These beautiful, stripy little hardbacks contain stories about a little girl, Mango Allsorts, and Bambang, the tapir that Mango rescues form a zebra crossing in the middle of the big busy city where she lives. Mango and Bambang form an unusual but heartwarming friendship and their bond is strengthened through the adventures that they have together.
Mango is a very kind, resourceful little girl who lives with her busy papa in the city. She spends a lot of time alone but keeps busy by practising karate and playing the clarinet. Bambang comes from Malaysia and has somehow taken a wrong turning and ended up in the city. When Mango meets him he is very nervous but once he moves in with her he gains confidence, becomes a loyal friend and develops a love of hats.
Each sturdy little book contains four beautifully illustrated chapters. Clara Vulliamy’s predominantly black and white illustrations (with splashes of purple in the first book and red in the second) break up and support Polly Faber’s easy to read, humorous text – this is an ideal first chapter book for a beginner reader. We love the way that familiar situations have been given amusing and quirky twists and we can’t possibly pick favourite stories or scenes as they are all so original and entertaining. However, there are some memorable scenes, we’ve never seen a tapir wearing a purple flowery bathing hat before or a picture of a tapir with an engagement ring stuck to his bottom!
These quirky stories evoked a wide range of emotions as we read – we laughed, we (almost!) cried and the mention of banana pancakes and peach flapjacks made us hungry! As well as humour there is tension and emotion and we read the final chapter of Tapir All At Sea on the edge of our seats in the hope that there would be a happy ending!
Mango & Bambang – The Not-a-Pig
After Mango meets Bambang she takes him home for banana pancakes and he moves in with her and her papa. While Mango tries to help Bambang find a place to swim they make a new friend George, the son of the Very Important Governor, who likes to climb trees. Bambang has a nasty experience when he is captured by Dr. Cynthia Prickle-Posset, the downstairs neighbour who collects unusual things, and in the final chapter he proves to be a loyal and supportive friend when he helps Mango to practise for her clarinet concert.
Mango & Bambang – Tapir All At Sea
Mango does her best to find a hobby for Bambang that he will enjoy. She discovers quite by accident that flamenco dancing is the perfect hobby for a tapir and his dancing helps him when he has another nasty experience with neighbour, Dr. Cynthia Prickle-Posset. A Run in the Park leads Bambang to make a new friend, Rocket the dog, who proves extremely helpful when Bambang goes to sea on The Queen Mirabelle.
We really enjoyed reading both of the Mango and Bambang books and we’re looking forward to reading the third book which will be published in September.
Age Range: 5 +
Author: Polly Faber / Illustrator: Clara Vulliamy
Mango likes making banana pancakes so inspired by the stories we made vegan, gluten free banana pancakes. They taste absolutely delicious!
We made the batter using 150g gluten free flour (you can also use plain flour), 300ml soya milk, 2 teaspoons baking powder, a pinch of salt and two very ripe bananas. We whizzed all the ingredients up in a food processor then fried the pancakes in sunflower oil. This recipe makes 12 small pancakes.
Guten Appetit!
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