Chatterbox Baby: Farmyard Friends

This cheerful touch-and-feel title in the Chatterbox Baby series will delight babies and toddlers who are just beginning to discover the joy of books.

Each double-page spread begins with some jovial rhyming text which introduces different farmyard animals, from horses and sheep to cows and birds. The bright, busy illustrations are enhanced by an assortment of textures for children to explore, including a horse’s silky mane, a sheep’s woolly head and the rough, sparkly tongue of a cow. The final page shows the jolly farm workers as they plough the fields, sow seeds, harvest crops and feed the animals. Smiley Farmer Jo sits in her big red tractor, complete with a tactile bumpy wheel.

The “What can you see?” section on each page encourages children to improve their observation skills by spotting different objects within the pictures. A variety of further questions and comments will help to engage their attention and promote language development.

Ideal to be grasped by little hands, the chunky pages are robust and rounded corners reduce accidental pokes in the eye. With a welcome mix of ethnicities and genders, this book has broad appeal.