Up, down, over, through by Jane Godwin & Kim Drane

With its tactile cover, readers will love reciting the title of this book, while following the four words 'up, down, over and through' using the equipment displayed. A celebratory invitation to explore their surroundings outside, children will see and use whatever equipment is there to use, not necessarily manufactured equipment but things in their environment giving the same pleasing challenge.

The readers follow the children playing on such equipment, a playground with many interesting and diverse features. There are nets to climb, castles to explore, bridges to cross, stairs to climb, roundabouts to turn on, slides to slide on, places to hide, sand to play in, boxes to stack. In rhyming pairs of lines, the text refers to the two families meeting at the playground and the two friends having adventures over the equipment. They go up, down, over and through all the pieces of equipment before them, while the last part of the story has them in the sandpit where they talk about top, bottom, empty and full, big and small, fast and slow.

This is an easy book introducing words to younger readers, and they will be further interested in predicting the rhyming words. Bright inviting illustrations support the text, making this a useful book to have in the classroom.

Themes: Movement, Playgrounds, Adventure, Spatial concepts.

Fran Knight