If You’re Cheeky and You Know It

If You’re Cheeky and You Know It by P.Crumble, illustrations by Chris Kennett (Scholastic Australia)
PB RRP $13.99
ISBN 978-1-74283-647-8
Reviewed by Jenny Heslop

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands... Most young children will recognise these lyrics. They know and love them, happy to spend time playing with the sounds, actions and echoes the song creates. And I’m sure they will love the twist that If You’re Cheeky and You Know It provides.

Each page encourages the young reader to become a different animal - If you’re a penguin and you know it waddle around – and is accompanied by glorious pictures of the animals themselves. As each animal is introduced, it follows the others on the next page so the group gets larger as the book moves on.

And what fabulous animals they are. The illustrator, Chris Kennett, draws very cute, funny and loveable animals who dominate the pages with humour, personality and movement. This is just what young children are attracted to.

If You’re Cheeky and You Know It is a book children can become involved in. It cleverly takes a feature of each animal, such as the giraffe’s neck, and turns it into an action which can be echoed. This book deserves to be wildly popular and will have toddlers chasing their tails, staring like meerkats or wiggling their rumps, like hippopotamuses.

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Mozzie

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Mozzie by P. Crumble, illustrated by Louis Shea (Scholastic Australia)
PB RRP $14.99
ISBN 978-1-74283-852-6
Reviewed by Jenny Heslop

‘There was an old lady who swallowed a mozzie,

I don’t know why she swallowed that mozzie ...

She’s gotta be Aussie!’

This Australian slant on the classic rhyme There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly provides this very amusing tale. A tough old lady swallows all sorts of Australian animals from the humble mozzie up to the mighty croc! At which point something’s got to happen to make her stop.

As a fan of both Shea and Crumble, I haven’t always loved the books in this series, but this one is really enjoyable. Crumble’s rhyme is smooth and the rhythm works really well. This makes it fun and easy to read aloud.

Shea’s unique bold and bright illustrations, along with his trademark expressive animals, are humorous without the tinge of darkness which appear in some of the other books in this series.

This is my favourite book in the series and well worth a look. Check out how the old lady manages to catch the dingo and the croc.

Young children will have a lot of fun with this book.

Sheep on a Beach

 Sheep on a Beach by P. Crumble, illustrated by Danielle McDonald (Scholastic Australia)
PB RRP  $13.99
ISBN  978 174283 321 7
Reviewed by Jenny Heslop


Sheep goes to the beach. It is a new experience for him but luckily he has Crab to guide him through the day.


The text is lovely to read aloud. Each page is a repetition of the previous one, with one new line added each time. This builds a nice rhythm and anticipation as the story progresses. I can imagine young children memorising their favourite lines and chanting them as the pages are turned.


This is such a fun book for preschoolers. The simple text is wonderfully expressive: “Boardies on – Sweet!” as Sheep tries on a pair in front of a mirror provided by Crab who holds two more potential pairs.


The bold, bright illustrations are gorgeous. Sheep and Crab have wonderfully strong personalities which grow as the story progresses in the same way that the text is built on line by line. All the while, Crab, in quieter moment, builds his sandcastle in the background.


I can see this fast becoming a bedtime favourite.