Baboon in a balloon by Patrick Guest

Lots of fun will be had reading this book about the escapades of a baboon. He is in an air balloon and waving to the crowd of onlookers, when he loses his hat. He goes after it, activating the jet pack on his back. All seems perfect but the batteries are flat. Again he is in a precarious position, and the animals on the ground watch with interest, wondering when he will hit the ground. But no, he falls into a circus and grabs the trapeze. Thank goodness, we all say, he is saved again. But no, a clown stuffs him into the cannon, upside down. When the cannon is fired he flies in the air, landing in a car. He drives off, and nearing a cliff, a passing flamingo poops in his face. Unable to see he plunges over the cliff, only to be saved by a passing boat. But a shark begins to eat the boat, and so on.

Kids will love the journey taken by the baboon. All sorts of things hinder his journey but something always happens to save him, which then leads to another predicament.

Wonderfully bright, vivacious illustrations accompany the witty text. These show the baboon and the other animals in cartoon like images, as each page follows his trail. Lovely large printed words like BOOM, and OOPs, and BOO, YEEHAARR and YYAY are on each page and kids will love calling them out when they see them, their  actions mimicking what is going on on each page. Kids will love predicting the rhyming word in each rhyming stanza, and enjoy the large number of animals offered.

Themes: Adventure, Journey, Humour, Rhyming text, Hazards.

Fran Knight