Tag Christopher Silas Neal

Over and Under the Rainforest

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Over and Under the Rainforest
Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal
Chronicle Books

This beautiful book immerses readers deep in the South American rainforest in the company of an adult (Tito) and a child narrator as they trek the entire day, from early morning to evening.

They observe with all their senses enjoying the ‘symphony of sounds! Chatters and chirps and a howling roar’ of monkeys, insects and birds in the treetops.

As they continue hiking along the trail we share the sights and sounds of particular animals, ‘Up in the trees’ and ‘Down in the forest’. There are toucans that ‘croak and bicker over breakfast’; a row of bats ‘sleeps away the daylight’;

… ‘A poison dart frog makes his way up a trunk with a tadpole on his back and they find themselves ‘eye to eye with capuchin monkeys as they cross a hanging bridge.

With the afternoon comes the rain, time to snack on dried fruits alongside snacking monkeys. The rain falls more heavily causing a blue morpho butterfly to fold her wings and tuck herself away close to a sleeping mother sloth and her baby.

When evening comes, the rain lets up and the darkness falls all around, there are lots of silent hunting animals such as a parrot snake and an eyelash palm pit viper, and some new sounds too, as up in the trees howler monkeys “Rrrowf! … Rroooooaaaahhhhhh!” in response to Tito’s roar.

Night is the time for jaguars to be on the prowl so perhaps the sudden scary snap is a sign one’s on the move.

It’s also the time for the two trekkers to cross that last bridge and, with thoughts of Abuelita’s supper awaiting, to head for home to the sounds of a choir of insects and raindrops.

Kate Messner’s poetic text really does capture the atmosphere of the rainforest and the changes that happen over a day, while Christopher Silas Neal’s mixed media, matt illustrations, with their alternating views of ground level, the sky and the treetops showing the rich variety of the flora and fauna, imbue this particular ecosystem with a magic of its own.

If you want to discover more about the fauna, Kate has included notes on twenty creatures at the back of the book, along with some paragraphs about her own Costa Rican rainforest forays.

I Won’t Eat That

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I Won’t Eat That
Christopher Silas Neal
Walker Books

There’s a delicious sting in the tail of this rather dark story of a cat’s search for an alternative to yucky, dry, dull cat food.
Tortoise, Fox, Chimp, Lion, Elephant

and Whale …

are all consulted on their diets but wiggly worms, bouncy rabbits,

bitey ants, stripy zebras and dry boring grass are decidedly uninviting for a fussy moggie, and Whale’s “bioluminescent phytoplankton” is simply weird, let alone unpronounceable.

Seemingly Mouse is similarly on the hunt for something tasty to eat and the innocent creature stops and consults Cat. Uh-oh! Finicky Cat suddenly turns eager predator.

Neal’s animals have a simple folktale look about them, which is perfectly in keeping with his cumulative textual style in this story that will be a winner with early years listeners; (mine demanded an immediate re-reading).
Equally the patterned nature of the text with its question and answer, built-in repetition format, is ideal for learner readers, once they’ve had the story read to them, of course. Here’s a taster: “Lion, please help. / I’m hungry and searching / for something yummy to eat that / doesn’t wiggle, / bounce, / or bite. // What does a lion eat?” “Zebras!” roared Lion, as he sprang after his striped prey. / “But I must warn you – “ …

A tasty tale indeed.

The Big Bad Mood / Everyone …

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The Big Bad Mood
Tom Jamieson and Olga Demidova
Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Beware the Big Bad Mood; he’s always lurking somewhere around on the off-chance that you’ll be having one of those days when everything in the world seems to be conspiring to ruffle your feathers and make you feel thoroughly bad tempered. It’s such a day for young George – total tantrums are the order of his day. “There’s a big bad mood hanging around you today” says his mum.
George isn’t convinced: he can’t see the thing anywhere, which only makes him feel …

Then, seemingly out of nowhere there appears right before him a large blobby being announcing itself as “the Big Bad Mood”. His sole purpose, he informs George is to make everyone just like him – big, bad and moody; and he wants the boy’s help.
Off they go on their mischief-making mission and before long rather a lot of people are in big bad moods, including a fair number of George’s friends.
All this behaviour is pretty exhausting though, and after a while, George at least is starting to think constant big bad moodiness is not his thing; it’s silly, noisy, and upsetting for his friends.

Consequently, he bids farewell to his erstwhile companion who stomps off to find another partner in crime. And George? Maybe you can imagine what he did thereafter; let’s just say that he does apologise to all concerned; and he’s changed – somewhat!
A cleverly constructed, fun story to share and open up discussions about bad moods and anger-related feelings. Olga Demidova’s scenes of domestic moodiness, and the mayhem George causes out and about, will bring on giggles aplenty.

Everyone
Christopher Silas Neal
Walker Books
Emotions are at the heart of Christopher Silas Neal’s debut as author/illustrator. I’m familiar with his wonderful artwork in Over and Under the Pond and this is somewhat sparer, or rather, for this feelings-centred book, the artist has chosen to use a restricted colour palette.
Herein, by means of a small boy character he explores the power of human emotions, demonstrating that they are perfectly normal. All of us experience them: all of us need to accept them for their universality. Neal’s focus is on the way in which as humans, our emotions are drawn into a relationship with the natural world – the birds, the sky, flowers.

His prose is simple, yet lyrical; his voice authentic sounding. “Sometimes, you just need to cry, and that’s OK,” he says as the boy’s tears become birds flying into the grey sky.

With Personal, Social and Emotional Development being one of the prime areas in the EYFS, books such as this one are just right for encouraging young children to talk about how they and others show their feelings.

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Over and Under the Pond

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Over and Under the Pond
Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal
Chronicle Books
In this follow-up to Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt we join a mother and child as they take an evening row across the pond :‘Over the pond we slide, splashing through lily pads, sweeping through reeds.’ The boy narrates using a beautifully attentive, almost meditative voice that immediately connects us to the watery setting: ‘The water’s a mirror, reflecting the sky, /Sunshine and clouds – then a shadow below.’
Unhurriedly, the pond reveals its riches, both hidden and more clearly visible, as the two people in their craft skim, ‘lift and dart and pull past a row of painted turtles on a waterlogged tree‘ …

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On they go, with occasional help from the wind, passing a great blue heron about to dive for minnows, a woodpecker clinging to a ‘teetering pine, digging for ants.’;

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dragonflies skim the water’s surface below which dragonfly larvae seize passing minnows in their jaws. How skilfully, occasionally using onomatopoeic phrases such as ‘splash – gurgle – splosh!’ ‘to heighten the dramatic effect, author, Kate Messner, reflects that way young children can be ‘in the moment’ excluding all else as they immerse themselves in the here and now.

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Gradually the shadows engulf the scene as dusky darkness falls over the pond and it’s time to return ‘swish – bump!’ to the shore and home, leaving nature still watching and waiting …
Neal’s richly hued, mixed media illustrations show us the pond from every possible perspective both above and below causing readers, like the rowers, to pause and linger over every scene, taking in its stark beauty.
In the final spreads, the author provides notes about some of the fauna inhabiting the pond, especially useful for readers in the UK who may not be familiar with all of them. A book to inspire, enthuse and send readers (accompanied by an adult) out into the wonderful natural world to find out for themselves what lies Over and Under the Pond.

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Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt

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Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt
Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal
Chronicle Books
A little girl narrator shares with readers a season in the garden. Beginning in the springtime and with her hands clutching seeds, the girl is eager to start planting. Her Nana however cautions her to wait for the ground to warm and dry out.

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Meanwhile there’s much to learn about happenings under the ground. “Down in the dirt is a whole busy world of earthworms and insects, digging and building and stirring up soil.” she is told and more. Above ground too there is work to be done – human work, weeding and composting until it’s time to plant.
As spring turns to summer, tiny shoots appear and pea blossoms bloom – a boon for honeybees and wasps, while down below there’s more activity, plant and animal.

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Gardening can be hot work so it’s a good job Nana has a sense of humour and the hose …

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Through the summer there is food in abundance for both humans and small animals and soon it’s time to harvest the squash and cucumbers. Come September the sunflowers are in their full daytime glory

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and at night the orb web spider is busy spinning to catch her night-time prey.
With that autumn chill in the air, the two need to finish collecting the harvest overground while the ants are busy beneath them storing food against the winter cold. Before long the garden has its first frost and down in the dirt beetles burrow, ants scurry and earthworms curl themselves up to sleep.

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In wonderfully poetic words, Messner proceeds to remind us that, even though ‘the wind smells like winter … the ripe days of summer still rest in the garden beds’ and the insects ‘dream of sunshine and blossoms and sprouts.’ : a new garden awaits the spring under the bare trees and down in the dirt.
There is just so much to celebrate about this beautiful book: the manner in which the two artists – one verbal, the other visual have worked in harmony with one another and nature to create this garden in a book: a garden that one wants to share, to visit and to reproduce. It’s a celebration too of the relationship between old and young, the peace to be found in a garden through the changing seasons and much more.
Both author and artist show such amazing attention to detail: the whole thing is just a joy to have and to share. The colours of the mixed media illustrations are gorgeous, the language lyrical, the production and design excellent and there is also an author’s note about the communal nature of any garden, suggestions for further reading and the final pages are devoted to short paragraphs giving details about the garden animals – residents and visitors.
Celebrate words, celebrate pictures; celebrate nature, celebrate life – that’s what this book so subtly teaches us. As Robert Frost says, ‘I shan’t be gone long. – You come too’.

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