Puffin Little Series: The ANZACs, Robotics & The Ocean
Published by Puffin Books
Date: 29 September 2020
R.R.P. $12.99
The little series with many BIG facts for our smallest learners are back with three more fantastic books. This series of non-fiction books by Puffin|Penguin Random House are again engaging to both the smallest reader in the house and the biggest one.
The next three in this series takes us back in time as we explore The ANZACs, takes us underwater and into The Ocean, and we look at STEAM by learning all about Robotics. These perfect little gems would again make an excellent addition to a classroom to teach big facts to little people.
What all these books do really well is to engage the reader in the very first pages, by talking about the BIG facts they are going to learn and asks whether the reader is ready for all the fun facts. What I love about these books is they refer directly to our little readers throughout the book. I feel like this personalises the content for the children and increases their curiosity just that little bit more.
Little Historian – The ANZACs
“Hello, little historians…I’m so glad you stopped by because today we are going to learn about some very important men and women from Australian history…”
Our little historians will learn a lot from The ANZACs book because, as a big reader, I know I did. It’s filled with a recipe for ANZAC biscuits (yum yum), a timeline, information about a diggers diet and other interesting facts throughout. For a small book, it is pack full of engaging material, like how the rising star badge on the slouch hat is a symbol of the Spirit of Anzacs and has become an icon of Anzac bravery.
The writers have sensitively talked about war without making the content uncomfortable or frightening. There is a good balance of information, and I like that it highlights how women on the front and at home contributed to the war, and what children did at home too.
My favourite part of the whole book is a poem titled Not A Hero by Clyde Hamilton. It’s moving and a beautiful tribute to Anzac heroes.
Little Explorer – The Ocean
“Hello, Little Explorer…I can’t wait to see what we discover in the OCEAN together!”
Little ocean explorers are going to love what they discover in this book about The Ocean, especially learning about all the different underwater creatures that little eyes wouldn’t usually get to see in person. I like that this book covers various parts of the ocean – the arctic and southern ocean.
I think it is great that there is a section that teaches children about our ecosystem and how we should explore with care. Our littlest readers will learn that the only things we should really take out of the ocean is rubbish! This is an excellent reminder to all of us, big and small.
One of the most interesting sections is about how much of the ocean is left to explore. It is hard to believe we have only uncovered about 5% of what it has to show us. There is still so much for our littlest explorers to see, do and learn.
Little Scientist – Robotics
“Hello, Little Scientist…I’m so excited that you’re here! We’re going to put our engineers’ caps on and learn all about ROBOTICS.”
As soon as I opened this book, I knew the Little Scientist of our family, my nephew Hen, would love to discover all he could learn about Robotics. For a little book for little readers, it is jam-packed full of great information, including how to design a robot.
I needed to refer to the glossary a lot with this book because there were a lot of terms I didn’t know. Thankfully, the definitions are straightforward to read and will have you talking like an engineer in no time. There is a small section that features programming, which is something a lot of our littlest readers know how to do or are learning as part of their education.
I like that the book talks about different types of robots, particularly Rescue Robots. It gives our little and big readers a greater understanding of how disaster relief can be a lot safer than sending a human into a volatile situation such as going through rubble after an earthquake.
Whether you want to add them to your classroom, personal bookshelves, your library or anywhere, little and big readers will enjoy reading these books together to learn fun facts and inspiration for future aspirations!
If you love these books as much as I do, then GREAT NEWS – there are more coming in 2021!
Thank you Puffin/Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read and honestly review these books.
Want to get a copy of these books for yourself. The ANZACs, The Ocean and Robotics can be purchased by clicking on the links. This may result in a very small payment that helps me with running this blog.
Little Big Reads 
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