Isn’t Alpacas Make TERRIBLE Librarians!! a great title?! It definitely made us want to read more of this colourful, zany picture book! It also encourages us to appreciate librarians of the non alpaca kind!
The Story: Basically alpacas are good with children but make terrible librarians. The book takes us through all the bizarre behaviours that alpaca librarians indulge in including giving haircuts, taking away any animal books that aren’t about alpacas and not being quiet in the library. Story time with an alpaca is extremely entertaining as they display bizarre character traits and behaviours including sunbathing and not using the bathroom. But whatever you do don’t pick up a book about llamas…
The alpaca librarian is such a self centred egoistical character whose amusing ideas about how to run a library cause a lot of confusion for the children visiting. Humming, spitting, book banning are not things that they’re used to and they’re relieved when their usual librarian returns. But when they go to tell their teacher about their experience… (we won’t spoil the twist at the end!).
We love the vibrant, colourful, diverse illustrations which are full of amusing details. The pink librarian definitely takes centre stage and we love her blue eyeshadow!
Interesting facts about alpacas are so subtly woven into this picture book that children won’t realise that they’re also learning about alpaca behaviour. It’s a fun story to read in an Early Years or Key Stage One classroom and could be used to stimulate creative writing about other animals who would make terrible librarians!
Age Range: 3 +
Author: Kristi Mahoney / Illustrators: Chantelle & Burgen Thorne
Thank you to Gnome Road Publishing and Netgalley for the review copy of this amusing picture book.
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