Tag Ben Cort

Dragons Love Underpants

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Red Reading Hub is delighted to be a part of the blog tour for Dragons Love Underpants

Dragons Love Underpants
Claire Freedman and Ben Cort
Simon & Schuster

The latest in the pant-loving series features a group of monstrous marauders that flew around the countryside in bygone days sporting pants pinched from anyone and everyone. However being such fiery beasties, the dragons had a problem of the blazing kind, for no sooner had they donned their new undies, they accidentally set them on fire. OUCH!
More pants very soon, was the order of the day and where better to find replacements than the Kingdom of Pantasia ruled over by pants aficionado King Top-Bot. Off they set at top speed.
At this point Faith (4½) with whom I was sharing the story commented, “I have an assortment of pants. They’d better not come and take any from my bedroom.”
Once aware of the winged invaders, the king sent out his most loyal knight to do battle with the dragons, but the knight merely made a rapid dash for it. Meanwhile the poor king was airborne, gripped firmly by the seat of his pants by one of the dragons.

Soon after, a ransom note arrived at the palace demanding piles of pants in exchange for the monarch who otherwise would get his bum badly burnt. Young Princess Tilly cooked up a clever plan. She headed over to the forge, grabbed her hammer and fashioned some very special undergarments of the fireproof kind. (Faith wondered how the dragons managed to stay up in the air with such heavy pants. “They’d need to flap their wings really really hard,” she said.
Having received their new garments, the dragons stuck to their side of the deal, they set free the King and in true fairy tale fashion, everyone lived happily ever after.
Claire Freedman has woven a new and splendidly silly rhyming narrative for her seventh underwear yarn for which Ben Cort has conjured hilarious scenes of fearsome fliers, fearful fugitives and one smart young princess.

Now here are Claire Freedman’s Top 5 Tips for Writing in Rhyme

1) Get Used to Rhyme If you are a total beginner at writing in rhyme, keep things simple to start with. Nursery rhymes can be a quick and useful resource. Maybe try a couplet rhyme – two lines that rhyme together – such as ‘Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall’. ‘Mary had a Little Lamb’ is a good example of a four-line verse where the second and last lines rhyme. Nursery rhymes generally have simple metres and memorable rhythms for a child to read. Plus, nursery rhymes are also easy to run through in your own head.

2) Let Your Mind Drift
Once you have your chosen rhyme metre in your head, try and take it with you as you go
through your day. I often find the best rhymes come to me whilst having a shower or walking to
the shops. I find it helps to continually count the syllables of each word, so they fit. If one word
doesn’t fit the rhythm of your rhyme, play around with other words in your head, perhaps with
fewer or more syllables. Sometimes you can get it right by just changing the order of the words.
Keep repeating the lines until you feel satisfied that they flow well.

3) Use a Rhyming Dictionary
This might feel a bit like cheating, but a lot of writers use them – including me! Sometimes just
flicking through the pages can give me an idea for a different rhyme that might work better. My
personal rhyming dictionary is also full of other rhymes of my own that I’ve scribbled down, so
it has become a brilliant reference book for when I’m stuck! A thesaurus is useful too. If I’m
trying to convey a particular feeling or atmosphere to my story, and I can’t get my chosen
descriptive words to rhyme or fit the metre, sometimes I’ll find an alternative (or better) word in
my thesaurus.

4) Map Out Your Story
I love writing in rhyme, but it is a challenge. I have to think – not only about the rhyme, rhythm
and metre, but also the pace of the story. Picture books usually have twelve spreads and, ideally,
each spread will be illustrated differently, to help the book move forward as much as the words
do. Sometimes it can help to map out your story in your head first, or write it down. Then you
know what you have to fit into each spread. Of course, write with manoeuvrability – your map
is a helpful guide, but you dictate the story!

5) Read Out Loud
Picture books are perfect for reading out loud, and for enjoying as a shared experience between
parent and child, family and friends, and also teachers and pupils. So, they MUST read well. It’s
important to read your own work out loud to yourself. Listen out for any clunky rhymes and
words that don’t flow as they should. When working on a rhyme, I can read it countless times,
and it seems fine to me. But when I pick it up a few days later and read it out loud, I’m
disappointed to find areas where the rhyme or rhythm clearly doesn’t work. Read out loud to
friends and family too. It really helps to identify areas that need more attention.

Enjoy a sublime time with rhyme!

Please visit the posts of the other blog tour participants too.

Stop That Dinosaur! / Mamasaurus

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Stop That Dinosaur!
Alex English and Ben Cort
Bloomsbury Children’s Books

‘I was in my Granny’s kitchen eating extra-special cake / when the walls began to tremble / and the room began to SHAKE. / The window panes all rattled / and there was a MIGHTY ROAR!’

Granny responds to the knocking at her door, opens it up and lets out a mighty scream as a brontosaurus grabs her by her sweater and runs away on its very fast feet.

Hot on the trail comes the little girl narrator on her scooter, whizzing along the road to the playground, throughout the high street and out into the countryside showing no signs of slowing whatsoever. Through fields of corn, uphill and down go pursuer and pursued until the girl finally loses sight of the beast in the depths of the dark wood.

Is that the end of Granny? Will the girl ever see her again?

Alex’s brilliantly paced rhyming text really builds up the tension and sense of anticipation as the story races along; combined with Ben Cort’s splendidly dramatic illustrations with their plethora of amusing details (love those scattering rabbits), this is terrific read aloud book and I suspect it will fast become a rip roaring favourite with foundation stage listeners (not to mention their grans).

In board book format for younger dino, enthusiasts is

Mamasaurus
Stephan Lomp
Chronicle Books

Babysaurus loves to ride atop his Mamasaurus’s back from where he can nibble at the juicy leaves. One day though, he slips right down to the very tip of her tail and ‘Wheeeeeee!’ Having extricated himself from the leaves, he cannot see his mama at all – where can she be?

Off he goes wandering through the wild landscape, searching and each time he encounters another creature he asks, (just like the baby bird in P.D. Eastman’s classic Are You My Mother? “Have you seen my mama?”

Little humans will love joining in the repeat question and enjoy the stand-out images, set against black, used throughout the sweet story.

Aliens Love Dinopants & Aerodynamics of Biscuits

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Aliens Love Dinopants
Clare Freedman and Ben Court
Simon and Schuster
Aliens, underpants and dinosaurs all in one story – what more can a pants loving reader ask for? Herein the spacecraft, piloted by the pantsophile aliens, is zapped by lightning as it whizzes through the skies forcing it to crash-land in the jungle.
But BLEEP BLEEPS are heard loud and clear from the pants-tracker and immediately the aliens are hot on the swampy trail. A trail that finally leads them to …

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shortly followed by …

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And it seems those dinosaurs are ready to fight to the death over their precious stash. But perhaps that isn’t going to be necessary: after all both are really on the same side – that of PANTS. So maybe a solution – a pantstastic one – can be found that works to the satisfaction of all concerned …

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And if so, all of us humans had better keep extra special watch over our washing lines when it’s chuddies drying time.
Can it really be the seventh of this ever-popular Underpants series? This one was eagerly seized upon by the five and six year olds I took it to, and several readings were demanded.

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Maria was certainly impressed by the story and left me this.

More power to the seemingly indomitable pants force and the creators thereof.

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Aerodynamics of Biscuits
Clare Helen Walsh and Sophia Touliatou
Maverick Arts Publishing
When hunger pangs strike, Oliver (normally a good, kind sort of a boy) creeps downstairs to raid the biscuit barrel only to find it completely empty. But what are those shadowy things scuttling across the floor, ‘Hauling and heaving, towing and tugging.’ out through the door and into the garden?

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The marauding mice however, are not consuming their spoils, oh no, they’re in the process of constructing or attempting to, aerodynamic biscuit rockets in which to fly to the moon and there partake of some – well you know what the moon is said to be made of.

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However their design skills leave a lot to be desired and it’s only when Oliver offers to help with the rocket building that things start to look more promising, and finally it’s blast off time.
Once at their cheesy destination, the mice can hardly wait to tuck in to the feast that awaits them when they discover that their leader, Captain Sneaky McSqueaky has gone missing: seems his appetite is for something other than cheese …
Are the mice to be marooned on the moon without a craft or can they find another way to return to earth? Perhaps, with Oliver’s help …

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This unlikely story is great fun. The nature of the telling is such that it draws listeners in from the start, keeping them involved and interested throughout and offering possibilities for active joining in with the rocket building and cheese gathering as the story unfolds.
Equally, Sophia Touliatou’s quirky illustrations are packed with amusing details, creating a visual feast of small rodents engaging in all manner of tasks, tiny tools, and tasty treats – sweet and savoury, not to mention a whole host of speech bubbles, noises, labels and more for the eyes to digest.

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Monsters and Underpants; Dinosaurs and Poo

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Monsters Love Underpants
Claire Freedman and Ben Cort
Simon & Schuster
We’ve had aliens, pirates and dinosaurs with a penchant for underpants; now it’s the turn of monsters, all manner of the beasties. We meet the howlers a-prowl in dingy dungeons and drooly swamp dwellers who fill their pants with gooey slime;

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YUCK – you can imagine what happens to those. Then there’s the spiky, spooky variety from outer space, not to mention the enormous sand dwelling monster whose bum just won’t fit comfortably into his pants. All these and more sport their snazzy underpants at the Saturday night disco and what a sight they look as they jiggle and jive …

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but they must be sure to leave on time. For as they say,
“We can’t risk being spotted!
For no one will be scared of us,
In pants all striped and dotted.”
Make sure you don’t leave a pair of yours under the bed …
I can see this one going down a storm in early years settings. The sight of those, mock scary monsters with their day-glo undies is guaranteed to have young children giggling with delight at every turn of the page and the rhyming text is great fun to read aloud. Be prepared for cries of “read it again’ at the end.
I can see lots of potential for creative work here too.

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Savouring the story?

Dinosaur Poo!
Diane and Christyan Fox
Words & Pictures (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books)
Poo is one topic that unfailingly seems to delight young children; another is dinosaurs: put the two together in a zany no holds barred rhyming text and add wacky, vividly coloured illustrations of dinosaurs in all shapes and sizes, plus flaps to open and reveal all manner of pongy ploppings and it seems you cannot fail to please the under sixes. Certainly that’s the case when the Pterodactyl sets out to prove the superiority of his poo to an unimpressed Velociraptor and the two embark on the biggest and best poo quest.

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Seemingly they are not the only interested ones though; there’s a ladybird that keeps popping up at every dropping site. Fun endpapers too.

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A book to make you laugh, a book to make you cry, a book to make you sing

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Monkey Business
Smriti Prasadam-Halls and David Wojtowycz
Orchard Books
We had the story of Major Trump’s missing knickers: now from the same partnership comes another of those books that quickly reduces early years audiences to uncontrolled giggles. Once again we are on board the ark and Mr Noah has been woken by cries from young monkey, Charlie Chatter who is in desperate need of a wee and has lost his potty. What group of under fives will be able to resist his opening speech?
“ Oh, bother my botty!
            Where,
          oh where,
          oh where
        is my potty?”
The thought of sitting on the toilet is too distressing for young Charlie so Mr Noah calls upon the other animals for some loo loving anecdotes. These win him over but when he finally heads for his bathroom, the door’s stuck fast. Will the result be a puddle on the floor? Fortunately not for it’s Mrs Noah on the other side doing a spot of DIY on the bathroom roof and guess what she had been using to catch all the drips… All’s well that ends well though and Charlie finally enters the little room for some very important and by then very urgent business.
David Wojtowycz’s bright exuberant illustrations are a real hoot and the perfect complement to the rib-tickling, rhyming text; I especially like the story-reading snakes sitting with their heads in books from the bathroom library; they won’t be out in a hurry then.
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The Memory Tree
Britta Teckentrup
Orchard Books
Fox has lived a long, happy life with his friends in the forest but one day he is tired and it is time for him to fall asleep – for ever. He goes to his favourite clearing and as the snow falls and slowly covers him, the other animals gather to remember him.

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Owl is the first to share his most precious memory of Fox and then, one by one, Squirrel, Weasel, Bear, Deer, Bird, Rabbit, Mouse and others talk of their favourite memories about Fox. As they do so, a little orange plant begins to peep through the snow and as each animals adds to the story telling, it grows bigger and stronger till in the morning it has become a small tree; and Fox’s friends know in their hearts he is still a part of them. Time passes, the tree grows with each new memory and finally it is large enough to shelter all the animals that had loved Fox: a strength-giving tree of memories and love.
Beautifully told without sentimentality, this book celebrates life, love and friendship. Teckentrup’s  illustrations in suitably subdued colours perfectly capture the sadness of the animals at the loss of their friend and their warmth as they  recount their memories of him. Every turn of the page is a delight.
A tearjerker? Yes if like me you are a bit of a softie but ultimately this is an uplifting book.
Recommended for family reading and a must buy for all primary schools and nursery settings. A lovely book to sit alongside Badger’s Parting Gifts.
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Octopus’s Garden
Ringo Starr and Ben Cort
Simon and Schuster
I defy you to read this book and listen to the accompanying CD without getting the classic number stuck in your brain. Apparently, Ringo Starr wrote it in 1968 when holidaying in Sardinia after a sea captain told him about how octopuses move around the seabed collecting objects. Ringo was taking time out from the Beatles and wanted to escape somewhere; what better place than under the sea?
Back to the book. Here we find a little boy gazing at his goldfish bowl from whence he is transported, along with four of his friends, to a wondrous sub- marine garden. There they ride on turtles, share a story read by their cephalopod host,

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cavort on the pillars of an ancient temple and much more.

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These joyous scenarios and others are brought into being in ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ artist, Ben Cort’s wonderful illustrations. These absolutely bubble over with the kind of exuberant fun that young children take delight in.
Share the story, listen to the song, listen again and your children will be joining in. Then they can follow the story with the book as it’s read aloud by Ringo. There are opportunities for movement too, when the tune is played over at the end.
Everyone loves the idea of a special place where they can take time out from the real world, away from any worries or niggles they might have and away from watchful adult eyes. This book offers an opportunity for you to invite children to think about and discuss the kind of place they would like to escape to.
I’d definitely include this in an early years sea theme collection and possibly leave a copy in an undersea role-play area for children to enjoy once they have had the book read to them. They (and you) will have to be adept at turning the book around on a couple of occasions, as the page layout becomes portrait to deepen the undersea experiences.
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