"Have you Heard?" by Hannah Dale (Words and Pictures)

Here's a neat story idea, riffing on the whole "Chicken Licken" story mechanic of Chinese Whispers and rumour...
Hannah Dale's beautiful new picture book "Have you Heard?" brings her glorious watercolour animal illustrations together with a story of a whispered rumour going slightly awry.

The story begins with a tiny mouse, who jumps at the sound of a twig cracking. He suspects that Mr Fox is on the prowl and as he rushes to tell all the other animals, they pass on the message one by one.

As the story gets around, Fox seems more terrible, powerful, speedy and hungry with each retelling - until the animals quake in fright, living in fear of this hungry beast stalking the neighbourhood.

Hannah's paintings are just so beautiful...

Starry night. All is quiet...but not for long!

The story builds to a rather satisfying crescendo, and then a neat twist of an ending that made us smile.

Never trust a mouse to get the story straight!

Pitch perfect rhymes throughout compliment Hannah's glorious illustrations.

Even wise old owl is fooled into thinking Fox is on the prowl!

This is the sort of book I'd always flock to when I was a little one, a lovely animal story with quite a cool twist or two.

Charlotte's best bit: The warm snuggly cuddly ending.

Daddy's favourite bit: A nice twist on the whole "The sky is falling" thing from Chicken Licken, showing kids the power of rumour and hearsay. Awesome illustrations throughout too.

(kindly supplied for review)

"Have you Heard?" by Hannah Dale is out now, published by Words and Pictures.