Bouncy Ben

Susannah McFarlane (author)

Lachlan Creagh (illustrator)

Scholastic Press, Australia: 2011

ISBN: 9781741696790  

extension vocabulary

Genre: picture book

Issues: gifted

 'Ben is the bounciest of bilbies. He is one of the best bouncers in the bush, and has been bouncing about since he was a baby.'

Ben has many different types of bounces, even one for when he's bad tempered. You might even say that Ben has a gift for bouncing. But it's always a good idea to watch where you're bouncing – and one day Ben doesn't. Will he ever bounce again? Ben's friends are at hand to stage a rescue.

The second delightful tale in the 'Little Mates' Alphabet Animals series provides another simple tale packed with interesting b-words such as 'baffled' and 'bamboozled', 'blowy' and 'blustery'. Susannah McFarlane does a fantastic job of writing readable sentences that provide context for the vocabulary without sounding too contrived. Creagh's charming illustrations, full of character and humour, create context for the extension vocabulary. He manages to create an enormous range of expressions on Ben's face, as well as those of the other bilbies, which encourages readers to draw on visual cues to expand their understanding of the text.