Who is in the Egg? Alexandra Milton

Kate Greenaway and Alexandra Milton have created some absolutely gorgeous illustrations to answer the titular question as she explores what is going to emerge from the nest in the tree; from the bright, white egg in the sticky, muddy swamp; from that which is waiting in the tunnel, underground and from the almost sand covered one on the beach.

Then what about that pear-shaped egg on a pair of feet that stand in the freezing snow and ice – or, moving to a hot sandy desert location, what could possibly come out of the simply massive egg, waiting there?

In addition to delighting in the stunning art portrayals of the infants and parents in their natural habitats, readers can learn some interesting facts in the brief paragraph that accompanies each animal featured.

The front endpaper depicts a sequence of eggs from smallest to largest for readers to try and match with the illustrations on the pages while the final endpapers show the relative size of the six animal’s eggs from the smallest platypus to largest ostrich.

Quite simply, beautiful through and through.

There’s a Crocodile in the House Paul Cookson, illustrated by Liz Million

It’s great to see this book by performance poet Paul Cookson and it’s full of zany offerings to delight both adult readers aloud and primary school age readers.

Lots of the poems are absolute musts for classroom audience participation. Take the very first poem that gives the book its title; it simply bounces along and with children chanting each line after you, it becomes a double bounce every time.

Then what about “the toilet seat has teeth”! What fun to have a whole class of 6/7 year olds yelling ‘OW!’ and bouncing up off their seats whenever you read that line (nine times by my reckoning).

Paul’s giggle-inducing book is fun of zany things, for not only is there a croc. but there are also such creatures The T-Rex That Rocks, The Warty Hog and The Porky Pine.

Not forgetting the riot-rousing Bottoms! – “Bottoms that are twitching / Bottoms that are itching / Bottoms that are slipping / Bottoms that are tipping / Wobble Bottoms / Jelly bottoms / Wriggle bottoms / Smelly bottoms’.

How such a plethora of bottoms wriggled their way into Paul’s hilarious collection is his only to know. What this erstwhile infant teacher and reviewer knows though is that your class will be reduced to hysterics.

I wouldn’t mind betting that Liz Millions had a good giggle creating the smashing illustrations for this cracking book.

The Magic of Mums Justin Coe, illustrated by Steve Wells

With Mother’s Day coming up on Sunday 22nd March, this is the ideal time to grab a copy of this super compilation celebrating mums of all kinds, another terrific read aloud.

I’m pretty sure young readers will find their own particular special mother figure lurking somewhere within its covers – and to make life easier, Justin has penned a poem (or two or even three) for every letter of the alphabet.

So if you think your mum is let’s say, an Anxious Mum, there’s a poem ready and waiting; there’s also Action Mum and Adoptive Mum representing A.

Everyone knows how hard their mum works so there’s a One-Hundred-miles-an-Hour Mother as well as a special tribute to a Diamond Mum.

For me the Dad-Mum is also a true diamond: ‘I know I do not have your mother’s magic / I just cook the recipes / that keep her in our memories / and try to keep the house / as she would have it. / And because your mum / could never bear / to see you sad / I do my best to love you / twice as much / for both of us / be both / your mum and dad.’

Not all the mums featured are of the human-kind however; there’s Earth Mother, Queen-Bee Mum and the enormously moving Tree Mum too.

Steve Wells captures the spirit of every mum he’s illustrated (and that’s most of them) in his line drawings.

Altogether a super celebration of motherhood in all its shapes and forms for individual reading, or even better, reading aloud to that certain awesome mum, or perhaps Two Mums, for as a little girl narrator of Justin’s poem of that name says, ‘ I have two mums to love me / so there’s two mums I love’.