The
Great Big Book series brings us the eighth title that celebrates
our marvellous brain. Mary Hoffman’s clever, light-hearted and humorous text is
surrounded and supported by Ros Asquith’s superb cartoon-style, watercolour
illustrations.
Frame by frame, the children’s artwork reaches its
target audience in the best way possible.
Kids will see and learn how the brain develops, its
role, and how it is the command centre that
sends messages to the body using neurons. It features the weight of the brain,
the amount of cells, brain food, and the senses. (There is more!)
Listed are the many areas the brain controls,
including memory, muscles, movement and dreams.
How does the brain help us make decisions,
multi-task and use language? These areas are all covered on outstanding, fully
illustrated pages.
I must comment further on the illustrations that
are truly fabulous! Both end pages exhibit all the areas controlled by the
brain. It is a parade of colour and depicts the emotion-filled children that
appear in the book.
The title page shows the two hemisphere’s of the
brain and the cat that appears all over the place. Speech bubbles allow us to
see what the cat is thinking – at times funny and others not. Kids will look
forward to seeing it wherever it appears.
Many of the pages are decorated with miniature
illustrations, forming borders around the three edges.
Many of the illustrations are presented in
child-like drawings on boards. This immediately engages the reader by making
personal contact with them. Pages full of small details allow kids to spend
time searching, finding and questioning.
Visually stimulating, a lot of thought has gone
into presenting a subject that otherwise would be seen as complex to this age
group.
With simple text, easy to follow explanations and
the vibrant images, it becomes an entertaining and valuable learning tool.
Larger than the usual picture book size, the text is presented in bold type and
a larger font.
It’s a book filled with energy and humour, and addresses
the ageing of the brain as well as its growth from childhood. I loved it!
Title:
The Great Big Brain Book
Author:
Mary Hoffman
Illustrator:
Ros Asquith
Publisher:
Allen & Unwin, $24.99
Publication
Date: 3 March 2020
Format:
Hardcover
ISBN:
9780711241534
For
ages: 5 - 8
Type:
Non Fiction
