Tag Gerry Turley

Are You Hungry? / Lois Looks for Bob at the Seaside & Lois Looks for Bob at the Museum

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Are You Hungry?
Janik Coat and Bernard Duisit
Thames & Hudson

There’s a veritable feast contained within the few pages of this new addition to the ‘Flip-Flap-Pop-Up series from author/illustrator Janik Coat and paper engineer extraordinaire, Bernard Duisit.

Starting on Monday, we move through the week with an animal per day sharing a culinary delight or two with us. Or should I say that perhaps not all have such mouth-watering allure.

and, while some will meet with parental approval, others probably will not.

Sunday brings a wonderful pop-up spread of treats to keep one little bear going for several days; let’s hope he remembers to brush his teeth like the rabbit on the final spread.

Playfully interactive, each spread has either a wheel to turn, tab to pull, or pop-up to unfold.
Hours of fun for small hands guaranteed from this sturdily built little book.

Lois Looks for Bob at the Seaside
Lois Looks for Bob at the Museum
Gerry Turley
Nosy Crow

Those who have met Bob in previous books will know that he likes nothing better than a game of hide-and-seek with faithful feathered friend, Lois, a game in which toddlers can take part by lifting the variously shaped flaps he might be hidden under.

The beach is the setting for the first story where we also meet, seagull Geoffrey, turtle Maureen, Victor the crab and wait for it – fish Dolores, Mike and Fay.

Where can he possibly be?

Raf (15 months) is eager to find Bob …

In the second book we visit a museum and once again Lois looks for her elusive pal even starting her hunt before entering the place. He’s not behind the curtain, or the painting; he’s not among the vases, nor in the broom cupboard.
We do discover a variety of other creatures in those places but not Bob. Then, what about the café? Could he be there perhaps?

There’s plenty to amuse and involve young listeners in these two additions to the series, although adult sharers will likely have a good giggle over the wry humour, not least in this spread.

Lois Looks for Bob: At Home / At the Park & Better Together

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Lois Looks for Bob at Home
Lois Looks for Bob at the Park
Gerry Turley
Nosy Crow
In an exciting new series, two amusing, sturdily build board books involve toddlers in a game of hide and seek to find a missing bird.
Lois is a black cat; Bob her unlikely, feathered friend.
In the first book, Bob has disappeared somewhere indoors but has left a trail of yellow feathers to help Lois in her search. The canny feline hunts high and low and in the process introduces readers to a host of other resident animals with unlikely names, before locating her friend (sans a few feathers).
I’m not sure what Bob was doing in the park but it’s the location for Lois’ second search.
There are many possible hiding places as well as a hilariously named set of park residents to discover (Derek and Susan ducks, Roger the squirrel, Cynthia snail …

and Frank the peacock) before her feathered pal is finally found.
The simple question and answer text involves young listeners from the outset and will keep them amused throughout Lois’ investigations during which they’ll be encountering a range of positional prepositions.

Better Together
Barbara Joosse, Anneke Lisberg and Jared Andrew Schorr
Abrams Appleseed
Die-cut gatefold pages turn single animals – a nervous zebra, a hungry bat,



a curious crow, a frisky meerkat, a brave prairie dog and a little rat into members of their respective communities as each is comforted, fed, or otherwise nurtured by its fellows.
The penultimate spread has an infant with its human family who have all gatherered together to celebrate its first birthday.

Observant readers will notice that along with the humans, each animal has also found its way into the birthday party.
There’s a final ‘Fun Things to Know’ spread that provides some brief facts about some ways the featured animals help each other.
Satisfying rhyming or alliterative phrases such as ‘flicky ticky’, ‘rumbly tumbly’ and ‘doodle daddle’ enliven the brief text and Schorr’s densely coloured collage illustrations offer attractive animal environments.

I’ve signed the charter  

Love Matters Most

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Love Matters Most
Mij Kelly and Gerry Turley
Hodder Children’s Books
‘Why is the bear staring into the night,
at a world that is turning shimmering white?’
With that opening question we join a mother bear as she leaves her warm sheltering cave and ventures out into the frost-filled night air on a stormy night in search of something. Surely not gold in such frozen terrain, nor those berries,

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though they look so delicious glowing ruby-red on the bushes.
Could it be the magic glow of the forest calling?

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Will she pause to catch salmon or see a snowflake become a teardrop or watch in wonder as the stars splinter the sky? Yes, these are all wonderful, but it’s none of these; there’s something much more important she needs to find, which is why that bear is following footprints.
Searching and following them on and on until at last, joy oh joy!

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Mother and cub are finally reunited and both know for sure what matters most; it’s love.
Mij Kelly’s gentle poetic text is music to the ear and really draws listeners right in to the bear’s chilly world as she journeys across the snowy landscapes so wonderfully portrayed by Gerry Turley. He brings stark beauty to every scene and the impact of words and pictures together send shivers of pleasure up the spine.
Look out for the little yellow bird that accompanies the mother bear on her journey leading her forwards all the way and watching that tender finale.

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Feather, Frogs and Fur

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Woooo!
Gerry Turley
Hutchinson
“Squeak”, “Meep” two baby owls wait hungrily for their mother owl to return with some nourishment before they take their first flight. Then it’s a case of ‘flap your wings and swoosh’ or rather flop and flump, swump, and swoosh.

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One ‘whoa’ … follows the mother into the wild woods; the other remains on the branch, “waaa”, stuck. All around other animal sounds come closer, “gnash gnash” and “nosssssssshh” …
Just in time, with an almighty “Screeeeeeeeech!” comes father owl and oops. Time to get those wings moving little one… flap flap off he goes –

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just – up and away, even as high as the moon …

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Beautifully simple, beautifully told, this tale of a maiden flight is rendered through a brief text comprising brief sentences and animal noises together with illustrations crafted with deft strokes of pen, brush and crayon.
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Tiger on a Tree
Anushka Ravishankar and Pulak Biswas
Tara Books pbk,
A baby tiger wanders off, crosses the river, encounters a goat that causes him to dash up a tree and there he surprises the village men who now have a dilemma: what to do with the animal. They confer on the tiger’s fate and fortunately for all, the decision is in its favour … Satisfyingly circular in nature – the opening ‘Tiger , tiger on the shore’ is the book’s finale too.
Told in slightly erratic rhyme, that swerves across the pages, this tale is full of drama and tension: Armed with an enormous net the men cry

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‘Get him! Net him! Tie him tight!’… ‘He’s caught. He’s got. Now what?’
The tiger colour illustrations around which the author wove her tale are wonderfully expressive and abound with energy; Biswas was one of India’s leading illustrators, so this paperback edition will surely one hopes, help keep him in the public eye.
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Little Frog’s Tadpole Trouble
Tatyana Feeney
Oxford University Press
Little Frog was happy being the only offspring of Mummy and Daddy Frog. So, when he learns of new additions to the family – nine no less – he is far from impressed. Can tadpoles build with blocks, play drums, jump even? Oh dear no. Moreover their doing nothing commands all of his parent’s time so,

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no bedtime story, no goodnight kiss, just one thoroughly fed-up Little Frog.
But as we all know, tadpoles quickly grow into little frogs and soon …

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One big, happy family.
As with her two previous titles, Tatyana Feeney’s limited use of colour and brief text combine to great effect producing a charming whole that, despite the small size of its main character, is much greater than the sum of its parts.
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More about new additions to the family in:

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Miffy and the New Baby
Dick Bruna
Simon and Schuster
Once again, Tony Mitton has created a new translation, in rhyme, of the original story wherein Miffy is thrilled to learn of a forthcoming addition to her family and straightway gets to work making treats for her new sibling to be.

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And, what a proud big sister she is when she finally holds the baby bunny and when she takes that special ‘Welcome Baby’ cake to school to share with all her friends.
Full of charm, as ever.
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