Published by Scholastic, 2016.

Gorilla Loves Vanilla is a real treat of a picture book. It’s written in verse which makes it particularly fun to read aloud and gives the story great pace and rhythm.

Sam owns an ice cream parlour. His customers one morning are a mouse, a cat, a chicken, a cow and a hippo. They order ice creams but their choices are very unusual! Children will love the weird (and frankly revolting) ice cream flavours that the animals ask for. The chicken’s choice is particularly unappetising:

I’ll have a cone full of worms –

I like nothing more than an ice cream that squirms.

The last animal to arrive is a gorilla. What will he order? There are no outlandish requests from him; he just wants good old vanilla. When his ice cream arrives, the other animals realise they were too hasty and begin to regret their choices.

Nicola O’Byrne’s illustrations are a riot of colour and magnificent detail. From the end papers strewn with rainbow coloured sprinkles to the pre-penultimate double page spread, where a mountainous vanilla cone towers vertically, there’s so much to look at and enjoy.

Gorilla Loves Vanilla will delight children and parents alike. It really is a mouth wateringly good read!

Rating: 💙💙💙💙💙

Suitable for children aged 2+

Thank you to Scholastic for sending me this book to review.