Oi Duck-billed Platypus!

The latest book in the 'Oi Frog!' series, Oi Duck-billed Platypus was never going to disappoint. My class of year 1's thoroughly enjoyed this rhyming romp. And in their words 'Kes Gray is very good at rhyming, he's funny!'. The story holds direct links to the previous three books and if you haven't read those, you might end up finding it difficult to get into at first, as the humorous conversation between the frog, cat and the dog at the beginning comes across as a bit of a 'private joke' that you really can't wait to be let in on. This new vibrant addition to the picture book series seems to acknowledge the fact that after four instalments, it is becoming almost impossible to continue to generate witty rhymes with the names of different animals. And so, in this book Gray turns frogs' attentions to the 'first names' of the animals impatiently waiting to find out what they should sit on. The pace of the story picks up from here and once again frog begins to reel off wacky rhymes for each of the animals, a feat that we found nearly impossible between both the teachers and children at my school. This didn't mean we didn't enjoy trying and have a good giggle at what we couldn't come up with! I love the brightly coloured backgrounds, a different colour given to each page which stand out and would appeal to any early reader at first sight. The images are detailed and give the children lots to explore as well as clues to help work out some of those trickier phonetically decodable words. As early as EYFS children are expected to be able to continue a rhyming string, what a great place to start with a book that will motivate and enthuse them to enjoy rhyming and looking at the sounds in words. Picture book / Ages 4+ / Reviewed by Nikki Stiles, teacher.

Suggested Reading Age 5+