Tag Gwynneth Jones

I Love You / The Chalk Rainbow

jillrbennett Leave a comment

I Love You
Xiao Mao and Tang Yun
New Frontier Publishing
The complete title of this warm-hearted picture book is Ti amo, Ich liebe dich, Wo ai ni, Te quiero, Je t’aime. It tells how a pupil in Ms Giraffe’s class learns her teacher’s favourite words. Ms Giraffe writes them on the whiteboard one morning and asks her pupils what they might mean.

Little Badger’s response is just what she was hoping for: “when you say it out loud, the most wonderful things can happen,” she tells her.
Like all enthusiastic learners, Little Badger practises her new vocabulary, addressing the school, plants,

the weather, a bird, her home and practically everything in it, even a new pair of pants, and most importantly, her Mum and Dad.
It’s a wonderful way of showing young children how much pleasure they can get from showing and sharing love, and by appreciating what they have. Little Badger is one cute character and she gets this straightaway, as well as the fact that to make new words your own you need to use them often. All this is shown in Tang Yun’s wonderfully whimsical scenes wherein perspective is employed to great effect.

The Chalk Rainbow
Deborah Kelly and Gwynneth Jones
EK Books
Teachers and other professionals who work with children who have ASD constantly have to think outside the box. So it is here with Zane’s elder sister.
Young Zane isn’t like other children. So says the girl narrator of this story: he has a made-up language, likes to line things up and really hates the colour black. You’ve probably guessed by now that Zane is on the autism spectrum.
His family find life can be challenging, especially because Ollie won’t walk across anything black: that means the pedestrian crossing and the family’s driveway. His parents, in particular Dad, are seemingly unaware of the cause of Ollie’s differences and the result is Ollie goes into melt down.

His sister however is more understanding and comes up with a wonderfully imaginative way of helping her younger brother. She starts by drawing a chalk rainbow on the front steps and with his help, extends it right down the drive. The chalk runs out but his sister comes up with a clever way to extend their creative bridge building …

wherever it’s needed and before long ‘there are rainbows everywhere.’

One hopes this story with its themes of accepting difference, trust and unconditional love, will help readers and listeners to try and see things from behind the head of a child with ASD.

I’ve signed the charter  

Stone Underpants / The Great Sock Secret

jillrbennett Leave a comment

%0a

Stone Underpants
Rebecca Lisle and Richard Watson
Maverick Arts Publishing
Stone underpants? Have you ever heard of anything more preposterous? Back in the Stone Age though, when young Pod lived there wasn’t an awful lot around to make bottom warmers from when your rear end felt decidedly chilly, so a pair of stone underpants is what he makes himself. Needless to say however, they’re not the best things for running around in, and as for swimming, well …

%0a

Pod decides to try another material, but wood proves equally unsuitable …

dscn9372

as do several others he tries. Is he destined to have a chilly rump for ever or is there something else he could try…

%0a

The very mention of underpants and bottoms frequently reduces young listeners to fits of giggles and I suspect this one will do just that. The whole scenario is totally crazy: beetles demolishing his wooden underpants overnight for instance; and what was wrong with using an animal skin, there are certainly wild beasts evident in some of the scenes; but this madcap romp requires total suspension of disbelief so, why worry. It’s assuredly something youngsters will raise anyhow and they’ll also more than likely ask about the material used for that football too, and perhaps question why Pod didn’t just try making leafy underpants But all this could lead very nicely into some investigative work on materials if you happen to work with young children. Alternatively you might just enjoy the ridiculous story as told by the aptly named Rebecca Lisle, and have a good giggle over the equally crazy pictorial rendition of same from Richard Wilson.

%0a

The Great Sock Secret
Susan Whelan and Gwynneth Jones
EK Books
My alternative uses for socks have been restricted to a resource for making puppets in the classroom; and when teaching yoga, as props for those needing a little bit of help in certain stretches.
In Sarah’s house though, the socks are put to all manner of imaginative uses by the fairies who share her home. When Sarah’s mum initiates a hunt for the socks that have mysteriously gone missing from the laundry basket,

dscn9347

the little girl has to stay one jump ahead as they search all over the house. She knows who the culprits are; but can she manage to stop her mum from discovering those borrowers?
This foray into the fanciful is most likely to appeal to imaginative listeners around the age of the young protagonist.

Don’t Think About Purple Elephants

jillrbennett Leave a comment

DSCN6043 (800x600)

Don’t Think About Purple Elephants
Susan Whelan and Gwynneth Jones
EK Books
Meet young Sophie, she’s something of a worrier; not during the daytime however when she’s having fun at school,

DSCN6044 (800x600)

nor at home afterwards playing with her sister and brother. Not even at weekends when she can read, bake cakes, help in the garden, ride her bike or simply cloud watch. NO! The worries manifest themselves at bedtime. Without other things to occupy her mind, Sophie would allow those worries to come creeping in.

DSCN6047 (800x600)

Needless to say those bothersome worries interfered with her sleep, making her rather fractious in the mornings. Helpful suggestions from her family don’t work, they only add more worries …

DSCN6048 (800x600)

not until that is her Mum says this: “Go to bed, close your eyes and DON’T think about purple elephants. … No purple elephants at all.”
We all know what happens when somebody tells you not to think about something: that very thought pops right into your head (unless you’re a meditator but even then sometimes in they crowd).
It’s no surprise then that into sceptical Sophie’s mind comes not one, but a veritable herd of elephants engaging in all manner of un-elephant-like activities.

DSCN6049 (800x600)

And next morning, joy of joys, Sophie wakes up full of energy and you can guess what the theme of her artistic endeavours is at school that day.
Sophie is a wholly credible character. Indeed in my experience, many young, particularly creative, highly intelligent, emotionally sensitive children are very similar to the young protagonist. Seemingly, being of a creative bent can have its drawbacks too.
However, among the coping mechanisms adults can offer is children’s literature and in particular, picture books such as this delightful one. From the safe place of a story world youngsters can explore ideas and find solutions: the inherent humour of Susan Whelan’s narrative and Gwynneth Jones’ detailed, slightly whimsical illustrations offer one such. Jones portrays how those worries of Sophie’s take hold: as the worries come, the colours drain away, the scenes becoming almost black and white, with just the particular worry colourfully highlighted. Watch that mischievous moggie too.

DSCN6046 (800x600)

All in all, a super book for home, early years settings and primary schools.

Use your local bookshop            localbookshops_NameImage-2