Spook-tacular

*UPDATE* BookBairn is adoring this book even more this year! She can now interact with it better by saying what she sees under the flaps, like "cat" and "bat" and is making good attempts at saying pumpkin and skeleton too! But most definitely her favourite page has to be the scene where she lifts the toilet seat to discover a gremlin and she shouts "aahhhhh" and grins with delight! Such a great read! I highly reccomend it! Hope you like the new photos.




Halloween is nearly upon us! And our house is becoming a bit of a spooky house as I unearth the decorations usually reserved for my classroom but since this year I'm on maternity leave they are going up at home (poor Daddy BookBairn!).

We have one last Halloween book to share with you, it's spook-tacular! 'Spooky House' by Aimee Chapman, Hannah Cockayne and Amy Oliver with illustrations by Dan Crisp.

Spooky House is a ghostly journey through the many rooms of a house, which has been taken over by everything from witches to vampires to skeletons, finally concluding at Halloween party and features multiple lift-the-flaps in every scene. BookBairn loves a lift-the-flap book and I couldn't resist picking this book up for her. It has several small flaps on every page to explore revealing creepy characters and ghoulish creatures. Given the number of flaps on each page they are relatively small (in comparison to the lift-the-flap books that BookBairn is familiar with) and I worried that she might struggle to open them easily but as you can see from the photos once the flaps were loosened from the backing she has absolutely no bother flipping them back and forth. What a great way to develop her hand-eye co-ordination, which is becoming so vital to her as she learns to feed herself (she is beginning to develop that pincer grip required for picking up small pieces of food). And these smaller flaps will no doubt be helping in that development.

The illustrations in the book are spine-chillingly and hair-raisingly delightful! Whilst all of the characters are typical Halloween ghouls, they are more enchanting than bewitching! The characters are delightfully named, such as Skelly Bob, Willa the witch, Bogey Monster adding to the captivating magic of the book. There is not much of a story to the book, we simply journey through each room of the house to the party finale; however, each page treats you to a lovely rhyming couplet about the characters featured. The text is clearly beyond BookBairn at this stage but I am certain that older toddlers would love the imaginative and creative rhymes. I love that it also includes some questions and challenges readers to find things hidden under the flaps, further engaging children and also creating a conversation between the story-teller and the reader.

I was also surprised to discover that under each flap there was not only an illustration but some text on the reverse of the flap adding a little bit more information to the discovery for older readers. I particularly like the hidden bat cave and the clarification of what disgusting and despicable things Willa is cooking in the kitchen.


This book is aimed at slightly older toddlers than BookBairn (2+) but as always she has enjoyed discovering a new book, and playing with the lift-the-flaps. However, I look forward to future Halloweens where we can really sink our (vampire) teeth into this one!

Halloween Hijinks!

I'm sure there are many people who will disagree with me when I say that Halloween needn't be a scary time of year and I'll partially agree that as children get older there should be some element of the 'scare-factor' but for those little ones it's nice that Halloween can hold a little more treat than trick! That's why 'Ten Spooky Skeletons' by Garry Parsons and Annette Rusling is a perfect read for young readers and parents to read to toddlers and wee ones. It has a fantastic surprise treat on the final page! And it is certainly more spooky than scary!

The skeletons in the book have a similar feel to those of traditional skeleton story, Funnybones (by Janet and Allan Ahlberg). They have friendly, inviting smiles and their soft-edges make them more cuddly than creepy. The inclusion of skelly animals adds to the fun and friendly experience reading this story. This book is, in fact, a counting story where young readers can learn to count along with "one lonely skeleton, looking for his friends" on an adventure through some truly marvellous scenes. To add to the fun, this book features peek-through cut-outs which reveal at what hijinks the skeletons are getting up to on the next page. Some of these cut-outs are hard to spot and therefore tricky for little hands such as BookBairn's (it is also paperback rather than board book meaning I don't entirely trust that she won't rip the page) but this hidden nature may appeal to older toddlers as the feel the pages and search for the gaps. It is a rather eclectic mix of scenes from ice skating skeletons to circus antics and pirate skellies to a skeleton shindig in full swing! Garry Parsons has some imagination! I also love that hidden in each illustration is the corresponding numeral to that part of the story (perfect for a wee bit of teaching without it becoming a focus).

Another fun element in the story are the rhyming phrases which bounce along nicely and had BookBairn listening intently (she loves a rhyme!). But best of all, we have read this book by torch-light! The cover glows in the dark brilliantly and BookBairn was grabbing at the book to feel the cover, which also has a slight fuzzy feel. Perfect to dazzle any young reader. And as you get to the final page, once all the skellies are reunited, they endeavour to give you a "super-spooky FRIGHT!" Fab-u-lous! Giggles galore! And more book-grabbing.

#obsessedwithpumpkins

It is the season of pumpkins! The world around us seems to have turned orange. And befitting to the season, BookBairn and I have unearthed a pumpkin story to review from our local library. 'Pumpkin Party' is a new Peter Rabbit story based on the CBeebies animated TV show. As a Peter Rabbit traditionalist and a Beatrix Potter fan, I will try to put aside my bias towards the traditional Beatrix Potter illustrations and accept that a new generation of children (BookBairn's generation) will experience Peter Rabbit in a computer-animated version and will, no doubt, adore it as much as I loved the originals but, still, it's not the same. Enough said.

Boo!

Boo! Did BookBairn scare you?

Things are beginning to get spooky! As we get closer to BookBairn's first Halloween we are reading lots of spooky books. And first on our list is 'Boo!' (My Little World) by Jonathan Litton with art work by Fhiona Galloway. It is the most recent in a series of books that feature finger-holes for little fingers to explore.

This book is 'full of spooky surprises' (as the cover suggests) but what surprised me most was that BookBairn turned the pages easily all by herself using the die-cut finger-hole cut-outs to get a grip. What an ingenious idea! These little holes, which provide the eyes of the characters, have allowed my seven-month old to interact with a book in a whole new way whilst developing key reading skills for the future! The first time we read the story it got an immediate reaction of smiles and giggles rather than halloweeny gasps! This book is a fantastic introduction to the theme of Halloween. The illustrations use predominately orange, green, purple and black colours and feature all things halloweeny, like spiders, pumpkins, witches and ghosts, all of which have huge inviting grins and are not scary in the slightest (thank goodness! I mean, I want BookBairn to get used to Halloween but not be scared!).
The book has a very simple plot: someone is shouting 'boo' and on each page a Halloween character denies it is them, until the final page that is. Guess who? The ghost, of course! To add to the fun, the story is written in a repetitive rhyme, which as BookBairn gets older (perhaps by next Halloween?) she will be able to join in with the story. It is also a good length of story to keep little ones' attention but still manages to fit in lots of spooky Halloween characters.

The publishers, Little Tiger Press, describe the book on their website as "more trick than treat" and they are absolutely right!

click - tweet - peek-a-boo

Isn't Twitter fascinating? Since BookBairn (the blog) was born I've become somewhat addicted to the world of Twitter. Following like-minded bloggers, publishers, authors, illustrators; entering competitions (sometimes winning!); exploring the worlds of books, parenthood and babies. I was enjoying following the Bath Children's Book Festival and discovered that they were having a special auction of artwork by a fantastic selection of illustrators, some of which would be sold on ebay - click - I opened the website, logged in and searched for something in my price range that appealed to me for BookBairn's nursery and - click - bid. So excited by my 'highest bidder' status I tweeted about it and tagged the author-illustrator. The next morning, I was thrilled to see that the lovely Jo Lodge had retweeted my tweet (more excitement) and sent me a direct message - click - I couldn't believe it, she wanted to send BookBairn a book (even more excitement - so much so that I woke daddy BookBairn, whoops!).

Inside the parcel was a copy of 'There's a Cow in my Car' by Jo Lodge. BookBairn and I couldn't wait to get reading. BookBairn loves a 'lift-the-flap' book, but this was something different, something quite special. Described on the cover as a 'slide-and-seek' book, There's a Cow in my Car provides many of the similar benefits of developing hand-eye co-ordination but in a completely novel way. BookBairn is currently going through the peek-a-boo phase, and absolutely loves playing the game over (and over and over!) so this book has come at the perfect time. Using a clever slide and reveal mechanism, BookBairn enjoys interacting with the book, each time a surprise animal is revealed when you slide apart the illustration on the page. It's quite tricky to explain so I've included a video from Jo Lodge's youtube page to demonstrate the mechanism. The illustrations are bold and colourful. BookBairn particularly enjoys the page where the penguin appears inside a plant pot. As she gets older, I'm sure she will enjoy the animal sounds as part of the text and will chime in the repetitive sentence 'I don't believe it!' (although it will take her longer to get the Victor Meldrew reference).

BookBairn's Favourite Poem

To celebrate National Poetry Day, BookBairn would like to share her favourite poem (abridged version) taken from the book 'I Love My Daddy' by Giles Andreae with artwork by Emma Dodd.

I Love My Daddy

I love my daddy, yes I do,
He's very kind - and funny too.
He teaches loads of things to me,
I think he's clever. So does he!

He lets clamber on his back,
And we play horsies - click clack clack.
He sings me all his favourite songs,
I love to dance and sing along.

He lifts me on his shoulders high,
Until I nearly touch the sky.
And when it's time to eat my tea,
He always says "One bite for me?"

I really love to cuddle him,
And feel the prickles on his chin.
He tucks me safely into bed,
And tells me stories from his head.

My daddy's such a lovely man,
In fact, I am his BIGGEST fan!

MiNi Myths for MiNi Readers

BookBairn received some post last week! Thanks @toppsta for the copies to review. In many ways, I'm disappointed to only have two of these books to review, they are fantastic! 'Please Share, Aphrodite!' and 'Be Careful, Icarus!' are the two latest books in the Mini Myths series by Joan Holub with artwork by Leslie Patricelli. Similar to the collection of BabyLit books we reviewed previously (A Reply to the BBC: Do children still need to read the classics of English literature?) these books are as much for grown-ups as they are for kiddies.

BookBairn enjoyed ripping open the parcel so much that she tore through the certificate of congratulations for winning the books! And she didn't stop there, we've had these books for a week and we've read them dozens of times already. The cartoon-style artwork is ideal for little ones and I particularly liked the colourful but plain backgrounds allowing BookBairn to focus on the pictures. This fun and simple approach to telling children's stories is fresh and places as much importance on stimulating illustrations with simple and concise text.

I like the fact that the author and illustrator have found a perfect balance between few words that truly tell a story and engaging illustrations for babies and tots. The stories are humorous and clever, retelling traditional myths whilst including a moral appropriate and accessible to their readers. For grown-ups and older children the final page of the book retells the original myth, which helped me make connections between the characters and the moral portrayed in the story. For those of you, like me, unfamiliar with the story of Icarus: he flies too close to the sun and the wings his father made melt so he falls down and splashes into the sea. In the Mini Myth version, Icarus and his father build a kite but Icarus isn't very careful and crashes it into a tree. With Aphrodite, in the original myth she gets into a stooshie (love a Scots word!) with Hera and Athena about who is the most beautiful and Zeus asks Paris to choose, they each try to bribe him with gifts. In the Mini Myth, Aphrodite wins the admiration of Paris by providing a toy as a gift and gets his (golden) apple in exchange; but then she is left out of playing with the other girls and has to share her prize to gain their friendship.

What a fantastic idea! I'm no classical-whizz but these books are adorable! Both in the re-telling of the myths and in the story-telling through words and pictures. These books are delightful and BookBairn is currently at the perfect stage to enjoy the illustrations but she will also be able to enjoy them again as she progresses to better understand the story and the morals, and, likely, she will enjoy them again when she becomes an early-stage reader due to the simplicity of the language. Great investment books to last several years!

Banned Books Week: The Family Book

BookBairn and I wanted to celebrate Banned Books Week by reading and reviewing a banned book. This proved tricky, most books aimed at babies and toddlers are absolutely, and understandably, appropriate. No violence, racism, sexually explicit content, religious or political bias, or offensive language in the picture book market. No surprise really. But I found one!

Its called 'The Family Book' written by Todd Parr. And before you worry about me exposing BookBairn to any of the aforementioned topics/language, I didn't. This book was banned, in my own words, because of small-mindedness. In 2012, a school district in Illinois banned this book after several parents complained that the book discussed different types of family structures and that those issues were not appropriate to be taught at an elementary school level. In short, this book features a page which references same-sex parents and the accompanying text says "some families have two moms or two dads". The offending page didn't bother BookBairn (see the pic below).

This book has such bright illustrations that it even stands out in the bold and colourful children's book market. The simple, yet colourful, artwork, accompanied by easy-to-read text (for when she gets to that stage!) captivated BookBairn's attention. She grabbed this book and tried to feel the illustrations (too many lift-the-flap/touch and feel books?) but she giggled her way through this book. We only got it this week and we've already read it several times!

The illustrations feature both human (in shades and tones from yellow to green to blue) and animal characters celebrating the differences and similarities in families. Some of the book's families have stepmums and stepdads, stepsisters and stepbrothers, some adopt children, some children have only one parent and (ooooo controversially, eye-roll) some have to mums and two dads. The book also highlights (less convincingly) the ways in which all families are alike: the enjoy celebrating together (we've all been to a less-than-perfect family party); they all hug each other (I like to think this true but its not always the case, though I don't mean to say that those families aren't full of love); and they help each other be strong (again, probably not always the case). I am nit-picking a little here but as it's difficult to say how all families are the same as all families are different, I feel these less-convincing pages detract from the message of the book which is beautifully stated on the last page: "There are lots of different ways to be a family. Your family is special no matter what kind it is." This what makes this book wonderful, the message that families come in all shapes and sizes and 'its ok to be different' (another book by Todd Parr).

This book is colourful, whimsical and engaging! It's depiction of all sorts of families is something I want BookBairn to understand and appreciate. Tolerance and kindness is something that can be developed at an early stage (as is prejudice and small-mindedness).

BookBairn - You should know that not all families are the same. I want you to know that our family, though far from perfect, is just one of the many types of families out there. But that in our family you are surrounded by love. And that love comes from all different sorts of people in all different sorts of ways. And that's ok. That's the way it's meant to be!