This is a perfect picture book for kids who are just heading off to school or in their first term at school or at a point where they're beginning to progress onto chapter or story books but still enjoy returning to fun and entertaining picture books to read alone or with mum or dad. Miss Deer is holding a competition to find the most helpful animal in her class, and there's a prize for the winner ... but someone isn't playing fair. In this story of the Good, the Bad, and the Fluffy, it will be Aye-Aye who wins your heart. But, will Aye-Aye be the winner? And will the prize turn out to be just what he's always dreamed of? All will be revealed in this story about being hopeful, being helpful, and, above all, being yourself.
Aye-Aye has just joined Miss Deer's Academy for Aspiring Picture-Book Animals. His classmates all look rather more conventionally cute and fluffy than he does. They are the sorts of animals you'd expect to find in a picture book. But Aye-Aye would love to be in a picture book- it's his absolute dream. His naturally kind and cheerful disposition endears him to the other animals, except the rather mean Rabbit Twins. When Miss Deer announces a class competition to find the most helpful animal with the promise of a special prize, Aye-Aye wonders if it might even be the fulfilment of his dream. But skulduggery is afoot. The Rabbit Twins want the prize for themselves and they're prepared to use all sorts of dastardly means to improve their chances of winning. As the plot unfolds, their deceitful ways in fact do the opposite as, each time, they act as the stimulus for Aye-Aye's kindness to shine through.
CLICK HERE to download an activity sheet to help you draw Aye-Aye!
'Witty and warm, Richard Byrne's This Book Belongs to Aye-Aye brilliantly champions the role of picture books in children's early life and education. The immediacy in the illustration gives a vibrant quality to this impressive, humorous and slightly post-modern tale.' Children's Bookseller Choice
Author
About Richard Byrne
Richard Byrne in his own words:
"Born in a hospital. Brought up in Brighton. Learnt to colour-in in Eastbourne. Worked in graphic design. Worked in Brighton, London, Manchester and Yorkshire Hills. Worked for myself.
"Met Philippa somewhere along the way. Had two children. Had the mid-life crisis. Bought my first guitar. Got the urge to create a children's book. Got an agent. Got a book deal. Got another book deal."
Richard now lives in Chichester so that he can be closer to family, old friends, the coast, and the equator.
