By: Denise Popat
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A series of short stories written about minibeasts for young children and self-readers.
Do you know the minibeasts in your garden? Enjoy listening and reading about their adventures and learn some fun facts about each minibeast. Can you learn the Beetlebop with Bertie Beetle? Or follow the figure-of-eight dance with Belinda Buzz Bee and Walter? Or can you follow Sydney Snail and Eva’s trail around the garden? What about reading how Willie Waspie catches the robbers and saves the day?
The author lives in Stockport, Cheshire. A grandmother and a retired nursery/infant and special needs teacher, she was inspired to write her own stories for young readers. She also hopes her stories will be useful to teachers and schools when introducing the minibeast theme.
A lovely selection of short stories with great characters, 100% recommend! :-)
Beautifully presented lovely stories for children who can read themselves or like to listen to stories. The beauty of this book is its educational approach. Each story builds a child's knowledge. Well done! Our granddaughter very much enjoys this book and remembers some facts. Lovely holiday reading.
My six year old loves these short stories. The characters are so lovable and the stories mix facts with fiction. A must buy for any little adventurers.
What a fantastic book! My grand daughter loved it. Brilliant stories, educational and fantastic pictures. It is different from current books on the market! A must for every child. Won’t disappoint!
Great stories, makes learning interesting for all children of any age. Lovely illustrations and beautifully written. Bought the hard copies as nice presents, the children will love and can keep reading.
Engaging stories with beautiful illustrations. Bought copies for children who will use these to read, learn and love books.
Really amazing book well written with lovely illustrations the little ones who read it thoroughly enjoyed it, especially as the characters are so lifelike and friendly. Am getting more copies for the other little kids I know.
What a wonderful, thoughtful book on minibeasts. This arrived today and I read with my 5 year old cover to cover. Fun stories, and super facts all about the minibeast characters. We then went to the garden to look for some minibeasts and my daughter relayed some of the facts she had learned when we found snails and spiders!! Really enjoyable book and thoroughly recommend for children, especially as they learn about minibeasts in school.
What a fun little book for children! Wonderfully written with beautiful illustrations and loveable characters with adorable names. All the little ones who read the book thoroughly enjoyed it, and wanted to look for the little mini beasts in their gardens and in the park. Perfect way to introduce little ones to the outdoors. I would thoroughly recommend it especially in nursery schools as well.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and feel it fulfils a need, many schools have “Forest School sessions and I am sure the teachers of these groups will welcome it and find it full of information as well as a captivating read for the children. Like the author, I too worked with special needs children and they as well as mainstream children will love these jolly characters and bright pictures.
I purchased this book for my friends' Grandchildren. What a beautifully written book it is with amazingly enchanting stories. Much loved by the children but also the grown-ups!!
Antenna has reviewed a number of insect-based stories for children all of which have presented a narrative that informed the reader of the important role that insects have and encourage an appreciation of them. This book is slightly different as it uses mini beasts as a vehicle to introduce children to a broader appreciation and understanding of the world around them. Designed to stimulate the senses the stories have been written to help teachers of children with special needs but while this was their initial focus these stories will stimulate any child that hears them. Each story offers opportunities for the reader to involve the children in experiencing various elements of the story and to also physically take part in the action. The stories also have threads of compassion and the importance of helping others running through them. The biology within these stories is sometimes a little hazy but the overall effect is to encourage an appreciation of the natural world in general and minibeasts in particular. For anyone with a theatrical leaning, these offer a platform to vamp them up and generate real excitement. At a time when changing public attitudes to the natural world is vital this book has a serious part to play.
As a teacher and a mum to two young children, we definitely give this book 5 stars. My youngest loves nature and is fascinated by facts so really enjoyed learning some new ones during each short story. One of the stories led to me teaching the frog life cycle and he started drawing frogs and tadpoles. My eldest also enjoyed the stories but understood more of the scientific terminology and was able to explain this to her younger brother. All in all, a really lovely text for introducing mini-beasts to a class or for any young readers at home. Thank you, Denise Popat, I will recommend it to my mummy and teacher friends.
