Tag Alison Green

Welcome

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Welcome
Axel Scheffler and Alison Green
Alison Green Books, Scholastic

Try to imagine what it would be like if you’d had to flee your home and look for another country to live in.

The animal characters in this book do their utmost make the three new arrivals feel welcome and wanted. Their intention is to make sure that nobody is left out because everyone helps to make a happy world. Axel’s illustrations show very different characters playing together, painting together, strolling together hand in hand, having tea together and much more. They communicate visually with the newcomers who speak a different language and allow them to choose games to play.

Equally, allowing the newcomers to be the helpers makes them feel part of the community,

as are shared games and stories. Of course there will be occasions when somebody gets upset and cross but if everybody apologises, these friendships become stronger.

‘Now, imagine if the whole world was like this book – if everyone was kind and helpful and welcomed everyone else. Doesn’t that sound good? “

It most certainly does but sadly it isn’t the case for all humans yet: would that they could all feel like that animal community – kind, open-hearted and ready to make a difference.

An uplifting celebration of empathy, kindness and togetherness. Anyone who buys a copy of this book is helping to make a difference because a donation is made to Three Peas charity (www.threepeas.org.uk) for every copy sold. Teachers and parents, get a copy for your class or family, enjoy sharing it and then talk about possible ways to be as open-hearted as Axel and Alison’s characters.

All About Cats / Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes

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All About Cats
Frantz Wittkamp (trans. David Henry Wilson), illustrated by Axel Scheffler
Macmillan Children’s Books

As an ailurophobe I wasn’t predisposed to like this book, but on the other hand I’m a poetry lover and Axel Scheffler’s illustrations are terrific fun so the positives have it. And David Henry Wilson’s translations from the original German work well too and rhyme well. Do I detect a touch of the Eleanor Farjeons in Cats are … Sleepy?

From the fourteen four-line poems herein we discover a fair bit about cats, their habits and their predilections. They enjoy reading, arithmetic – yes really, painting, making mischief, playing toss with a ball or perhaps a small rodent if they can get their paws on one; and when it comes to food, each one has a favourite – it’s not always fish.
Parent cats show love towards their offspring, working together to keep things sweet between mums and dads. However I definitely disapprove of certain tomcats – those that net butterflies and keep them as pets, whereas the bath routine at the end of the day gets an endorsement from this reviewer, and how wonderfully economical with water they are in Axel’s illustration at least (3 in a tub together.)
But no matter if said moggies are making music or celebrating a birthday with rhubarb juice and fishcakes, or even feeling a tad grumpy if caught in a rain shower, they make the best of the situation, as is evident in Axel’s splendidly droll scenes and tiny vignettes.

To foster a love of language in young children, cat lovers or not, share the rhymes and playful pictures with them: perhaps some of them can come up with own cat capers too.

Mother Goose’s Nursery Rhymes
Axel Scheffler
Macmillan Children’s Books

This treasury of almost sixty nursery rhymes is linked by eighteen short stories written by Alison Green, the first of which sets the scene by introducing Mother Goose herself. She lays three eggs and it’s to her goslings the rhymes were told and then eventually written down by a wise old heron. (I love that.) It’s also her’s and her goslings’ activities that are related in the stories.

You’ll find lots of your favourites here: I Had a Little Nut Tree,

Miss Muffet, Jack and Jill, The Grand Old Duke of York, Polly (who puts the kettle on), Old King Cole, Humpty Dumpty, Sing a Song of Sixpence, Hey Diddle Diddle

and lastly some bedtime ones including Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Wee Willie Winkie, still dashing round town in that nightgown.

Every rhyme and story is humorously illustrated in such a way by Axel Scheffler that the wit behind the words is evident. A super present to give a new baby and a book to acquaint preschool children with the richness of nursery rhyme language that sadly, many of them are unfamiliar with.

Thanks to Macmillan Children’s Books for sending both titles for review.

Kind

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Kind
Alison Green & 38 illustrators
Alison Green Books

With a foreword by Axel Scheffler, this book about kindness has been illustrated by 38 ‘kind’ artists (including Axel) all of whom donated their work for free in aid of the Three Peas charity.

‘Imagine a world where everyone is kind. How can we make that come true?’ are the opening lines and what follows are a host of suggestions for fulfilling that dream which almost every single human being would love to come true.

Most of what’s suggested are easy, everyday acts such as smiling at somebody, listening to people especially when they’re feeling sad, hugging a lonely person; offering a hand to hold to someone who is frightened or worried, or helping someone in trouble.

by Pippa Curnick;                    by Barbara Nascimbeni

Stories can help make others more cheerful be they listener or teller and it’s vital to ensure nobody feels left out or uncared for.

top LHS by Moni Port, bottom LHS by Anke Kuhl: top RHS by Philip Waechter, bottom RHS by Jörg Mühle

I’ve had a kindness jar like the one suggested in some of my classrooms and I know how fast it can get filled up; and acts of kindness can be directed towards animals as well as humans.

Everyone needs to be given the opportunity to shine – after all we’re all good at something.

by Sarah McIntyre:               by Benjamin Chaud

There are occasions however, when extra kindness is required – maybe towards a newcomer, or somebody who is trying to learn our language whatever that may be and it’s always good to learn some important words in their language too. Then there are those who have overcome tremendous odds in leaving their own country which is no longer safe and travelling to find a safe haven elsewhere – let’s listen to their stories but only when they’re ready to share them. Meanwhile toys and creative acts can be shared; and people might need accommodating so it’s wonderful to invite them in …

by David Barrow:             by Marianna Cop

An open mind and an open heart are what’s required similarities and differences notwithstanding. Who knows, if everyone tried just that little bit harder, something extraordinary might happen; now is the time to start. What will you do – today? And tomorrow? And …

We all need constant reminders in the current climate, no matter what part of the world we live in.

I’d absolutely love to be able to show every single one of the awesome illustrations in this celebration of kindness but I’ve only been able to include a few as examples in a book that’s bursting with inspiring suggestions and positivity.

The final spread is devoted to the work of Three Peas a charity that gives crucial practical help to those who have had to flee their war-torn countries and seek a safe haven elsewhere. (£1 of every copy sold goes to the charity).

What a terrific book to share over time with a class, perhaps using a spread or illustration as the starting point for the day and should you exhaust the ideas herein, children could suggest their own perhaps together making a follow-up book or picture gallery spreading throughout an entire school.

Meanwhile I’d like to see a copy of this in every home and classroom, after all children are the future.

Keep Out & The Fox in the Dark

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Keep Out!
Sally Grindley and Peter Utton
Hodder Chidren’s Books pbk
‘KEEP OUT! ‘and ‘BEARS ABOUT!’ caution the signs on the cover and title page of this book by the duo who gave us SHHH! This brilliantly interactive lift-the-flap sequel is equally all involving.
Despite the trepidation of the narrator who is constantly urging would-be adventurers not to proceed, we cannot help but disobey all the warning signs and continue the journey through the book, deeper into the woods. Woods where creatures lurk behind stones and logs, in ponds, under bridges

 

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and in trees. Then there’s a door in the wall – definitely not to be passed through; who knows what could be waiting beyond. But through we go of course: what are all those bees doing buzzing everywhere and why the hives? We know which animals like what they provide.
KEEP OUT! says the doormat outside the cottage and BEWARE OF THE BROCCOLI! warns the notice in the garden – watch out veggiephobes! In we go however and knowing readers will quickly realize they are following in the footsteps of Goldilocks – that’s if they haven’t already. But the bears are very much in residence so there’s only one possible escape …

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There is so much to explore in every new scene (some are wonderfully mock-scary) that one reading just won’t be enough. One five year old I shared it with commented, “It’s my favourite book ever.”

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The Fox in the Dark
Alison Green and Deborah Allwright
Alison Green Books pbk
PHEW! A terrified rabbit dashes home in the nick of time, safe from the “fox in the dark.” Before long though there’s a Rat-a-tat-tat! on his door: surely it can’t be that fox, can it? No, it’s Duck followed shortly by Mouse, then Lamb

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and then – OH NO! … ‘A FOX IN THE DARK!’
Wait a minute though, this fox doesn’t look very scary:

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but what’s that shadow looming? … another knock …the tension mounts …
This is definitely one to keep young audiences on the edge of their ‘seats’ as the beautifully rhythmic, rhyming text gallops along at a pace to that final satisfying climax.

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Deborah Allwright uses contrasting dark and light to maximum effect – in the moonlit, shadowy outdoor woodland scenes and those inside Rabbit’s burrow, some of which are illuminated by lantern,

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others by the moon shining in, and also in the animal silhouettes and ghost-like outlines against the black. Every turn of the page brings a visual treat.

Use your local bookshop:localbookshops_NameImage-2