The fearsome, frightening, ferocious box by Frances Watts and David Legge
ABC Books, 2013. ISBN 9780733328916.
(Age: 4+) Warmly recommended. Picture book. Humour. Poetry. A box
falls fromm a truck and is left on the roadside, where a variety of
animals comes and inspects the box, saying that they would look
inside. But as each animal comes by, bragging that they will not be
frightened, they are. First a monkey looks inside and hears the thing
inside moan and tell a little tale of its life. The following double
page shows the area in which it lives, and the reader is invited to
search for the six things hidden on the two pages. Then a crocodile
happens along and he hears the thing inside groan with a similar
poem over the page inviting the reader to find the six things hidden
this time in an arctic landscape. And on it goes, each animal being
scared off by the thing inside and the reader invited to find six
things in a different environment, until finally the lid of the box
is lifted.
This fun involving story, with things for the reader to do on each page,
will entertain those who pick up the book. Legge has successfully
shown each animal in distress as it peers inside and the
environments shown with their hidden animals will entice younger
readers to be involved.
Fran Knight