Who's at Home?

Despite the wide range of beautifully illustrated children's books currently available, Maggie Silver's flap books are, by any standards, unique. The author's illustrations are of a quality rarely seen in children's picture books: the details, colour and exquisite design put this book in a class of its own. Who's at Home? is made up of eight four-colour double page spreads, plus printed end-papers. The diecuts' intricate and fascinating shapes cunningly blend into the background. Each spread features a delightful picture of the natural habitat of the creature it conceals, with exotic foliage and background painted with a botanist's attention to detail and an artist's imagination. The colours are very striking, giving an authentic feels to the books. The simple text gives clues to the animals' identities, teaching the young reader something about their characteristics and lifestyles. And these creatures are not only common-or-garden species: we have the scarlet kingsnake, the weaver bird, the greater-spotted woodpecker and the tent bat, among others. They make their homes in all sorts of strange and wonderful places: a South African plain, a desert in south-west America, a north-east African jungle, a coral reef in Australia, a lake in Canada and, closer to home, a cliff in north-west Scotland and a wood in Europe. This is a book that children will want to return to again and again, to renew acquaintances with the animals and to see how many they remember. It will increase their awareness of fascinating creatures they have never encountered before, and of their widely varying homes and habitats.