This is a great book and the illustrations are adorable! I look forward to reading more from Bruno Hachler in the future.

Room on Top features an anteater mom and her offspring. Little anteater is lonely riding alone atop his mama's back, so invites a friend to join him. One friend leads to another, until there are so many animals clinging on that they can't hang on any longer. I read this to two of my grandchildren and they thought it was wonderful. They loved seeing the animals climb aboard and hang onto one another. The illustrations are whimsical and we loved them. I like the theme of acceptance, friendship and welcoming, although I did feel bad for mama anteater carrying the load. When I was young one of my favourite stories was Thidwick, The Big-Hearted Moose by Dr. Seuss and this book reminded me a bit of that one. This is one we would read again.

I loved this story. And the artwork is so unique. Little anteater rides on their mama’s back. They are lonely, while out on a walk they ask friends to join them on mama’s back. But the pile gets too big and the inevitable happens. This would be awesome turned into a flannel board story. But the illustrations are really fantastic, and as a flannel board I would miss the artwork. But A lovely fun story that could be used and read again, again, and again.

What a sweet story with whimsical illustrations and a patient mama! We especially love counting exactly how many little critters mama carries on her back!

Little anteater feels lonely and mama is EXTREMELY tolerant when a multitude of different young animals are invited one at a time to ride on her back with the lonely one. It's a fun book for adults to read with children and for ESL to polish their English and enjoy the fun of making friends
Marshall Yarbrough has translated it into English!
The illustrations by Laura D'Arcangelo are simply delightful, colorful, and forthright. Every public and school library needs a copy!
I requested and received a free temporary e-book on Adobe Digital Editions from North South Books Inc., NorthSouth Books via NetGalley. Thank you!

I loved this book! It was such a sweet story about getting a new perspective, and I loved seeing all of the new ideas and friendships along the way. I also loved the silly ending with everyone falling, and I'm sure my students will as well.

My grandaughter and I very much enjoyed the story of the anteater and his friends going for a ride on the mother anteaters back. My grandaugher (4) commented that she did not like the pictures because it was hard to see the individual animals (they were all smooshed together). She also was a bit concerned that it would hurt the Mummy's back with all of those animals on. She did laugh when they all fell off though !

Do you ever just love something so much it makes you want to cry? Because this book did that to me. It leapt into my heart and will nevvver leave.

I am insanely obsessed with animals, especially when they're given human traits and SWEET SMUSHY FACES!
I LITERALLY CANNOT EVEN HANDLE HOW FANTASTIC THIS BOOK IS! Such a sweet and simple story about a lonely anteater and the most charming animal friends who hitch a ride on his Mamas back with him.

Each new animal that jumps atop for a fresh view on Mama's back is beautifully and hilariously drawn to emphasize their unique personalities. I'm not even doing them justice by way of my explanation- you'll have to trust me and BUY IT!! You will not regret it.
The author and illustrator brilliantly brought these characters to life and I wanted to snuggle all of them. Their sounds, their eyes, & their goofy little faces had me smiling the WHOLE time.

This is suchhhh a fun and playful book- I probably wouldn't recommend at bedtime though because then your little will NOT want to sleep- I can promise you that. Would be a great opportunity for learning the different animals and even using it as a lesson in counting as the number of crazy babes increases as the book goes on.

100000000/10 HIGHLY RECOMMEND!
Thank you, thank you to Netgalley, the author & illustrator, and the publisher for allowing me to be enchanted by Room On Top!
Go buy it (or pre-order it), like now!

The most important opinion: my kid liked it. And then fell asleep. So that's a plus!

A typical "one too many" story. Little anteater invites animals to climb up on his mother's back, and all the animals love it up there. Until one too many join in, and all come tumbling down. While normally you'd expect the final addition to be a small thing (maybe a bug), as a punchline for things going bad, the last animal here is probably the biggest. Got to learn your stacking rules, little anteater!

The artwork is a bit sparing, but there are often several images on a page, as we add animal after animal. The animals aren't too cartoonish or anthropomorphic, but there is a definite simplicity to the designs. And everyone looks like they need some conditioner! Stray hairs all over!

A nice, quick read for your voracious child book-lovers.

Advance copy provided by the publisher.

This is a super cute picture book about a little anteater who loves riding on his mom's back. He starts feeling a bit lonely and decides to invite some friends to join him up there. As other baby animals cling on for dear life, the pile of animals gets higher and higher and suddenly everyone comes tumbling down! The baby anteater realizes that his mom's back is a great place for him to ride, but maybe not for all his friends too! I can definitely see kids loving this book. The pictures are funny and interesting and the text is fairly easy to read and comprehend. I would recommend this book for parents and teachers of children in the age 4-9 range. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this funny book!

Flash score: 3.2

Room on Top by Bruno Hächler is about a baby anteater who loves riding on his moms back. When he starts to feel lonely he invites other animal friends to join him. Through the story, they pile on momma anteaters back, one by one, until there is no space left. Finally, they all come tumbling down, except for baby anteater. Baby anteater realizes that riding on moms back may not fit everyone else but it is the perfect place for him.

I enjoyed the playful tone of this story. Baby anteater was curious and friendly which are great qualities to model for children. I wish there was a clear lesson or moral to the story, unfortunately like all of anteaters friends, it fell flat. Further, the illustrations scratchy style and limited color palette made it difficult to tell the animals from one another.

An overall fun and feel good book, its merit lies in all the cute animals that are a part of the story. Sadly, they are not easily recognizable and that is why I would not recommend this book to friends and family.

Thank you NorthSouth Books, Bruno Hächler, and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

Hmmm... Certainly a novel young read, this was a book where I could see it might have some appeal, but I felt little of it. The story should be fine – it's about a baby anteater, who is carried on his mother's back, as that's what they do. Only he invites first this 'friend', then that 'friend' and eventually a whole zoo-load of different critters to join him up there. The bigger problem with the writing then is that it only has one place to go, and doesn't make for something to read over and over to gain further insight. The bigger problems still however for me were in the art – the inclusion of all the critters' squawks and bleats and other noises, and the fact the design goes for dynamism and a quite indescribable kind of punky, grungy cartoonishness as opposed to accuracy and detail, that I found almost irksome. Get on board with that, be of an age when a character's misused determination leading to a single bit of slapstick makes a book stand out for you, and I can see this working – beyond that, it will only remain passable. Two and a half stars, perhaps.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

It was a fun read with a realistic depcitjon of anteaters, which aren't common in kid books. Great illustrations!

Thank you to NetGalley and North South Books for the opportunity to read and review an e-ARC of this sweet title.

It isn't hard to capture my heart when you're writing about fun and strange animals like anteaters, and this book delivered all the adorable friends like snails, moles, frogs, woodpeckers, and more. The illustrations are great, and the story is very visually engaging, as more and more animals pile on top of mama anteater's back - the baby's favorite place to be. The plot itself has a great background message of not overloading mama with all these added responsibilities! There's also a great takeaway that everyone can have a different point of view within the exact same situation (as in, the snail thinks riding on the anteater's back is so speedy, while the frogs think the experience is dry.)

Thank you to net galley and North Star publishing for the advance copy of "Room on Top" for the opportunity to read I'm exchange of my honest feedback.

We really enjoyed this story of a young anteater who gets lonely on his mothers back and asks new friends to join them. The ant eater continues to invite more and more friends until it's too much and they crash.

It was cute story that did show how you can share your experience with others and make connections that way. But it also in the end wrapped up with the young ant eater bro g comfortable and doing his own thing when it was time for his friends to go,

It 100% went over my kids head, but I laughed to myself when the duck joined the fray. I was like wait a second it's not the ducklings that joined but the momma duck that needed a moment of space and friend time away from all her ducklings. This was relatable from a moms point of you. You love your kids but it's healthy to have breaks.

I really enjoyed the artwork on this one. I'm not sure if the pink lines will be in the final edit but it did bring a pop of color and uniqueness. The animal faces were well drawn with clear facial expressions. My kids could easily tell when they were unsure, happy or worried. 5 stars all the way.

Grateful to have received a digital copy of this book from NetGally & NorthSouth Books.

This sweet silly story starts off with a little anteater enjoying spending time riding around on his mother’s back. He feels a little lonely so he asks his fellow animals to join him and on his mother’s back. And more, and more….and more join in.

The illustrations are so adorable. The artistic style is not like any other book I have seen, and is just so fun. Children up to 8 will surely enjoy the images and fun loving tale.

I read this with my son and he shared the lesson he learned from this story. He said that some times in life you just need to do your own thing and that thing may not be for everyone, and that is OK. What a fun story to share with your young reader!

This children’s book was so adorable and super silly! It is definitely one I can see kids giggling along too as the mom anteater got more and more passengers. This one doesn’t really have a strong message to convey, it’s just a super sweet little book with adorable pictures! I highly recommend this one!

5/5⭐️

What drew me first to this book was the art style. I love how the animals are cartoonized, but also have a level of detail that makes them unique. I think they would be recognizable as their species to children, while also being visually interesting enough to engage an adult reader.

What I liked most about the story is the capacity for discussion about friendship and found family. Of course this is a fun book with great visual detail that could be read to or by a child without a need for a deep dive. But if an adult reader, guardian, or teacher wanted to dig deeper, the themes are definitely there. I think this book would be a great choice for children or parents/guardians of only children who may sometimes get lonely but ultimately love their family and friends.

This was such a cute book! Little anteater loves riding on mama’s back. As he journeys through the forest, he meets other animals that want to take a ride and join in the fun! Mama’s back turns into a jenga stack of forest animals! Will they all be able to stay up there?

Spoiler: no, they all come tumbling down. And my 4-year-old twins thought it was hilarious! They also enjoyed the bright illustrations! Perfect story for young ones. Thank you to NetGalley and North South Books for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a sweet little story! This would be a good one to talk about cause and effect in class. The illustrations are great! I love the line work on the pictures.