On the tip of the top of a mountain all snowy, where the ice-swirling, toe-curling blizzards were blowy, in a herd full of huddling yaks, big and small, lived Gertie… the littles yak of them all.
Gertie is the littlest yak in her smallness – she wants to grow UP and have bigness and tallness!
But when it turns out that there are some things that only Gertie can do, might she come to see that she’s perfect, just the way she is?
Genre: Picture Books, Children books
Age appropriate: 3+
Number of Pages: 32 pages
Date of Publication: 03/09/2020
Author/Illustrator/Publisher:
Lu Fraser is the author of this lovely picture book. ‘The Littlest Yak’ is her debut novel. The illustrator is Kate Hindley who has illustrated picture books as well as fiction books.
Simon & Schuster published this book.
Rating: 5/5
Review:
This is a picture book aimed at younger children but slightly older children will enjoy it as well because of the fun rhyming and happy illustrations. It is packed with wintery feeling and starts with us meeting Gertie, a tiny Yak, who was good at being at yak but she just wanted to be big and tall as she believes that big yaks could do anything but soon enough she realises that small yanks can achieve great things.
This picture book is so lovely and has such a nice message as children nowadays are in such a rush to grow up and they are always wishing that they could have and do the same as grown-ups and this book shows them that no matter how small you are you can achieve incredible things.
The illustrations are just so cute and full of amazing details, I love how the yaks are wearing colourful winter hats and colourful blanket coats. The illustrations are a big part of this book and they complement the writing really well as they depict what the text is telling us. Another cute detail is when the illustrations show us the books that Gertie is reading the tittles of the books can be easily recognized as real world books with a yak puns (Yak and the beanstalk) by children which is a cute touch in a story where the yaks are the main characters.
A lot of children will clearly identify with Gertie with her bold personality and desire to be grown up and they can see how this little yak expresses her feelings and that is ok to show and communicate emotions.
As I mentioned before I highly recommend this entertaining book to any children because the illustrations are just so lovely. This has become one of my youngest boy’s favourite books of this season and I loved to read it to him while we shared our thoughts. A very heart-warming book.
Availability: The book is available in all good bookshops.
Shelf Life 
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