Illustrating the lives of animals

Is it true that cows like eating spaghetti with tomato sauce? Is it true that horses sleep on hammocks after a long, hard day? Can a rooster sing opera? Do giraffes eat clouds? And do zebras love their cup of tea?

These and other teasing questions are tackled in Annimaloskopju, a new series of boardbooks recently published by Merlin Publishers.
Non-fiction for the very young is very much sought after, but very hard to find in Maltese. L-Annimali tas-Savana and L-Annimali tar-Razzett blend cheeky illustrations with amazing real-life photography.
Each featured animal comes with a fun story and lift-the-flap facts to put things right. No, zebras don’t do tea, although they do  enjoy getting together for some communal drinking from nearby lakes. And no, horses don’t sprawl on hammocks, they’d much rather sleep standing up, thank you very much. And although roosters do not sing operas they’ll definitely delight us with their screechy crows (very early in the morning!) because it’s their way of marking territory.
L-Annimali tas-Savana and L-Annimali tar-Razzett have no fixed target age. They are ideal both for reading to children when these are still very young, and eventually for...