View source for Line Up, Please! by Tomoko Ohmura

{{infobox2
|title=Line Up, Please!
|author=Tomoko Ohmura
|reviewer=Ruth Ng
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=4
|buy=Maybe
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=9781877579981
|pages=40
|publisher=Gecko Press
|date=October 2014
|aznuk=1877579998
|aznus=187757998X
|cover=1877579998 
|summary=An unusual story that's chock-full of animals!  It's worth borrowing to try it out, then see if you need your own copy at home!
}}
I was intrigued by the beginning of this book, which starts with a sign declaring that 'the line starts here' and below that is a frog, labelled as being a from, and he also has a number 50 beneath him.  What is going on?  Turning the page we see that there is a queue of animals, and that each animal is named and numbered, with the numbers decreasing from 50 downwards.  From the start this is the perfect book for a child obsessed with all the different animal species you can name.  There's everything in this queue from moles and guinea pigs to an armadillo, a sloth and a wombat!

I always like a story that calls upon my 'silly voices' skills, however this one was definitely a challenge because although not every animal makes a comment about being in the line or waiting or wondering what's going on, most of them do.  It's quite a challenge trying to come up with so many different voices, and although some come naturally I did find myself looking at the Tapir and drawing a blank!  Anyway, there's plenty going on in the line that you can talk about without making silly voices if you don't want to.  Even just counting the numbers backwards can be fun, and naming all the different animals too.  The queue has it's own usual queuing etiquette dilemmas going on, of some people leaving big gaps, and others pushing far too close.  There are predators next to their prey, and a panda who starts a game of 'word chain' which is fun to explain and, of course, gives you a fun game you can play in the car in the future, if your children can manage the spelling.

I did, personally, find myself growing a little tired of the very, very long line.  There were just so many animals!  The reveal at the end is on an open page spread, and shows that all the animals have been queuing on top of a whale, ready for a sort of roller-coaster ride on his back.  It's quite odd, but rather fun!  I enjoyed the quirky nature of the story, but I felt it didn't have enough to interest me in coming back to read it again.  My older daughter who is almost eight enjoyed seeing what all the animals were doing, reading it to herself but again she didn't pick it up twice.  Meanwhile, however, it was discovered on the pile by my two year old boy who spent a happy (and quiet!) ten minutes looking at all the animals by himself before dinner.  For that peaceful moment alone I gave it an extra half star that it might not have otherwise earned!

The illustrations are nicely done, nothing fancy but real enough animals that they are recognisable and not overly cartoon-ish. I found it interesting in that it uses quite large numbers, and counts down rather than up.  I also liked the huge range of animals included.  But, for me, the story was a little bit too thin on the ground.  Try it out from the library first, and then if your child goes crazy for it, grab yourself a copy to keep!

For more basic counting and animals try [[The Selfish Crocodile Counting Book by Faustin Charles and Michael Terry]] or you might also enjoy [[What can you Stack on the Back of a Yak? by Alison Green and Adam Stower]] and [[Sparky! by Jenny Offill and Chris Appelhans]].

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