Animal Surprises - Hardcover

We absolutely loved this book. I read it with my son and he thought it was amazing. He loves finding out about different animals and this book was perfect for him. The illustrations are amazing. So vivid! The rhyming text made the book easy to read and the continuing 'Surprises' were great fun. There are fun things to discuss and do with your child including details to help find minibeasts and a maze to follow at the end of the book. This book is a great conversation starter about animals of all shapes and sizes. A fantastic book with a few words, fantastic illustrations and a lot to spark imaginations. --Amy via Toppsta

This is a gorgeous book and a delight to share. The illustrations are amazingly detailed and just stunningly accurate. We adored the way in which the text surrounds the illustrations and the repeated 'surprises' in the story. It gave us such a lot to discuss together. There are additional information sheets about the animals if you search for the book on the internet, which are a bit more in depth and help to explain a bit more about the animals (we're taking our copy to the zoo so we can find some of the animals there!) --Ashbeee via Toppsta

Animal Surprises is a stunning addition to children's non-fiction books. It is richly illustrated by Abbie Cameron whose use of colour and texture really helps to bring the animals alive on the page. The aim of Animal Surprises is to showcase the unusual and the unfamiliar as well as more well-known animals and this is summed up by the book's refrain, "Creatures of all shapes and sizes, some you'll know and some... surprises!" Nicola Davies's rhyming text is great fun to read aloud. Her language choices are really expressive and will help to expand your child's vocabulary. For example, animals are described as scaly, curly whirly and squat. Minibeasts squirm and squiggle. Bats have flapping, gliding, zooming wings. Davies has a degree in zoology and so her text contains specialist vocabulary too. I had to look up what was meant by dolphins' flukes. The book has been produced to a very high standard by the publishers, Graffeg. The paper is of a lovely quality and the book is gloriously saturated with colour. I really like the variety in page layout too and the creative interplay between the text and the illustrations. The book ends with a match the tail to the animal puzzle and there's an additional interactive element on the minibeast page too. Oh and if, like me, your knowledge of zoology is somewhat lacking, Graffeg have produced a very handy guide to all the animals in the book that you can download from their website. (I had envisaged frantic research on my part before sharing the book with my son!) There are two more books in the series and we definitely want to read them too - they look just as brilliant. --Sam's momma via Toppsta

Discover the delights of nature with zoologist, poet and top children's book author, Nicola Davies. Follow her young adventurer as she treks through the jungle, dives deep down into the sea and climbs high up into the trees. Animal Surprises features animals big, small, wide and tall. The end of the book features a puzzle for young animal lovers to complete.