Published by Hodder Children’s Books, 2016.

Quick Quack Quentin is a fabulous picture book: funny and brilliantly illustrated. Jim Field’s bold pictures set against colourful backgrounds will really appeal to young readers. Quentin the duck is poorly and has lost the a from his quack. He sets about trying to find a replacement and the story follows him as he asks various animals at the farm and then at the zoo if he can have a vowel from their names. Dog lends him his o, but Quentin doesn’t sound quite right saying “quock”. It’s no better when he borrows the u from bull either.

The humour comes from playing around with sounds and words and this makes it a perfect book for children who are learning to read because it draws on their phonic knowledge. It’s a great read aloud book with plenty of scope for improvisation.

Rating: 💙💙💙💙💙

Suitable for children aged 2+

We originally reviewed Quick Quack Quentin as Guardian family reviewers and we would like to thank Guardian Children’s Books for sending us a copy of the book.