Tag Quarto

A Mouse Just Ate My House!

jillrbennett Leave a comment

A Mouse Just Ate My House!
Kes Gray and Sebastien Braun
Happy Yak

The narrator of Kes Gray’s text speaks in rhyme as he relates the disaster that has befallen him, or make that sequence of disasters. There’s a mouse in his house and she has nibbled, munched and chomped her way through pretty much everything except the resident himself. First, as you might expect she sank her teeth into the skirting board but as soon as the narrator had retired to bed, she got started on the downstairs rooms and their contents.

Traps proved totally ineffective, indeed they merely served as part of the rodent’s repast before she proceeded to the bathroom, followed by the bedroom,

where not even poor Ted escaped from a severe nibbling. Other deterrents – a cricket bat, the neighbour’s cat

and pest controller and much more failed to survive. It will come as no surprise to readers that the mouse’s belly appears to have increased in size considerably after all this but there’s no sign of her suffering from indigestion or nausea. How is that possible?

This whole sorry saga is heightened by Sebastien Braun’s dramatic, hole-strewn depictions of the trail of destruction.

With an absolutely delicious throwaway final twist this one has winner stamped all over it. Listeners and readers aloud will relish it.

Ady and Me

jillrbennett 1 Comment

Ady and Me
Rich & Rox Pink, illustrated by Sara Rhys
Words & Pictures

“I have a secret that lives in my brain. / I call him Ady, that’s not his name … / Doctors told Dad it’s called ADHD. / But that’s way too boring for Ady and me.” So says young Sophie at the start of this story.
We follow Sophie through a day at school as she experiences good times and bad starting with being late and her teacher’s upsetting response.

More negative responses follow when she doodles on her book during history, talks during another lesson and despite her best intentions in science, is made to sit on a table labelled ‘naughty’. (The teacher part of me is horrified at this). Then in art Sophie accidentally knocks a pot of paint on Miss Brackley’s shoes. The response to this is almost unbelievable and Sophie is taken to the head’s office. However it’s not Sophie but Miss Brackley that gets the dressing down; moreover Headteacher Grant loves Sophie’s rainbow painting and has another surprise in store for her, Ady and for readers.

Told through a rhyming text written by partners Roxanne who brings her ADHD experience and Rich who brings his neurotypical perspective to the story and Sara Rhys’ eloquent scenes of a neurodivergent girl attempting to cope in a classroom where for the teacher, only neurotypical behaviour is acceptable.
This is an important picturebook that uses a metaphor one hopes will help children (and adults) see that ADHD should be accepted and understood.

The Not-So-Wicked Witch

jillrbennett Leave a comment

The Not-So-Wicked Witch
Bethan Stevens
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

This is a delightful play on the wicked witch trope with a young protagonist who puzzles the other little witches by not joining in with their trouble-making deeds that include such things as eating the very last biscuit in the tin and pinching one of your favourite socks.. Because of this, the baddy brigade decides that the littlest witch needs to be rescued from ‘all this icky, gooey goodness’.

The lessons in wickedness commence with upsetting children at meal times, which fails dismally. Next location is a birthday party – what better place for a spot of wickedness?

Our littlest witch is instructed to acquire various items for a potion that will enable them to steal all the marshmallows (their favourite ever food) from the party.

What happens however is rather different: the littlest witch concocts her own sweet recipe and sabotages the plans of the would-be marshmallow stealers.

The result is that the wicked little witches finally learn that ‘kindness beats wickedness’ …

With detailed illustrations of the enchanting kind, a thoroughly endearing little witch who doesn’t fit the mischief-making mould, a wealth of speech bubbles for the adult reader aloud to dramatise, young human listeners will delight in watching as the littlest witch teaches everyone that goodness is the way to go.

I Love Books

jillrbennett Leave a comment

I Hate Love Books
MariaJo Ilustrajo
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

On the last day of term, the girl narrator along with her classmates receives this parting comment from her teacher, “Enjoy your holidays, and don’t forget to read a book!” This girl, we then learn is a total bibliophobe. Nonetheless she’s duly taken to the library but nothing there appeals in the slightest

so it’s left to mum to make the choice for her.

Back home, the girl makes herself comfortable and reluctantly, opens the book. To her surprise, she’s almost immediately drawn into the story, a wonderful adventure story wherein she meets a furry guide

who leads her on a search for special ingredients. And what are these ingredients for? The most powerful of all spells …

If ever a child needs convincing of the magical power of books and stories – give them this, Mariajo’s new picture book that has everything you could want – adventure, magic, a demonstration of the power of the imagination and terrific illustrations with clever colour changes. I love the sneaky insertion of the author’s previous two picture books on the class bookshelf on the first spread, as well as a certain polar bear who, along with several other book characters, appears on the final page. Don’t miss out on the endpapers either. As a life-long bibliophile, I love everything about this story.