Stella’s Starliner
Rosemary Wells
Walker Books
Any new book from Rosemary Wells is a cause for celebration; this one is certainly so.
Stella, a little fox lives happily in her safe, secure little world in her splendid silver Starliner mobile home. Therein is everything she needs – a cosy room for sleeping, one for being awake and most importantly, a loving mummy and daddy (although the latter has to spend weekdays working away). Life seems just perfect, particularly family Sunday pancakes together and sharing books borrowed from the Books on Wheels van with mummy. But one day, Stella’s feelings of security take a very hard knock when a gang of weasels makes fun of her different kind of home and way of life.

Stella tries to keep her sadness to herself but her mum eventually coaxes the truth from her.
Dad has a solution; he hooks their home to his truck and the family take off – almost literally – and set up home in a sunny, palm tree surrounded spot beside a house of friendly rabbits, safe, secure and happy once more.
With its underlying themes of difference, acceptance, security, loss of innocence, resilience and what really makes home a home, this story, told in an effectively colloquial style, offers plenty of food for thought and discussion. In particular I’d want to talk with children about what to me at least, is the somewhat enigmatic and surprising ending,
Wells’ mixed media illustrations beautifully capture the changing emotions of Stella and her parents; the faces are enchanting.

The silver-framed whole page scenes and smaller vignettes, each with their own delightful details,are entirely in keeping with the colour of Stella’s family home, and the one glorious star-filled night flight double spread brings to mind Van Gogh’s The Starry Night.

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The House that Zac Built
Alison Murray
Orchard Books
In her latest offering, Alison Murray provides a new slant on the traditional House that Jack Built rhyme. Zac uses wooden blocks to construct his house until his activities are interrupted by a pesky buzzing fly. This itinerant visitor goes on to disturb, a sleek cat,

a cow, a would-be dozing dog, and some sheep, wreaking havoc right across the farmyard. Fortunately though, young  Zac knows just what to do

and before long, with fly duly dispatched and animals calm, peace reigns once more. Time to sit down and admire Zac’s creation.

Murray’s characteristically retro illustrations convey the scenes of the unfolding drama with wit and panache that perfectly match the pace and tenor of her rhyming saga.
With lots of opportunities for orchestrating the reading with buzzes and clangs, splashes and more, this lovely book is perfect for early years story sessions.
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Hairy Bear
Sam McCullen
Hodder Children’s Books pbk
Hairy Bear has had enough of living with his family in their cramped cave and longs for a better life elsewhere. Determined to find it, he CREAK CRACKS, SCRITCH SCRATCHES, SPLISH SPLOSHS AND CLICK CLACKS his way through a dark forest, over snowy mountains, through a cool lake and along a windy road to a strange place filled with all manner of bears. There he enjoys a fun-filled afternoon then joins his new-found friends at home for a meal,

games and a share of their enormous bed. BLISS …

until that is, he realizes that actually his hosts are not hairy bears at all, but small humans. Thereupon our wandering cub is off at a gallop, or rather a CLICK CLACK, SPLISH SPLOSH SCRITCH SCRATCH …

all the way home to a huge welcoming hug.
An absolute delight.
McCullen’s soft focus earthy tones are just right for his ursine environments and characters of the cleverly circular story. Attentive followers of Hairy Bear’s adventure will especially enjoy spotting  his spider companion at each turn of the page in addition to the droll delights of the details in  every illustration.
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Barbapapa’s New House
Annette Tison and Talus Taylor
Orchard Books
This is a reissue of a now classic tale first published over forty years ago and it still holds its charm.
The Barbas are jellybaby-coloured blobby beings that are able to shape-shift. In this story, their now- too small house is storm damaged so they work together to create their own home from an old abandoned house. Their co-operative effort serves them well for a while but is eventually demolished. Once more the Barbapapa family work together pouring buckets of ‘Barba plastic’ material over themselves and creating a unique, multi-celled, bubble-shaped house with a separate, appropriately fitted out room for each family member. Their life of self-sufficiency seems idyllic for a while but then comes the sound of home-wrecking machinery again. Time to make further use of that Barba plastic …
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