Playful Poppy by Susannah McFarlane

Ill. by Lachlan Creagh. Scholastic, 2012. ISBN 978 1 74283 050 6.
Organised Oliver by Susannah McFarlane
Ill. by Lachlan Creagh. Scholastic, 2012. ISBN 978 174283 049 0
(Ages 4+)Little Mates series. Alphabet books, Australian animals.
Poppy the platypus and her four friends, each named, Pete, Penny, Patrick and Piper all spend their time lazing by the pond, but not Poppy, she likes to spend her time pretending. All the things she likes start with 'p', so the young reader and listener can have a great time thinking up more 'p' words to include in the story as well as using the illustrations to predict the 'p' word on the page. The party at the end is full of 'p' things to do: pin the tail on the potoroo, pass the parcel and so on, inviting the readers again to work out how many 'p' words they can think of. This is yet another in the series of Little Mates, offering a little, hand sized book of simple stories of Australian animals from A to Z.
Organised Oliver is another in the series, with Oliver Octopus as the main character. Ordering objects is his passion and he ropes in his friends, Oona, Orlando, Oscar and Olivia to help with with this immense task.
Small children will love this series of Australian animals, and join in with finding things which begin with the nominated letter as well as follow the bright illustrations with glee.
Fran Knight