, identifiable noises so there’s no ambiguity. The flaps are really sturdy and will withstand a lot of opening and shutting and general yanking at, without ripping. The colours are bright and simple, easy for young eyes to focus, and even traditionally scary animals like the lion and the snake somehow look cute here, and are unlikely to lead to nightmares.

This is part of a new series of books, and we also had the chance to flick through Animal Opposites which operates the same lift the flap style to look at pairs of words, and is just as delightful.

These books would make a brilliant 1st or 2nd birthday present for a child, because they’re a little bit special (which the parents will appreciate) and a little bit fun (which said parents AND their kids, will love).

Thanks go to the publishers for sending us these to review.

Things That Go (Baby Can See) by Leonie Lagarde is another board book we'd recommend for this age group.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Animal Noises by Nicola Killen at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Animal Noises by Nicola Killen at Amazon.com.

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