Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler go together like bread and butter. They really are a very well-matched duo and their work is loved the world over for good reason. Come and visit a prime game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal where you can witness these animals in the wild, including more than 200 bird species and a massive variety of flora. Everyone enjoyed hearing about the Marabou stork, which poos on its legs - apparently to cool itself down - and there was fascination about exactly what the meat was that the hyena and the vulture were eating. One nature-documentary watching child thought that the answer would not please the wildebeest. The Ugly Five are an odd-looking bunch with a bad reputation. Yet each of them has their own unique and fascinating story. Some are vital to their ecosystems, while others dazzle us with spectacular wild shows. However, they don’t only scavenge for their food. They’re skilled hunters, too. In fact, they’re part of the most successful predators in Africa.

The reader would need to have experience of empathy and support so they could put themselves in that situation and see what it may be like to feel that you are not beautiful or wanted. The story teaches about friendships and the importance of family. It allows children to explore ‘beauty’ and how there is more than what meets the eye. However, when exploring the narrative of this story teachers may need to be wary of the past experiences that the children may have had before digging deeper into the teachings the story could hold. I studied Drama and French at Bristol University, where I met Malcolm, a guitar-playing medic to whom I’m now married. Think about how the different animals move. Could you try to recreate these movements? Could you put together a dance or a performance to show these movements? Think of some speech / thought bubbles to add to the illustrations. What are the animals saying / thinking?However, much like the marabou storks, vultures have a crucial role to play in nature. They’re respected members of Africa’s ‘ clean-up crew’ for their ability to keep our wildlife reserves tidy. The hyena also has some peculiar proportions, with all the strength loaded in their forequarters (and jaw), and the weak-looking hindquarters seemingly added as something of an afterthought. The size of a hyena’s clan can dictate the size of a kill or scavenge. A hyena clan can range in size between 12 and 24 hyenas. Some clans are even larger than this. This time the story is about some animals in the Savannah who are, shall we say? Less than attractive.

One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading. There are three species of hyena in the Hyaenidae family. Namely, the striped hyena, brown hyena, and spotted hyena. The lesser-known aardwolf is an additional member in the same family. Located In the south of Tanzania, Nyerere National Park is a vast, wild reserve – larger than Switzerland – with just a scattering of small camps. Yet for better or worse, these five have earned themselves an unfortunate place in the official Ugly Five listing.

The Ugly Five’ (2017) is a short, lovely, simple but effective and affecting story – the latest from the accomplished team of writer Julia Donaldson and Axel Sheffler – who provides the usual and wonderful illustrations to accompany the compelling rhyming words of Donaldson. Donaldson’s story does not quite have the high level of imagination that we have come to know, but this does allow Scheffler’s illustrations to shine even more than usual. Fans of his work will already know the style and it is reflected again here. The bonus is that Scheffler is drawing real wildlife and he does it brilliantly. The Ugly Five are all given a personality, whilst still not being the most pretty to look at. Edward listened carefully and wisely pronounced: “It’s good that they don’t care what they look like, but I prefer The Gruffalo.” The hyena family includes four species: the Striped, the Brown and the Spotted hyena, and the Aardwolf. Hyenas can adapt to almost any habitat and are found in grasslands, woodlands, savannas, forest edges, sub-deserts, and mountains.

They’re perhaps the most infamous scavengers of all, and they’re very good at what they do. In fact, they clear up to 70% of the carrion in Africa, helping prevent the spread of disease in animals and humans. 3. Wildebeest Their unfortunate looks have earned them a spot in this classification, despite being fascinating birds. Marabous can eat anything, including termites, flamingos and small birds, mammals, and even human refuse and dead elephants. They often share carcasses with other scavengers like vultures or hyenas.I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him). I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs. Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers.

Their preferred habitat is open grasslands, with their renowned seasonal migration being an optimised survival strategy giving them access to and use of resources over huge areas, minimising over-grazing during both wet and dry seasons. Oliver thought it was mysterious. Sonny pondered the message of the book and told me: “At the end of the book they weren’t really ugly at all - they were lovely.” This book sits on two nerves and therefore loses a star. Nominated for the Washington State Children's Choice award, this book requires that the students know about he Big 5 and possibly the Little 5 and therefore the Shy 5. It also requires that the librarian endures rhyming couplets and the kids endure her singing the sing song verses... not winning me over. These requirements are really just my needs. There are strong PSHE messages about celebrating everyone as they are and not judging on appearance. Many of the children commented on how important it was to love everyone, no matter what they look like. The book would also be a good starting point for a discussion on family and love within the family. As a faith school, we could then expand this further to discuss the concept of how we are all unique and yet loved by God.Hyenas are scavengers (which is starting to seem like a strong predictor of ugliness), making them important players in their ecosystems. Marabous are scavengers eating anything from termites, flamingoes, and small birds and mammals to human refuse and dead elephants. They also feed on carcasses with other scavengers such as vultures and hyenas. Their faces are pointy with strange-looking snouts, and their tusks aren’t exactly pretty. Then there’s their leathery skin which is peppered with exactly the wrong amount of coarse hair. The plains of the savannah are home to some of the world’s most majestic creatures, but this is not a book about them. This is a book about the other animals that don’t always get the limelight; the dumpy, the lumpy and the smelly. When five less than pretty animals get together they all decide that they are the ugliest creatures around. Can anyone love a face as hideous as theirs? The book asks a variety of questions which also encourage children to join in and the book introduced me to animals I had not heard of before like the Marabou Stork.