Umar is an exceptionally beautiful book about a little boy who loves keys and how they work. He watches people lock and unlock doors with their keys and he is fascinated so much that he wants to lock and unlock doors too. He learns to do this by watching carefully what the grown-ups do and then using that knowledge to try himself.

The book has been written by author David Cahn who works as an early years and primary SEN educator at a primary school in Leeds and features one of his former pupils who loved key.

The illustrations are full-page, bright, and colourful. They are eye-catching and bring the story to life. The text is kept to a minimum and large too, so this would be a wonderful book for those learning to read or new readers to read alone.

The plot is delightful and I loved seeing little Umar be so passionate about key and locks and how through observation he learned how keys and locks work together, such as they only unlock if they key is moved in a certain direction and the key can only be removed from the lock in one position.

The book provides lots of talking points for adults and children to converse about the story and with the book being told from Umar’s perspective, children will be able to engage with it and hopefully, it will become a firm favourite to read.