Tag Brian Lovelock

Non-Fiction Miscellany: Ambulance Ambulance / Weird Animals / Castle Adventure Activity Book

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Ambulance Ambulance
Sally Sutton and Brian Lovelock
Walker Books

An ambulance crew responds to an emergency call out: a boy has come off his bike and ‘Nee nar nee nar nee nar nee nar …’ off goes the ambulance to the scene of the accident.

On arrival the paramedics make the necessary checks, put a splint on the child’s broken leg and carefully lift him onto a stretcher and into the ambulance.

Then with horn honking and lights flashing, off they go racing to the hospital, “Quick, quick quick. ‘Nee nar nee nar nee nar nee nar … ‘

Once the boy is safely inside and the hand-over complete, the crew are ready for a rest, but it’s not long before another emergency call comes and so off they go again …

Team Sally and Brian are already well known for their previous picture books such as Roadworks and Construction. Non-fiction loving little ones delight in these books and will doubtless relish this one with its bright illustrations, especially since its rhyming text comes with opportunities for joining in all those ‘Nee nar’ sounds. Share at home or in a nursery setting and watch the response …

Weird Animals
Mary Kay Carson
Sterling Children’s Books

The world of nature is full of strange and wonderful creatures, large and small, a dozen or so of which are featured in Mary May Carson’s Weird Animals. The author specialises in writing non-fiction for children and those with an insatiable appetite for the fantastically weird will enjoy her latest book.

It explains the whys and wherefores of some amazing adaptations, those odd characteristics that help these creatures survive and thrive.

Take for example the Pink Fairy armadillo with its oversized feet and fluffy underside that helps keep the creature warm through cold desert nights.

The frightening-looking fauna from different parts of the world include insects, reptiles, birds, fish, mammals, with explanations for their appearance. Weird and wonderful they surely are.

Castle Adventure Activity Book
Jen Alliston
Button Books

Children should find lots to explore in this engaging historical activity book. There are mazes, matching games, word searches, colouring pages that include things to spot of a medieval kind. Observation skills are also required for matching games, determining the winner of a joust, searching for rats in the castle kitchen and more.

There are medieval scenes to complete by drawing and adding stickers as well as a number of crafty projects. Some, such as making a sword or a conical hat for a princess, require additional items – paper, card, scissors etc. and may also need adult assistance.

Some simple maths, words to unscramble and a scattering of jokes are also part and parcel of this themed compilation that’s a fun alternative to constant screen use.

Flight of the Honey Bee

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Flight of the Honey Bee
Raymond Huber and Brian Lovelock
Walker Books pbk
Did you know that ‘Bees can smell in “stereo,” each antenna smelling in a different direction.’ I certainly didn’t. Nor (despite having a partner who is a natural history fanatic) did I know that their eyeballs are furry; but these are just two of the fascinating details I learned from this absorbing book. Essentially it documents the story of a honeybee, ‘Scout’ from the time she leaves the safety of the hive and, as autumn approaches, flies out into the world in search of pollen and a nectar source.
One almost feels like a participant in Scout’s journey, such is the quality of the detail in Lovelock’s watercolour, pencil and acrylic ink illustrations

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and the descriptions of Huber’s (himself a beekeeper) writing: ‘ Scout flies swift and straight as an arrow. The wind buffets her, ruffling her fine hairs on her face … Eyes as black as polished stones are searching – seeking a splash of colour below.’
Each stage of the search is vividly described using that present tense narrative voice: the narrow escape from a hungry blackbird, the nectar locating and sipping, pollen collecting in the ‘sea of flowers’. Then comes Scout’s battering by the hailstorm,

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the encounter with a wasp and her re-entry to the hive where she communicates with her sister bees describing in her dance language the route to the meadow.

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Next she passes her nectar to the house bees, transmits the pollen from her body to the ‘babysitter’ bees that mix it with honey to feed the babies, before settling down for a recuperative rest. A rest that will enable her to join her fellow bees for the autumn harvest in that ‘blue meadow’ she has located.
Sadly, here in the UK, honey bees are declining in numbers: the author ends by giving readers some brief tips on how they can play their part in helping these vitally important insects survive and thrive. An excellent, exciting and educative book.

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Ralfy Rabbit & Construction: Libraries for All

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WANTED! Ralfy Rabbit, Book Burglar
Emily MacKenzie
Bloomsbury Children’s Books pbk
Meet bibliophile Ralfy rabbit, maker of book lists– those he’s read (with carrot ratings ascribed), those he wants to read and those to recommend to friends and family. Ralfy would go to any lengths to get his paws on a good book. He’d even take them from people’s homes

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and large gaps began to appear on the shelves of one small boy Arthur. Arthur too was a book lover and when he discovers the absence of his favourite monster book he decides something has to be done to apprehend the thief. Time to put in a call to the local constabulary he decides, having been laughed at by his mum and chastised by his teacher. Even the police don’t take him seriously though, not until Ralfy tries stealing a book from PC Puddle that is.
Ralfy finds himself in a line-up but it’s pretty difficult to tell one bunny from another when they’re all wearing book lovers T-shirts; Arthur is certainly bemused. But then PC Puddle starts up a conveyor belt …

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That’s not quite the end of the tale though: Arthur knows just the place for someone with an insatiable appetite for books, a place where he must make sure to take the books back for others to enjoy.
This engaging book is an unashamed plug for libraries and an amusing read to boot. I love the alliterative list of Ralfy’s book-pilfering crimes and the book lists Ralfy himself makes (these will be appreciated by adults but most will go over the heads of young children; they will be amused by the carrot ratings).
The illustrations are great too – packed with humorous touches and of course, there are plenty of books in evidence. The conveyor belt scene is terrific, as is one of Arthur’s bookshelves complete with snails and slugs

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and I love the night spotlight of Ralfy returning home with his swag bag almost bursting at the seams with his latest haul.
If you share this with a class of KS1 children, make sure they see the poster on the book’s back cover. They could have fun making their own WANTED posters for Ralfy, or perhaps a poster promoting their local library (if they are lucky enough to have one still).

Building a new library, now that really is something to celebrate and it’s exactly what we see happening in

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Construction
Sally Sutton and Brian Lovelock
Walker Books
Big machines move onto the site digging, filling, concreting, hoisting wood – Thonk! CLONK CLAP! Then sawing, measuring, hammering as the stairs, floors and walls are erected. Next come the roof, doors and windows with a Heave-ho! followed by pipes and power wires and finally a couple of coats of paint. At last it’s time to bring in the furniture and most important of all come the books – lots and lots of lovely books all waiting to be borrowed. Ready … STEADY… READ! Hip! Hip! Hooray!
Sally Sutton’s energetically rhythmic text simply throbs along in patterned form – action and then onomatopoeic words: ‘Fill the holes. Fill the holes. … Spread it fast before it sets. Sloosh! SLOSH! SLOP!’

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and ‘Build the frame. Build the frame. … Bing! BANG! BONG!

 

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(Great for audience participation this.)
It’s good to see both male and female workers on Lovelock’s construction site with some of the latter clearly directing the operation in places.

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His changing perspectives allow the audience a variety of views from beneath the action to looking down upon it, at some distance or right in close.

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The final page provides brief explanations of the machines usage and shows the safety gear of a site worker. What more can little builders as well as readers ask?

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Don’t forget February 14th:ibgdposterlarge

 

Demolition

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Demolition
Sally Sutton and Brian Lovelock
Walker Books pbk
This wonderfully noisy book has energy and motion in abundance. We follow a gang of workers as they don their protective gear and set to work with their monstrous machines tearing down a derelict building so a playground can be erected in its place.
Writing largely in the imperative, Sally Sutton has created a glorious, must-join-in-with, onomatopoeic rhyming text that characterises the various machines and their roles to perfection:

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The excavator’s huge jaws work in dinosaur fashion to bite and tear and slash.
Then with its basket attached it must …

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Ram the walls. Ram the walls.
Bash and smash and slam.
First they wobble, then they fall.
Thud! CREAK!
WHAM!
Next comes the process of hosing and damping the dust and dirt done by the workers with hoses (I’ve never thought about this before); another spread shows stone crushing and grinding to make new concrete from the old; there is wood shredding

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and chipping to create mulch from the sawdust and metal sorting. Each process has an emphasis on reusing/recycling materials (a great message to give children).
Once all the rubble has been cleared and the play equipment put in place, we are issued an invitation on the final double spread to join the fun and ‘Run and climb and play.’

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Lovelock’s emphasis throughout is also on the monstrous machines, which he presents in acrylics, pencils and ink. The latter he uses to highlight details such as the rivets and other elements that contribute to the motion, and to make the various machines stand out from their spatter-wash and stipple backgrounds.
There’s a final Machine Facts page giving brief information about each of the performers and their add-ons; and the end papers are appropriately rubbly.
This book is the perfect thing for an active story session with a group of preschoolers. After an initial reading children themselves can use their bodies to become the machines, swinging those wrecking balls, thumping, smashing and whacking, then biting tearing and slashing (how will they create those jaws?) ramming, bashing and slamming; whishing, splishing and squirting those hoses and more.
Then there are the noises to create – what might they use to make the various sounds in addition to or instead of, their voices. In fact you might read the story and have the children add sound effects.
A must buy for any early years setting and for machine-loving individuals.
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