Hunt the Ladybird

What the ladybird heard by Julia Donaldson illustrated by Lydia Monks

A book by the Gruffalo author, how could you go wrong!

There's an excellent story-line, with the little ladybird "who never before had said a word" organizing the animals on the farm to foil the plot of the two bad men to steal the "fine prize cow".

As you'd expect from Julia Donaldson, the story has good rhythm and some rhyme elements, and lots of animal noises for the kids to chime in with; though not much in the way of vocabulary extension.

But it's the pictures that steal the show - from the exciting sparkly yellow cover onwards.

Lydia Monks collage-style illustrations are full of character and appeal (even the baddies have their own sneaky charm), and offer different perspectives on the story - keeping up the interest levels.

The little glittery ladybird appears on every page, except the endpapers [we've looked! - at one stage, I was tempted to get a ladybird and stick it on, so we could just shut the book]; giving lots of opportunity for playing 'hunt the ladybird'

Although Mitchell enjoyed it one-on-one, he found hunting the ladybird to be the most exciting element; so I was a bit dubious over whether it would work as a read-aloud to a group of kids (since the ladybird is too small to see at a distance).

But it was brilliant.

In a big group the animal sounds "the cow said Moo and the hen said Cluck..." worked the best, with the kids joining in with the sounds, and guessing which ones would be different during the raid "at the dead of night".

Interestingly, the use of the map by the baddies, sparked an interest with our 4 year old boys in map making to find pirate treasure - I really didn't see that one coming!