Tag Jessica Spanyol

Rosa Loves Cars / Looking Good! / Matchstick Monkey: Colours

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Rosa Loves Cars
Jessica Spanyol
Child’s Play

This is one of a new board book series that celebrates the uniqueness of every child; it stars car loving Rosa. She likes nothing better than to do stunts and act out scenarios with her vehicles small and large.

Using her imagination along with some small world toys. she plays with them and her pals in a variety of places such as in the sandpit and on the car mat.
Finally Rosa and friend Samira use a large cardboard box to build a car themselves; it’s a great place for having a snack.
Rosa is a delight and it’s great to see books for the very youngest that promote gender equality.

Looking Good!
Ailie Busby
Child’s Play

We meet five adorable babies who have a characteristic- floppy ears, big eyes, pointy nose, sharp teeth and little toes and fingers – similar to in turn, Elephant, Bush baby,

Fox, Crocodile and Lizard.

Infants beginning to talk will soon enjoy being able to join in the repeat ‘So do I!’ hidden beneath the flap on each spread.
With their various expressions, the babes show off their particular feature that is similar to the animal flap beneath which they hide.

Fun, interactive and great for promoting early language.

Matchstick Monkey: Colours
Ladybird Books

Some people tend to show off and brag about their talents, confident in their ability to be the best no matter what. Others just quietly get on with the job and surprise everyone.
So it is with the simian inhabitants of Matchstick Jungle. Red monkey with his dazzling spins is convinced he’s the quickest and certain to win the race; the swaying blue monkeys think otherwise.

So do the zigzagging yellow and pink monkeys, while loop the looping green monkey thinks he’s the speediest and bouncing orange monkey announces that he’s fastest of all.
But what about quiet, unassuming grey Matchstick Monkey, could it be that he has something to show the others …

As well as enjoying the simple story, toddlers will have great fun using a finger and following the trails of each of the competitors in this Matchstick Monkey teether-toy inspired board book and develop their fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination at the same time. They might also enlarge their understanding of some colour names along the way.

A Bounty of Board Books

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Clive and his Art/Clive and his Babies
Jessica Spanyol
Child’s Play
Preschooler Clive, as portrayed by Jessica Spanyol, is a total delight. In the first book he shares his love of being creative, something that takes many forms including printing, drawing, constructing and collage making. He also loves looking at other people’s art and sharing his own, especially with his cat, Moshi.

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Clive has a particular penchant for googly eyes (don’t most youngsters of his age) and loves to adorn his works with all things glittery and sparkly (ditto).
In the second book we meet Clive with his two ‘babies’. These certainly do get the full range of experiences: play …

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feeding, potty training, baths (with the help of friend Asif) rides, stories – very important, hugs and plenty of TLC.

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I love the slightly oblique, almost child-like views of Clive that Jessica often gives us. Her straightforward present tense narrative is such that beginning readers can also enjoy Clive and his world when they share these enchanting books with their younger siblings.

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Littleland Around the World
Marion Billet
Nosy Crow
The animal friends from Littleland pack their bags and set off to explore the world. First stop is London and they finish up in New York City – in Central Park to be precise. There are five other European destinations, then they head to Egypt and the pyramids followed by a safari in Kenya (that’s Africa taken care of). Next port of call is India and the Taj Mahal in Agra – a very hot place indeed so we are told, not always so in my experience though. From there it’s to China for a dragon festival , Tokyo at night …

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Australia to visit the outback and sunny Brazil for a spot of beach fun and games.
Running below every spread is a “Can you see …?‘ strip with nine labeled items (the national flag, animals, foods and more) for lap-tourists to spot. Yes there is the odd bit of mild stereotyping: ‘In Italy, people often eat pizza for their lunch.’ but the illustrations are cute, there’s so much to discuss, and toddlers will love to play I-Spy on this whistle-stop global tour.

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My First Book of Opposites
Alain Grée
Button Books
Ten spreads playfully illustrate basic opposites such as big/small, short/tall, up/down, fast/slow
Most of the concepts are either mathematical or scientific – hot/cold, day/night with the exception of one relating to feelings – happy/sad. We know that children acquire concepts through life experiences but books such as this board book can help in the reinforcement of same, and provide a talking point for adult and child together.

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Bizzy Bear DIY Day
Benji Davies
Nosy Crow
Bizzy Bear is having a DIY day. He’s busy measuring, sawing, drilling; but what are he and his pals making?

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TADAAH! Somewhere they can all have fun together …
Toddlers can enjoy the surprise ending and hone their fine motor skills as they push and slide the tabs to assist Bizzy as he wields his tools.
Bizzy Bear already has many fans among the very youngest; this one could win him even more.

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Animal Babies in the River/Animal Babies on the Mountain
Julia Groves
Child’s Play
Adult animals and their offspring from two different habitats – the river and mountains – are presented in life-like, collage style illustrations. The half dozen river animals portrayed are swan/cygnets, crocodile/hatchlings …

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otter and her pups, frog/tadpoles, salmon/fry and duck/ducklings.
The mountain dwellers include the alpaca/cria, lynx/kittens, eagle/eaglets and wolf/cubs.

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Julia Groves really does capture the essence of each species in her portrayals; her graphic style certainly doesn’t dumb down her illustrations: she clearly believes that the very youngest children deserve quality artwork and this is what she provides here.

Use your local bookshop  localbookshops_NameImage-2

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