Help! Help!/Bachaao! Bachaao!

‘Help! Help!' calls the big black ant when the little black ant falls into the water. But the only answers it gets are ‘crokk', ‘isspiss', ‘aaaanh', ‘cheek', ‘miyawwwwn' and ‘woaw'. Who will save the baby? Unusual sounds add excitement to a familiar pattern in this folktale-based story. The sometimes onomatopoeic, sometimes alliterative, sometimes rhyming words that add flavour to the story stretch the concept of bilingual translation. The result is a parallel set of onomatopoeic, alliterative or rhyming words in another language that enrich the child's vocabulary and approach to language.