Wonderful Wildlife 123

POD has done brilliantly with learning to count. She’s cracked it to 11 and sometimes she’ll reach 20 albeit without all the numbers. She’s not learnt about values yet so if you ask her how many legs she has, she may still respond with “3 or 4”!

Wonderful Wildlife 123 is a fabulous book designed to teach children to count up to 20. Not only that, everyone in this fun-filled gem is making mischief! We’ve read it every night for two weeks, POD loves it.

It kicks off with “1 lonely badger”, “2 helpful whales” and “3 friendly seabirds singing songs and telling tales”. If you ask POD what the birds are doing, she’ll often finish the sentence for you. With a coy grin of course! We’re then presented with “4 froggy eyes” and “5 buzzy flies”.

The illustrations surrounding “6 little tadpoles watch their mummies with surprise” has taught POD about tadpoles and frogs. And that frogs catch flies with their tongues. She’s adopted an interesting impression of a frog catching a fly.

After we’ve seen “7 hungry birds” and “8 worms that wiggle”, “9 hyenas see a sight that makes them laugh and giggle” follows. POD finds this page entertaining given a bird is attempting to pull a worm out of the ground.

We then reach POD’s favourite section of the book “10 fearful fruitbats” and “11 worried rats” leads nicely into “12 lazy meerkats using rats and bats as mats”. We probably spend more time on the meerkat pages than we do any other. POD likes to identify what animal each meerkat is lying on – whether a bat or a rat.

The conversation goes like this “whatsatt?” bat, “whatsatt?” rat, “whatsatt?” bat, “whasatt?” rat, “whatsatt?” bat, “whatsatt?” rat, “whatsatt?” bat, “whatsatt?” rat, “whatsatt?” bat, “whatsatt?” rat, “whatsatt?” bat, “whatsatt?” rat”.

Following the hilarity of the meerkats, we reach “13 ants encourage 14 naughty moths”. When we read “15 holes in Mrs Panda’s tablecloth”, there is a gasp of horror as POD places her hand over her mouth. She’s not sure about “16 Bigfoot footprints” which is then followed by “17 Yeti tracks” and “18 cheeky chipmunks chucking snowballs at their backs”.

POD loves the “19 wise old owls” particularly those hiding in a tree and there’s much excitement when we reach “20 different dinosaurs”. POD believes at least 3 of them belong to her saying “my dine-saw” as she points to them. She also identifies the type of dinosaur – as in large, small, spikey or smiley.

Wonderful Wildlife 123 is such a great book, it reads really well and it’s beautifully illustrated. If you’re looking for a fun counting book, I’d recommend it as an essential for your toddler’s bookshelf.

Charles Fuge is an award-winning author and illustrator, best known for the Little Wombat series, Bush Vark’s Day Out and many more family favourites.

Wonderful Wildlife 123 is available from Amazon, currently priced £5.82 (RRP £5.99).

Disclaimer: As one of Parragon’s Book Buddies we were provided with a copy of Wonderful Wildlife 123 for the purpose of this review. Opinions are our own.