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, 10:17, 7 March 2017Created page with "{{infobox |title=Life on Earth: Farm: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps! |author=Heather Alexander and Andres Lozano |reviewer=John Lloyd |genre=Children's Non-Fiction |sum..."
{{infobox
|title=Life on Earth: Farm: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps!
|author=Heather Alexander and Andres Lozano
|reviewer=John Lloyd
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=A little wishy-washy in providing bland answers to questions relating to a fictional side of the subject, this book still really opens the world of a working farm up for a young pupil.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=16
|publisher=Wide Eyed Editions
|date=March 2017
|isbn=9781847808998
|website=http://heatheralexanderbooks.com/books/
|video=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847808999</amazonuk>
}}
I'm sure I was full of questions when I was a nipper – which means I was too full of questions. Parents just don't need to be deflecting questions all the time, do they? Living on the edge of a village in the middle of nowhere as I did, I knew quite a lot about farms and farming – that different animals gave different results, that different vehicles meant different things and that the crops behind our house changed. But for the inner city child, there is a chance they have never met a cow or seen a silo. This colourful book, bright in both senses of the word, will allow the very young reader the opportunity of their own fantasy trip to the working countryside.
That is a little bit where the book falls down, for me – the fantasy element. In being presented purely in question and answer, the answers too often referred to a fictional farm. 'What is the tractor doing?' – the author has had to decide. 'What does the farm stand sell? – likewise. 'What is inside the fence? – a generic answer to a generic question, regarding a generic farm.
So while this isn't nearly as great as I found the companion volume on [[Life on Earth: Human Body: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps! by Heather Alexander and Andres Lozano|the Human Body]] to be, it is still pretty cool. There are just so many facts here, and if the page doesn't answer them that's because a lot are printed on (or sometimes even underneath) flaps for you to lift, and to gain an extra layer. Once more the build quality is great – some flaps were most reluctant to pop out, especially those attached to the really sturdy covers. And before too long we have left the bland, Any Farm, Fictionland, behind, and hit the core of the book – the sciency bits, such as what is wool, why would farmers appreciate ladybirds, and how much milking does each cow take (answer – about 340 squirts, apparently, which was news to me indeed).
Some questions still made me grimace – how is ice-cream flavoured, what is a quad bike, what has made that cobweb – but there still remains a lot here that will be an introduction for the target audience to a much-needed topic. While the numbers of schoolchildren in my rural position dwindle, as do farms themselves, primers like this will only become more useful. And a book such as this, with a great interactive format, and a host of things to learn and relearn, is very useful indeed.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
[[Pairs in the Garden by Smriti Prasadam-Halls and Lorna Scobie]] is of course regarding wildlife even closer to home, and takes its flaps as the impetus for fun as well as learning for a very young audience.
{{amazontext|amazon=1847808999}}
{{amazonUStext|amazon=1847808999}}
{{commenthead}}
[[Category:Heather Alexander]]
[[Category:Andres Lozano]]
[[Category:Emerging Readers]]
[[Category:Confident Readers]]
|title=Life on Earth: Farm: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps!
|author=Heather Alexander and Andres Lozano
|reviewer=John Lloyd
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=A little wishy-washy in providing bland answers to questions relating to a fictional side of the subject, this book still really opens the world of a working farm up for a young pupil.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=16
|publisher=Wide Eyed Editions
|date=March 2017
|isbn=9781847808998
|website=http://heatheralexanderbooks.com/books/
|video=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847808999</amazonuk>
}}
I'm sure I was full of questions when I was a nipper – which means I was too full of questions. Parents just don't need to be deflecting questions all the time, do they? Living on the edge of a village in the middle of nowhere as I did, I knew quite a lot about farms and farming – that different animals gave different results, that different vehicles meant different things and that the crops behind our house changed. But for the inner city child, there is a chance they have never met a cow or seen a silo. This colourful book, bright in both senses of the word, will allow the very young reader the opportunity of their own fantasy trip to the working countryside.
That is a little bit where the book falls down, for me – the fantasy element. In being presented purely in question and answer, the answers too often referred to a fictional farm. 'What is the tractor doing?' – the author has had to decide. 'What does the farm stand sell? – likewise. 'What is inside the fence? – a generic answer to a generic question, regarding a generic farm.
So while this isn't nearly as great as I found the companion volume on [[Life on Earth: Human Body: With 100 Questions and 70 Lift-flaps! by Heather Alexander and Andres Lozano|the Human Body]] to be, it is still pretty cool. There are just so many facts here, and if the page doesn't answer them that's because a lot are printed on (or sometimes even underneath) flaps for you to lift, and to gain an extra layer. Once more the build quality is great – some flaps were most reluctant to pop out, especially those attached to the really sturdy covers. And before too long we have left the bland, Any Farm, Fictionland, behind, and hit the core of the book – the sciency bits, such as what is wool, why would farmers appreciate ladybirds, and how much milking does each cow take (answer – about 340 squirts, apparently, which was news to me indeed).
Some questions still made me grimace – how is ice-cream flavoured, what is a quad bike, what has made that cobweb – but there still remains a lot here that will be an introduction for the target audience to a much-needed topic. While the numbers of schoolchildren in my rural position dwindle, as do farms themselves, primers like this will only become more useful. And a book such as this, with a great interactive format, and a host of things to learn and relearn, is very useful indeed.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
[[Pairs in the Garden by Smriti Prasadam-Halls and Lorna Scobie]] is of course regarding wildlife even closer to home, and takes its flaps as the impetus for fun as well as learning for a very young audience.
{{amazontext|amazon=1847808999}}
{{amazonUStext|amazon=1847808999}}
{{commenthead}}
[[Category:Heather Alexander]]
[[Category:Andres Lozano]]
[[Category:Emerging Readers]]
[[Category:Confident Readers]]
