Tag Surya Sajnani

Toddler Treats To Share

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Matty and Mo: The Lost Teddy
Matty and Mo: Are We There Yet?
Rosalind Beardshaw
Campbell Books

When you’re little there are SO many life lessons to be learned. So it is with the pups in this new series.
Matty and Mo are sibling puppies, Matty being the elder of the two. We meet them on a rainy day playing inside picnics together.. Matty notices that Ted is missing and Mo, of course wants to help find him. They search in the likely places – the bed, a cupboard and in their liege toy pile but there’s no sign of Ted. This upsets Matty and Mo attempts to cheer him up and suddenly Matty notices something sticking out of Mo’s ‘new useful bag’. What could it be? Mo, so it appears can sometimes be a little silly
In the second book Matty and Mo are off to the beach in the car with Mum. It’s quite a distance so patience is needed. In her excitement Matty gobbles all her snacks in one go and then inevitably, one of the pups needs a wee. It’s Mo. (Matty went before they set off.) Inevitably too, boredom sets in and Matty gets busy with her sticker book … Mum must have a lot of patience as she drives and at last the beach is in sight, but the puppies can’t see it until they wake up.
Trying to be patient has tired them out – only for a short time though.
Little humans will have a giggle at the puppies as they earn to deal with what to them are challenging experiences. They will also enjoy using the moving parts – flaps, a wheel and the final fold-out heart in both books that were inspired by real-life family experiences..

Duck & Friends
Octopus & Friends
illustrated by Surya Sajnani
Quarto Kids (Wee Gallery)

Wee Gallery are a husband and wife team who create books to help babies and very young children develop through visual learning.
Both of these take the shape of the titular character and little ones will love joining in as both Duck and Octopus look for their friends in these splash splash bath books wherein each black and white creature magically comes to life in full colour when wet. Duck will meet the likes of frog, dragonfly and swan whereas Octopus’s friends include a large fish, jellyfish and a crab..
Splishy, sploshy, squishy, squashy tactile bath time fun for tinies.

Hippo’s Garden Day
Nicola Kent
Little Tiger

Lion and Hippo have very different gardens. Lion’s is neat and nothing looks out of place. In contrast Hippo’s is overgrown. I assume it’s not been left to grow wild deliberately. Hippo decides he needs to do some serious work on his grade. Having collected tools from his shed he sets about mowing, trimming, watering and in due season, harvesting fruit to share with his friend, Lion.
With some onomatopoeic language for small children to join in with as Hippo works, flaps to explore, a slider and wheels integral to the bold bright illustrations, this is a fun introduction to a task some adults thoroughly enjoy, some do under sufferance and others – those in favour of rewilding – don’t do at all. Toddlers however, will love the opportunity to assist Hippo in his work.

For Baby’s Bookshelf

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Frog & Friends
Fish & Friends
illustrated by Surya Sajnani
Quarto Kids (Wee Gallery)

These bath books cleverly change colour when wet.
The first introduces a little green frog on the lookout for friends to leap with: there’s a dragonfly, a duck and an otter each of which will come to life on the squishy tactile pages as an adult speaks the dozen words of the text, possibly then adding some croaky sounds.
The second is a fishy shaped sub-marine offering wherein the titular fish and friends starfish, turtle, whale and seahorse assume their colour when immersed by tiny human hands.
Both books offer splishy, splashy tactile fun learning for the very youngest humans at bath time: peekaboo with a difference.

We Hug Night Night
Patricia Hegarty and Thomas Elliott
Little Tiger

A loving father gently prepares a little child for sleep and in so doing, introduces listeners to parent and infant creatures – bears, possums, otters, cats, giraffes and birds all safe in their respective abodes also snuggling up in readiness for slumbering. Patricia Hegarty’s soothing rhyming words and Thomas Elliot’s endearing illustrations combine to lull little ones as an adult turns the cutaway pages of this goodnight charmer that is likely to become a bedtime favourite.

There’s parental love aplenty too in

I Love You Forever and a Day
Amelia Hepworth and Tim Warnes
Little Tiger

A big bear talks a cub through a specially imagined day of delights as the two enjoy companionable wanders through grassy fields, hop and leap across a flowing river, pausing awhile in a flower-filled meadow before splashing into the water, then carefully crossing a waterfall at sunset and finally heading off homewards under a star-filled sky.
Adults who have already delighted in I Love You to the Moon and Back will likely recognise the names of its creators from the cover of this one.

Preschool Menagerie

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Animosaics: Can You Find Me?
Surya Sajnani
Words & Pictures
This lovely, large format search-and-find counting book will keep youngsters engaged for ages while they look for the animals illustrated on the right-hand pages that are also hidden within the full-page mosaic style habitat opposite; habitats such as the garden, the pond, on the farm, in the jungle or in the ocean.

In addition this is a counting book wherein you are invited to spot other creatures, for example, 1 butterfly in the garden, 2 tadpoles in the pond, 3 hens on the farm and so on, culminating in 10 fireflies in the nocturnal sky mosaic.
What makes this large format book stand out is Surya Sajnani’s bold, graphic art style, which is immediately striking, and also her cubist-constructed creatures set within the habitat appropriate coloured tesserae.

How Do You Sleep?
Olivia Cosneau and Bernard Duisit
What Are You Wearing Today?
Janik Coat and Bernard Duisit
Thames & Hudson
Here are two new additions to the playful, interactive Flip-Flap-Pop-Up series of board books with Duisit acting as paper engineer for both titles.
In the first readers can by manipulating the tabs, discover the sleeping places/positions of seven different animal species from various parts of the world.

In the second book children will enjoy changing the animals’ dress depending on their location, the weather conditions; or on occasion, the mood of the featured animal. This one has both tabs and flaps to help develop manipulative skills.
I’m sure Rita Rhino’s skirt being lifted by the wind …

will be a favourite with youngsters.

Dress Up Jojo
Xavier Deneux
Twirl
Jojo rabbit is back and he’s in playful mood. He dresses up in eight different ways: as a snowman, a spotty leopard, a sword-wielding knight, a cowboy, an alien, an astronaut bound for the moon, a deep sea diver and finally a pilot.
Toddlers can develop their fine motor skills by covering the little creature with snow, helping him balance on a tree branch, swish his sword, open the gates for him to find his horse, roll his eyes like an alien,

spin around in space, dive down deep in the ocean and resurface, and fly away on an adventure; all by placing a finger on the red dots and using their fingers to activate Jojo in his let’s pretend activities.

Zoo
Lisa Jones and Edward Underwood
Nosy Crow
In the second ‘Tiny Little Story’ Baby Boo and Daddy are off to the zoo on the bus. Once there, they meet giraffe, elephant, lion,

monkey, snake and the penguins and then it’s time to leave.
Short and sweet.
With attractive, brightly coloured, strikingly patterned illustrations and a brief text with some animal sounds to enjoy, soft, squashy cloth pages, and a velcro strap for attaching it to a buggy, it’s a perfect introduction to books for the very youngest; and, it’s washable.