Tag Patricia Toht

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.

Pick a Perfect Egg

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Pick a Perfect Egg
Patricia Toht and Jarvis
Walker Books

A little girl and her mother pay a visit to Patty’s Farm and there they pick their own eggs including a perfect white one. Returning home the two of them set about making coloured eggs for Easter: they boil the eggs and then as they cool, prepare the dyes using a mix of natural plant colours and bought ones.

The child suggests using a white crayon to create designs on eggs before dyeing them. Job done, the girl goes to bed thinking of what will happen in the morning.

The following day, she’s up as the sun rises, and donning her bunny suit and lining a basket, off she goes hand in hand with Mum, to join her friends for the Easter Egg hunt.

There’s plenty of excitement as the children discover all manner of eggs – chocolate ones, plastic ones with treats inside, and then there are the dyed eggs: what a very special one the little girl has crafted for this springtime celebration.

Finally it’s time to enjoy some of the chocolate variety as you wish everyone a very Happy Easter.

Patricia’s rhyming narrative and Jarvis’s brightly coloured illustrations capture so well that mounting excitement and the fun of those Easter rituals that most children love so much. With a gorgeous cover, this is a really fun book to share in the run up to Easter but make sure you read it in time for children to try some of the egg decorating ideas presented.

Together With You

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Together With You
Patricia Toht and Jarvis
Walker Books

No matter the weather or the season, the small child in this absolutely gorgeous book enjoys every moment with his beloved grandmother. In spring suitably clad and wearing wellies, a sudden
shower doesn’t wet the two as they dash side by side beneath a large umbrella.

Summer is a time for shorts, sprinkler hosing and sucking sweet ice-lollies together then cooling down under a shady tree. Come autumn it’s time for warmer clothes – a sweater and cosy hat for gran and a fleece and snuggly scarf for the boy narrator as they take advantage of the strong winds for some kite flying fun.

Winter’s chilly days are for wrapping up in soft thick quilts, pulling on furry slippers and sharing a story together especially when it’s followed by delicious hot drinks – peppermint tea for gran and cocoa topped with marshmallows for her grandson. It’s definitely a cuddle right up close season.
Having said all that, it matters not what the weather is, as Patricia Toht’s rhyming narrative confirms, ‘every day spent with you is the very best thing.’ Memories are created from the everyday events they turn into adventures.

Come rain or shine, sweltering heat or frost and snow, Jarvis’ illustrations exude warmth and love at every turn of the page. The jewel-like colours are simply beautiful and the details in every scene, sheer delight.

Grandmothers in particular will love spending time sharing this treasure of a book with their young grandchildren over and over again.

Pick a Pumpkin

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Pick a Pumpkin
Patricia Toht and Jarvis
Walker Books

Bursting with mellow fruitfulness is this second offering from Patricia Toht and Jarvis.

We join a family as they go to the pumpkin patch to take their pick from the plethora of orange, white and speckled green fruits of the vine.

Then after a pause for some seasonal treats en route they return home with a loaded van ready to start carving.

And so they do, amassing the appropriate tools just in time for the arrival of a whole ‘pumpkin carving crew’ who are ready and willing to join in the fun.

It truly is a hands on, tactile experience as, once the tops are removed, hands are plunged inside to grab the innards as they pull at ‘Lumpy chunks. Sticky strings. Clumpy seeds. Guts and things.’

Then comes the really artful part; carving the faces for a wonderful array of creations with their frowns, grins, smirks and snarls, eerie, or angry or forming a kiss.

After that it’s time for decorations, donning costumes, taking those carved faces outside and with adult help lighting the lights that transform mere pumpkins to grinning, glowing jack-o-lanterns ready to stand guard as you venture forth to join in the fun.

With its easy on the ear, rhyming narrative and Jarvis’ scenes all a-glow with rich autumnal colours, what better way to kick off those Halloween celebrations than with a reading of this magical book with youngsters?

Get Christmassy

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Pick a Pine Tree
Patricia Toht and Jarvis
Walker Books
There’s a real glow of seasonal joy to this rhyming journey of a pine tree from a tree lot to pride of place as a sparkling family Christmas tree.
A family visits the snowy tree lot, chooses a tree and takes it home on top of their car.

Once indoors, space is created, the tree trunk trimmed and when the tree is safely standing, out come the decorations ready for when their friends arrive to join in the fun of adding all the fairy lights, baubles, tinsel and finally to complete the transformation, right at the top, the star.

From its opening ‘Pick a pine tree / from the lot – // slim and tall / or short and squat. / One with spiky needle clumps, / scaly bark, or sappy bumps.’ Toht’s text bounces along beautifully – just right for a Christmas storytime session and a perfect antidote to the plastic ‘take apart’ trees that have become so popular in recent times.
Jarvis’ mixed media illustrations have a lovely vintage feel to them and there’s a wonderful magical final scene.

Let it Glow: A Winter’s Walk
Owen Gildersleeve
Wide Eyed Editions
Cut paper collage scenes glow with 5 white lights  as a boy walks home on Christmas Eve clutching a parcel. At each page turn the lights softly shine illuminating a fair, carol singers, a snowy hillside with sledgers, a frozen lake on which skaters swirl and then the exterior and interiors of the boy’s home.
Told through rhyming couplets, and presumably intended to be shared in soft lighting, Gildersleeve’s spreads offer plenty of talking points in addition to the twinkling lights.

Red & Lulu
Matt Tavares
Walker Books
With a USA setting this dramatically illustrated, touching tale tells how a pair of cardinals becomes separated when their tree home is cut down and taken to New York City Rockefeller Centre to be its Christmas tree with Lulu, one of the pair trapped inside.
Red returns from his search for food to discover his home gone and with it his partner.
Superb spreads, some wordless or almost so, then follow his search for her, the birds’ reunion and eventual relocation in a park.

Search & Find: A Christmas Carol
retold by Sarah Powell, illustrated by Louise Pigott
Studio Press
Here’s a novel take on the ever-growing ‘spotting’ books: it’s the second in a series of classic tales to be given a search and find adaptation by Studio Press.
It’s not so much a retelling of the Dickens’ story, rather it’s an unusual way to encourage young readers into the world of Dickens and this tale in particular, especially around the festive season.
The characters are all there and waiting to be spotted in various scenes – fourteen in all.
There are four ghost spreads including The Ghost of Jacob Marley (with a spendidly spooky door knocker) the Ghost of Christmas Past and The Ghost of Christmas Present; two parties to visit – Mr Fezziwig’s and the one at Fred’s house; a rather grim graveyard scene and more.
Engaging and fun.

All Aboard the London Bus / No, Nancy, No!

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All Aboard the London Bus
Patricia Toht and Sam Usher
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books
It’s hard to resist the opening invitation of this book:
‘Come! / Board the double-decker bus / and see the London sights with us. / Any time, hop off. /Explore! / Then climb back on and ride some more.’ With its welcome aboard greeting in five languages, we’re off and heading for Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard.
From there, it’s on to Westminster Abbey with its amazing ceilings and tombstones and statues galore.

Big Ben is the next stop and then comes the London Eye so beautifully described as ‘A bracelet that hangs off the Arm of the Thames, / its pods filled with people, all dangle like gems.’ Then after pausing to look at the river itself snaking through a host of landmarks, the family heads for Trafalgar Square. Here readers are offered a busy ‘Seek and Find’ spread while they too pause for breath,

before heading via Speaker’s Corner down onto the tube and thence to Piccadilly Circus where they emerge into a sudden downpour. Seemingly there’s only one thing to do: stop for tea and a browse in a famous toyshop for a while.
The British Museum, Tate Modern and the Globe are some of the other destinations once family members have dried off; and no London visit would be complete without seeing Tower Bridge and the Tower itself so that is their final stop. Phew! It’s certainly been an exhausting day especially for the little ones. The adults are very brave to undertake such a huge itinerary in a single outing and still leave the bus with smiles on their faces.
Essentially a sequence of poems in celebration of London: you can either take the whole tour in one sitting or, take things more slowly just dipping into or revisiting favourite landmarks. No matter which way, Sam Usher’s gently humorous illustrations, whether the focus be a famous London site or its visitors,

are sheer delight.
It’s clear from this celebratory book that London means a lot to both author and artist.

No, Nancy, No!
Alice Tait
Walker Books
Join Nancy and best friend Roger for an exciting, action-packed visit to London. First stop is Buckingham Palace where Nancy is hoping for a glimpse of the Queen. Her dog however has his eyes on two children, one of whom drops a teddybear. Rather than remain at the palace, Nancy and Roger set off hot on the trail of the bear’s owners. A bus ride takes them to St Paul’s Cathedral

and thereafter various other famous London landmarks. Every time it seems they’re about to catch the teddy losers, Nancy’s proclivity for mischief diverts her attention.
Will they ever catch up with the children they’re chasing; and will Nancy ever get to see the Queen?
There are flaps on every detailed spread helping to move the action forwards as well as a surprise Nelson’s Column pop-up; and guess who cannot resist climbing right up to the top. Fun, fast and with its repeat “No, Nancy, No!” from Roger, fun to share, especially before a visit to London.

I’ve signed the charter