Shona Innes (text) Irisz Agocs (illustrations), The Playground is Like the Jungle (A Big Hug Book), Five Mile Press, January 2015, $14.95, 32pp., ISBN 978 176006 4150
This is one of a series of three books written to support positive interventions in early childhood behaviours. As such it has a rather dogged and prescriptive approach and falls below the uplifting tenor of a book written by a dedicated and imaginative children’s author.
The jungle is a curious mix of a world of animals who certainly seem ill at ease in one another’s company. It feels very much like a story that needs adult clarification, rather than one to be read by a child for the pure joy.
reviewed by Chris Dayman