Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Brave like me - Hippo and Rabbit in three more tales by Jeff Mack

When young children start school they are always keen to begin reading chapter books. We encourage our Kindergarten children to experience as many picture books as possible during their first two terms of school but when they are ready we have a large collection of beginning chapter books which actually contain terrific stories.

Brave like me is one of the simplest little chapter books I have ever read yet it manages to provide a very entertaining and satisfying story told with two voices - Rabbit (the optimist and voice of wisdom) and Hippo (the worrier and scaredy-cat).

This little volume has three chapters presented in just 32 pages using speech bubbles.  In the first story Hippo is afraid of a spider but rabbit carefully removes the little creature and all is well until a bee lands on Rabbit's nose.  Now it is the turn of Hippo to be brave.

In the second story Rabbit has a balloon but Hippo is so afraid it will pop as it grows bigger and bigger.  It does not pop and Hippo walks away with a smile and a gigantic balloon.  Now Rabbit can blow up another balloon and enjoy the pop!

I think the third story is my favourite.  Hippo does not want to take a bath. Rabbit has to use all his powers of persuasion to convince Hippo that taking a bath can be fun!  The final illustration is perfect.

I have discovered our book about Hippo and Rabbit is the second installment so I will need to add the first book to my shopping list.  You can see the inside of this book here.  I know Brave like me will be a popular little book when I share it with our youngest students.

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