This is a short picture book review of a up and coming children’s book called ‘The most important animal of all’, by Penny Worms and illustrated by Hannah Bailey.

An excellent childrens book that will really suit an inquisitive mind of between 6-12 years of age.

The story is framed around a classroom essentially having show and tells of each important animal that a child in the class has selected. This was a nice way to frame what is essentially a non-fiction book, getting into some fascinating detail on the uniqueness and importance of each animal on display in the book, and why they are important to other animals, and humans as well.

As a children’s book illustrator myself, I appreciated the beautiful illustrations, very vibrant, detailed and well researched. I loved how each animal was explored with both diagram type illustrations (the steps of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly for example) and photos of the animals. I don’t think that illustrations and photos often combine well in children’s books, but here, due to the context of realism and really getting into detail of what makes each animal special, it really works,

I would highly recommend this book to all readers, be you adult or child, there is a lot to enjoy and learn here! What a wonderful world full of wonderful animals we live in!