Cover Image: A Quokka for the Queen

A Quokka for the Queen

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Member Reviews

This book is so much fun. The Queen gets a present from Australia for her birthday. Inside is a quokka. The Queen loves this present so much she asks the quokka to help her give presents to others. And so, the animal giving begins. I think my favorite are the porcupines for the politicians. This would be so much fun done as a puppet show. It has sing song qualities but breaks in the right places. Kids will love this book. Just let’s not give teachers tarantulas.

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This is a really funny children's book, which made me laugh out loud. The story is about the Queen, who gets a Quokka from Australia for her birthday. The book has quirky graphics, and a cute story, which will warm all children's hearts. Highly recommended!

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

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A quokka for the queen. It's an animal starts with q and human being starts with q too. There goes beavers for bakers, and penguins for postman. Funny and ridiculous pairs are made because the queen decides to give gifts on her birthday. A funny book to enlighten your day, for sure. With funny illustrations, this book will make your day brighter.

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It always makes me happy to see less common animals featured in picture books. It' is bound to induce curiosity in young readers. While there's not much story to this book, little kids will enjoy the silliness and slightly older kids may enjoy coming up with their own suggestions of what the queen could give as gifts

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A Quokka for the Queen is a humorous book about a special birthday and gift. The queen receives a quokka for a gift, which is a cute marsupial from Australia. Of course we checked online to learn more about it before we could continue to read. She falls in love with it and they decide to give gifts to others, everyone! The gift list is a hoot. Each gift is an animal that starts with the same letter as the recipient. Some animals are easily recognized, but a few were ones children may not be familiar with. The illustrations are full of humour. We spent a lot of time looking at the images and laughing. Before I would let my grandkids see the page, I would tell them who the gift was for and they would guess animals that might fit, sometimes they guessed correctly, but usually they were not right and we would laugh at the choices. A really cute book that is just fun to read, although there is some prediction and vocabulary development (the queen responds with adjectives starting with the same letter). I recommend this one to families, classrooms, schools and public libraries.

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I was given an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. This beautifully illustrated children’s book is a book that makes you laugh out loud in. Story begins at the wild birthday party for the queen. She was given so many gifts each wanting to evidently be better than the other? One sends golf clubs, another sends a toaster but Australia sends one of their lesser known animals, a. Quokka, a bit like a kangaroo and not as cute as a koala. Queen loves her Quokka so much she decides she must give gifts to her staff and will recruit the Quokka to determine the gifts that fit the character of each person, for example, the Butler gets a Buffalo, The chambermaid gets a chihuahua, Baker, a beaver,, sloths for the students, since they like to lay around a sleep so much. Mustn’t forget Prime minister, Boris Johnson. He gets a pigeon for his head and a python boa. There is so much on each page it is fun to guess what’s next. A can’t miss book for youngsters. Finally, the queen reads her proclamation of the gifts to be distributed.. finally, she realizes she hasn’t gifted Quokka yet but what do you give a Quokka? More Quokkas, of course.. I would definitely recommend this book for a fun read.. Special thanks to NetGalley, Huw Lewis Jones.,A Quokka for the Queen, for the opportunity to review early.

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The Queen and the quirky quokka from the land of the Aussies. This book is just too much fun! The queen gets presents from everywhere and everyone but nothing as entertaining as the Australian quokka who has endless alliterative suggestions to help her when she decides that what she wants most is to give presents to everyone in her staff.
Fred Blunt fills the pages with whimsical illustrations which add to the joy of this book.
I requested and received a free temporary e-book on Adobe Digital Editions from Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books/Happy Yak via NetGalley. Thank you!

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🌟🌟🌟🌟

First it features the queen, so that's a star in itself.

It is such a clever yet nonsense book that made me giggle throughout with its silliness and randomness.

However, it cleverly teaches children about alliteration. If you don't know what that is, think of it as a same letter pattern.

Fun read. Witty nonsensical fun!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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I received an electronic ARC from Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books through NetGalley.
When the Queen's last birthday present arrives all the way from Australia, she is delighted to see it is a quokka. She's even more delighted when she learns what a quokka is. From here, Lewis Jones shows readers the joy of giving gifts to others. Readers will appreciate the humor as the Queen and Quokka decide what to give each person. The illustrations bring the hilarity to life as each person shows their "delight" with receiving the animal gifts.
Use this book to talk about giving gifts and sharing joy with others as well as alphabet matching as each gift begins with the same letter as the receiver.

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This was a fun book and I think it would make a great book in a classroom as you could invite kids to come up with the own present suggestions that start with the first letter.

The illustrations were bright and simple.

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A silly little book full of alliteration and cute, colorful pictures. The queen gets a quokka (Australian animal) for her birthday, and together she and her new pet decide to give alliterative animal gifts to others: e.g. meerkats for milkmen, dalmatians for doctors, tarantulas for teachers, etc. The funny picture of the prime minister (clearly resembling Boris Johnson) with his python will be sure to stir up some good laughs!

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I love this hilarious quirky book. The Queen receives the best birthday present ever... a Quokka from Australia...but will she embrace it and want to keep it?

The answer is a resounding "YES", indeed she does. She not only keeps it but adores its fun free spirit and attitude towards life. The Queen quickly learns a very valuable lesson. She discovers that it's better to give than receive presents on your birthday. Who knew?

Together, the unlikely, but definitely meant for each other duo, put their heads together and create a gift list for everyone they can think of in the royal kingdom. Let's take a peek shall we?







Looks complete right? Oh, oh the Queen forgets to include what present the Quokka would like. I wonder what his favourite gift would be? Can you guess?





This delightful story celebrates the joy of giving presents thus making those around you extremely happy! The vast possibilities of vocabulary expansion, the incredible witty illustrations, and the loads of alliteration samples makes this book a true winner. Young and old will get a kick out of "A Quokka for the Queen" and I am very happy to endorse it here on Storywraps. This book would be a great addition to a classroom and elementary school library.

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I honestly didn’t care for this book. I read it with my daughter and she didn’t either. We both thought the illustrations were good. Still have no clue what a Quokka is.

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Love Fred Blunt... and Quokkas now!

A little like Kes Gray's Oi Frog series but less structured. This is oodles of fun, though switches to rhymes part-way through unexpectedly, so be ready for that.

It's the Queen's birthday. We can see she's been given golf clubs, a toaster, a painting. What can Australia have sent her? A Quokka! Never heard of it? Me too, but I quite like the look of it now. I read this in my head with the Australian accent, very amusing.

The Quokka pleases the Queen immensely and she decides to share the idea of gift giving. With everyone. But what can she give them all? The Quokka is full of good (i.e. madcap and alliterative) ideas. The butler gets a buffalo. Teachers get tarantulas. The Prime Minister... well, enter your own thoughts here.

Very funny, kids will love seeing the insane ideas laid out in Fred Blunt's fantastically funny pictures (the Queen has probably never been drawn with such glee.

Plenty of imagination, lots of laughs to be shared, to be added to The Queen's Knickers and the Queen's Hat books for a whole collection of Elizabeth-themed picture books with visual comedy.

For ages 3-6.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

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A big thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing/Happy Yak for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This is a children's book. I read this with a 5 year old. Her main concern was twofold. She said how did the Quokka survive the mail? What is a quokka? I thought the queen would be meaner. Wow...she enjoyed it though. Thought it was funny. I enjoyed the graphics, colorful and bright. She liked the rhyming and all the animals involved. Overall, a 3.5

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Joyfully bonkers, and mad in all the right ways, this story teaches us about alliteration, when Australia sends Her Maj a quokka, and she decides she can easily prove herself better at giving gifts. So, with the help of the Queen's new quokka, the butler gets a buffalo, the chambermaids chihuahuas, and so on. No, we don't diligently go through the alphabet, any more than we ever get an explanation for all the gifts being animals, but instead we laugh at the entire household (and Boris Johnson) getting a prize present. Rhyming dialogue from the chief critter concerned, a busy visual style that doesn't distract too much but is fun for a few re-reads at least – this is as close to five stars as makes any difference. I read the quokka's voice in the stereotyped ("fair dinkum, Sheila!") kind of voice, and gained yet one more pleasurable layer to the absurdity. And fair dinkum it certainly is.

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This book tells the story of when a Queen receives an australian quokka animal as a gift. The alliteration continues as the Queen and quokka decide to gift other animals to other people like a tarantula to a teacher (this teacher/book reviewer is not pleased with this choice!). This story is fun and discusses lots of different types of animals. I could definitely see my grade 3 students enjoying this book! I would recommend this book to parents and teachers of children in the age 4-9 range. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!

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A Quokka for the Queen is such a cute book! The Queen receives an exciting present, and is inspired to gift others with LOTS of animals. I loved the fun and bright illustrations, they reminded me of cartoons. I liked all the different animals!

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A bright, colourful picture book for children. Includes lots of different animals including the adorable quokka.
As I’m from Western Australia I have seen quokkas several times and they are just as cute in real life.
A great read for families

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The alliteration in this book is so much fun! It was fun to see the quokka come up with different animals to match all the different people that the Queen would come up with. Seeing that quokkas are naturally smiley animals, it added to that element of whimsy to the story. This would be a great book in a classroom setting during an occupation or community helpers unit, as it opens up the discussion as to what some of the different professions in the book are (especially as an American reading this story).

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