Poor Alpaca, she loves her friends and where she lives – in the letter ‘a’, but she has one big problem – she is allergic to apples!

Allergic Alpaca, written by Kiah Thomas and Connah Brecon is a fun book that not only looks at allergies but the importance of friendship and looking out for each other.

We meet Alpaca, who has always been allergic to apples but has somehow managed to avoid the apple tree and put up with constant sniffles, sneezes and red eyes.

She has never told her friends about her allergy to apples but one day they learn all too quickly!

Antelope (who was trying out some archery) accidentally hits the apple tree and causes an apple avalanches which falls all over Alpaca and sends her through the alphabet, all the way to ‘W’!

Alpaca meets some other friendly alphabet creatures along the way, finds advice, makes a big decision but then realises how important her friends are.

Allergic Alpaca is not only a vibrant and fast paced book, it also teaches children about the alphabet in a humourous way. Connah Brecon’s illustrations make the story come alive with the different faces Alpaca goes through as she moves through the alphabet to the different features of each letter’s space.

The combination of Kiah Thomas’ words and Connah Brecon’s illustrations have created a perfect picture book to laugh with, feel emotion with and possibly learn a thing or two about the alphabet – and allergies!

So what else can be done with this book?

Literacy

• explore all the different animals who feature in the alphabet and think of some more! Ask students to pair them up with a food and maybe a place too.
• Challenge students by asking them to create a sentence that has a word from consecutive letters of the alphabet.

Allergies

• Explore how the school helps students who have allergies and what we can do at our homes or playgrounds to help these people. Understand what people with allergies have to do also.