Good introduction to African animals for little learners. Two animal cartoon characters fly to and from the Savannah in a cardboard airplane. During their trip, they encounter elephants, giraffes, gnus, hyenas, beetles, zebras, hippos, lions, cheetahs, and an uncle, a flying squirrel. Back matter includes photographs and facts about many of the animals thet saw on their trip. Cute fun for the pre-K set.

This is a cute picture book, beautifully illustrated, that tells about the animals of the savannah, all the while telling also the adventures of a squirrel and puppy who have come to visit a flying squirrel. Along the way they encounter all the animals found there, and learn little facts about them.

This is a great way to introduce these animals to young children, while wrapped around a cute story. The animals are drawn more realistically then the cartoony dog and squirrel. Apparently they have visited other places, and this is the third book in the series.

Would recommend this book to libraries, and classrooms. What a cute way to learn about the animals of the savannah.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

An ambitious approach was used by fusing two very different styles. Overlaying a cartoon strip upon realistic illustrations of African wildlife was fairly effective. Younger readers would be less likely to be fearful for the cartoon characters in the more realistic 'dangerous encounters' with African fauna. It was filled with brief interesting facts which would arose a child's interest.

I thought that this book was really fun, there are some good fun facts that can be learnt along the way with the story and its got just the right amount of content to keep little ones entertained.

I received this book from Netgalley for an honest review.
Another wildly fun book staring Chipper and Squizzo. These two friends are off on another adventure and this time they are headed for the African Savannah. With lots of interesting facts and illustrations, this is another tale in the series that shouldn't be missed.

Three and a half stars for a cute little book for cute little people. A squirrel and a puppy get in a cardboard plane to visit a flying squirrel relative of the former in Africa, but to get to him they have to pass by lots of game and other wildlife. The journey is shown through very decent one-colour cartooning, and we have even more decent (and accurate) full-colour portraits of the creatures and the landscape, which really bring the place to life. It's just, if a bit more forethought could have been given, you'd have a winner – for one, when the puppy is completely ignorant of everything African then knows immediately what a gazelle is, you lose what little realism was left (you did notice the bit about the cardboard airplane, right?). Still, a jovial primer to the continent's headlining fauna.

Note that this is from an advance review copy for which I thank the publisher.

I'd been a fan of the Brrémaud/Bertolucci graphic novel series titled 'Love', a text-free set of stories about life in the wild. For me that series went downhill, the stories no longer interesting, and even the art suffering, so I gave up on it. I gave the first in the Little Tails (not Tales!) series a try and I thought this was much better. Aimed at young children, adventurous and educational, this is a colorful series for young children that's worth the reading time.

Chipper and Squizzo are two little animal characters who take trips in their cardboard box airplane (something young children can readily emulate with any old cardboard box you have lying around). This part of the story is line drawings with a splash of monochrome color; it's refreshingly simple and will probably appeal to young readers, especially when its contrasted against the gorgeous full color images of the various animals they encounter.

The animals featured are biased toward mammals, and largely situated on land (we humans are a very class conscious society aren't we, even when it comes down to biological classes!), but there is the occasional foray into non-mammalian characters. Unfortunately the snake is described as poisonous when it ought to be described as venomous (you can withstand eating a snake because it's not poisonous, but you definitely don't want to be bitten by a venomous one!). Outside of the mammals, we get one beetle, two different birds, and two different reptiles, and that's it! There's nothing about plant life at all. I'd like to see that change. Since it's an airplane they have, why not a book on birds? Or how about a cardboard submarine next time, so we get to visit some ocean life?

Overall, though, the series is engaging and attractive, so I recommend this as a worthy read for young children.

This clever little book melds a comical story with facts about animals in Africa. The illustrations are split between realistic and comic strip, with facts about each animal featured in the story at the end. I can see this book appealing to first readers. Kudos to the author for coming up with such a unique concept and pulling it off successfully!

Beautiful animal illustrations. The smaller cartoon strip illustrations did not hold my child's attention.