Tag Ailie Busby

We Love Veggies! / I Really Really Need A Wee

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These are two recent board books from Little Tiger: thanks to the publishers for sending them for review.

We Love Veggies!
Becky Davies and Ailie Busby

This is in the same style as We Love Fruit and again gives young children permission to play with food, albeit of the card variety. Having set free the double-sided veggie characters from the sliding tray inside the front cover of the book, child participants need to follow the clues given on each page and then select the appropriate cardboard piece. Can they work out which vegetable grows underground and is liked as food by rabbits? Or can they decide what vegetable is mostly made of water, has a purple, glossy skin and pale flesh?

A fun interactive guessing game with gently humorous illustrations by Ailie Busby and text by Becky Davies. Once you’ve shared the book a few times with toddlers it’s a good idea to introduce them to the real vegetables and to talk about how important it is to include ‘yummy’ veggies in a healthy diet.

I Really Really Need A Wee
Karl Newson and Duncan Beedie

From the body language and facial expression of the bush baby on the cover of this one, you know you’re in for a tricky time, one that will surely be familiar to adults who have been out with little ones
Here, the creature narrator’s attempts to distract himself make things worse and his efforts to find a place to relieve himself are disastrous. Eventually however, the object of bushbaby’s intense desire is in sight but almost inevitably, there’s an extremely long queue. When finally the little room is at last vacant, ‘woohoo!’ what a huge relief . But very soon after … you’ve guessed it …

Little humans will find this wee-ally funny. They’ll delight in Karl’s rhyming telling and Duncan’s side-splitting scenes; together they’re almost enough to make them wet themselves.

Which Food Will You Choose?

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Which Food Will You Choose?
Claire Potter and Ailie Busby
Bloomsbury Education (Featherstone)

When Mum opens up the fridge one Monday and sees nothing but beige food items she decides to take the two small narrators straight off to the supermarket to find something more enticing, telling them they’re going to play a game. “But we can’t play games in the supermarket” comes their immediate response.
On arrival she invites her little ones to choose three foods but they have to be red.

Off they go selecting pepperoni, watermelon and a tin of tomato soup. ‘Which three of these RED foods would YOU choose?’ asks the author.

Back home they use the pepperoni as topping for the pizzas they make, chomp into slices of the watermelon (planting the seeds afterwards) and put the soup in a flask to drink when they visit the park .
The narrative then asks, ‘What would YOU do with the three red foods you chose?

A similar thing happens on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with the children being asked select in turn three yellow, green, orange

and then purple foods.

Come Saturday Mum is caught beige-handed,

so on Sunday the children take things into their own hands …

This is a fun, non-judgemental approach to ‘picky eating’ that should definitely encourage youngsters to try some new foods and Claire Potter, the author includes two sets of notes to help adult sharers to ‘get the most out of ‘ the book.

To add to the enjoyment of the text, she uses some playful alliterative descriptions such as “Gorgeous, glorious, groovy green “ and ‘gazillions of green foods’ and ‘Zingy, zesty, zippy orange !’ … ‘oodles of orange foods’. and adults might like to extend the word play by asking youngsters to make up their own alliterative phrases for others of the foods labelled in Ailie Busby’s enticing spreads. The brother and sister certainly appear to be making the most out of their choices – its good to see wonky carrots and using the celery leaves to feed the rabbit – no food taste there.

There’s a wealth of potential between the covers of this little book, not only for – parents/carers but for foundation stage teachers too.

Rosa Loves Cars / Looking Good! / Matchstick Monkey: Colours

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Rosa Loves Cars
Jessica Spanyol
Child’s Play

This is one of a new board book series that celebrates the uniqueness of every child; it stars car loving Rosa. She likes nothing better than to do stunts and act out scenarios with her vehicles small and large.

Using her imagination along with some small world toys. she plays with them and her pals in a variety of places such as in the sandpit and on the car mat.
Finally Rosa and friend Samira use a large cardboard box to build a car themselves; it’s a great place for having a snack.
Rosa is a delight and it’s great to see books for the very youngest that promote gender equality.

Looking Good!
Ailie Busby
Child’s Play

We meet five adorable babies who have a characteristic- floppy ears, big eyes, pointy nose, sharp teeth and little toes and fingers – similar to in turn, Elephant, Bush baby,

Fox, Crocodile and Lizard.

Infants beginning to talk will soon enjoy being able to join in the repeat ‘So do I!’ hidden beneath the flap on each spread.
With their various expressions, the babes show off their particular feature that is similar to the animal flap beneath which they hide.

Fun, interactive and great for promoting early language.

Matchstick Monkey: Colours
Ladybird Books

Some people tend to show off and brag about their talents, confident in their ability to be the best no matter what. Others just quietly get on with the job and surprise everyone.
So it is with the simian inhabitants of Matchstick Jungle. Red monkey with his dazzling spins is convinced he’s the quickest and certain to win the race; the swaying blue monkeys think otherwise.

So do the zigzagging yellow and pink monkeys, while loop the looping green monkey thinks he’s the speediest and bouncing orange monkey announces that he’s fastest of all.
But what about quiet, unassuming grey Matchstick Monkey, could it be that he has something to show the others …

As well as enjoying the simple story, toddlers will have great fun using a finger and following the trails of each of the competitors in this Matchstick Monkey teether-toy inspired board book and develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination at the same time. They might also enlarge their understanding of some colour names along the way.

Monster Night-Nights & A Noisy Baby

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Monsters Go Night-Night
Aaron Zenz
Abrams Appleseed
Bedtime for infant humans usually involves bathing, tooth brushing, donning pjs or onesie and a bedtime story, followed by hugs and kisses. Monsters’ bedtimes are somewhat different. Monsters snack (on umbrellas can you believe?) And yes, they do bath although with chocolate puddings – no need for soap then; they can just lick themselves clean. Their night attire is of the disposable kind …

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and there are snuggles, albeit with something pretty ‘unsnuggleable’ – which of these do you think it is? (One of my listeners thought it was a super place to hide)

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They have assistance with tooth brushing – hint, from something pink and many-legged.

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You may be surprised after all that monstrous behaviour that young monsters are not generally nappy-poopers; they do know how to use a potty …

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and they absolutely delight in ‘night-night‘ kisses – lots of them.
There’s one final part of their routine that I’d better keep under wraps though just in case it shocks you. (You might want to avoid that last page when you share this fun book with your youngster(s), just in case it gives them ideas …
This extended guessing game is bound to delight very young ‘monsters’ with its predictable patterned text, printed in a large typeface and populated by a host of endearing, brightly coloured little monsters.
All of the above makes it ideal for beginning readers too (preferably once someone has shared it with them); and infinitely more enjoyable than a dull phonic reading scheme book.

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Lulu and the Noisy Baby
Camilla Reid and Ailie Busby
Bloomsbury Children’s Books
When preschooler Lulu notices that her mum’s tummy is increasing in size, it’s time to tell her that she’s to become a big sis. and she’s thrilled to see the ultrasound scan of the baby.

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Inevitably Mummy gets tired and her rest time provides an opportunity for Lulu and Daddy to make something for the new arrival.

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A few weeks later granny comes to stay and Daddy drives Mummy to the hospital. Granny and Lulu have great fun together and the next day, there’s a howling babe and smiling parents at the door; and Lulu meets brother Freddy for the very first time.

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She’s thrilled with her new sibling and is soon excitedly helping to change him. Now Mummy is often busy with Freddy and so Lulu and her dad get on with jobs like cooking, though that doesn’t mean there’s no quality time together for Lulu and her mum. But now Lulu has an important new role – that of BIG sister.
Lulu, as described by Camilla Reid and depicted by Ailie Busby, is a cute, already popular character with the very young and as such is a good one to demonstrate the role of a new big sister to the very young, although perhaps, in addition to the odd bit of quarrelling, it would have been good to see some of those feelings of jealousy that are bound to be part and parcel of the new arrival scenario. With a plethora of flaps to open, this is assuredly a book to engage tinies and keep them involved throughout the story. Its sturdy binding will mean that it should stand up to the numerous re-reads it’s likely to get at home or in early years settings.

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Dinosaurs, Numbers and a Picnic

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Ten Little Dinosaurs
Mike Brownlow and Simon Rickerty
Orchard Books
Whether or not there were snails, frogs, bats, spiders, crayfish, crabs, hedgehogs, bees and the like in the time dinosaurs roamed the earth matters not: Simon Rickerty has chosen to scatter them liberally throughout the landscapes of this rhyming romp. Essentially it’s a countdown from when there are ‘Ten little dinosaurs, hatching from their eggs,/Blinking in the sunshine, stretching out their legs.’ These ten newly hatched creatures decide to take advantage of the fact their mother is fast asleep and off they go, in single file, to explore the wide world. Did I say ten? Stomp! That was Diplodocus stepping on one of their number. And so the adventure continues as they take in the surrounding aromas – Slurrrp!; – another gone; peep into a cavern, wander across the volcanic plains, take a dip in the bubbling springs, do a bit of scrumping ,

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polish up their poo-avoiding plodding, try their hand or rather paws, at mountain climbing –  and then they’re down to just one.

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Seemingly he’s about to meet his doom too. But…
PHEW! It’s neither a raptor, nor a T-Rex, not even a monster. No! It’s their very own mother who’s come in search of her missing offspring and hip-hooray!!, she now has them all together once more safe and sound within her sight – more or less anyway.

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Another winning Brownlow/Rickerty combo: a rollicking-good read, an ever-popular topic and an enjoyable countdown littered with tiny creatures to spot and count in the vividly coloured, comical scenes A certain winner for early years listeners (and counters).

For younger mathematicians is:

 

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Lulu Loves Numbers
Camilla Reid and Ailie Busby
Bloomsbury Children’s Books
This is a small board book that features Lulu who, in this story, is with her mum visiting a farm. There they encounter lots of animals and Lulu learns to count from one all the way to …

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With doors to open or a flap to lift on every spread, this is an enjoyable interactive experience for the very youngest who can join in with the animal noises and practice their counting skills along with Lulu in this delightful little book.

Not a counting book as such but packed full of opportunities for mathematical exploration is

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Teddy Picnic
Georgie Birkett
Andersen Press
The toys from Teddy Bedtime return for a picnic expedition and we join them as they make their final preparations before setting off. They walk and skip into the woods where they have fun bubble blowing, hiding and dancing

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before settling down on their rug for some tasty lunch
Then, tummies full, the friends play while hungry birds make the most of the remains of the lunch; but all that rushing around is tiring so it’s a train ride home. Tired but happy the ‘teddies’ settle down for a cosy story-time session on the sofa before bed.

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With its gentle rhyming text, super-cute characters, and fun-filled scenes to focus on, this is ideal for sharing with the very young

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