Gorilla's Story

by Harriet Blackford, Manja Stojic (Illustrator)

This gentle, beautifully told story follows a young gorilla from birth, as he peers out from Mama’s comforting arms, to maturity—when he’s ready to look after and protect his own group of females. Along the way, danger lurks as he learns to live in the African jungle, facing such threats as a hungry leopard and a big, older silverback. With its stunning paintings and simple, engaging text, Gorilla’s Story is a winning, must-have entry in the popular series. An author’s note at the end explains why these intelligent apes are now endangered and encourages young conservationists to become involved.  

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction, Animals

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Annalise - Teacher Training · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a beautiful picture book that follows a gorilla from baby to grown adult when he is builds his own group to look after.
It would be really useful to use to teach children about animals that aren't from where they live and exploring other countries at the same time. Encouraging work on text to world links.
The pictures in this book make it very immersive and could be a good point for visual to text analysis.

[Charlotte Yardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story following the life of a gorilla - the illustrations are beautiful and most definitely could be used to encourage talk about the animals, their habitats and the lives they lead.
It's a very straight to the point book and could be used more as an opener to a geography or science lesson in comparison to a lesson looking at the use of language, the illustrations could provide prompts for some creative tasks such as drama, music and art.

[Ellen Williams-Sharkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book follows a young gorilla as he grows up. It has got bright, beautiful illustrations and would be good to use to teach younger children about what happens within a gorilla's family unit when the son grows up, or to have in the reading corner when starting a topic about animals or about Africa and African animals.

[Amy Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story of a young gorilla growing up in a forest in Africa. Shown through the eyes in a gorilla this is a fun way for children to discover things about the way gorillas live. Illustrations are lovely as you can see the individual brushstrokes, I loved the design

[Lizzy Preece · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very factual book that provides lots of information on the life of a gorilla and how they grow up. It has beautiful illustrations that engage the reader however I did find the text quite boring to read which made me lose interest.

[Ché Constable · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great non fiction styled picture book that explores Gorilla's and their lifestyle.

[Jillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the colorful artwork. Tikka (4 months) also liked looking at the pictures. The story revolved around gorilla natural history. I may read again with Tikka as she gets older to help teach her some facts about gorillas, especially how gorilla behavior changes with development.