Ollie is an alien who lives on a little planet called Pluto. Ollie loved looking at the stars. One day he decides that he would like to know more about the brightest star in the sky, the Sun.

So Ollie sets off heading towards the sun. To get there though he must pass all the other planets which all looked different and unusual. Travel with Ollie as he discovers more about these planets as he heads towards his final destination.

Ollie discovers the Planets! is a fun, colourful, exciting young children’s book. Ollie is a lovely character who is very inquisitive. As he travels past each of the planets he teaches the children small facts about them, from freezing Neptune to gaseous Jupiter.

At the back of the book, there are five questions for children to research more about these planets and use their imagination too.

I think this book is a lot of fun and I can see lots of young children being engrossed in it, following Ollie on his adventure. Personally, I would have liked to of seen all the planets in this book, but I can understand that by leaving a couple out Ollie is set for his next adventure in book two.

The illustrations by Megan Elizabeth are superb and just beautiful to look at, they really do bring the story alive.

Ollie Discovers the Planets! is a very versatile book. I can see it working as a solo read, a book to read together at bedtime or even a class read – A great introduction to maybe a class project on the planets.

About the Author

Anya Acres is the author of the Ollie Discovers the Planets (soon to be a series). She is very passionate about putting enjoyment and pleasure into reading, whatever ability or gender the child might be. She believes that literacy should be available to everyone, and the element of fun, surprises, prediction and familiarity is key.

The inspiration behind the series was developed in 1997, whilst on a teaching practice in a small Derbyshire school. The topic that Anya was asked to teach was ‘planets’ to a class of four year olds; not an easy feat, as young children often respond better to topic-based stories. After hunting high and low for a topic-based story to introduce ‘planets’, Anya resorted to writing her own story; ‘Ollie Discovers the Planets’.

Fast forward twenty years . . . with teaching experience from 4-9 year olds, married with two sons, and a recent redundancy, Anya came across her handwritten ‘Ollie Discover the Planets’ book. Fate, some may say. She then found Megan Green, her fabulous illustrator, and former pupil from many years ago.

Together, with Megan’s beautiful quirky illustrations, and Anya’s talent to combine both fact, fiction and fun to a story, they successfully created ‘Ollie Discovers the Planets’. Many more ‘Ollie Discovers . . .’ books are in the pipeline, with Ollie Discover Dinosaurs to be released later on in the year.