'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.'
- author Jackie French

Wednesday 5 July 2017

Review: Yuck!

What does our baby want for supper?

A wriggly worm tugged out of the lawn? YUCK!
A rotten egg, all stinky and smelly? YUCK!
A spider with eight hairy legs? YUCK!

That's not our baby's supper!

Explore all the very YUCK! things that a baby bird, a baby lizard, a baby owl and a baby toad might like to eat for their supper. Would your baby like to eat these things? YUCK!

This book is so much fun to read out loud, especially if you do it with big, over the top, exuberant expression. Kids as young as two will delight in each and every loud drawn out declaration of YUUUUUCK!

While you could not really say that Yuck! is a beautiful book (I mean look at that wonderfully unappealing cover artwork!) the illustration style completely suits the contents of the story, where small ugly looking baby animals are chomping down on some of the grossest suppers you've ever seen.

It's fantastic to see a picture book that introduces kids to animals and their feeding habits at a really young age, though it is a shame that this perfectly paired story and artwork might be too unattractive to entice readers to actually pick this book up. This is one case where the phrase 'don't judge a book by it's cover' really comes in to play, as this book is truly a hidden gem.

I have read this story with immense delight over and over again to my own children, and more recently to the kids at the library, and they all love it just as much as I do.

Title: Yuck!
Author: Mick Manning
Illustrator: Brita Granstrom
Publisher: Frances Lincoln, $14.99
Publication Date: 2005
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781845074234
For ages: 1+
Type: Picture Book