Category Picture Books

Hello Friend! / Bunny Braves the Day

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Hello Friend!
Rebecca Cobb
Macmillan Children’s Books

It’s the mismatch between what is said by the small girl narrator and what is shown in Rebecca Cobb’s enchanting, warm illustrations that make this book such a winner.

From the start the girl enthusiastically shares everything during playtime both indoors and out, at lunchtime, during quiet times and noisy ones.

What is evident though is that the boy on whom she focuses all this sharing attention is going to take much longer to feel ready to share in the well-intentioned advances of the little girl.
However, a friendship does develop …

and it’s one where both parties are equally enthusiastic about their togetherness.

This is a gorgeous story to share with youngsters especially those starting school; it offers plenty to reflect on and talk about, both at home and in the classroom.

Bunny Braves the Day
Suzanne Bloom
Boyds Mills Press

It’s Bunny’s first day of school but he wants nothing of it: he doesn’t know anybody, supposes nobody likes him; his socks are too short, his shorts too long and he can’t tie his shoes. Oh woe!

Big sister cajoles him with plenty of empathy and ideas,

but with a hurting tummy, it’s decided … ‘I’d better not go … Because I don’t even know how to read!’

After more loving comments, ‘Sometimes you just feel like crying before you feel like trying. You’ll find a friend. Not all shoes use laces. And teachers love to teach reading…’ and listing things little bro. CAN do, he’s almost ready to surrender but not before one last try, ‘Mom will miss me.’ (Said parent has uttered not a word in all this, though she does take a photo).

Finally, it’s time to face up to the inevitable and once more it’s down to big sis. to deliver the final upbeat reassurance at the classroom entrance.

The entire text takes the form of the dialogue between the bunny siblings –blue for the new boy and red for older sister; while Suzanne Bloom’s watercolour and pencil illustrations highlight the feelings of the two characters beautifully.

Just right to share with little ones, especially in families where there’s likely to be starting school nerves; or with children in a nursery setting.

My Friends and Me

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My Friends and Me
Stephanie Stansbie and Katy Halford
Little Tiger

Families come in many different forms; this book celebrates that diversity. It’s narrated by a cheerful child who introduces, matter-of-fact style, families belonging to several friends.

There’s Kate who has two dads, best friend Harry with just his multi-talented mum

and Olivia with two sisters, two mums and a little brother. Then comes Lily with two homes, one belonging to her dad, the other to her mum.

Some friends are especially good for sleepovers: one lives in an enormous mansion, another in a caravan and a third, on a boat.

Hannah on the other hand, lives with her foster mum (among others in the household) Then there’s Ned’s mum who turns out to be not the man people originally thought but a super-surfer all the same.

In fact each of the families is a happy one and love is the key, not least in the narrator’s own, for we discover that this young child lives with granny and grandpops who are the ‘coolest grown-ups’.

The up-beat tone of the narrator is reflected in Katy Halford’s bright, cheery illustrations that have lots of amusing details such as ‘Frank’ the goldfish and Harry’s toy bear Bon-Bon.

Presenting as it does both traditional and non-traditional family units, this book would be especially helpful for teachers exploring families as a theme ; and of course it’s worth pointing out that every family is in some ways, different from every other one.

If You See a Lion

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If You See a Lion
Karl Newson and Andrea Stegmaier
Words & Pictures

First there was Emma Yarlett’s Nibbles, the book devouring little monster and now courtesy of Karl Newson, we have a lion on the loose – ‘orange, furry, handsome and tall’ by all accounts – that’s had the impudence to eat the story right out of his book; not to mention the corner of its cover. Well really!

Not content with the story though, this creature has also consumed a brass band, a penguin, a troll, a pirate, a wizard and a dinosaur; and don’t believe a word when you read that he’s ‘Dashing, charming, gentle, fun’. Far from it; for this beastie has also devoured an entire forest, a river, a mountain peak

plus a dragon and a sprite. And he doesn’t stop there. What does stop our errant lion right in his tracks however, is a cry

from the little rabbit that’s been on his trail throughout.

Does the little long eared fellow fall for the lion’s beguiling invitation? Far from it. Instead he gives the guzzler what for

and then makes him do what young listeners will have been hoping all along.

And how does this rhyming hide and seek story finish? Well, let’s merely say, satisfyingly, roaringly well and leave you to discover for yourself.

Karl and illustrator Andrea Stegmaier have created a corker of a book that little ones will relish as much as readers aloud who can have enormous fun sharing it with them. Rabbit’s actions throughout are especially entertaining.

New in Town

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New in Town
Marta Altés
Macmillan Children’s Books

Despite its shaggy dog narrator, Marta Altés latest book is anything but a shaggy-dog story.

After a long and tiring journey, said narrator, in search of a new home, arrives at a large town.

After asking around and looking in lots of places, and in spite of all the wonderful sights, sounds and smells, he still hasn’t found anywhere that feels just right.

The people are a delight despite their rather different ways of doing things

but everyone seems just too busy, and nobody can understand, or perhaps even see the home seeker

untll the dog has a chance encounter with a little girl who is lost and wants to go home.

As they look for the child’s home together, the feelings of loneliness (the dog’s) and of being lost (the child’s) grow less

but then it’s time to say goodbye – or is it?

Warm and funny – the illustrations especially – this tale of kindness, friendship and accommodating differences needs to be read several times to appreciate all that’s going on in Marta’s splendid scenes of bustling city life.

Snooze / The Whales on the Bus

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Here are two fun picture books that will ensure very noisy storytime sessions

Snooze
Eilidh Muldoon
Little Door Books

Courtesy of Eilidh Muldoon’s wide-eyed (mostly) owl, what is offered here is a splendidly soporific explanation of how to ensure the best sleep ever. Mmm!

It all begins well enough with our strigine narrator locating a comfortable, peaceful place for slumbering … errr?

– a place wherein you can snuggle and appreciate the surrounding silence – so long as other avians aren’t anywhere around, that is.

Darkness is highly desirable and some soft background music often works wonders

– so long as that’s all you can hear; so maybe it’s wise to check out the location in case of caterwauling felines and yapping pooches. And if your neighbours are not aware of your desire to sleep, a polite request to keep the volume down would be appropriate.

That should mean, that at last it really is slumber time; aaaah!. And once you’ve had that wonderful sleep why not do as our narrator suggests and let one of your pals try using the book too. Sweet dreams …

The clever combination of tongue-in-cheek text and wryly amusing, beautifully executed illustrations make for a splendid debut picture book from Eilidh Muldoon. Whether or not it works as a bedtime story, I’ll leave you to discover.

The Whales on the Bus
Katrina Charman and Nick Sharratt
Bloomsbury Children’s Books

Expect a great deal of enthusiastic noise and lots of action when you share this with little ones. It’s an open invitation to choo, choo, zoom, zoom. dive, loop-the-loop, quack, quack, beep, roar,

yo, ho ho, slip and slide, float and even perhaps whisper nighty night along with the bus riding whales, crane train passengers, skiing bees, jeep driving sheep, submarine diving seals, gliding piloting tiger, truckload of ducks, skating snakes

and the other adventurers in Katrina Charman’s joyful animal extravangaza.

Using the tune of the nursery favourite ‘The wheels on the bus’ and showing each in turn of Nick’s zany scenes of the (largely) cacophony-creating creatures you can have an absolute whale of a time with a class of pre-schoolers when you read this.

Slightly older children could have terrific fun creating their own verses to add to those composed by Katrina and then illustrating them. Bring it on, say I.

The Teeny Weeny Genie

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The Teeny Weeny Genie
Julia Donaldson and Anna Currey
Macmillan Children’s Books

There are faint echoes of the traditional Aladdin and The Fisherman and his Wife in this wonderfully funny tale of wishing that gets totally out of hand.

It all begins down on the farm when Old Macdonald decides to do a spot of cupboard cleaning. Having given his dusty old teapot a good wash, he’s rubbing it dry when out through the spout wafts the resident teeny weeny blue genie. The genie offers the farmer a wish.

It’s not too long before not only does Old Macdonald have that bright red tractor he so wanted, but a wife, a wardrobe, a cradle with a bawling baby,

a host of noisy animals; he’s called the fire-brigade to rescue a cat,

the crew have joined in with the wishing, and then there are superheroes whizzing every which way. The poor long-suffering genie can stand no more.

Powerless to make a wish for himself, he sneaks back into the farmhouse and back to his teapot home. So delighted is he at the sight of it that he gives the teapot a stroke, after which something wonderful and surprising happens …

Now should any of you lovely readers come upon a red teapot with white spots somewhere totally unlikely and feel the need to make a wish, then please be very careful what you wish for.

As always, Julia Donaldson’s zany story is a delight to read aloud, offering as it does, plenty of noisy joining-in opportunities for enthusiastic listeners who equally, will delight in Anna Currey’s watercolour scenes of the mounting mayhem that all began with a single wish and The Teeny Weeny Genie. Like the characters in the story, youngsters will certainly wish for more.

King of the Swamp

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King of the Swamp
Catherine Emmett and Ben Mantle
Simon & Schuster

In a dark dank swamp living peacefully alone and growing orchids in his neat garden, is McDarkly.

One day, this peaceful existence is shattered by a royal entourage led by a roller skating enthusiast King who wants to turn the swamp into a roller-skate park.

However at McDarkly’s mention of orchids the Princess’s ears prick up and an agreement is made that the royal party will give the orchid cultivator just ten days for his orchids to bloom so that the princess can learn from these wonderful plants.

Determined to save his swampy environment from the King’s destructive clutches, McDarkly labours night and day, and as his allocated time is about to end, he comes upon a small green grub on one of the leaves.

Disaster! But all the more so when the one proves to be a great many of the wrigglers and they devour his precious flowers overnight.

Back come the royals, with the King in high spirits when he discovers the lack of orchid flowers. Once again though, it’s down to the Princess to save the day …

Delectably silly, Catherine Emmett’s rhyming tale is an exceedingly clever and enormously enjoyable way of putting across an environmental message or two so that young audiences will be both greatly amused and one hopes, ready to get behind the conservation crusade that still needs lots more activists.

Ben Mantle’s comical scenes are rich in detail – daft and otherwise. Who can fail to giggle over the sight of McDarkly sitting atop a bush outside his home sipping tea from a china cup, or that of the creature singing to his plants.

Shy Ones

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Shy Ones
Simona Ciraolo
Flying Eye Books

We first officially meet flapjack octopus Maurice, the story’s main character, on the front endpapers. Said creature is extremely shy, hiding behind his mum, under his desk at school and among the seaweed fronds in the playground. ‘Unless you were looking for him, you wouldn’t know he’s missing,’ says the narrator.

‘Right about now, you’re probably thinking “What a bore!” But I wouldn’t be so quick to jump to conclusions’ we read but then we see the little cephalopod on his way to Deep Blue Dance Hall where, surrounded by a host of glowing creatures and looking as though he’s blissfully happy, he performs a solo dance.

Then comes an invitation to a party, which Maurice somewhat reluctantly turns up to with a handy disguise; then the omniscient narrator steps in again with some revealing comments …

and a friendship is forged. Finally on the back endpapers we discover the narrator’s identity is Lucy the Box Fish another reclusive marine creature.

Observant readers/listeners may just have noticed that said fish has been lurking in the background in several of the early spreads and those who haven’t can enjoy looking back and discovering her whereabouts in Simona Ciraolo’s wryly humorous sub aquatic scenes full of charming, jewel bright sea creatures.

A gentle delight to share with many little humans – introverted or extroverted – or perhaps, just one little shy one.

Too Many Bubbles

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Too Many Bubbles
David Gibb and Dan Taylor
Simon & Schuster

Dogs and exceedingly dirty water or mud seem to have a magnetic attraction and it’s certainly the case in musician/songwriter David Gibb’s madcap rhyming tale that begins with an extremely mucky pooch and instructions from Mum to ‘give the dog a bath’.

It’s not long though before this seemingly straightforward enterprise has descended into uncontrollable bubbly mayhem as the three children concerned set out in hot pursuit of their havoc-wreaking pet and the bubbling soapy trail.

As we follow the foam it becomes clear that the cause of the chaos is grasped firmly between the pooch’s jaws as it dashes rather in the fashion of the traditional Magic Porridge Pot, through the market square

and the park to the zoo.

There bubbles soon enclose not just the perpetrator of the chaos but all the inhabitants of said zoo as well. Something has to be done and quickly.

And something is, but it’s not quite what the rescue services have in mind as they risk life and limb…

And the dog? Err – let’s just say he seems to have thoroughly enjoyed himself and is badly in need of another dip in the tub.

Dan Taylor’s effervescent illustrations are enormous fun too: I particularly love the scene of the fountain invasion.

Arlo, the Lion Who Couldn’t Sleep

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Arlo, the Lion Who Couldn’t Sleep
Catherine Rayner
Macmillan Children’s Books

Catherine Rayner has created an absolute stunner of a bedtime book in this story of Arlo the insomnia-suffering lion. He’s tried everything without success and now he’s feeling fed up and thoroughly exhausted.

But then he has an encounter with Owl

an expert at sleeping when it’s noisy and hot, and in her sing-song voice, she teaches Arlo how to wind down ready to fall fast asleep.

It works wonders and the lion feels rejuvenated after a long sleep. So much so that he bounds off to tell Owl, waking her up in so doing.

Arlo reciprocates with a sleep-inducing song for his feathered friend.

Both creatures are delighted. Their celebratory cheer in the evening however, doesn’t go unheard but perhaps the words ‘Have a good stretch from your nose to your toes. / Do a little wriggle, let your eyes gently close … As you fall into calmness, so comfy and deep / Your mind will rest and you’ll drift off to sleep’ sung as a duet will prove even more soporific where it’s needed.

Perfectly paced, the combination of a calming narrative with its in-built repetition of mindful meditative verses, and totally gorgeous, amazingly textured illustrations that take your breath away, this is sheer delight no matter how many times you read it.

I can think of no better book to share with little ones at bedtime; it’s brilliant through and through.

The Monstrous Tale of Celery Crumble

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The Monstrous Tale of Celery Crumble
Ben Joel Price
Oxford University Press

Meet Celery Crumble, a mischievous young miss if ever there was one. Whenever Celery commits one of her misdemeanours she doesn’t apologise in the proper way; instead she says, ‘Sorry! Not sorry!’ and shortly after goes on to do something equally outrageous.

There was the time she treated her father to a birthday breakfast in bed but omitted one very vital thing.

Then, when the boy next door comes to play at Celery’s invitation, her rainbow painting is NOT on paper (or even the wall).

On each occasion, the person on the receiving end of her bad behaviour responds thus: ‘If you act like a monster then a monster you’ll become. Then you’ll be sorry for all the naughty things you’ve done!’

On the school zoo trip, this recalcitrant child takes a large sealed glass jar into which she’s collected the most obnoxious smells she could find. Needless to say, said jar doesn’t stay sealed for long and the result is pandemonium …

You can guess how everyone responded.

Back home in bed that evening, Celery’s sleep is, let’s say monstrously uncomfortable, not to mention transformative …

Perhaps it’s now time to make apologies for real. Err …

Young children will absolutely relish this ‘do-as-you-would-be done-by’ cautionary tale with its spirited scenes of Celery’s preposterous actions and their outcomes and demand immediate re-readings.

Lisette’s Green Sock

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Lisette’s Green Sock
Catharina Valckx
Gecko Press

One bright sunny day while out for a walk, Lisette comes upon a single green sock, puts it on and continues walking happily along until a pair of cat brothers make fun of her for wearing just one sock.

Having searched unsuccessfully for its pair, she returns home where her mum is none too impressed at the one sock and its dirty state, but she washes it all the same.

As Lisette waits for it to dry, along comes her friend Bert

who mistaking it for a hat, asks to try it on.

Up come the bullying cat brothers with the matching sock but instead of giving it to Lisette they lead her and Bert a merry dance before throwing the sock into the water.

Disappointed Lisette and Bert return home to Lisette’s house and there, joy of joys, Lisette’s mother has knitted a new green sock and everyone is happy.

Not least the fish that discovers a sock in the pond and finds a wonderful use for it.

Which all goes to show how an odd sock, a pair of bullying cats, a good friend and a change of viewpoint can turn a dismal expression into one of delight (or several!). Long live individuality.

A charmer of a book with lively, expressive watercolour illustrations; it’s just right for sharing with a nursery or reception class, or with one child.

Best Day Ever / Invent-a-Pet

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Here are a couple of recent titles from Sterling Children’s Books

Best Day Ever
Michael J. Armstrong and Églantine Ceulemans

It’s the last day of summer and William has just one goal on his list left: have the most fun ever, and he has a handy fun-o-meter invention to help in his assessment of attempts.

What he hasn’t bargained for though is the non-stop interruptions by his neighbour Anna, she of the incredible imagination. As he pursues his fun-finding in trampolining, art

and scooting, she subverts his every effort by her messy, noisy creative play that scores high on William’s fun-o-meter, in contrast to his own activities.

Eventually however, the boy realises that perhaps a bit of silly, messy, possibly even dangerous play might be the way to go;

and thus with William way out of his comfort zone, a fantastic day ensues and an unlikely friendship between two contrasting characters is forged. Not to mention that a satisfying green light from a certain fun-o-meter also results.

Debut picture book author, Armstrong’s story is a great reminder of the importance of having permeable constructs, and of accepting and celebrating difference.

In her mixed media art Églantine Ceulemans adroitly shows how Anna’s zany, exuberant world gradually impinges upon the matter-of-fact notions of William. There’s a wealth of amusing details, not least the silent, bit-part playing animals to which William seems completely oblivious.

Invent-a-Pet
Vicky Fang and Tidawan Thaipinnarong

Katie wants a pet, but not anything ordinary like a goldfish: her pet must be something extraordinary.

One day she finds a strange-looking machine in her living room, put there by her mum with a note saying ‘Hope this helps in your quest to find an extraordinary pet!

 

Her first input of a football, a blade of grass and a carrot result in a fluffy green creature– cute, but not what she wants.

Several tries later, she still hasn’t got her desired result, although the house is rather inundated with pets. Time to go back to the drawing board and work out how the machine works, decides Katie.

She selects three new items and starts again. After some time she discovers the correlation between size, colour and the third variable. Is this her eureka moment? Not quite.

With persistence, will Katie succeed in her problem solving task and create the pet of her dreams? Perhaps, but first she has to think of a way to deal with the large number of pets she’s already created …

What a fun way to introduce the process of science problem solving – great for a primary classroom STEM collection. Youngsters will love the pets in Tidawan Thaipinnarong’s comical illustrations and her endpapers are a treat too.

The Smile Shop

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The Smile Shop
Satoshi Kitamura
Scallywag Press

The boy narrator of The Smile Shop is thrilled to have saved sufficient pocket money to treat himself for the first time ever. What will he buy though?

All the market stalls and shops have exciting goods displayed so should he buy a tasty-looking apple pie,

the beautiful little boat, or perhaps the book that’s caught his eye; or maybe that hat that suits him so well?

He’s still undecided when disaster strikes and all but one of his coins disappears down through a drain cover.

The lad is devastated but then what’s that? A smile shop? Really? Do they actually sell smiles? He could definitely do with one right then, so in he goes …

With his quirky, scratchy drawing and watercolour illustrations Satoshi Kitamura’s latest story is essentially a parable that shows how powerful something as simple as a smile can be.

I think that’s something we’ve all learned since the start of the pandemic – more difficult now that masks have to be worn in various places. It’s also a wonderful demonstration of the fact that kindness is worth so much more than anything that money can buy – something else we’ve learned in the last few months.

A book to ponder upon and discuss across a wide age range.

Now You See Me, Now You Don’t

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Now You See Me, Now You Don’t
Patricia Hegarty and Jonny Lambert
Little Tiger

The chameleon narrator of this rhyming story is a trickster and proud so to be. There’s nothing the creature likes better than to use its ability to change colour to have fun at the expense of the other jungle dwelling animals  as it teases first elephant, then orang-utan, followed by a pair of toucans and a sloth.

Not only that, but playing the colour switch trick is also a great way to avoid chores, evade bedtime or help yourself to another creature’s tasty meal.

However, Chameleon’s tickling of Sloth triggers a chain reaction that has the potential to end unhappily for Anteater;

but hidden away watching events is Frog.

Instead of the praise Chameleon anticipates from the creature, Frog strikes back

and then hastily merges back into the surroundings leaving Chameleon to show contrition, fess up, apologise to all the other animals and promise to end his mischief.

Peace is restored to the jungle – well most of the time. Perhaps changing one’s colour is less easy than changing one’s ways …

Jonny’s vibrant collage style illustrations set against stark white backgrounds immediately grab the attention drawing the eye into the action and there are myriads of minibeasts to spot too.

Purists might baulk at the inhabitants of the fictional jungle, which hail from both the new and the old worlds. Nevertheless it’s a visual and verbal treat that provides an opportunity to talk about the kind of behaviour Chameleon exhibited.

Ride the Wind

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Ride the Wind
Nicola Davies and Salvatore Rubbino
Walker Books

Out on a fishing trip with his father Tomas and Uncle Felipe, Javier sees that an albatross has been caught on one of the fishing hooks and is barely alive. He wraps the bird in a tarpaulin and hides it away.

Once they reach the shore, he stows it safely and starts nursing it back to health with the kind help of some of the village residents who give him healing ointments, a dog’s bed and fish at low cost.

As Javier and the bird get to know one another, the boy becomes sure it’s a female he’s caring for, but it’s impossible to keep its presence a secret.

His father agrees to allow it to stay until their next sea trip but the lad has his own very special reason for caring so much about the bird’s fate.

Little by little the albatross gets better but as the trip draws ever closer, she shows no sign of taking to the wing.

Then talk of an imminent ‘big wind’ gives Javier an idea. But when he goes to find the bird, he learns that his father has got rid of it.

Not caring for the consequences of his actions, Javier is determined to rescue the albatross and send her flying homewards.

Can he pull off his daring bird launch? And what will be his father’s reaction when he discovers what his son has done?

Salvatore Rubbino’s splendid watercolour illustrations capture both the emotions and the drama of Nicola Davies’ heartfelt telling that interweaves a father and son’s grieving, and the albatross and its fate. (Nicola also includes an introductory note about wandering albatrosses like the one in her story.)

Albert Talbot Master of Disguise

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Albert Talbot Master of Disguise
Ben Manley and Aurélie Guillerey
Two Hoots

From Ben Manley the author of The Misadventures of Frederick and the illustrator of Daddy Long Legs, Aurélie Guillerey, comes a book that celebrates the power of the imagination in children.

We spend a day in the company of young Albert and his various alter egos from the time his mother calls him to get up until she tucks him in to bed at night.

In between Albert is faced with a number of challenges each of which he rises to by assuming a new persona.

First as his mum wakes him, he’s notorious desperado Clate Stouderhoofen, ‘the incognito kid, the man with no name’. W-hay!

As he has to leave for school, Albert is ‘Rusti Buffels, Fearless Mountaineer and climber of Mount Chirrachit. Show and tell time sees him as Professor Octavius Pickleswick, mechanical engineer presenting his greatest robotic invention.

At the poolside before his swimming lesson,

he becomes Zandrian Delaclair, Antarctic Submariner – destroyer of the abominable Vampire Cuttlefish! – you bet!

Back home there’s one more change of identity and then, come bedtime, tired by his day of imaginings, Albert realises that at that particular moment as sleep calls, he’s very happy just to be himself.

Children and adults alike will delight in the weird and wonderful names Ben Manley has created for Albert in his far-out fusion of fantasy and reality, while Aurélie Guillerey’s illustrations, be they those of Albert’s imagination or reality, are full of quirky detail as they show the boy as hero or rule subverter.

Imagination is power – what a great message.

Oof Makes An Ouch!

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Oof Makes An Ouch!
Duncan Beedie
Templar Publishing

Way, way back in the days of yore when people knew no words other than their own name there lived a little girl called Oof. In the same village lived her best friend, a boy named Pib. They were pretty much inseparable spending their time playing exploring and inventing.

One day while engaged in the latter, Oof comes up with a superb idea and communicates it to her friend pictorially in the sand.
Together they endeavour to lift the required rock – an exceedingly heavy one – but disaster strikes, it slips from their grasp and lands with a thud on Oof’s foot.

OUCH! She utters a brand new word to express just how much it hurts.

The grown-ups are astonished and all are eager to try it out …

In order to vent her anger at the rock, Oof adds “BASH!” to the linguistic repertoire of the villagers and then “Yummy”.

Oof receives great adulation as she and the rock are carried back to her hut, where later she begins work on the stone.
Pib meanwhile is feeling lonely and more than a tad jealous. Come nightfall he feels the need to express his own feelings – physically – and so he does.

Come morning Oof is devastated to discover the outcome of this fury.

Now at last, a remorseful Pib finds he is able to come up with a word that might just be the saving of their precious friendship …

What about that broken stone, you might be wondering, and the invention the two children were working on? To discover the answers you’ll have to grab yourself a copy of Duncan’s smashing story and see. The finale will definitely make you laugh.

Full of wry visual humour, the splendidly expressive digitally created illustrations are rendered in foresty hues and the telling is pitch perfect for sharing with a young audience.

Yet another winner for Duncan.

Albie’s 10 Anniversary Blog Tour: How to Catch a Dragon

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It’s Red Reading Hub’s turn on the Albie 10th anniversary blog tour and today we have a ROAR of a book as our focus:
How to Catch a Dragon, Caryl Hart and Ed Eaves’ wonderful story that begins with Albie visiting the library to draw a dragon for his homework and takes him off on a fantastical adventure with a young knight.

To celebrate, Albie and his dragon adventure, author Caryl Hart shares five top facts about dragons:

Five Facts about Dragons

1. Dragons appear in stories from all over the world including India, China, Europe, Egypt and America.

2. Some scientists think that, long ago, people found dinosaur fossils and thought they belonged to dragons. Others think the idea of dragons is based on people’s fear of snakes or crocodiles or iguanas.

3. Chinese culture celebrates the Year of the Dragon every 12 years. If you were born between January 2012 and February 2013 then you are a Water Dragon. Chinese dragons are symbols of luck and good fortune and can fly, but don’t have any wings!

4. The How to Train Your Dragon films started out as a series of books written by Cressida Cowell, the first of which was published in 2003. There are now 12 books in the series!

5. Komodo dragons are real creatures that live in Indonesia. They can grow to 3 metres long and eat insects, birds and mammals.

Thanks to the lovely people at Simon & Schuster Children’s Books, Red Reading Hub has a copy of HOW TO CATCH A DRAGON to give away.

To enter, follow @jillbennett18  RT the giveaway tweet and tag a friend. A winner will be chosen at random and the publicist will send you your prize book (closing date 12th August UK entrants only please)

Look out next week for the rest of the blog tour; there are going to be lots more fun facts and giveaways.

Look out soon for Red Reading Hub’s review of Albie’s latest adventure How to Drive a Roman Chariot – that sees him whisked away to Ancient Rome where, along with a young girl, he finds himself driving a runaway chariot.

The Blue Giant

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The Blue Giant
Katie Cottle
Pavilion Books

Picture book messages about helping to save the environment come in all shapes and forms.

In Katie Cottle’s second eco-story the messenger takes the form of an enormous wave that suddenly rises up out of the sea just as Meera and her mother are settling down for a relaxing day on the beach.

This blue giant urgently wants to communicate with them and its message is a vital one asking for their help.
Donning their diving suits and following in their small boat, mother and daughter pursue the wave and discover that the ocean is awash with rubbish of all kinds and that many sea creatures are in great danger.

After a day of hard work a great deal remains to be done to clear up the pollution – way too much for just two people.

The following morning Meera is back on the beach and the next, but now she has enlisted the help of some of her friends.

They in turn enlist some of theirs and so it continues …

The narrative concludes with a list of half a dozen suggested ways in which we can all help by reducing our consumption of single-use plastics.

Katie’s powerful images convey the plastic pollution problem in a manner that young children will easily relate to, particularly those of the sea creatures caught up in the debris. Stories such as this one are a great way to galvanise youngsters into action.

I Can Roar Like A Dinosaur

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I Can Roar Like a Dinosaur
Karl Newson and Ross Collins
Macmillan Children’s Books

What is it about a certain Mouse that causes him to keep on making ridiculous claims? Last time we met him he told his fellow animals that he was a tiger and now, so he’d have them all believe, he’s a fearsome ROARing dinosaur – well briefly …

Never mind; one can always turn to the trusty ‘How to Roar Like a Dinosaur’ guide book with its step-by-step instructions and why not give your pals a lesson too?

Now having watched Mouse in action, I know that he’s got absolutely no clue about how to be an effective teacher; hurling insults at the learners is not a good way to go.

Time to teach the teacher a lesson or two … Perhaps a spot of Mouse-baiting might be effective in unleashing the diminutive rodent’s ROAR.

Success of a kind – but chicken or no chicken, no creature in its right mind would try to teach its grandmother to suck eggs, so to speak …

I’m going to leave our Mouse friend rather precariously balanced upon the branch of a tree; safe in the knowledge that he’ll manage to use his imagination and extricate himself from what looks to be a rather perilous perch.

Yet again team Karl and Ross have created a pricelessly absurd ace of a book that’s full of funny foolishness, brilliantly portrayed pupils and cover to cover entertainment of the first order.

Polly Profiterole’s Little Town Good Enough to Eat / My Grandma is 100

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Here are two recent picture books from Little Steps Publishing

Polly Profiterole’s Little Town Good Enough to Eat
Maggie May Gordon and Margarita Levina

Imagine living somewhere where the only ‘shop’ is the front porch of your house. That’s how it is for Polly Profiterole, pancake maker par excellence who has mixed more pancakes than she cares to remember for way, way too long in a little town without a school, a bank, a pub or a church.

Then one night as she lies in bed Polly decides something must be done to change things. With her brain in over-drive she enlists the help of her husband and the following morning Polly bakes and Percy builds

the most delicious town you could ever envisage, from the Choco-Chip Church at the very top of the hill, all the way down to the Pork Pie Pub at the bottom with some yummy establishments in between including the Cup Cake Coffee Shop

and the Honey Roll Hairdresser (shame there’s no bookshop)., Finally of course, they make ‘Polly Profiterole’s Proper Pancake Parlour’.

Thus Polly and Percy co- created a unique little town that must surely have become a go-to destination instead of a drive right through one.

If your taste buds aren’t in overdrive after sharing this fun book with youngsters, then I’d be very surprised. Poet, Maggie May Gordon and illustrator Margarita Levina serve up a tale of teamwork and enterprise, that all began because despite everything, Polly never lost the ability to imagine.

My Grandma is 100
Aimee Chan and Angela Perrini

What a wonderfully warm book is this one narrated by a small child whose Grandma Edna (great grandma) is celebrating her 100th birthday.

Plenty of thought goes into getting the day just right. What kind of food can 100 year-old teeth cope with? What should the birthday cake be like? Then there’s the consideration of a suitable present for somebody who now lives in a special home with lots of other people and doesn’t really need anything.

Next morning with mounting excitement at the prospect of having thought of the perfect present, it’s time for the narrator and family to drive to Grandma’s special party. And what a wonderful celebration it is, especially with so many relations,

as well as Grandma’s letters from The Prime Minister, the Governor General and the Queen of England. Grandma Edna is some lady with three children, four grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

The author, Aimee Chan is the granddaughter in law of ‘Grandma Edna’ and wrote the book as a celebration of Edna Phillips’ life.

I love the way the narrator’s imaginings are given substance in some of Angela Perrini’s quirky illustrations.

That Dog!

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That Dog!
Emma Lazell
Pavilion Books

Author/illustrator Emma Lazell’s second picture book features Penny who has a particular penchant for purloining pooches, and her new accomplice Pat.

Penny has set her sights on ‘new dog in town’, a multi-talented dog and spotty all over; but it’s down to Pat to procure the creature.

It’s evident from the outset that the highly desirable, dappled dog is a whole lot more savvy than his would-be dog-nappers,

not least Penny who only ever gives Pat partial information about that which she desires.

As he sets out on his first mission. ‘Spotty all over’ is the description she gives her eager to please helper.

He’s surely spoilt for choice when he reaches his destination but which one will he take? Here’s a clue – it’s ‘a bit wiggly and a bit squiggly’.

Has he bitten off more than he can chew however, for the hound (something of a spare-time detective) is watching his every move

as we see in Emma’s caninely comical art when the dog-napper returns on several occasions, each time seizing the wrong animal until …

Altogether this is most definitely, a delightfully dotty and diverting tale.

One Button Benny and the Gigantic Catastrophe / Bad Cat!

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One Button Benny and the Gigantic Catastrophe
Alan Windram and Chloe Holwill-Hunter
Little Door Books

Young robot Benny returns for a new adventure (hurrah! I hear fans shout) and now the Cool Cat competition is fast approaching so, like all his friends, Benny has to get his moggy Sparky super shiny and sparkly for the big event – having done the wretched washing up, that is.

Disaster strikes though, for the next morning every single one of the cats has disappeared. An exhaustive search of the town reveals only a note on the ground: the cats have all been kidnapped.

This certainly warrants the pressing of Benny’s (only to be used in pukka emergencies) red button assures his mum.
Having duly done the deed, something unexpected happens: Benny’s button opens like a door, disgorging two rolled pieces of paper.

There’s only one thing to do if Benny and his friends are to get their pets back safely and that’s work together following the instructions on the paper

and Trojan Horse style, build an enormous scrap metal cat in which to hide and wait for the return of the alien kidnappers who will surely come and steal this massive cat once they hear about it.

And sure enough they do. Fortunately all this cat-napping has made the aliens sleepy and once back on their own planet they fall fast asleep leaving the rescuers to find their missing moggies.

Things don’t go exactly to plan thereafter but I’ll leave Benny and his friends being chased by the wobbly alien cat stealers and you to get hold of a copy of Alan (author) and Chloe – illustrator’s – wacky tale of teamwork, forgiveness and dish washing to discover what happens subsequently.

Bad Cat!
Nicola O’Byrne
Nosy Crow

Nicola O’Byrne’s feline character Fluffykins may have a cute sounding name but this moggy is anything but cute. Indeed he creates a chain of havoc as he knocks down a vase of flowers, tangles up the knitting, unwinds the loo roll, plays havoc with the venetian blind, leaves a large puddle on the floor and that’s not all.

Now I’m not a cat lover, nor am I familiar with cats’ behaviour, but it appears from his expressions that in his boundary pushing actions, Fluffykins knows exactly what he’s doing despite his owner’s warnings and chiding. On the other hand it might just be playful oblivion. In this story Nicola O’Byrne leaves it open for readers to make up their own minds.

With a text addressed directly at the mischievous moggy and so much white space around the action, this latest offering is certainly something altogether different from her previous books.

Young listeners will probably relish Fluffykins sheer devilment; this ailurophobic reviewer certainly would steer clear of his abode.

The Sloth and the Dinglewot

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The Sloth and the Dinglewot
Nicole Prust and Amanda Enright
New Frontier Publishing

Think how many wonderful things you might miss if you never step outside your comfort zone.

That’s exactly what Samuel the sloth does one drowsy summer’s morning. Bored with merely lazing around like his fellow sloths, he takes the opportunity provided by Dinglewot Jinglewot Dingledum Dee, the colourful bird with bells on its feet that offers him an adventure.

Samuel is forced to embrace his fears as he decides to follow the Dinglewot through the treetops, across the grasslands, past the mountains, down a ravine to a dark cave.

Then, after exciting encounters with baboons and later, bats, they finally reach Dinglewotville, the land of the bird’s birth.

There Samuel discovers an amazing carnival and dances the night away – his best night ever.

But eventually for our adventurer it’s time to leave.

He returns to his fellow sloths in the hope that some of them too might set aside their fears and join him and his new friend on another adventure. You never know …

The flowing rhyme of debut author, Nicole Prust’s narrative and Amanda Enright’s richly coloured illustrations make for a lovely storytime read aloud that shows the importance of risk taking and of seizing life’s opportunities.

Spaghetti Hunters

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Spaghetti Hunters
Morag Hood
Two Hoots

Poor Duck is nonplussed; his spaghetti has gone missing. Enter right, atop the tea caddy, Tiny Horse, self-declared greatest ever spaghetti hunter, promising to ‘save the day.’

Rest assured Tiny Horse has all the necessary gear at the ready

and once it’s safely stowed in Duck’s backpack the hunt for this particularly problematic pasta is ready to begin.

Things don’t go as Duck expects but Tiny Horse is confident in her plan and soon has – to her friend’s consternation – amassed a fair bit of the missing spaghetti.

Or perhaps not!

Utterly infuriated Duck returns to the sanity of his teapot and a good book, but he soon has an uninvited visitor disturbing his peace

and criticising his culinary skills.

However, the proof of the spaghetti is in the sampling but Tiny Horse being Tiny Horse, just has to have the last word (or two, to be precise).

For me this is Morag Hood’s best yet – and that’s saying a lot. Splendidly silly, it was all I could do not to splutter my coffee all over my Mac as I was composing this review.

Octopus Shocktopus!

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Octopus Shocktopus!
Peter Bently and Steven Lenton
Nosy Crow

‘One day, we found an octopus / had come to live on top of us.’

What a wonderfully wacky notion and one that instantly grabs the reader’s attention – well, with those eight day-glo orange limbs and body what else would you expect?

Said octopus has descended upon the narrator’s neat-looking house on the cliffs causing consternation with neighbour, Mrs Antrobus who calls the fire-brigade.

However they fail to shift the creature and so it remains, limbs a-dangle and looking decidedly bored with life until the children invite it to play.

It’s great fun for all concerned and they quickly discover that there are lots of other advantages to having a gigantic octopus for a pal. (Pitch that one to a class of five year olds and see what  they can come up with.)

But then comes the fateful day when the roof is bare save for the tidy rows of blue tiles. Tears are shed all round but worry not; a splendiferous finale awaits …

With themes of acceptance and friendship Peter Bently’s rhyming narrative is sheer delight to read aloud and Steven Lenton’s wacky scenes are a visual treat: the octopus’s eyes are just wonderful

and there’s SO much to explore on every spread. Make sure you peruse the endpapers too.

A treat from team Peter and Steven that’s bound to be requested over and over …

In My Dreams / Boo Loves Books

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It’s good to catch up with some recent titles from New Frontier Publishing

In My Dreams
Stef Gemmill and Tanja Stephani

The jewel-like cover of this book immediately conjures up a magical world of adventures.

‘When the world is quiet and I’m alone, I like to dream’ – the opening lines drifting across the bedroom of a sleeping child draw readers into his dreams; adventures he shares with his toys as he lets his imagination take him to a fantastical land of marshmallow clouds, jelly puddles and showers of strawberry rain.

Then it’s deep down to the ocean floor, and up in the air far away riding upon a dragon’s back …

into jungles with monkeys to make mischief with, across plains to roar and leap with lions

and to frozen lands of snow and ice.

I love how the text gently meanders across the pages even towards the end when we’re suddenly told this: ‘In the darkness, the night shadows try to steal my sleep and things appear menacing …

but only momentarily for the page turn reveals the now frail-looking shadows retreating for ‘They have no power over me.’
We finish up in the light once more, a light that’s warm and shining calling the dreamer back safe and loved, to the haven of his bedroom.

What a gorgeous bedtime tale. Snuggle up and share: this will surely transport little ones into their own dream worlds secure in the knowledge that they too can let their imagination roam freely and safely, inspired by Stef Gamill’s warm, rhythmic text and Tanja Stephani’s spectacular, wonder-filled scenes of tenderness and enchantment.

Boo Loves Books
Kaye Baillie and Tracie Grimwood

Phoebe (like a fair number of young children) finds reading aloud rather stressful: what if I make a mistake, she worries when it’s her turn to read with her teacher.

But then her teacher announces, “No reading at school tomorrow” swiftly followed by “Instead, we’ll be reading somewhere special” and that makes Phoebe’s tummy all of a flip flop. So much so that she informs her mum, “I’ll be sick tomorrow.”

But of course she isn’t and off goes the school bus with Phoebe aboard. Their destination is the animal shelter where the children are to read to the resident dogs. Another stressful situation for Phoebe: her dog is really BIG.

Understanding her fear, Miss Spinelli stays close beside Phoebe, reassuring and encouraging her pupil.

Then secure in the knowledge that the dog too is feeling anxious, the little girl settles down with a book and Big Boo, and a transformation slowly starts to take place in both parties …

A beautifully illustrated, empathetic story that is both encouraging and enabling.

Ellie’s Dragon

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Ellie’s Dragon
Bob Graham
Walker Books

Bob Graham has created yet another gorgeous picture book, one that celebrates the imagination of young children.

It features Ellie who when quite young discovers a multi-hued, newly hatched baby dragon atop an egg box in the supermarket. She names him Scratch and takes him home with her.
There she accommodates the tiny creature in her doll’s house feeding him on such fare as nasturtiums, chillies and burnt toast. All the while her mother sees nothing unusual.

As she grows and changes, Ellie’s love for the dragon remains constant: she takes him to nursery

on outings and even to the cinema.

Like Ellie though, Scratch grows and changes. When Ellie turns eleven, her dragon begins to fade away until for the teenage girl, he finally disappears.

It’s time for Scratch to find a new child …

As always, Bob Graham’s illustrations are suffused with his own brand of gentle humour and full of wonderfully whimsical details, as he documents this poignant portrayal of growing up and losing that sense of awe and wonder, that boundless imagination that sadly, so many children have ‘educated’ out of them.

Freedom, We Sing

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Freedom, We Sing
Amyra León and Molly Mendoza
Flying Eye Books

Here’s an enormously powerful and empowering picture book that will surely motivate children to think deeply about freedom and what it means to be free.

The author is an activist whose work focuses on Black liberation and communal healing – ‘the art of listening and honest conversation are the primary tools for lasting change’ says her biographical paragraph inside the book’s cover.
(To that end, I can’t help but recall the wonderful recent channel 4 programmes The School That Tried to End Racism.)

As well as hope, the author’s story, which takes the form of a dynamic conversation between a mother and her small child as they talk about life and the world around them, is an embodiment of determination, wonder …

and mindfulness.

The two look at family photos, reflecting on the love between those close to us making the world seem small and safe; then move outwards to encompass others living under the same sky whose lives might appear different on the surface, some of whose lives are difficult, perhaps due to war or oppression; but nonetheless whose hearts beat like their own and whose parents will do their upmost to keep their children safe from harm.

The child cogitates on the very nature of freedom

before the mother states “Breath is freedom/ A sweet release / The right to be / A universal sign / Of life and peace”.

Both reflecting and radiating the feelings and emotions of the text, so stunning are Molly Mendoza’s richly coloured illustrations that they really take your breath away.

With all that’s been happening in the world recently it’s more important than ever to start sharing, pondering upon and talking about books such as this one with young children. Where better to start than here? …

Wild

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Wild
Sam Usher
Templar Publishing

Grandad and Boy are doing some cat minding for a friend. Boy (the narrator) has done his research and announces that it’s a simple task: they need to feed, cuddle and play with the moggy.

However, cats, like humans, don’t always conform to the norm and this visitor is one of those.

She definitely doesn’t want to play; she turns her back on the food they offer,

and neither a nap nor a cuddle proves any more agreeable.

Boy is convinced the creature doesn’t like him. Grandad is slightly more sanguine until, the cat makes a dash for it.

Through the window she goes with Boy and Grandad following the escapee as best they can,

out into the wilds, where the real and the imagined merge.

Eventually the chase leads them to a fabulously diverse feline gathering where Boy and Grandad join in with the frolics.

Then safely back home once more, Boy decides that perhaps Cat is now more favourably disposed towards him.

Using a repeat refrain as part of Boy’s simple narrative, Sam Usher lets his expressive, superbly detailed, scratchy pen-and-ink images do much of the talking in this splendid celebration of the power of the imagination, and the on-going loving intergenerational relationship.

Catch That Chicken!

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Catch That Chicken!
Atinuke and Angela Brooksbank
Walker Books

Set in a West African village compound this is essentially Lami’s story. Lami has a special talent for catching chickens and everyone of the villagers knows she’s the best.

That’s not to say that her family and friends are without talents of their own – sister Sadia is a super speller,

brother Bilal is brave with bulls

and friend Fatima is a super-speedy plaiter of hair.

One day while chasing a chicken around the compound, Lami ignores the shouts of “Sannu! Sannu!”, “Slow down!” as she dashes madly towards and up the big baobab tree.

Suddenly as she makes a grab for the bird, Lami slips and comes hurtling to the ground where we see a painfully sprained and very puffy ankle and a very tearful little girl.

Some well-chosen words from her Nana Nadia result in a change in Lami’s chicken strategies but it’s one that proves that there’s more than one way to be an ace chicken catcher.

Once again team Atinuke and Angela Brooksbank have created a winning, enriching, gently humorous story, which shows the strong community spirit of Lami’s village wherein everyone is valued. Angela Brooksbank’s spirited scenes abound with colour, texture and pattern showing much about this particular way of life in West Africa.

A great book to add to the family shelves or foundation stage/KS1 classroom collections.

Be Kind

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Be Kind
Pat Zietlow Miller and Jen Hill
Macmillan Children’s Books

Now, more than ever, it’s vitally important for everyone to act with kindness and thoughtfulness to others, no matter who they are.

Here’s a thoughtful and thought-provoking look at what it means to be kind and how kindness can spread.

It begins when a little girl, Tanisha, spills juice all over her new dress one lunchtime to the amusement of most of those in the room. The narrator tries instead words of kindness …

Tanisha however runs off leaving her friend in thoughtful mode and as she paints she muses on the nature of kindness.

It could be many things shown through actions such as giving, helping or paying attention; or perhaps by thanking someone or merely using their name – all relatively easy to do.

Sometimes however it’s more difficult …

but small acts of kindness can have a ripple effect, growing worldwide even

and … “All the way back to Tanisha and me. So we can be kind. Again.”

Throughout the author leaves space for readers/listeners to reflect on the narrator’s words, which never once become preachy.

Jen Hill’s illustrations are enormously appealing capturing so well the feelings of Tanisha, the narrator, their classmates and the wider community.

This is most certainly a book to share and discuss both at home and in primary classrooms.

Monsieur Roscoe On Holiday

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Monsieur Roscoe On Holiday
Jim Field
Hodder Children’s Books

Jim Field has clearly been doing a fair bit of sitting on his own sit-upon, as he’s both author and illustrator of this picture book. The aim (as well as to entertain) is to set youngsters on a journey to becoming bi-lingual as they join the enormously endearing Monsieur Roscoe and his goldfish, Fry, for a holiday.

First comes the packing – always a bothersome task – and then with luggage loaded behind, it’s onto his bike and away through the big city to the railway station to catch the train.

It’s a close call, but fairly soon it’s time to meet up with Eva for a spot of camping. Learning to put up a tent courtesy of your rabbit friend, once you get to the campsite isn’t the best idea Monsieur R. even if you have come with all the gear.

Next morning Monsieur Roscoe and Fry bid ‘au revoir’ to Eva and board a bus bound for the ski slopes where there’s a rendezvous with another friend, Stan. Seemingly our canine holidaymaker has hidden talents …

The next destination appears a whole lot more peaceful. Caro is certainly happy to see her friends and even allows Monsieur Roscoe to take the wheel of her speedboat but it’s evident that a certain dog needs to hone his steering skills when it comes to watercraft.

The penultimate stop is the seaside where Jojo and Didi eagerly greet the new arrivals. After a splash dans la mer comes the last leg of the journey and a meet up with Dougal duck for a spot of indulgence at the busy village café.

However, even the most charming of travellers must go home eventually, and so it is with Monsieur Roscoe and Fry. Assuredly they’ll have lots to tell their friends back in their home city and who knows, perhaps after a good night’s sleep the two of them will start thinking about their next adventure …

Jim introduces youngsters to plenty of common French words and phrases in the course of this story of the delightful duo. Every double spread has a wealth of humorous detail to explore and giggle over; Fry is an absolute hoot

and there’s even a seek-and-find element to the whole thing, for on the final page are lists of items to spot at the six locations featured.

Bravo Monsieur Field – un livre divertissant et éducatif.

Found You

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Found You
Devon Holzwarth
Alison Green Books

It’s difficult enough moving home, but having to flee your homeland leaving all your friends behind, to move to a new country as a refugee has challenges like nothing else.

That’s how it is for young Sami who, since his arrival with his family, has become a loner. Everything looks and feels totally different; people don’t speak your home language and it seems as though you just don’t fit.

One day Sami and his mum are visiting the park and watching from the trees is a little bird, all alone too. Suddenly she whizzes downwards smack into Sami. The little creature says she is lost and asks for his help in finding her friends.

Gradually during their search Sami finds that the people he’d previously thought of as standoffish are quite the opposite. The old lady from the bus no longer scowls; rather she smiles offering Sami grain to feed the birds.

Then the baker offers to share his lunch.

Suddenly Sami recalls where it was he’d seen birds just like Little Bird; off they go but in his anxiety and rush to help, Sami ignores the chance to play with a little girl from his nursery.

At the cherry tree Little Bird’s friends are waiting and seemingly it’s job done and time for a farewell. Little Bird thanks Sami, making him feel proud by adding “You’re a very good friend” and flies off with the others leaving the boy alone once more. Until something surprising happens …

It’s then revealed that Little Bird’s mission isn’t over just yet for in this wonderfully heart warming story there are others in situations similar to Sami’s that also need her help.

With its gorgeous colour palette and superbly expressive scenes which show much more than is said in her text, Devon Holzwarth’s debut picture book is one that’s certain to foster empathy and understanding, showing how important it is to offer a welcoming environment to newcomers. It can all begin with holding out a hand (or wing) in friendship.

Together

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Together
Jane Chapman
Little Tiger

Deep within the forest, hidden among the shady leaves, a tiny face peers through the foliage. It belongs to a baby gorilla that feels totally alone in the world, a world that feels strange and a little threatening.

But then along with the downpour of refreshing rain and the smell of something to eat that wafts on the breeze, comes something different, something huge and very …

So thinks the little one. But it’s not so for despite appearances, the creature reaches out with unexpected tenderness, extending a soft paw of companionship and friendship in a hitherto scary world.

Now no matter what each day brings forth, be it beauty and magic,

or shadow and sadness, there’s always the joy and comfort of togetherness.

Jane Chapman’s illustrations are incredible, both in their lifelike portrayal of the two gorillas and in the sensitive way they convey the sense of connectedness between them.

That sense of connectedness is what all of us crave probably more than anything else in these pandemic times. This beautiful, heart-warming story is a wonderful portrayal of how reaching out – may be not physically but in what ever ways are possible – can make all the difference.

Superhero Baby!

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Superhero Baby!
Patricia Hegarty and Alex Willmore
Little Tiger

Here’s a fun story that takes sibling rivalry to a whole new level.

In the dead of night, long past bedtime for little ones, there’s one of their number who’s still wide awake and ready to launch herself into action; and so she does when there’s a burst pipe in town.

With job duly done she’s back in her cot alongside her twin brother’s long before mum wakes her next morning.

She then spends the day putting her ‘baby power’ to good use as she performs one heroic act after another never pausing to take a nap.

There’s somebody though, who is far from happy about all the attention this diminutive superhero is receiving as she whizzes around with her seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy, testing her powers to their limits.

Would-be superhero little ones will surely delight at watching the drama unfold through Patricia Hegarty’s rhyming romp that has an unexpected twist in its tail, and Alex Willmore’s instantly appealing, telling pictures where one pair of eyes in particular speak volumes.

Sophie Johnson Sports Superstar

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Sophie Johnson Sports Superstar
Morag Hood and Ella Okstad
Simon & Schuster Children’s Books

Young Sophie Johnson appears to have an ever-increasing number of strings to her bow – Unicorn Expert, Detective Genius and now Sports Superstar. Is there no limit to her talents, one wonders.

As the story opens, Sophie is engaged in her training regime and while so doing she tells readers about all her preparations for a ‘Big Race’ . She eschews assistance from her mum as she goes about her work-out. (Since when was raiding the sweet jar good for training miss Sophie?)

The girl has what she calls an ‘Excellent Plan’. This appears to involve consuming vast quantities of fast food and doing the occasional exhausting workout.

Come the big day she’s raring to go

but it would appear that in her enthusiasm there’s one very important skill she’s omitted to hone …

As always, spending time with young Sophie is sheer delight. Team Morag and Ella together have created another funny episode in the life of Sophie Johnson and once again it’s the clever way the quirky pictures and the dead pan words tell rather different stories that make the book such fun.

I love the fact that in this athletic endeavour Sophie is still sporting her tutu throughout and every spread has deliciously diverting details to chuckle over.

The splendidly spirited Sophie’s a winner in my book no matter what she does.

Poo in the Zoo: The Great Poo Mystery

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Poo in the Zoo: The Great Poo Mystery
Steve Smallman and Ada Grey
Little Tiger

At the end of the first story, Poo in the Zoo, Zookeeper Bob’s enterprise had enabled him to buy a super-duper pooper scooper robot.

This technological wonder, Robbie by name, with his poop hoover, makes Bob’s job considerably easier and on this particular night as he and the animals bed down for the night, all is well at McGrew’s Zoo.

The next morning however, everything changes. There’s poo absolutely everywhere and Robbie has disappeared. Disaster!

Then suddenly a tweed-clad woman riding a ‘pooper scooter’ zooms up announcing she’s ‘here to save the day!” Her name is Arabella Slater and she claims to be the number one poo investigator when it comes to dealing with number twos.

Immediately she leaps into action locating all manner of poo piles and then she notices some stray bits of wire. The hunt is on as all the zoo residents follow a trail

that leads them through the woods and into a glade where they come upon …

Bob then realises what has happened. But is it all over for Robbie or can Arabella live up to her claim and “save the day”?

Steve’s funny rhyming text bounces whiffily along as he regales this dung-filled drama, which Ada Grey hilariously illustrates with zany scenes of the poo-filled zoo and its environs.

Share this with a group of early years listeners or just one, and I’m pretty sure the immediate response will be “read it again!”.

My Red Hat / Sometimes Cake

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It’s an absolute joy to catch up with some recently published Walker Books picture book treats

My Red Hat
Rachel Stubbs
Walker Books

I’m sure every young child would absolutely love to have a hat such as that in Rachel Stubbs’ meditative story. Said hat is bestowed with love upon a little girl by her grandfather one day.

But this is no ordinary hat, quite the opposite; it has an enchantment all of its own for its possibilities are seemingly without limit.

It might for instance keep you warm and dry, or cool; it can serve as an artist’s subject or a drink container, you can wear it to stand out or blend in…

It’s a holder of dreams, a hider of secrets, a cover for fears; it will take its wearer to the most wonderful places far away

before bringing you right back to snuggle up on Grandfather’s lap.

In keeping with the harmony that exists between Grandfather and young child, there’s a sense of perfect harmony between Rachel Stubbs’ illustrations in her beautifully understated colour palette and her minimal text that leaves so much for readers and listeners to fill in.

Sometimes Cake
Edwina Wyatt and Tamsin Ainslie
Walker Books

Deliciously sweet but never sickly is this treat of a picture book.

It tells what happens when Audrey meets a lion carrying a purple balloon. She asks if it’s his birthday and he replies, “Sometimes, but not today.” Nonetheless, it must be someone’s birthday reasons Audrey and so they celebrate with a song and cheers.

There follow several further encounters between the two. In the next Lion brings a cake and they celebrate both Tuesdays and coconuts (for the icing). They go on to celebrate orange and yellow – Lion sporting a hat.

These celebrations appear to be a regular occurrence but then comes a change: Lion appears sans anything and announces it’s just an ordinary day.

Thereupon Audrey leaves him alone and goes off to set about preparing for a party to celebrate a perfectly ordinary day – only it isn’t for there’s Lion to celebrate and plenty more besides.

A tender reminder of the importance of being in the moment; and that being with a friend is always cause for celebration – something we’ll all endorse as we come out of lockdown. It’s full of warmth and the wonders that simple things can sometimes offer, beautifully expressed by Edwina Wyatt and equally beautifully illustrated in soft watercolours by Tamsin Ainslie.

Snuggle up with little ones and share with cake, especially on Tuesdays.

The Astronaut’s Cat

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The Astronaut’s Cat
Tohby Riddle
Allen & Unwin

‘The astronaut’s cat is an inside cat. And she likes it like that.’

So begins this story of an indoor cat that watches through the window of a spacecraft as an astronaut explores the moon outside.

She is fascinated by this strange lunar environment but setting foot beyond the confines of the spacecraft is not something a cat should do: there’s no air and the outside temperatures range between hot enough to boil a bowl of water in the daytime to ten times colder than a fridge freezer by night. Moreover there are strange objects whizzing around which Cat finds troublesome.

Instead the moggy spends her time playing, eating, and sleeping and dreaming.

Her dreams take her outside where she’s able to leap, pounce and glide, across the dusty, rocky terrain.

She also dreams of another place, a big blue ball full of amazing shapes and forms – the natural sights, sounds and scents of nature where she can become an outside cat.

Through his fusion of photographs of the moon’s surface and the Earth, and his own art, the author/illustrator cleverly melds the real and the imagined, while at the same time weaving some basic scientific information into his lyrical narrative.

So it is for cat, and so has it been for many humans of late, cooped up inside their homes or unable to venture far beyond their own front doors – something I’m sure Tohby Riddle knew nothing about when he created this delightfully whimsical book.

Kaia and the Bees

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Kaia and the Bees
Maribeth Boelts and Angela Dominguez
Walker Books

Kaia is pretty fearless but there’s one notable exception: having been stung on the foot, she’s super scared about bees despite her dad being a bee-keeper with two hives on the roof of their apartment home.

Dad does his level best to enthuse his daughter about his favourite topic but it takes being found out about her aversion by the children who also live in her block for Kaia to overcome her melissophobia.

With protective suit on she follows her Dad up the stairs and out onto the roof. There her bee education continues apace and her fear of the little insects slowly diminishes

until she thoughtlessly removes one of her gloves and OUCH! Kaia is stung again. “I’m never EVER going near those bees again!” she cries and sticks to her word.

Soon comes the time for collecting the honey from the hives. The family work hard all day in the kitchen filling jars with sweet smelling golden honey.

Then Dad’s “It’s a mystery, isn’t it!’ awakens a feeling of wonder in the girl and later, after another bee encounter, Kaia understands something about the tiny creatures that she’d never considered before.

At last she appreciates just how incredible bees are and alongside that, she finally feels brave inside.

Maribeth Boelts’ story that gently educates about the importance of bees is written from the perspective of being part of a bee-keeping family and she fully appreciates both how awesome and vital to our ecosystem the creatures are, as well as understanding that some people might, like Kaia, feel scared unless helped to overcome their fear. This understanding can be applied to a fear of anything, making the book even more helpful.

I love that Kaia’s family live in an urban location; and Angela Dominguez’s mixed-media illustrations both provide detail about bee keeping and clearly show the characters’ feelings throughout.

Paris Cat

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Paris Cat
Dianne Hofmeyer and Piet Grobler
Tiny Owl

Unlike the rest of her large family and many friends, there’s one Parisian Cat that wants to see more of the world than her smelly back-alley home.

So, one wet night she enters a busy café where singer Edith Piaf, is entertaining the customers. Cat decides to do likewise

but is soon sent packing.

Back out in the rain she finds refuge in a dressmaking atelier.

Once again Cat decides “I can do that,” and as soon as the establishment has closed, she gathers up all the fabric offcuts and fashions herself a sparkly dress, dons her new attire and heads to a nightclub.

There she sees Josephine Baker dancing along with a cheetah. Yet again Cat decides, “Pffh! I can do that” and up onto the stage she springs to show her own moves.

Chiquita the cheetah is impressed, so much so that ‘Kitty’ is invited back to dance again the following evening alongside Josephine.

So it is that every night, clad in a new outfit, courtesy of the snippets from Madame Delphine’s atelier, she dances the night away, becoming a regular part of the billed act.

Eventually Cat starts to miss her family and friends. This prompts her to open her very own nightclub – Madame Kitty’s Catacombs Club so that she can see them all regularly again.

Now it’s not just one, but many cats that, if you happen to be in the vicinity after dark, you might see dancing the night away, clad thanks to Madame Kitty, in their snazzy outfits.

And Madame Kitty? She may be there too, or perhaps another new adventure has lured her away.

I absolutely love Piet Grobler’s scratchy scenes of 1920s Paris nightlife that really bring to life Dianne Hofmeyer’s deliciously quirky tale of searching for the new, pursuing your dreams, but not forgetting  where you came from. I love too, the way the author has woven into her narrative the two stars from that era both of whom had difficult early lives.

I Can Catch A Monster

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I Can Catch a Monster
Bethan Woollvin
Two Hoots

In a castle in a mountainous region in days of yore live Erik, Ivar and their little sister, Bo.

When her brothers announce that they’re off on a monster hunt Bo wants to accompany them. “You’re far too little,” comes the reply but what Bo lacks in stature she makes up for in determination. “I’m smart and brave and strong!” she thinks before sallying forth on a monster quest of her own.

Very soon she has her first ‘monster’ encounter: “… get ready to be got!” she warns the creature, only to learn it’s a griffin and far too polite to be a monster.

Indeed he offers to assist Bo in her quest.

Her next encounter takes her (inadvertently) plunging beneath the ocean waves to face a kraken. She too seems at first, monstrous

but again Bo’s assumption is wrong, for the kraken also assists her.

Next destination is a cave from which issues an enormous roar.

Surely deep within must be the scary monster Bo has been seeking all along. However the roar turns out to be a dragon venting its parental anguish over missing baby, Smoky.

From then on the quest becomes not a monster hunt but a Smoky search, which eventually brings the story full circle, with Bo face to face with two human monsters.

Now she can prove well and truly, who really is in charge.

I love Bo’s rebellious attitude and applaud her open-mindedness and willingness to learn from her mistakes. There’s plenty of potential discussion sparkers in Bethan’s tale but it’s her wonderful illustrations that are the book’s real strength.

Executed in gouache with a more varied colour palette than in her fairy tale reworkings. Bethan’s idiosyncratic art uses teal, duck-egg, orange and pinks to create the mock-medieval scenes for this story. Love those end papers too.

The Walloos’ Big Adventure

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The Walloos’ Big Adventure
Anuska Allepuz
Walker Books

Allow me to introduce the Walloos. Living on a rocky island at the edge of a lake, there’s a big one, a spotty one, an old one and a little one.

Each Walloo has its own particular penchant. Little Walloo loved to grow plants, Spotty Walloo had a culinary bent especially with regard to soups and salads; boat building was Big Walloo’s love and Old Walloo’s favourite occupation was storytelling, particularly about the old days and his visits to tropical-exotic islands.

Fired up by his tales, Little Walloo longs for her own tropical island adventure and one day Big Walloo builds a boat and away they go, sailing through nights and days until they spy something exciting: – a ‘tropical-exotic island.”

It’s a truly beautiful place but there’s something slightly strange about it that only Little Walloo notices – at first anyway; this island seems to be moving. It’s not long before Old Walloo agrees with her.

When is an island not an island? To tell would be to spoil this enchanting story. But what can be said is that what happens involves an idea, problem-solving, seeing things from the perspective of others, teamwork, kindness, caring and the co-creation of more stories of ‘tropical exotic adventures.

There’s an abundance of warmth and gentle humour in this smashing story of the Walloos that reminded me just a little of the Moomins in the way the characters engage with and understand one another, their charm and their thirst for adventure.

Then there’s that gentle environmental message made more evident in Anuska Allepuz’s wonderfully whimsical illustrations.

I can’t wait to share this with young children – it’s an absolute delight.

The Wonder Tree

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The Wonder Tree
Teresa Heapy and Izzy Burton
Egmont

When I was a child we had a large oak tree with a resident owl in our garden; this lyrical story of Teresa’s with its wonderful illustrations by Izzy Burton, took me right back there to that tree, which I loved.

The particular oak tree in the story is home to Little Owl and his Mummy; and as it opens a leaf landing on his head disturbs Little Owl’s sleep. Despite his mother’s assurances, the little creature can’t get back to sleep. He’s concerned about the tree –surely it will be cold without its leaves, won’t it?

“Let me tell you a wonder,” comes the reply and Mummy Owl proceeds to explain first about leaf fall and seasonal change,

and then how the tree ‘drinks’.

However neither explanation sends Little Owl back to sleep and he requests a story. Happy to oblige, Mummy Owl’s story is of the tree and the stories that reside therein – held in its annular rings,

in ‘the clasp of its roots, and the kiss of its leaves’.

Then, as the moon high above sends out its silvery light, bidding a temporary farewell to the huge, ancient tree that is their home, parent and child spread their wings and sail off into the night sky.

Along with Little Owl, little humans will love learning about the natural world and its wonders, especially at bedtime. Equally, they’ll love being immersed in nature through debut illustrator’s woodland scenes showing the rich hues of autumn as they gradually fade to sepia, and the resident fauna and flora of the setting.

I Can’t Sleep

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I Can’t Sleep
Gracia Iglesias and Ximo Abadía
Templar Publishing

How many people at the moment go to bed with their heads buzzing with thoughts – “I’m missing school,” … “I want to see my friends” and so on, and the consequence is that, like the little girl narrator of this story, that all important restorative sleep just won’t come.

She starts counting sheep to help her drop off and as she starts to count slowly 1 … a sheep emerges from beneath the bed and begins to devour the rug. Then a second sheep drops down the chimney (no prizes for guessing what colour it is).

The counting continues and soon there are fluffy sheep doing all kinds of interesting, though not sleep inducing things, both inside her house

and out.

It’s not until she reaches 9 and a very tiny lamb comes that sleepiness descends upon the little girl and she’s fast asleep before she can count to 10. Zzzzzzz

With Gracia Iglesias’ chucklesome counting text this is great fun for bedtime sharing with little ones, and Ximo Abadía’s illustrations are a delight. Created with graphite, wax and ink with digital colouring, they’re bold, quirky and playful: who can fail to smile at the sight of cuddle sheep number six cavorting across the bedcover

or the wisest old, guitar-playing sheep.

A New Green Day

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A New Green Day
Antoinette Portis
Scallywag Press

Since the lockdown, most of us with time on our hands have been taking much more notice of the beauties of nature no matter where we live and in A New Green Day, Antoinette Portis invites readers to do just that, to see things anew and to discover the joy and wonders to be found outdoors.

Using a sequence of short poems spoken by natural things both large and small, the author/illustrator gently leads us through a summer’s day in the company of a little girl.
Said child is gently awoken by sunlight on her pillow inviting,
“… Come out and play!”

Then at the behest of that which has scribbled “on the path / in glistening ink …”
it’s time to move outdoors and there, the playful guessing game continues as we see a sequence of things in an entirely fresh, creative way.

For instance “I’m a map of my own / green home. Follow my roads and climb,” reveals when the page is turned …

How cleverly imagined are Antoinette Portis’s trees, one of which is markedly similar to the veined leaf the girl holds between her two fingers.

Some riddles are easier to anticipate than others; one such is “I’m a comma / in the long, long sentence / of the stream. / Someday soon, / you’ll hear my croak,” is uttered by …

Then come the voices – cloud, rain, lightning and thunder – of a gathering storm and what child could resist this invitation, “I am cool pudding / on a muggy day. / Let your toes / have a taste! …”

Finally as Earth is wrapped in the black cloak of night, comes the gently spoken sound from a tiny insect “I am the engine / of the summer dark. / Sleep, while I thrum / in your tomorrow … “ I will leave you to work out that which heralds “A new green day.”

There is SO much to love about this lyrically written book that gently calls us to appreciate our world afresh. Rich in texture, both verbal and visual, Antoinette Portis’ A New Green Day offers fresh lenses through which to see the natural world and its beauty each and every time we set foot outside.

Say Goodbye … Say Hello / The Happy Lion Roars

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Say Goodbye … Say Hello
Cori Doerrfeld
Scallywag Press

Change is inevitable no matter what, and young children often find transitions tricky.

Through her gentle, lively illustrations and soft-spoken, simply expressed text, Cori Doerrfeld offers little ones a story exploring  the nature of change and the possibilities that embracing it can offer.

Stella, while reluctant to leave her mum and board the bus, soon discovers a new friend, Charlie, once she gets to school.

Before long the two are almost inseparable. We follow them through the seasons and goodbye summer means hello to autumn and goodbye to outside means hello to inside;
’Goodbye to snowmen … is hello to puddles!’;

and through the days when “goodbye to long walks, butterflies and the sun … is hello to long talks … fireflies and … the stars.’

But then, comes something much more difficult for Stella to cope with: the need to say goodbye to her special friend, when Charlie moves away and holding tight must be followed by letting go.

Physically yes, but not completely, for Stella is soon busy writing and posting a letter to her friend.

There’s also the possibility of someone else on the horizon, not a replacement for Charlie, but perhaps a new friendship for the making…

Splendidly expressive illustrations show both the ups and downs of change, as well as the passage of time. Ultimately however, however difficult some changes might be, as the story closes we’re given an indication of Stella’s resilience as she greets a newcomer …
A gorgeously warm portrayal of friendship, loss and the possibilities of new beginnings.

Completely different but also with a focus on friendship and new beginnings is this oldie but goodie:

The Happy Lion Roars
Louise Fatio and Roger Duvoisin
Scallywag Press

Nostalgia rules in this Happy Lion story I remember from my childhood. In this book the Happy Lion is most definitely not living up to his name, spending much of his time looking downright miserable, so much so that a doctor is called. He merely prescribes pills and departs; but the medication is totally ineffective in the face of loneliness for that is what is wrong with the Happy Lion.

Then one day into town comes a small circus and he and his friend Francois go to watch the acts. However, the Happy Lion has eyes only for the Beautiful Lioness in her cage.

Suddenly his sadness is a thing of the past and one night he goes to the cage of the Beautiful Lioness, opens the door and together they walk through the park back to his home.
A search ensues,

followed by some subterfuge, the Happy Lion’s loudest ever roar, and finally, thanks to Francois, a deal leaving not one, but two felines exceedingly happy.

Superb art and a lovely story where friendship and freedom reign supreme, characterise this classic re-issue.

No-Bot the Robot’s New Bottom!

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No-Bot the Robot’s New Bottom!
Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet
Simon & Schuster

Bernard the robot, aka No-Bot, is back with a new botty but now again it seems to be giving him trouble. Not however by its absence; rather there are all manner of strange sounds apparently emanating from his rear as he plays on the park equipment with his pals.

Bernard is surprised until he turns his head to discover what looks like his very own, potentially explosive bum.

Bear decides it needs removing which leaves our robot pal in a bot-less state once more.

Reassuringly his friends are ready and willing to assist in finding a replacement but it’s not an easy task as they soon discover, for the bot needs to satisfy certain criteria – right colour, appealing smell, comfortable for sitting

and not too heavy. Will Monkey, Bear, Dog and the birds ever find a bot that it just right or is Bernard to remain in a permanent state of bottomlessness?

Finally, it appears Bernard isn’t the only one having bottom trouble …

Like the first No-bot story this one is delightfully daft and full of the kind of humour that definitely appeals to little ones. Yet again team Sue and Paul have a winner with this one; I certainly know a fair few fans who will be keen to get their hands on it.