Tag Xavier Deneux

It’s Board Book Time!

jillrbennett Leave a comment

Disney Block
Peskimo
Abrams Appleseed

Before they’re ready to watch Disney’s classic animated films, thanks to this chunky board book, babies and toddlers can meet the much-loved characters from way back in the 1930s and 40s with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Pinocchio, Dumbo and Bambi …

right through to Frozen 2 (2019), much adored by pretty much every little girl I know and countless others I don’t.

As always husband and wife illustration/design team, Peskimo, have done an absolutely brilliant job with this latest in the Block Book series that includes their characteristic die-cut pages and in this volume, a memorable quote from each film featured helps to lift the characters from the pages.

Every spread has a magic of its own be it through the waving of her wand by Cinderella’s fairy godmother, (1950); the superb togetherness shown in this Jungle Book scene …

or the loving encounter depicted between John and Pocahontas (1995).

As you share and re-share this you are certain to relive many of these unforgettable moments, making this an absolutely wonderful book for tinies and adults too.

Over the years there have been plenty of Disney board books but none of them can touch this beauty.

Clap Hands for Key Workers
illustrated by Kat Uno
Pat-A-Cake

This touch-and-feel board book gives the very youngest toddlers an opportunity to say thank you to key workers.

There’s doctor Harriet applying a bandage to a small boy’s leg; shop worker Jay with those shiny apples strategically placed near the till to tempt shoppers; Ruby the post worker

and bus driver Logan, stopping to pick up passengers on his route.

Each of those has their two pages with a touchy-feely feature, but the final double spread shows seven other key workers, all of whom deserve our thanks, especially during the continuing pandemic.

Share with little ones and celebrate these workers together as you enjoy Kat Uno’s bright jolly scenes and give each worker a round of applause.

Touch Think Learn: Build!
Xavier Deneux
Chronicle Handprint Books

A host of learning possibilities are contained within the covers of this largish, sturdily built board book for toddlers, who do so much discovering about their world by looking and touching.

There are bright colours and a variety of shapes and patterns to explore as they follow the house-building process from the time two building site workers don their hard hats right through to the completion of their family home.

There’s a wealth of new vocabulary as various vehicles are introduced along with the work they carry out – a bulldozer for digging/shovelling; a flatbed truck for carrying supplies;

a crane for lifting such things as joists and roof parts. What fantastic conversation sparking opportunities here.

And by manipulating the removable parts and fitting them into die-cut openings, the small user becomes a participant in the entire narrative ensuring maximum engagement throughout.

Clearly, so much careful thought by Xavier Deneux has gone into the creation of this one.

Preschool Menagerie

jillrbennett Leave a comment

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.

Cats, Dogs, Baby Animals and Their Parents

jillrbennett Leave a comment

dscn0191

The Cat Book
Silvia Borando
The Dog Book
Lorenzo Clerici
Walker Books
These two small pet manual Minibombo books, along with The Guinea Pig Book, now have a category all of their own ‘Paper Pets’. I’m no lover of furry creatures, especially cats and dogs, but I am an enthusiast where the Minibombo series is concerned and these two are full of interactive fun.
The former is all about keeping your cat ‘purrfectly’ happy from the moment he wakes up until he beds down for the night. That entails some flea squishing, behaving like a mini brolly when it rains, fluffing up – no not ruffling – and then smoothing, his fur; a spot of cheek squeezing bird releasing…

%0a

followed by a gentle behind-the-ears scratching; then Shhh! Sleep time.
Canine care is pretty much taped in The Dog Book. All that entails is a little back scratching (while he performs his down dog asana),

%0a

a spot of rebel rousing when he dozes off again, a belly rub, and  some rather intensive getting active training. Learning to respond appropriately to commands such as ‘sit’ and ‘fetch’ might well cause the odd challenge – to the trainer that is, but it’s all part and parcel of a dog’s day. Lorenzo Clerici adds his own brand of mischievous illustrative humour – including a blank page – to the series.

fullsizerender-34

Fly!
Xavier Deneux
Chronicle Books
This wonderfully playful, chunky board book is the latest addition to the Touch, Think Learn series. Two cute-looking birds meet, nest, mate and raise a family together. The fledglings eat, grow, and fly –eventually, to find their own tree…
Immersive fun with thick card removable pieces that can be taken from their places and moved to the recessed space on the opposite page to act out the narrative as an adult reads. (Or, a learner reader could enjoy its straightforward text as a solo experience). Either way, they’ll have lots of fun.

fullsizerender-44

Baby Goz
Steve Weatherill
Steve Weatherill Books
If you’re looking for an ideal picture book for a beginning reader, then look no further, Goz, with its playful patterned language, is your ‘gosling’ so to speak. It’s great to see the little character has re-incubated; he’s certainly lost none of his charm. I’d actually forgotten his wonderful ‘Knock, knock! Who’s there?’ entry into the world; that made me smile all over again, as it has the countless beginner readers I’ve taught since Goz burst onto the scene over 25 years ago, and set off around the countryside …

fullsizerender-45

in search of his mummy.

fullsizerender-37

Safe & Sound
Jean Roussen and Loris Lora
Flying Eye Books
‘Many baby animals, (many, but not all) … / whether very, very big or very, very small … / would not be safe all on their own and need some help unil they’re grown.’ So begins this classy picture book account from a father and mother’s perspective, as they tuck their child safely into bed for the night. They talk of the ways numerous animals  mothers especially, protect their offspring, whether it be in an underground burrow like the little chipmunks, a nest like the bluebird, snuggled at the side of a mother lion, close to a rhino, grizzly cubs huddled in a warm den,

fullsizerender-2

hiding inside their mother’s mouth as the crocodile hatchlings do, or …

fullsizerender-4

riding between fluffy wings …

Reassuring, informative and told through Jean Roussen’s gentle rhyming text and stylishly snugglesome retro illustrations from Loris Lora, this is a winner as a bedtime book or in an early years setting.

Charter logo FINAL.indd

Good Night Like This and This and …

jillrbennett 1 Comment

%0A
Good Night Like This
Mary Murphy
Walker Books
Adorable adult animal characters – a horse, a rabbit, a firefly, a bear, a duck, a cat and a mouse bid their respective, equally adorable infants good night in this lovely book. It’s one that uses soporific language ‘ Yawny and dozy, twitchy and cosy. Good night rabbits, sleep tight… ‘ to lull listeners into a sleepy mood too as they share in the rituals of the respective animals’ bedtime biddings …

%0A

and by turning the split pages can play their own part in the good nights …

%0A

before they too, enter the land of nod.
Gorgeous! Such a beautiful, dreamy colour palette, so much love and tenderness at every turn of the page – aaaahhh! Sweet dreams little ones. Sleep tight.

DSCN8424

Sleep, Little Pup
Jo Parry
QED
Insomnia hits us all from time to time and in this story told in a gentle rhyming text, it’s a cuddly-looking Pup that has tried all the usual ways of inducing sleep – sheep counting, star counting and even more puppish pursuits such as tail chasing, bone chewing, mice teasing and even howling at the moon: all to no avail. Out come the nocturnal bugs and beetles, the fireflies and moths and all sing a lullaby for Pup but he remains wide awake …

DSCN8425

so much so that when fox comes along, guess who joins the moonlit patrol. Over at the pond is where Pup finds himself next and there he stops for a bit of fish tickling, lilypad floating and frog-style leaping …

DSCN8427

Will he ever get some shut-eye?
Finally back to his basket comes a sad-looking Pup but then along comes his Mummy with a goodnight kiss and cuddle, and a new soft blanket. It’s that soft, warm snuggly blanket that at last, does the trick: sweet dreams little Pup; you’ve plenty to dream about.
With a cute main character and an equally lovable supporting cast, Little Pup is likely to win many friends among early years listeners: the text could well help induce sleepiness but not, I suspect, before the story’s over. Jo Parry’s scenes have a soft charm, similar to that blanket. One to add to the bedtime story shelf.

DSCN8540

Everyone Says Goodnight
Hiroyuki Arai
Chronicle Books
It’s Little Bear’s bedtime but first he needs some help packing away all his toys. Toddlers can assist by turning the split pages to get the toys in the toy box.
It’s also time for Little Bunny and Little Kitty to go to bed but they too have toys to put away and again ‘littles’ can assist, as they can those three little piglets –

DSCN8541

they have a kitchen play set to put in the box …

DSCN8542

Now finally, we need to get those children tucked up too and then it’s …

DSCN8543

Gentle interactive fun for tinies at bedtime and just the thing to encourage them to tidy up first like the characters in this cute little book.

DSCN8531

My Dreams
Xavier Deneux
Twirl
A small child shares his dreams – flying high a-back a huge bird or soaring on a magic carpet, entertaining a princess in her tower, playing on an enormous slide …

%0A

or participating in a game of hide and seek in a poppy field, or enjoying a ride on a dinosaur’s back or even that of a whale.

DSCN8533

All these fanciful scenarios take our dreamer far from home; but then it’s time to return to a place of quiet calm and perhaps finally, some snuggly stillness …
With its ‘glow in the dark’ silvery tactile component of every dream scene, this small chunky book is a delight at every turn of the page; and the limited colour palette is used to great effect, heightening the whole nocturnal drama.

WNDB_Buttonlocalbookshops_NameImage-2