I am a total book worm and have been for as long as I can remember, I even joined a book club earlier this year just so I could discuss the books I read with like minded people. So when the boys started to show an interest in reading too I was delighted. I’ve read to them since they were tiny but it’s lovely seeing them reach for a book to read themselves or asking for me to read specific books to them at night out of choice and not as a chore or as part of their homework. So as a family of book worms we are always on the look out for new books and authors to explore together and this week we were sent a copy of the Sounds of the Forest book written by Miri Leshem-Pelly, produced by Halilit.
The Sounds of the Forest book is a small hardback book suitable for children aged 2-7. It tells the story of a baby owl and it’s life in the forest as well as introducing a number of different animals along the way. The story is written in a rhyming manner that children will enjoy and the repetitive line of “Mommy, mommy, is that you?” is sure to encourage the child to join in too.
This isn’t just another book about animals though, this one is unique in the way that as well as getting a hard back copy of the book you also get an owl whistle with it. This can be used by the child to re create the hooting of the owl at certain points in the book which not only engages them with the story but also introduces them to the idea of music making.
The owl whistle can also be used to create some of the other noises such as the tap tap tap of the woodpecker by carefully tapping the side of the whistle, a really lovely idea for making story time more fun and creative.
When the book first arrived I thought it might be a bit too young for the tiddler who is 6 but he couldn’t wait to get his hands on it and immediately wanted to try out the whistle. So although I would say this is the ideal book for those aged 2-4 it can, and will, still be enjoyed by those up to 7 too, although maybe for not as long.
We really enjoyed this concept and found both the story and the illustrations beautiful and I would highly recommend it, especially as a Christmas present for pre schoolers at only £12.99 or as a more unusual baby shower gift.
(We were sent a copy of this book in exchange for a review, all opinions are my own).