Tag Tom Schamp

Wheels: The Big Fun Book of Vehicles

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Wheels: The Big Fun Book of Vehicles
Tom Schamp
Prestel

This book takes readers on both a historical and worldwide journey that explores everything you can think of with wheels and a whole lot more wheel-related ideas from the cycle of life to cheese; now that’s a pretty broad spectrum you might be thinking, but Tom Schamp’s spreads that begin in ‘Antiquity’ and go right through to the future, are absolutely crammed with captioned images and snippets of information. (A few ships have also managed to sneak their way in despite the “No Boats, Wheels Only!’ signs.) 

Schamp begins by stating that nobody knows when, where or by whom the wheel was invented but says that pottery and sculptures have taught us a great deal about wheels in ancient times.
Some forms of wheeled transport have a whole double spread devoted to them: there’s one on stagecoaches, then come carriages, steam-powered trains/trams, bicycles, 

one entitled Otto’s Autos (essentially early cars), motorcycles, ‘woodies’ so called, which were cars made partly from wood, family vehicles (the four-wheeled kind), wheeled machines used to build roads, emergency vehicles, race cars, race bikes, delivery trucks, buses, taxis, (watch out for the cheeky free-riding hay wagon passenger) and limousines. You will find jokes both verbal and visual, word play, as well as eight characters to search for on every spread.

A book to return to over and over – you’ll find new things to enjoy at every reading, – it’s immersive, great fun and with a wealth of learning potential. Did you know that the commercial 3 wheeler, the Piaggio Ape was named after the worker bee? I learned that from this zany large format book.

Include in primary class collections, and family bookshelves if you have children interested in vehicles.

Where is Everyone? / The Day Time Stopped

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These are two quirky books from Prestel – thanks to the publisher for sending them for review

Where is Everyone?
Tom Schamp
Prestel

Herein Tom Schamp invites little ones to discover the unexpected in the expected as they lift the flaps to find what is hiding beneath in turn the bushes, a toadstool, a small car,

a washing machine, a fridge, a toaster, a cup and saucer, a sofa, a toilet, a sink, a bath, a bed, a gift-wrapped box and a tiered decorated cake. The text on each page comprises a ‘who question’ and the answer hidden under the flap – a peacock, Puss in Boots or a tortoise raring to go, for instance.

Now who would expect to find a racoon inside the washing machine or a hamster getting rather heated in the toaster? And I suspect nobody would anticipate there being a monkey on a surfboard lurking behind that cup containing that cuppa, nor a napping camel tucked away behind that comfy couch.

Full of whimsical ideas, this playful board book with its duck commentator surely will encourage youngsters to go beyond the information given and look at things with a fresh, creative mind and eye.

The Day Time Stopped
Flavia Ruotolo

If you’ve ever stopped to wonder what your friend in another part of the world is doing right now, perhaps because you want to call them on your mobile, then here’s a fun book for you.

The young narrator who happens to be in Genoa, Italy is just taking her first bite from an ice-lolly (she calls it a popsicle) at 5:33pm her time when inexplicably, time stops.

At that exact time in another part of Europe – Berlin – Selma and Nora bring their scooter to a sudden halt – just in time to prevent a small creature getting run over.

In La Paz (Bolivia) however it’s 12.33pm and Rosa’s grandmother has just finished knitting a sweater while in New York City two children discover their tube of toothpaste is empty – it’s 11.33 am their time.

At that moment too Kimo’s underwear pings off the washing line in Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea) where the time is 2:33am and in Sapporo, Japan Yuki’s cat is woken by a noise. (The clock there would say 1:33am).

Concurrently, Makena, way off in Nairobi proudly shows her first ever self portrait to her dad, the time there being 7:33pm; whereas in Maurituis’s Port Louis it’s 8:33pm and Carl the canary wants his dinner.

And so on …

Then, suddenly time restarts and things seem normal once more: now for our narrator back in Genoa, it’s 5:34pm.

Flavia Ruotolo’s seemingly simple playful presentation of people, animals and their activities is essentially a philosophical reflection on the notion of time and place that takes readers across two dozen time zones and on a lightning visit to twenty six countries. These are shown on a world map on the penultimate spread and the book concludes with an explanation of why it isn’t the same time the world over.

It’s a Great Big Colourful World

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It’s a Great Big Colourful World
Tom Schamp
Prestel

Otto the cat wakes one morning wondering why everything is so grey. His chameleon friend, Leon is on hand to show him the delights of the various shades of grey and the multitude of beautiful grey things around.

Thereafter Leon takes him on a journey through the wonderful world of colour starting with grey’s components, the complementary black and white.

Moving on from those it’s a veritable riot of colours each represented by a plethora of characters and objects large and small. Yellow includes a yellow submarine, a big yellow taxi, a variety of cheeses, a butterfly and banana peel.

One orange spread is dominated by a magnificent tiger that’s found its way to Orange County and as yet, hasn’t consumed the tomato soup, clementines or orange juice on the previous spread.

There’s a wealth of transport on the red pages that also include Red Square and tulips – no not from Amsterdam but Turkey.
Flamingos strut their way across the pink spreads maintaining their colour courtesy of the pink algae and shrimps they dine upon.

Rather more restful on the eye the blues have a whale that swims through all four pages at once and the greens with dinosaurs, crocodiles, plants aplenty and the occasional caterpillar,

not forgetting Greenland.

Beer, cupcakes, tanned sunbathers, brownstone houses, a toffee even, are part of the brown spreads; and both the colour tourists Otto and Leon are hiding in plain sight on every spread, each  cleverly adapted to their surroundings. In the final pages the friends are thrilled by the coming together of all the colours for a glorious final journey through the four seasons.

However many times you look at this ingenious, intricately detailed offering from Tom Schamp, you’ll always find something new.

In addition to being a feast for the eyes, with his playful linguistic imagination and references, Schamp guarantees that this book will have a wide age appeal. No matter what you bring to it, you’ll emerge richer and wanting to dive straight back in, hungry for more.