Tag Christine Pym

I Definitely Don’t Like the Dark

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I Definitely Don’t Like the Dark
Fiona Barker and Christine Pym
Scholastic

The two delightful squirrel best friends, Hank and Hoog, return in another of the I Definitely Don’t Like stories.

After an enjoyable day together, as the sun sets the friends start to head for home when Hoog remarks on the long length of his shadow. Hank speeds up eager to get home before dark. “I d… don’t like the d… dark,” he whispers to his pal. An understanding Hoog offers to accompany him all the way back but as the sun disappears completely, Hank is alarmed by noises, noises made by other creatures

and the creaking of a tree. Once all is quiet, Hank starts worrying again, this time about what could be hiding, waiting in the dark.

After some reassurance from Hoog, they continue their way, Hank still not fully sure about the surrounding darkness. However Hoog still has something tucked in his fur to share with him. Together they sit on a branch gazing at the stars shining bright all around them and a realisation comes to Hank: ‘… despite having fear, with a good friend … there will always be light in the darkness.’

Fiona’s reassuring story is perfect to share with young children who, like Hank , are scared of the dark. Christine Pym uses a variety of viewpoints from which to present the events and this further adds to the power of the telling.

The Little Worried Caterpillar / Dig Dig Dinosaur

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The Little Worried Caterpillar
Christine Pym
Scholastic

Little Green is on the brink of change. However she’s not aware of this when she wakes early one morning ready to play with her caterpillar pals, but she can’t find them anywhere on the ground. Then a call tells her that they have morphed into butterflies and are way up above her. “You’ll be next, there’s no doubt!” they tell her. However rather than sprouting wings, she sprouts fear, a fear of change that brings with it worries about the unknown. Her friends reassure Little Green that change is what they were born to do and it’s exciting but this makes her feel even worse.

Along comes bee with what is meant to be some helpful advice; she gets momentary relief but that’s all.

Other creatures also offer suggestions but nothing works until Rabbit appears on the scene. Rabbit listens and what her new friend tells Little Green enables her to feel ready to embrace and prepare for that transformational change

and become … Butterfly Green.

Some young children take change in their stride, others needs considerable support from empathetic friends and understanding adults. A book such as this one is particularly valuable for sharing with the second kind. Christine Pym’s illustrations capture so well Little Green’s fearfulness and eventual delight.

Dig Dig Dinosaur
Professor Anjali Goswami and Maggie Li
Nosy Crow

Three intrepid little explorers with their kit at the ready are on an expedition in the hope of finding something, something ‘REALLY big’. Dig! Dig! Dig! they go till one person discovers some remains of a sharp clawed dinosaur. These claws make the finder conclude that they belonged to a Velociraptor.

A second child’s Dig! Dig! Dig! digging unearths three large horns: young readers can perhaps guess from which dinosaur these came..

Still intent on finding something even bigger, they continue hunting till the third explorer tells of a dinosaur with a very long tail. and a tiny head supported by an extra long neck.

Little ones can have fun guessing what this might be before the big reveal fold out … They will also enjoy the peep hole pages showing the skeletal remains the young explorers find during the dig.

Fox’s Favourite Autumn

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Fox’s Favourite Autumn
Fiona Barker and Christine Pym
Scholastic

Autumn is Fox’s favourite season, he loves everything about it: the abundance of ripe fruits, the misty mornings and honey sunsets. But with autumn come shorter days; Fox isn’t happy about that. He decides to make the days longer, trying several ideas but his friends don’t like what he does.

Nor do they approve of his food-saving. Then, as he desperately tries to stick leaves back on the trees, he encounters Badger wanting to know what he’s up to.

Badger asks Fox what he’ll miss about autumn and Fox starts to list autumnal things he loves so much. As he does so, Fox realises that he’s been missing out on sharing in his friends’ autumnal pleasures.

Wise Badger then points out that it’s the sharing that’s vital and all seasons have pleasurable things to offer if they’re done with friends. Will Fox finally take on board these sage words and make the most of every season and its possibilities?

An important life lesson is presented with gentle humour in this seasonal tale. It’s all too easy to become like Fox and allow the possibilities each season presents to pass us by. Christine Pym’s jolly seasonal scenes reflect the humour in Fiona Barker’s words and together offer a thought-provoking book to share and discuss with young children as the days draw in.

Toby and the Tricky Things

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Toby and the Tricky Things
Lou Peacock and Christine Pym
Nosy Crow

If the consequence of young Toby’s burgeoning independence – able to pour his own milk, read his own bedtime stories and reach the snacks intended “just for mummies” – means bothersome breakfast,

‘Bad Buttons’, for an entire day, ‘Wrong Wellies’ likewise and even worse, problematic pants and loopy loo paper, then Mummy Elephant’s Big Boy isn’t happy.

Even when he’s managed to get her attention for two minutes on account of the bathroom disaster, Baby Iris is demanding that attention YET AGAIN! Hmmm!

If that’s how it’s to be, then Toby is off on his own Big Boy’s adventure.

Suitcase packed with potentially useful toys, garden door successfully opened, stairs down duly descended, he’s off flying solo on the swing.

Soon though hunger pangs strike and a sudden downpour dampens his spirits (and those Toys That Might Be Useful aren’t at all so), then who should be there, just at the right moment with words of comfort and encouragement but his very own Mummy Elephant.

Yes, there will still be occasions when sharing a Mummy will be the trickiest of all things but now Toby knows that however big he gets, he will always be her baby.

Lou Peacock’s gently humorous tale looks at one of those bothersome situations that many older siblings have to contend with, doing so in a reassuring warm-hearted manner that will surely resonate with adults and children alike.

Samuel and Ruby absorbed in the story

The Elephant family as portrayed by Christine Pym is absolutely enchanting. She captures the changing feelings of Toby wonderfully and Mum’s love of her offspring shines out despite her obvious dilemma of being torn between two little ones. “Hey, I know that story,” one of my listeners said of the book being shared by the three characters on the back cover.

Goat’s Coat

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Goat’s Coat
Tom Percival and Christine Pym
Bloomsbury Children’s Books

Alfonzo is a goat with a brand new, dapper coat; wearing it makes him feel on top of the world. He also has a kind heart so when out strutting his stuff in his stylish garment and he comes upon a family of homeless frogs in need of help Alfonzo is faced with a dilemma.

Altruism wins: the frogs sail off in a new blue boat; Alfonzo walks on in a cuffless coat.

But then he discovers a trembly cat, her tail in a trap. A bandage is required to stem the blood …

Soon the cat’s tail is covered: the goat’s nether regions anything but.

Further encounters with a panic-stricken hen …

and shivering hedgehogs leave the benevolent Alfonso alone and entirely coatless. Snow falls as night approaches.

Will the goat freeze without his coat?

Tom Percival’s rhyming cuddle of a tale is the perfect antidote to the current political climate demonstrating so beautifully that happiness lies not in possessions or self-interest but in friendship and selflessness. Christine Pym’s illustrations for his heart-warming story capture the feelings of helper and helped perfectly, injecting appropriate touches of humour along the way.

Not Enough for Queen Fluff / Little Mouse’s Big Breakfast

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Not Enough For Queen Fluff
Rachel Lyon and Catalina Echeverri
Maverick Arts Publishing
Queen Fluff has everything a person (or a fancy bunny) could want: a large, lavishly furnished burrow full of queenly comforts, quite the opposite of all her subjects. They live in near poverty out in the Kingdom beyond the palace boundaries. Riches, as most of us know, don’t equate to happiness though, and thus it is with Queen Fluff who spends a bored, lonely existence.
So her royal bunnyness sends out a communication to all the other bunnies …

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It’s hardly the way to win friends methinks, but how do the recipients respond?
They certainly start making some plans for their royal visitor. She meanwhile, sets off with bulging bags, eagerly anticipating a welcome befitting her regal status. What she gets however, is something of a surprise, or rather a shock, as she visits burrow after burrow in search of delight.

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And what of that ten-course feast she’s set her sights on? Well, those rabbits surely know how to serve up a surprise menu; but is it one that will cause their monarch to eat her words? It might just be …

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With a rhyming text from Rachel Lyon that simply rolls off the tongue, mixed with super-cute, funny illustrations from Catalina Echeverri …

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this book has gone down very well with my audiences. I had great fun with one group suggesting their own disgusting courses to serve up to Queen Fluff.

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Ellena snuggled up for the story

Little Mouse’s Big Breakfast
Christine Pym
Nosy Crow
Little Mouse has a big appetite or so it seems; but maybe not: let’s wait and see.
We first meet our intrepid little hero one chilly evening when he’s decidedly peckish and having nothing ready for a breakfast nibble the following morning.
Fortunately though, Little Mouse knows just where to go and off he sets, scampering along the footpath, scaling the drainpipe and hopping in through an open window where on the table he spies this …

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followed quickly by a rosy apple and then a whole lot of ‘big brown biscuits’ …

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But that’s not all. Pretty soon, despite the odd doubt about the deliciousness of one or two items, he has all this precariously balanced …

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Guess what though: he then spots the ABSOLUTE perfect item for a tasty breakfast – one ‘shiny, stripy sunflower seed’ and of course he just HAS to have it … Seems someone else is after that perfect breakfast too and we know what that is …

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I wonder who gets their perfect breakfast – that would be tale telling, wouldn’t it. Suffice it to say, it’s pretty tasty.
Christine Pym’s timing is spot on, and her tale deliciously illustrated with a mix of double spreads, single pages, panels and frames. This really went down a treat with my early years audience who delighted at the ending and were eager for an immediate re-reading.

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