Handa's Noisy Night by Eileen Browne

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Handa's Noisy Night by Eileen Browne.jpg

A classroom favourite book is back! Get ready for a funny sleepover adventure! [1]   

Summary

Handa’s best friend has invited her to a sleepover and the girls are allowed to sleep in a small hut near the house. Demonstrating feelings that children and parents will find immediately relatable, Handa is super excited but increasingly nervous and, as they play and prepare for bed, strange noises keep disturbing her. Akeyo reassures her that it is just her noisy family, but, as the omniscient reader can see on the page opposite, it is in fact an assortment of nocturnal animals that are responsible. Both the sound effects and the unusual animals will prove irresistible to young audiences. Handa, Akeyo, their families and all the animals are luminously depicted in the intense and vivid style that is so characteristic of this talented artist and so evocative of the Kenyan setting. Each animal is identified on the lovely night and day endpapers which gives this warm, reassuring and funny story useful topic potential too. This book is lovely to read to children before bed time! [2]

Pros

The plot is so lovely and a lot of fun. As Handa hears each noise and Akeyo thinks it is in her family that made that noise, whilst on the opposite page that it's actually the animals made the fun sounds. Akeyo’s ideas for the noises were superb and you can see why she chose them.

The book features animals that don't often see in stories such as a Pangolin or a Bush-Baby, this could be the first time that young children have come across these animals. The illustrations perfectly capture the scenes and the animals making them easy to make out.

The story is quite beautiful and it is wonderful to see a young children’s picture book set in Africa and featuring diverse characters. [3]

References