Penny Harris (text) and Winnie Zhou (illustrator), A Bedtime Story (Ginnie and Pinney), Big Sky Publishing, January 2021, 32 pp., RRP $16.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781922265746
Ginnie is a giraffe and Pinney is a hippopotamus. They are best of friends, but often do things very differently. Ginnie always thinks about everyone else while Pinney often acts before he thinks.
In A Bedtime Story, Dodo the Komodo dragon comes to stay. But Dodo does not know how to share. Will Ginnie and Pinney work together to show Dodo how wonderful it is to share?
Themes of sharing, empathy, and friendship are central to this story, and demonstrate positive social behaviours for young children aged 0 to 5 years. Young readers will love the introduction in each book to Ginnie and Pinney’s animal friends, and teachers and educators will be provided with ample discussion points covering social and emotional themes.
Ginnie & Pinney Learn & Grow is an award-winning book set that has recently been optioned for development as a TV series. Created in consultation with education, linguistics and psychology specialists, author Penny Harris and illustrator Winnie Zhou bring their craft and imagination to a series of eight books that are well targeted to the 0-5 age group.
The Learn & Grow book series is based on learning outcomes from Australian government frameworks and has been developed to support school curriculums and early learning frameworks. It is available in English and Chinese, and when purchased as a complete book set comes with a wealth of teaching resources for classrooms. The individual books include a full animated video via QR code scan.
Reviewed by Shelley Stephens