Move that mountain by Kate & Jol Temple and Terri Rose Baynton

A very clever back to front book which reads one way, first page to the last, and quite differently when read from the back to the front, this is a worthy successor to an earlier book, Room on our rock (2018). Room on our rock showed what happens when people reject others wanting to find refuge and when the book is read from the back, a welcome is given to those seeking shelter. So too with Move that mountain. Read in the usual way, the story ends with the puffins giving up trying to move mountains. But reread the other way, the puffins unite to form strength enough to move the whale from the beach. The problem is immense but together the puffins are able to achieve the seemingly impossible.

Told in verse form, the story can be read aloud with great effect, children predicting what the rhyming word will be, and easy enough to learn lines to read along with the teacher or adult reader. Kids will love the way the same words can mean something quite different, depending on how they are read and in what context, and rejoice at the combined strength moving the whale at the end (beginning)

The lovely watercolour illustrations will draw the children’s eyes to the detail of the animals shown and the background against what they are placed, impelling them to o come research about the place these animal live. The swirling endpapers reprise the movement of the sea and the lines on the puffins and the whale, giving a continuity of line throughout the book.

Children will be able to see that together they have a voice, that they can do something momentous by working together. Climate change is at the fore of many children’s thoughts at the moment and this book promotes a team effort to solve one of the world’s  pressing problems.

Themes: Climate change, Creating change, Compassion, Team work, Problem solving, Kindness, Resilience, Determination.

Fran Knight