English
4 years & up
Nature
Pint-Sized Professor
BIPOC Narratives
Girls Outdoors
CBeebies
Text: Hamza Yassin & Hello Halo Productions Limited Illustrations: Kate Kronreif
summary
A few days ago, our cousins came over and we got the chance to stomp around in the woods for awhile which was just what I needed. This morning when sitting down to my computer after a weekend away, I needed to ease myself back into things and Let’s Go For a Walk with Ranger Hamza was the perfect book for that! Based on the show from CBeebies (which I legit didn’t know until I started looking online) I’m all ready to sign up for the Ramblers and adventure along with them.
Let’s get some gushing out of the way first before I tell you what this interactive book is about. Not only do we have Ranger Hamza, a Black man with knee-length locs and a warm smile teaching kids about nature, but the characters are majority people of color! One character has a prominent hearing aid and another has a prosthetic leg, but neither is mentioned in the story. Can you tell I’m obsessed yet?
As for the story itself, I love there interactivity with the reader, with Ranger Hamza asking questions and prompts about using one’s senses when going on a nature walk. Hamza and his three sidekicks walk around a city, into a market, and out into several different nature settings, taking note of what’s around them and investigating. There are some nature facts thrown in as well, and I really appreciate how it’s emphasized that we can all learn about nature wherever we are.
This book was kindly sent by Quarto, but all opinions are my own! This book will be out in North America tomorrow, July 13th!
Hamza Yassin
Hamza Yassin is a passionate, exciting and highly knowledgeable on-screen wildlife cameraman and photographer with a wonderfully warm and accessible presenting style that is set to make him a huge star of the Natural History television genre.
His first foray into presenting was on BBC’s The One Show as one of their new wildlife cameramen. This is where he was seen by DML who immediately signed him having spotted his potential.
Hamza is presenter (under the guise of Ranger Hamza) of the hugely popular CBeebies’ live-action show Let’s Go For A Walk. He can also be spotted presenting and sharing his vast knowledge and camera skills on BBC’s Countryfile. Most recently Hamza presented and was the cameraman for Channel 4’s documentary ‘Scotland: My Life in the Wild’.
Hamza is relatively new to presenting but not to his career in wildlife, his impressive qualifications are a Masters Degree (MSc.) in Biological Imaging and Photography with Meritin addition to his Bachelor of Science (BSc.) in Zoology with Conservation.
He has a passion for birds, is a skilled ornithologist and bird nest recorder with excellent field craft and habitat knowledge. Hamza is also a published wildlife photographer as well as a wildlife tour guide.
Hamza has assisted wildlife cameraman Jesse Wilkinson on projects including a film insert for Springwatch 2015, filming a Sparrow hawk sequence for Silverbacks ‘The Hunt’ narrated by Sir David Attenborough and a film sequence about the British obsession with egg collecting!
He produced a promotional video for the 25th Anniversary of the Bird Fair in Rutland, 2013. Samples of his stunning photography work can be viewed on Instagram @hamzayassin90 and his Facebook page @hamzayassinphotography
Hamza lives in a rural part of the west coast of Scotland, with wildlife and nature right on his doorstop as a constant inspiration for his work. In his spare time Hamza competes in the Highland Games.
Kate Kronreif
Kate studied fine art in the UK many moons ago before working in London and New York as a graphic designer. Kate now lives with her family in Vienna, Austria, and work as a freelance illustrator.