Tag Maria Karipidou

Old MacDonald on the Move

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Old MacDonald on the Move
Philip Ardagh and Maria Karipidou
Walker Books

Philip Ardagh has taken the popular nursery rhyme and twisted it hither and thither to create a zany new version.

Nothing, it seems, is going right for Old MacDonald, (now an aging fellow) when his beloved farm starts crumbling before his eyes. First it’s the leaking barn roof. So to save his cows from the continual drip, dripping, he takes them off to a grand hotel for a couple of weeks while he attends to the leak. Next, the pigsty begins to sink, so the pigs are taken to join the cows, followed not long after by the loss of the hen coop.

Then the creek runs dry so, on account of no water and thus no grass, the sheep too are taken to become hotel guests.

Back at the farm Old MacDonald looks around. Enough! he decides. He puts the farm up for sale and moves out forthwith. Now, where will they all live … It’s in their happy ever after home. E-I-E-I-O!

Young children will delight in joining in with the animal sounds and repeat refrains, as well as watching the drama unfold in Maria Karipidou’s hilarious, contrasting scenes of the farm and the hotel. Look out for the mice and their diverting antics.

Taxi, Go! / Oops! Rabbit

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These are both new titles from Walker Books: thank you to the publishers for sending them for review.

Taxi, Go!
Patricia Toht and Maria Karipidou

Courtesy of Patricia Toot’s rhyming text and Maria Karipidou’s vibrant illustrations, we join a smiley red taxi for a busy working day in town, driving through all kinds of weather, as it stops to pick up fare-paying passengers – in turn a business woman, shoppers and children going to play football, a couple going to a dance,

theatre visitors and finally our busy cab heads for the airport to collect a family returning from their travels abroad. With them safely home, it’s back to the depot for a well-deserved night’s rest.

There is so much to see in the child-friendly scenes, you will likely need to share this several times to allow your young audience to enjoy the action and linger over all the details including the town’s diverse residents.

Parents/carers might choose to read this at bedtime to encourage their little one(s) to join Taxi as it dims the light and slips off into the land of slumbers.

Oops! Rabbit
Jo Ham

This is another striking succession of playful misadventures in the life of Jo Ham’s silhouette leporine character. Herein, Rabbit wields a paintbrush creating a mural until ‘Oops!’ the chair Rabbit is standing on topples and it’s then ‘Rabbit off’ and paint splashing all around. A large wave destroys the sandcastle in the second misadventure. Then comes bath-time with further mishaps due to an excess of bubblebath and finally, tempted by the sight of a cake atop the table, Rabbit finds a creative use for an umbrella.
Small humans will enjoy following the four sequences and joining in with the repeated, ‘Rabbit on … Oops! … Rabbit off’ text.

The Lipstick

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The Lipstick
Laura Dockrill and Maria Karipidou
Walker Books

This is a hugely entertaining story of what happens when the small child protagonist gets hold of one of Mum’s lipsticks.

Having used it for its intended purpose, our young narrator gets his creative juices flowing as he ‘takes the lipstick for a little walk.’ Actually not such a little one as his enthusiastic doodles and oodles are soon adorning various walls,

playthings, the floor and more. And that’s only upstairs. Down he goes guided by the mark making stick, jazzing up the bathroom,

things in the kitchen, big sister’s bedroom and more until …
DETECTION!

Apologies attempted (not by the smug lipstick needless to say) and then it’s time to let operation clean up commence. Were any parts left unscrubbed? What do you think?

I absolutely love the mischievous spirit of this infant who reminds me very much of an even younger relation of mine whose cheeky doings are equally let’s say, experimental. I must make sure I keep this book well away from her or I’m sure it will give her ideas …

The combination of Laura Dockrill’s text and Maria Karipidou’s rib-tickling storytelling pictures with that all-seeing moggy, make for a smashing story to share with an early years class or group just past the stage of the little boy narrator.

Angry Cookie

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Angry Cookie
Laura Dockrill and Maria Karipidou
Walker Books

Who can resist the words of the chief protagonist on the back cover: “Don’t even think about opening this book, you nosy noodle. I’m warning you. I am very angry.”
Of course, like me you will immediately open the book and discover that Cookie IS angry, very angry and causing him to have daylight flooding into the book and thus his bedroom, is quite simply, intolerable.

However since we’ve already committed that outrageous act and are apparently not going anywhere, the biccy feels bound to share the reasons why he’s so aggrieved.

It’s on account of the previous day – a terrible one by all accounts – that began when flat mate Barbra insisted on playing the same tune on her new recorder over and over. (Cookie has my sympathies there.)

Next came running out of his favourite sweet toothpaste and having to use an unpleasant spicy one instead.

Even worse though was the bad haircut that forced our cookie narrator to wear an ill-fitting hat; unsurprisingly nobody makes hats for cookies, hence the bad fit that makes him a source of amusement to others.

If you can believe it though, the day has to throw in an even bigger disaster. Angry Cookie heads to the ice cream parlour, his heart set on his favourite vanilla sundae topped with all manner of yummy sprinkles and served in a tall glass. But – I’m sure you’ve already guessed – they’ve run out. Can you blame the poor thing for his anger?

Then on the way home along comes a bird that almost makes a meal of Angry Cookie himself;

but perhaps there is one consolation. Could our devotion and friendship be the key to a happier Cookie? After all we have stuck around despite all that the self-confessed ‘grumpy lump, horrid humph’ has said and done, so it’s worth waiting around a little longer to see if happiness is lurking somewhere under that tiny titfer.

What a deliciously quirky, witty tale Laura Dockrill has cooked up. Young children will adore this grump of a character and likely identify with his moody moaning.

Maria Karipidou has done a terrific job portraying Angry Cookie, making him, despite all that ranting, a character one cannot help but love right from the start.

Destined to become an early years storytime favourite methinks, and a great starting point for talking about emotions.