A Quokka for the Queen

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Pub Date 17 May 2022 | Archive Date 23 Jun 2022

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Description

This hilarious picture book tells the story of when the Queen gets a Quokka all the way from Australia for her birthday, and this small new arrival helps her discover the joy of giving gifts!

It's the Queen's birthday and the last gift to arrive has come all the way from Australia. They say good things come in small packages!

Well this party is about to get wild...  it's a Quokka for the the Queen! The Quokka quickly makes an impression and the Queen decides to do things differently – with the help of Quokka she decides she will give the presents. Soon they are creating an elaborate gift list for everyone they can think of:

  “What shall we give the chambermaid?” asked the Queen. “A chihuahua for the chambermaid,” said the Quokka. 
   “A chihuahua for the chambermaid, and chipmunks for the chef.”
“Charming,” said the Queen. 


But what present will the Queen give to Quokka?

This incredibly funny and rather silly story is full of the joy of giving presents and making people happy! The text's witty alliteration coupled with an array of lively characters will amuse readers big and small... and even royalty!
This hilarious picture book tells the story of when the Queen gets a Quokka all the way from Australia for her birthday, and this small new arrival helps her discover the joy of giving gifts!

...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780711267978
PRICE US$18.99 (USD)
PAGES 32

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (PDF)

Average rating from 21 members


Featured Reviews

A Quokka for the Queen is such a cute book! The Queen receives an exciting present, and is inspired to gift others with LOTS of animals. I loved the fun and bright illustrations, they reminded me of cartoons. I liked all the different animals!

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A bright, colourful picture book for children. Includes lots of different animals including the adorable quokka.
As I’m from Western Australia I have seen quokkas several times and they are just as cute in real life.
A great read for families

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An adorable book for children that introduces them to a variety of animals! It’s the queen’s birthday and she receives a quokka from Australia. This leads them to get animals for a bunch of other people!

Very cute and pretty illustrations.

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The alliteration in this book is so much fun! It was fun to see the quokka come up with different animals to match all the different people that the Queen would come up with. Seeing that quokkas are naturally smiley animals, it added to that element of whimsy to the story. This would be a great book in a classroom setting during an occupation or community helpers unit, as it opens up the discussion as to what some of the different professions in the book are (especially as an American reading this story).

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Love Fred Blunt... and Quokkas now!

A little like Kes Gray's Oi Frog series but less structured. This is oodles of fun, though switches to rhymes part-way through unexpectedly, so be ready for that.

It's the Queen's birthday. We can see she's been given golf clubs, a toaster, a painting. What can Australia have sent her? A Quokka! Never heard of it? Me too, but I quite like the look of it now. I read this in my head with the Australian accent, very amusing.

The Quokka pleases the Queen immensely and she decides to share the idea of gift giving. With everyone. But what can she give them all? The Quokka is full of good (i.e. madcap and alliterative) ideas. The butler gets a buffalo. Teachers get tarantulas. The Prime Minister... well, enter your own thoughts here.

Very funny, kids will love seeing the insane ideas laid out in Fred Blunt's fantastically funny pictures (the Queen has probably never been drawn with such glee.

Plenty of imagination, lots of laughs to be shared, to be added to The Queen's Knickers and the Queen's Hat books for a whole collection of Elizabeth-themed picture books with visual comedy.

For ages 3-6.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

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Joyfully bonkers, and mad in all the right ways, this story teaches us about alliteration, when Australia sends Her Maj a quokka, and she decides she can easily prove herself better at giving gifts. So, with the help of the Queen's new quokka, the butler gets a buffalo, the chambermaids chihuahuas, and so on. No, we don't diligently go through the alphabet, any more than we ever get an explanation for all the gifts being animals, but instead we laugh at the entire household (and Boris Johnson) getting a prize present. Rhyming dialogue from the chief critter concerned, a busy visual style that doesn't distract too much but is fun for a few re-reads at least – this is as close to five stars as makes any difference. I read the quokka's voice in the stereotyped ("fair dinkum, Sheila!") kind of voice, and gained yet one more pleasurable layer to the absurdity. And fair dinkum it certainly is.

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This book tells the story of when a Queen receives an australian quokka animal as a gift. The alliteration continues as the Queen and quokka decide to gift other animals to other people like a tarantula to a teacher (this teacher/book reviewer is not pleased with this choice!). This story is fun and discusses lots of different types of animals. I could definitely see my grade 3 students enjoying this book! I would recommend this book to parents and teachers of children in the age 4-9 range. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book!

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I love this hilarious quirky book. The Queen receives the best birthday present ever... a Quokka from Australia...but will she embrace it and want to keep it?

The answer is a resounding "YES", indeed she does. She not only keeps it but adores its fun free spirit and attitude towards life. The Queen quickly learns a very valuable lesson. She discovers that it's better to give than receive presents on your birthday. Who knew?

Together, the unlikely, but definitely meant for each other duo, put their heads together and create a gift list for everyone they can think of in the royal kingdom. Let's take a peek shall we?







Looks complete right? Oh, oh the Queen forgets to include what present the Quokka would like. I wonder what his favourite gift would be? Can you guess?





This delightful story celebrates the joy of giving presents thus making those around you extremely happy! The vast possibilities of vocabulary expansion, the incredible witty illustrations, and the loads of alliteration samples makes this book a true winner. Young and old will get a kick out of "A Quokka for the Queen" and I am very happy to endorse it here on Storywraps. This book would be a great addition to a classroom and elementary school library.

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A silly little book full of alliteration and cute, colorful pictures. The queen gets a quokka (Australian animal) for her birthday, and together she and her new pet decide to give alliterative animal gifts to others: e.g. meerkats for milkmen, dalmatians for doctors, tarantulas for teachers, etc. The funny picture of the prime minister (clearly resembling Boris Johnson) with his python will be sure to stir up some good laughs!

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The Queen and the quirky quokka from the land of the Aussies. This book is just too much fun! The queen gets presents from everywhere and everyone but nothing as entertaining as the Australian quokka who has endless alliterative suggestions to help her when she decides that what she wants most is to give presents to everyone in her staff.
Fred Blunt fills the pages with whimsical illustrations which add to the joy of this book.
I requested and received a free temporary e-book on Adobe Digital Editions from Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books/Happy Yak via NetGalley. Thank you!

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🌟🌟🌟🌟

First it features the queen, so that's a star in itself.

It is such a clever yet nonsense book that made me giggle throughout with its silliness and randomness.

However, it cleverly teaches children about alliteration. If you don't know what that is, think of it as a same letter pattern.

Fun read. Witty nonsensical fun!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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I received an electronic ARC from Quarto Publishing Group – Frances Lincoln Children's Books through NetGalley.
When the Queen's last birthday present arrives all the way from Australia, she is delighted to see it is a quokka. She's even more delighted when she learns what a quokka is. From here, Lewis Jones shows readers the joy of giving gifts to others. Readers will appreciate the humor as the Queen and Quokka decide what to give each person. The illustrations bring the hilarity to life as each person shows their "delight" with receiving the animal gifts.
Use this book to talk about giving gifts and sharing joy with others as well as alphabet matching as each gift begins with the same letter as the receiver.

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I was given an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. This beautifully illustrated children’s book is a book that makes you laugh out loud in. Story begins at the wild birthday party for the queen. She was given so many gifts each wanting to evidently be better than the other? One sends golf clubs, another sends a toaster but Australia sends one of their lesser known animals, a. Quokka, a bit like a kangaroo and not as cute as a koala. Queen loves her Quokka so much she decides she must give gifts to her staff and will recruit the Quokka to determine the gifts that fit the character of each person, for example, the Butler gets a Buffalo, The chambermaid gets a chihuahua, Baker, a beaver,, sloths for the students, since they like to lay around a sleep so much. Mustn’t forget Prime minister, Boris Johnson. He gets a pigeon for his head and a python boa. There is so much on each page it is fun to guess what’s next. A can’t miss book for youngsters. Finally, the queen reads her proclamation of the gifts to be distributed.. finally, she realizes she hasn’t gifted Quokka yet but what do you give a Quokka? More Quokkas, of course.. I would definitely recommend this book for a fun read.. Special thanks to NetGalley, Huw Lewis Jones.,A Quokka for the Queen, for the opportunity to review early.

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