Wednesday, September 9, 2020

The Curious Ah-Chew by Sarah Grundy illustrated by Ali Teo and John Reilly


A glimpse of a new creature appears under a tree in the forest. Hedgehog is curious - perhaps those are the feet of a goose that he can see. Goose comes for a look. Goose is curious. She spies some ears. Perhaps this sleeping creature is a rabbit. Rabbit is curious. This time our group of animals spy a thick woolly coat. Could this be a lamb or a goat. Then the creature wakes up:

We don't have hedgehogs here in Australia but they do in New Zealand. This book comes from Scholastic New Zealand and it was published in 2017 and luckily it is still in print because this is a perfect book to link with our 2020 CBCA slogan:

Curious Creatures, Wild Minds

This title is available from The Story Box Library. Click here to see more images from the book. This book is told in rhyme and, even though many pictures book authors seem to love to use rhyme, quite often this doesn't work. The rhythm is lost or the lines don't scan well. I am happy to say the rhyme here does work very well and so this book makes for a terrific read aloud for your youngest children in Kindergarten up to Year 2. The Curious Ar-Chew won the Storylines Joy Cowley Award in 2016. Read more about the author and illustrators here. In this post Ali and John talk about their processes used for illustrating this book.

"The tale begins at the foot of a tree

with a hollow so narrow it was tricky to see.

Up to the tree crept a prickly critter,

snuffling for snails in the damp leaf litter."

This is a hilarious romp through the jungle which encourages children to engage with and challenge the story as it is told. Book Sellers NZ

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