Children's Books: Follow that camel!
From the The Northern Echo, first published Tuesday 13th Jun 2006.
SOPHIE AND THE ALBINO CAMEL by Stephen Davies (Andersen Press, £4.99): CHILDREN love adventure stories and they don't come much more exciting than this unusual short novel.
Set in the West African country of Burkino Faso, it features a camel chase through the Sahara Desert, poisonous snakes, evil djinn and an encounter with a colourful and deadly bandit! The heroine is Sophie, an English girl living in the area with her biologist father, who meets a boy from a tribe of story tellers, and gets whisked away on a hair-raising journey to meet his family. The author, who lives in the country himself among local herders, writes in a wonderfully fast moving and humorous style which keeps the reader turning the page and also interprets many aspects of African culture in a fascinating and entertaining way. (Age 7-9)
WIGGLE by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Scott Menchin (Walker Books, £5.99)
A DEADPAN dog is the hero of this picture book full of laughs about the consequences of wriggling through breakfast, dressing and into the world of imagination: wriggling like a crocodile, a bee or on the moon. It's all written in verse with simple, cartoon-like pictures and lots to giggle about - as well as joining in the wiggly action! (Age 2 - 4)
CHOCOLATE MOUSSE FOR GREEDY GOOSE by Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharratt (Macmillan, £9.99)
HERE'S a deliciously funny rhyming romp through an animal mealtime. Each page features a simple question about food, written to rhyme with the name of a different animal (" 'What can I smell?' asks shy Gazelle. 'Macaroni' says Shetland Pony") with lots of silly jokes about naughty behaviour and bad table manners. The pictures are big, colourful and absolutely delightful. Real fun to read aloud. (Age 2-4)
TRANSFORM! How Everyday Things are Made by Bill Slavin (Oxford £14.99)
FOOTBALLS, CDs and chewing gum, surfboards, pet food, cola, jeans and trainers ... These are some of the familiar things you can learn about in this fascinating manual. Each production process is simply described with big diagrams and small, accessible captions. Guaranteed to make readers view the man-made world around them with different eyes! (Age 8+)
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