There's a magpie in my soup by Sean Farrar

Ill. by Pat Kan. Big Sky Publishing. ISBN 9781925275681
(Age: 4-8) Recommended. There's a magpie in my soup is a zany, fun rhyming story from debut author Sean Farrar. With the exception of the porcupine in bed, all the creatures featured are Australian animals. This read-aloud picture book will engage children in guessing the rhyming words and laugh at the silly situations they encounter - the snake on the cake and the cockatoo in the loo.
In a two-page spread, we are introduced to the animal, the object in rhyme and then the vivid illustrations delightfully show the interaction. Pat Kan's use of watercolour wash, pen and ink, cross hatching and action lines are whimsical and animated. The cute platypus with the fluttering eyelashes swims backstroke in the milk trying to make butter! There's a very large grey and yellow cockatoo with crazy tongue emerging from the loo, who's always asking for food!
Share this with an Early Years class, at a preschool or kindergarten and learners will enjoy engaging with rollicking rhymes. This picture book is a great springboard in to writing rhyming poems and developing their own class anthology.
Rhyllis Bignell