Augustus and his smile by Catherine Rayner
Little Tiger, 2014. ISBN 9781845062835
(Age: Preschool - Yr 2) Augustus the tiger has lost his smile. So,
after doing a huge tigery stretch he sets off to find it. Under
bushes, to the tops of the tallest trees, scaling the crests of the
highest mountains and down to the bottom of the deepest oceans- but
still he could not find his smile. He even pranced and paraded
through the longest desert without success. And then it started to
rain. Augustus danced and raced as the raindrops bounced and flew,
and he splashed in puddles when suddenly . . .
This is an excellent book for young readers, not just because of its
engaging text and illustrations. It is full of movement, textual and
visual, that beg the children to emulate as well as emphasising the
meaning of those common positional prepositions. It also encourages
them to look closely at the pictures because Augustus' face changes
as his quest continues - as does his tail. The pictures in picture
books are not just decorations - they add so much more to the words.
As Augustus learns that he carries his smile with him - it would
come whenever he was happy - readers can also learn this and talk
about the things that make them happy and bring their smile out.
The addition of some important tiger facts at the end is a bonus - a
first step in learning about this amazing, critically endangered
species.
Catherine Rayner spent many hours at the Edinburgh Zoo sketching
tigers so she could get Augustus just right and she has already won
the Kate Greenaway Medal for her work. The UK Daily Telegraph said,
'Catherine Rayner has a marvellous gift for capturing the souls of
animals in a few, rich washes of colour' and this is very evident in
her depiction of Augustus. He is just charming. Such is the power of
this story it has been translated into Albanian, Arabic, Bengali,
Simplified Chinese, Czech, Farsi, French, Haitian-Creole, Hindi,
Irish, Lithuanian, Panjabi, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian,
Slovakian, Somali, Spanish, Turkish, Urdu, Vietnamese and Welsh.
Barbara Braxton