When Sue Found Sue

May 24, 2019jillrbennett Leave a comment

When Sue Found Sue
Toni Buzzeo and Diana Sudyka
Abrams Books for Young Readers

“Never lose your curiosity about everything in the universe – it can take you to places you never thought possible!” so said Sue Hendrickson the palaeontologist subject herein, her quote being the starting point for this fascinating book that tells the story of the discovery of the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever unearthed.

Living in Indiana, Sue was a shy child with a heuristic drive, particularly for anything in the natural world; she also had a passion for finding lost items, was often found with her head in a book

and loved to visit the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.

Her interests led in her teens to her joining first a team of underwater treasure hunters looking for tropical fish, lost boats, planes and cars; and then teams searching mines for prehistoric butterflies, deserts for prehistoric whale fossils and finally, the hills of western South Dakota for dinosaur fossils.

In her fourth summer of digging Sue was drawn towards a sandstone cliff and after four hours of hiking in the heat,

looking up, she spied three enormous pieces of what look like back bones protruding from the cliff. Almost unbelievably Sue and her dog, Gypsy had come upon fossils of a Tyrannosaurus rex.

Then began the arduous task of removing the 300 bones in the intense heat, a piece-by-piece task that took several days.

After an ownership dispute we see the dinosaur reconstruction duly named after Sue on permanent display at Chicago’s Field Museum.

Both Buzzeo’s narrative and Diana Sudyka’s detailed gouache and watercolour illustrations will surely inspire young readers to be mindful of the book’s opening words, to make sure they look closely at the world around them and to hold onto their own spirit of adventure and pursue their passion whatever that may be.

An author’s note about Sue Hendrickson’s contribution to the scientific community, and two resource lists end the book.

Jane Foster’s Summertime / Whose Boat? / Who?

July 15, 2018jillrbennett Leave a comment

Jane Foster’s Summertime
Jane Foster
Templar Publishing

What things spring to mind when someone says the word summertime?
Delicious, lip-smacking ice cream? Sunglasses and a floppy hat? Cool juice and some fruit? Flip-flops? Swimming? Sunflowers?

All of those sprang into mine before I opened this delicious slice of the summer season from designer/illustrator Jane Foster. And lo and behold, there they all were plus several others each one being stylishly presented in the artist’s pattern rich style, one per spread,

while the final opening reveals all eleven of the summery icons together.

Her chosen, uplifting colour palette absolutely sings out the joys of the summer season in this cracker of a board book that will delight adult sharers as much as toddlers.

Whose Boat?
Toni Buzzeo and Tom Froese
Abrams Appleseed

This board book is essentially a boat-centric guessing game featuring half a dozen workers and their respective craft.

There’s a patrol boat controlled by the harbourmaster, a tugboat with its pilot,

a car ferry and captain, a fishing boat with a ‘lobsterperson’ (that wording is a little clumsy, I think), a lifeboat and coxswain, a fire boat and firefighter.

An image of each boat with clear labels of parts, is placed on the outside of a gatefold which opens to show the answer to the question, ‘Whose boat is that? Do you know?’’

There’s a fair bit of detail, perhaps more than one might expect for the usual board book audience, but for the vehicle curious young child that’s a plus; for those not ready for all those labels, Tom Froese’s bright, stylised nautical scenes are a good starting point from which little ones can absorb whatever they’re ready for.

A good bet for either home or an early years setting.

For even younger infants is:

Who?
Robie Harris and Natascha Rosenberg
Abrams Appleseed
Diversity is key in this engaging look at babies – ten in all – and the relationships they form.

Babies themselves will enjoy the rhythm of Harris’ playful, repetitive question and answer text, and slightly older infants can participate in the guessing game, joining in with, and responding to, the ‘Who? / Who’s that? ‘ as they become familiar with the various relations – Dada, Mama, Gramma,

and Grampa, as well as the animals and inanimate item.

Natascha Rosennberg’s endearing, but not sickly sweet, portrayals of the loving twos should captivate infants while pleasing adult sharers.

A playful board book that is likely to be used over and over.

Talking Points

November 8, 2015jillrbennett Leave a comment

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Animal Rescue
Patrick George
Creators of books for young children use a variety of ways to engage their audience. A particularly effective one – acetate overlays – is employed by Patrick George. A double-sided printed acetate page is sandwiched between two ordinary brightly printed wordless pages and when flipped, this allows the child to change the story completely.
This one however, has an added dimension in the form of an environmental message in that it draws attention to the difference between each animal in its natural habitat or being cared for/and in captivity or being mistreated for human purposes such as entertainment:
Thus we have an elephant roaming free …

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Flip the acetate sheet to the right and you have …

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Fashion purposes – exotic skins,

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factory farming – chickens, trophy hunting and abandoned pets are some of the topics included.
Virtually wordless apart from the final question, this delightful book is rich in potential for talk and storying as well as offering those opportunities for discussing issues of animal welfare.
50p from sales of each book goes to the Born Free Foundation.
Conversation creator – assuredly: Conservation/animal welfare promoter – one truly hopes so.

Equally playful and similar basic design, but without the serious underlying message, is

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Opposites
Patrick George
Herein basic concepts such as Big/Small, Left/Right, Empty/Full, Up/Down, First/Last, Hot/Cold, In/Out are presented … DSCN5769 (800x600) and …

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along with Sun/Rain, Hit/Miss, Land/Sea, Boy/Girl. The latter are rather more questionable in terms of mere ‘opposites’, but will certainly engender a lot of interactive talk and creative thought and learning. Eye-catching art in vibrant colours with single word labels complete the ingredients of this one.

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Colours
Susan Steggall
Frances Lincoln Children’s Books
Tractors, tippers, trucks, rollers, mixers, vans and cars are among those featured in the twenty different types of vehicle, (two for each of the ten colours) presented in the bright collage style,

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captioned illustrations of this book for very young lovers of all things mechanical. The final spread shows all the vehicles.

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There’s lots of potential for talk and I envisage ‘littles’ with their own collections of toy cars getting them out and lining them up along with those presented herein. And there’s a wheel attached to the back cover which when turned, makes the vehicles change colour –

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more talk potential!

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Whose Truck?
Toni Buzzeo and Jim Datz
Abrams Appleseed
Featuring half a dozen different trucks and their operators, this cleverly designed board book is bound to appeal to all young machine lovers. Readers are invited in Toni Buzzeo’s rhyming text, to guess: Whose truck is this? in relation to a utilities truck, a fire-engine, a snow-plough, an ambulance, a crane, an outside broadcast vehicle.
Thus we have …

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