Tag Davina Bell

Under the Love Umbrella

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Under the Love Umbrella
Davina Bell and Allison Colpoys
Scribble
One of my closest friends lives in India and when his two daughters were much younger, we took some holidays in Goa together. The elder girl, Triambika had recently started at boarding school and was not at all happy during her first term. One evening after dinner near the beach we stood together in the dark, looking up at the sky, where the moon had formed a smile shape. I recall saying to her, “Whenever you are feeling sad or alone, look up at that smile in the sky and know I’m there for you, thinking of you and sending my love.” This beautiful picture book brought this right back to me, using as it does an umbrella as the symbol of love and protection. ‘Over your head and just above / There’s an umbrella of my love. / To show it’s you I’m thinking of / Wherever you might be.’
It then goes on to explore various situations when a child might feel frightened, upset, shy or sad

reminding him/her that a loving parent with the love umbrella is always there to comfort, reassure and embrace.
Moving home is particularly challenging for many children; another situation that calls for the umbrella and its loving care …

As do wet pants accidents, breakfast disasters, camping trips in maybe scary woods and more; whatever the weather, out comes that umbrella.

Indeed there isn’t a single instance when that all embracing cover cannot offer succour.
Delivered through Davina Bell’s gentle soothing rhyming words and Allison Colpoys’ striking, stand-out scenes rendered in neon shades: this creative partnership goes from strength to strength. A MUST buy book for families especially.
I’ve signed the charter … 

Alfie & Pom Pom Face Their Feelings

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The Underwater Fancy-Dress Parade
Davina Bell and Allison Colpoys
Scribe
Alfie is filled with apprehension the day before the underwater fancy dress parade. He’s practised wearing his Captain starfish costume at home

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so he won’t end up bottling out like on the day of the running race, or Antoinette’s reptile party.
After a sleepless night filled with scary underwater dreams, Alfie is even more sure he hasn’t the courage: “I can’t,” he tells his Mum. She however has a plan – one involving a visit to somewhere special.

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It’s here that Alfie spots a little fish that likes to hide away among the corals.

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“That orange fish,” his Mum explains on the way home, “was a clownfish” … “Sometimes they need to hide away… It’s just what they do.” and Alfie understands. “There’s always next year,” he tells his Dad and the cowboys on his wallpaper at bedtime. And, with such understanding parents, Alfie may well have overcome his shyness by then.
In her gorgeous retro style illustrations executed with limited colour, Allison Colpoys conveys Alex’s fearfulness beautifully and the tale is sympathetically and convincingly told – a demonstration of both the artist’s and author’s understanding of how young children try to cope with shyness/introversion.

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Pom Pom Gets the Grumps
Sophy Henn
Puffin Books
Every early years teacher and parent will recognize the scenario so perfectly documented in 2015 World Book Day official illustrator, Sophy Henn’s second book. And, despite the dour-faced panda depicted on the front, it’s sheer delight from cover to cover.
Like all of us from time to time, Pom Pom wakes up in a bad mood. Uh-oh – from the very minute he gets out of bed (on the wrong side of course) it seems everything and everyone is against him. Pom Pom’s tetchiness escalates as he goes through the day: his blanky is missing, his baby brother has taken his favourite toy, there’s soggy cereal and bitty juice at breakfast time and worse, his mum is in soppy song mode. That’s just the beginning of the day through which Pom Pom “Harrumph!”s and scowls and glowers.

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At nursery it’s a case of “NO!”, “NO! and “NO!” to each and every suggestion made by his friends and when he yells at them to “GO AWAY!” that’s exactly what they do. Surprise, surprise -that isn’t right either, but it’s a turning point for our surly protagonist. The little fellow sees the error of his ways and off he goes to make amends.

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Harmony is restored – well let’s just say, for the time being …

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Seemingly Sophy Henn knows young bears (and children) very well indeed. She achieves such depth of character seemingly effortlessly and her portrayal of Pom Pom is spot on. She manages to make him adorably cute; even when he’s in the biggest of sulks what you really want to do is to laugh and give him a big hug. In fact one could go so far as to say he deserves one for he never lashed out physically during the whole sorry day. I absolutely love her crisp, clean contemporary illustrative style and look forward eagerly to further Pom Pom capers later in the year.

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