Title: A Mighty Bitey Creature
Author: Ronda Armitage
Illustrator: Nikki Dyson
Publisher: Walker Books
Genre: Children’s picture book
Book format: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: Shh…there’s something coming! Something MIGHTY, and something BITEY… OUCH! GRAAH! YAHOO! It’s biting everyone’s bottoms…and it might bite YOU!
*Free copy provided by publisher for review…
Review: This is a funny story with some great illustrations. The paperback is around A4 in size although a bit wider and filled with thick glossy and very colourful pages. The story is a good one and very funny, all is quiet in the jungle until…Frog screams because he’s been bitten by something mighty and super-sharp bitey. He decides tell Lion, who’s King of the Jungle because Lion will know what to do.
The whole story relies on repetition and it’s very funny. As Frog rushes to see Lion he bumps into other animals, who all suffer the same thing in turn. Every animal he meets wants to then join Frog in going to see Lion. And when they finally meet Lion, you can guess what happens to him. I won’t reveal the very ending of the story or what seems to be biting everyone as I know it would spoil a funny book. I do like the ending, although to be honest I was expecting it to be more funny or silly. For a kids book with such a build up with all the repetition and silliness I felt the ending was a bit flat. However it’s that repetition that really makes this story work and it’s something I do love in picture books.
The illustrations are brilliant. They are all very colourful and funny. I really like the style of the pictures and couldn’t help but see a bit of similarity between them and a well known animation, given the way the faces are expressed and the way Lion looks on the last page. I think kids would love this book for the pictures alone. They are more detailed than it first appears and there are extra things to spot such as bees and butterflies. It’s also worth going back and looking at the pictures again after reading the book as you might spot something else hidden in the images.
Overall I think this is a very fun book and one lots of kids will enjoy. Although I’d prefer a better ending, perhaps one with a bit of repetition seen throughout the book, it’s still a good ending and the with all the funny pictures and silly repeating story, its a book that kids and maybe a few adults will enjoy looking at.
-Review first appeared online October 2017 – now republished here.
What do you think of this book? Do you or your children like stories with repetition? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 