Sully feels anxious and intimidated to compete against his colleagues in the sea school contest. He’s not particularly good in any of the disciplines in the competition (that is being polite). He tries to avoid participating, but Miss Trout encourages everyone to just try their best and he feels obliged to do so, all the while fearing and knowing he’ll come last. He wishes he could have one of the talents his colleagues possess.. Until he amazes everyone with his ability to change colour and become invisible in the sea, in face of danger from being caught by a diver. He realizes, then, how special he is :). 

This is a cute, lovely rhymed story, populated with sea creatures, full of emotion, with brightly coloured illustrations. Sully is relatable and one can’t help wanting to hug and comfort him. For some reason, little gosling is hooked on Miss Trout, the teacher. He gets excited at every start of a race “On your marks, ready, get set… go!!!” and he’s fascinated by the shadow of the boat underwater. He calls it “the book with the shadow” On one of our readings, I told him the words in the book : “you are amazing” and he said “no, I am not amazing, I am a baby!” :))) 

Little gosling has his own little pink seahorse buddy, which he carefully chose himself after our visit summer 2020 to Sea Life Blankenberge, where we saw some less glamorously coloured seahorses. 

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It is a rhymed chronicle of a first day at the bug school, equipped with dedicated classes for different insects: spiders, crickets, ladybirds, fleas…, complete with a vibrant dining room, a playground, busy toilets, an assembly first thing in the morning and storytime in the afternoon. I only remember one story from my time in nursery, with all of us gathered round on small chairs, hands behind our backs. A bit less relaxed than little gosling, who seats with his colleagues in a circle, on cushions brought from home.  

There’s something to learn about bugs and about school time, different school subjects or behaviour in a school setting. And it all transpires naturally, funnily and gently from both rhymes and illustrations. We spend a lot of time chatting about the lovely, playfully detailed illustrations. Little gosling is fascinated by the abacus in the ladybird math class; makes me vocalise repeatedly the song that Chloe is learning in cricket class ; has us identify the individual bugs by name in the group pages; we talk about the emotions reflected on the tiny bugs faces and we discuss about which bugs we want to be/which class we want to be in. Best of all, when the story ends with the tiny, happy bugs shouting “can we come again tomorrow?”, he responds deliciously squealing “yeeeees, you can”!

Needless to say, this is one of the books that I take on the go that little gosling is sure to delight in whenever, wherever.

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I love the playful and humorous way in which it depicts the dragons’ training to become fearsome, all complete with a severe teacher, Madam Dragon and funny props to learn the necessary dragon skills: a hay stuffed puppet for a princess and two dragons riding each other with a wooden sword for a knight. I like Zog’s hard work in achieving the yearly goals, as well as his clumsiness (blowing fire onto his wing tip or crashing into a tree whilst learning to fly). This compensates for Zog’s overachiever ambition and his misrepresenting the “capturing” of Princess Pearl in order to win the golden star, when knowing himself incapable of it. My husband was weary for a moment about the message little gosling would get from this book. But, once we reached the end we discovered more levels and self-becoming stories. The ending is very modern and liberal, breaking all moulds: a princess who wants to work and be useful, a knight who gives it all up to be trained by the princess into being a doctor and a dragon who is happy and desirous to be their “ambulance” and carry them. Just love how the princess is the strong, authoritative figure, just by her strong mind. So, we decided the story is a fun and good starting point for a conversation on topics such as discovering one’s true self and calling, perfectionism and living up to expectations, not being afraid to follow one’s dream..

The illustrations are very colourful (look at the bright orange Zogt and the odd bright pink dragon among his schoolmates), funny and add so much to the brilliant rhyme! There is so much more to explore in them than in the case of “The Gruffalo”. 

Pinpointing little gosling’s favourite bits would take long; there’s something he fixates on on every page :). Zog’s small accidents, particularly crashing into a tree and putting his wingtip on fire, and subsequent cares which the little girl offers always catch his attention (the plaster, the bandage, the peppermint to suck). He feels with Zog every little happening and bump. My favourites are him anticipating “here comes a real live knight” and “I want to be a doctor” :).

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