Nemo and Giraffe - A children's book review

Nemo and Giraffe is a childrens book written by Lee Hunter, a child minder from Scotland who aims to help young children form positive relationships with cats and all pets by encouraging them to learn how to care for them from a young age. Lee Hunter also strives to get across valuable life lessons such as friendship and equality, both of which are consistent themes that run throughout the book.

Best friends can look like anything, no two are the same.Nemo and Giraffe

When the author first contacted me to talk about the ideas behind her book I must admit I was curious to take a look. Having a child minding background myself and seeing how the children can be around my own two cats means I can totally identify with Lee's belief that children need to be helped to understand how to behave around animals from a young age. I am so glad that this is a message that she is trying to get across.

I sat down to read this book with Lily last night and to be honest I didn't have much hope that she would sit through the story with me as she was fidgety at the time and kept asking for Peter Rabbit on the tele! However as soon as we started the story she listened intently throughout, which says a lot as she's not the most attentive little girl when it comes to story time!

I think the length of the story really helped as it wasn't so long that she lost concentration halfway through and not so short that it was over too soon. The illustrations were great too, simple but effective with bright colours and cute animals. You really get the idea that the illustrator, Lindy Damen, has given great thought to the books' target audience here.

My favourite part of the whole book is the running theme of equality within friendships. Without giving too much away, the book starts by saying 'Best friends can look like anything, no two are the same.' Along with this there are illustrations of children from different ethnic backgrounds and of different height and gender to animals who are hairy, scaly, stripy or spotty. Lily could immediately identify with this as she pointed to the image of an child and said 'Look mummy that looks like my best friend Harrison.' and then followed a sweet chat between us about the ways in which Harrison looks different to her!

I really do admire the value of equality that runs throughout this book and appreciate the way the story portrays the value of this to children in a way that they can both understand and enjoy at the same time.

Teaching children important life lessons via the method of fiction is something I think should be explored further as it is a brilliant way to get across our principles to young ones without them feeling as though they are being lectured or told off.. or without them switching off completely of course! ;)

Bravo Lee Hunter, a great children's story and a job well done!


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*I received this book for the purpose of this review however all opinions are entirely truthful and my own.