Rhiân Williams (text) and Heather Potter & Mark Jackson (illustrators), One little dung beetle, Wild Dog Books, March 2024, 32 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781742036656
Although it doesn’t say so anywhere in the text of the book, the beetles featured in the pages of this counting book are all Australian, according to one of the expert blurbs on the back cover. The endpapers show a selection of beetles of various colours, shapes and sizes, some of which are then featured in the following counting pages.
The rhyming text begins with ‘one little dung beetle’ and continues to ‘ten feather horned beetles’ before stating ‘let’s stop counting before there’s more’. This double-page spread has yet more beetles surrounding the text before the final two pages which have further information about the ten beetles featured on the counting pages.
The rhyming text mainly scans well, and the full double-page illustrations are beautiful. There are details in the pictures which are not mentioned in the words but provide plenty of additional material for the keen reader to spot.
This is a very good information picture book for young readers with both numbers and beetle information. And the small cut-out dog on the title pages of Wild Dog books is very cute!
Reviewed by Lynne Babbage
