Long, long ago in the Stone Age
“this immersive, beautifully illustrated picture book tells a sweet tale of stone age family life – & a new four-footed addition” The Guardian Children’s – Best New Picture Books and Novels
“This engaging picture book brings the Stone Age to life… spectacularly atmospheric illustrations..expressive language. Highly recommended.” Tom Tolkien School Reading List Books for Topics
When Mo makes friends with a little wild beast, her family are horrified – wild beasts are dangerous. But could this wild beast save baby Babba from a hungry lynx and become a friend to the whole family? And then what would they call him? This heart-warming story about a Stone-Age family and the first dog is inspired by the recent discovery of a child’s footprint alongside a dog’s pawprint from 26,000 years ago.
Front and back cover of Mo’s Best Friend
We are all the living descendants of the clever, strong and amazingly talented, nomadic peoples of the Stone-Age who knew how to work with nature.
I feel very lucky to have tried out some of their many survival skills thanks to a prehistoric survival family day in Suffolk with the amazing Will Lord of Prehistoric Survival. Huge respect to people like Will Lord, who know how to turn flint and bone into tools for hunting, cooking and making clothes and turn dried nettles into twine and more!
I learnt I am no flint knapper but ever since I visited the cave of Peche Merle with my children and later the cave of Chauvet, I have been dreaming up stories about a girl I called Little Mo. And now I am happy to be sharing the story of how Mo introduced brought a puppy into our human family with children in schools, bookshops and festivals.
Here are 2 ‘tracking’ activities to download for your children to do at home or at school. They are inspired by Mo and her family in the story who managed to track down their runaway Babba – and more!
Help Mo find her way to her dog by following the dog paws. Clue – they are smaller and the claws are more pointy than lynx paws!
Download MO’s paw print game to print HERE
And here’s a craft activity for you to make lots of tracks to create a path for a hunting game or a maze of tracks of your own.
Stencil and Potato printing for paw and footprint tracks