New books for young readers

Press, 21 August 1984, Page 22

New books for young readers

Country children will find many familiar friends in “The Young New Zealander’s First Book of Farm Animals,” produced in Christchurch by Kowhai Publishing, Ltd ($7.99). Animals such as sheep, cows, pigs and horses appear in large colour photographs. In many cases the young are shown with adult animals — chickens alongside a hen and rooster, and lambs with fully grown sheep. The book is uncluttered with words as each picture is explained in only a single sentence. The book also features animals kept as pets in the city, such as dogs, cats and rabbits. The farm animal book and its companion volume, “The Young New Zealander’s First Book of ABC,” are suitable for reading to infants and as a first reader for slightly older children. The ABC book has one or two pictures for each letter of the alphabet. The pictures are clear and easily identifiable by the youngest reader. In a first for a book of this type, Maori equivalents appear under the English words translated by Hineani Melbourne. Warren Jacobs has followed no apparent pat-

tern to the subject matter for the various letters he describes — for example, F shows a fem and a fire engine, and H shows a horse and a helicopter. Three exciting books for pre-schoolers and new readers have been published by Collins. They are the Going Places Play Books “Shopping,” “The Farm,” and “The Park ” These books open into a stand-out three dimensional scene depicting their subject When opened in this way children can play with them using toy animals, cars or figures. "Shopping” offers children a trip along a street of shops like the bakery, pet shop, book shop, toy shop and cafe. In "The Farm,” the reader sees sheep in paddocks, pigs in a pen, a farmer in the fields, cows being milked and tats of other farm activities. “The Park” has a fun fair flavour, with a merry-go-round and band as well as the park activities more usual in New Zealand, such as picnicking and kite ingThese Going Places Playbooks should provide many hours of fun both as a play prop and for young readers. —Vicky Lucas