Reviewed By Toni Whitmont, Booktopia Buzz Editor
To read more reviews by Toni Whitmont,
click here to visit the Booktopia Newsletter Archive.
Pamela Allen is so much a part of the life of small children in this country that generations of them can recite books such as Mr McGee, My Cat Maisie, Bertie and the Bear, long after they have grown up. Certainly their parents can - for years after those bedtime stories have come and gone.
In The Little Old Man Who Looked Up at the Moon , we have on one level, classic Allen, with her characteristic rhythmic text that reads almost like a chant, her beloved animals (yes, ducks, cows, the whole barnyard), her child's eye view of the world.
While the littlies will be enjoying all of that, (I can almost hear them playing with the words and begging for one more animal, one more verse), they may or may not realise that this is a book about the big questions of life - why are we here, where do we come from?
For those whose kids only seem to know one word - why - this picture book goes to those eternal themes in an age appropriate way. For the rest of them, it is simply pure Pamela whimsy.