Old Mikamba Had a Farm by Rachel Isadora (Putnam Publishing)

We love a neat new spin on anything traditional - particularly when it's as eye-catching as this book. "Old Mikamba Had a Farm" is a fabulous reworking of a well-loved children's nursery rhyme. What would you expect to find on a farm in Africa? No sheep, no cows but a wondrous collection of fabulous animals that Old Mikamba looks after.

Rachel Isadora's treatment of the rhyme is brilliant, and had us giggling out loud as we read it out loud together. Slightly more tongue-twisting than the original as Giraffes bleat, cheetahs growl and elephants trumpet - we had so much fun and even though (technically) you could imagine the book aimed at children younger than 5, Charlotte still had a brilliant time with this one.

Rachel's visual style fits in with the African setting perfectly. Using a combination of painted and paper-crafted art, Mikamba is picked out in glorious African tribal colours and we really loved the newsprint Elephants and Rhinos (Charlotte was trying to read the bits of newsprint, but some were in French so she rapidly came unstuck!)

A beautiful book that's huge fun to read aloud, and an excellent new way of enjoying a classic rhyme. Superb!


Charlotte's best bit: She still loves Giraffes more than any other animal. Bleat bleat!

Daddy's Favourite bit: Beautiful art, a great fun tongue-twisting read-aloud book. Brilliant!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Putnam)