BookBairn

@kidlitpicks started the year with a theme of New Beginnings, chosen and introduced by Rossa from @curiouslittlepeople — “This is the beginning of anything you want.” —Author Unknown.

Every New Year is synonymous with a new beginning, we set resolutions and goals for the year ahead which sometimes leads to challenging transitions in our children’s lives. Perhaps this will be the year your child starts a new school, welcomes a new sibling or relocates to a new home. No matter the new challenge in your child’s life, picture books are a great way to inspire, motivate and encourage children with the challenges of new beginnings.

Florette, by Anna Walker

“Both word and breathtaking illustration work seamlessly together to share Mae’s experience, her patience, adaptability and influence on her new community and new friends.” — Summer from @readingisourthing

Clare's Goodbye, by Libby Gleeson and Anna Pignataro

“Clare’s Goodbye is a poignant yet peaceful tale that is relatable even if one hasn’t moved house before. We say goodbye often over a lifetime, and we each have our own different ways and processes. Gleeson and Pignataro portray this perfectly.” — Summer from @readingisourthing

The Digger and the Flower, by Joseph Kuefler
“Kuefler's selective use of color highlights the differences in sensation between being amongst urban city buildings and being in nature." — Mel from @spiky_penelope

The Journey, by Francesca Sanna

“Reading it with my daughter was one of the first times I openly cried about something so real and tender in front of her.” — Katie from @afriendlyaffair

Snuggle the Baby, by Sara Gillingham

“There's even a little baby to pop out and play with!” — Claire from @alittlebookhabit

I Sleep in a Big Bed, by Maria van Lieshout

"If you are transitioning your toddler from crib to big kid bed, this story may ease this sometimes scary change.." — Leah from @astoryaday

The Tiny Seed, by Eric Carle

“Such an inspiring and lovely read to start the year” — Kim from @bookbairn

Norman, the Slug with the Silly Shell, by Sue Hendra

“Follow Norman as he fulfills his snail studded dreams.” — Miranda from @bookbloom

The Tomorrow Book, by Jackie French and Sue deGennaro

“An inspiring story about a wonderful tomorrow.” — De from @books_and_babycinos

Through the Gate, by Sally Fawcett

“This book is beautifully poignant, genius in its simplicity and the illustrations are irresistible.” — Carissa from @bookskidslove_

Ice in the Jungle, by Ariane Hofmann-Manjar
“Can a polar bear adjust to life in the jungle?” — Arielle from @childrensbooksgalore

Tree, by Danny Parker

“It is a tale of discovery that every end can also be a new beginning and also explores the cycle of life and death, the turn of seasons and survival of the fittest.” — Rossa from @curiouslittlepeople

The Sloth Who Came To Stay, by Margaret Wild

“This is such an amusing story with a lovely message (and the cutest sloth ever!) to slow down and enjoy the simple things in life.” — Rossa from @curiouslittlepeople

Jelly and the Leaf, by Mary McCaffrey

“Jelly and the Leaf is a sweet story that teaches kids mindfulness and a practical skill on how to overcome fear.” — Rossa from @curiouslittlepeople

Did You Hear What I Heard?: Poems about School, by Kay Winters and Patrice Barton
“The charming watercolor illustrations showcase a diverse cast of students and teachers.” — Charnaie from @hereweeread

After the Fall, by Dan Santat

"It's truly a magical moment when a story can transcend its pages and reach into our own lives." — Wendy from @homegrownreader

Pup and Bear, by Kate Banks and Naoko Stoop

“New beginnings are exciting, but they can be scary too. If you’re lucky, help can be found for those hard starts.” — Heather from @kidlitbookbits

Here We Are, by Oliver Jeffers

“With lovely illustrations and tenderly truthful words, I love reading this book with my own small humans.” — Anna from @kidlitcrafts

The Great Race, by Christopher Corr

“This is a top-quality read for this niche in the picture book market and perfect for the Year of the Dog starting on February 16th.” — Shannon from @ohcreativeday

Moon: A Peek-Through Picture Book, by Britta Teckentrup

“It is simple but beautiful. And such a great way to talk about the phases of the moon and new beginnings.” — Michelle from @the.book.report

School's First Day of School, by Adam Rex and Christian Robinson

“Both Adam Rex and Christian Robinson are American Children’s Literature flag bearers, and TOGETHER they are hitting every mark!” — Liam from @words.and.illustrations

Throughout February, we will be bringing history to life by sharing the stories of those who inspire us. …

Legacy. That word holds great strength. It’s in the lives that last. Lives that linger within our own. Lives that inspire generations to come. Lives that are known forever by the tracks they leave behind. We can find such legacy within our own family tree or in our community, and we can, without doubt, find such legacy in the wonderful world of picture books.

Picture book biographies are legacies. Within these factual stories are examples of courage, determination, love, hope and resilience. We read about real people who achieve their dreams, create and innovate, who fight for change, make a difference, believe in themselves and overcome challenges, thus demonstrating to our kids that they too are capable of doing the same.

What legacies live on within your picture book collection? Share along with us by tagging #kidlitpicks_legacy

Happy reading,

Mummy and the bairns xx

Welcome to a new monthly feature on our little corner of the internet! At the end of every month I thought it would be fun to give you a little insight into more than just what we are enjoying reading. A bit more of our toddler and baby lifestyle, sharing our favourite TV programmes, clothing, toys, etc. I've used a wonderful format that I first saw over on MamaMummyMum's blog which is part of a weekly link-up from Coffee Work Sleep Repeat and will be joining in with them but on a monthly round-up basis, and unlike many of the blog posts linked I'm not sharing my favourites (unless you want to see that as well) but will be sharing the little loves of BookBairn and The Wee Page Turner. I've also added a category - played - because for kids play is the foundation of their day so wouldn't be a complete monthly round-up without it!

So enough from me, over to the little loves this month.

You can always find our most recent favourite reads on our 'Favourites Shelf' feature but if we were to pick just one book each the ones that we have read most have been 'Pom Pom Gets the Grumps' by Sophy Henn. BookBairn has rediscovered an old favourite - you may remember I got in trouble with her when she was not quite two years old because I returned them to the library. Big mistake. Anyway, we have our own copies now and we have read this one over and over. Until BookBairn realised that it had been signed and dedicated to her brother. And now we have moved on to 'Pom Pom the Champion' which has her name inside. Sophy Henn has perfectly captured a quintessential toddler in this series and wrapped him up in an adorable panda package. It's no wonder BookBairn loves it so much.

BookBairn and The Wee Page Turner both enjoying watching a little bit of TV during their chillout time and whilst having their afternoon snacks. BookBairn has consistently asked to watch the animated scenes from Mary Poppins over and over again - she particularly loves the penguins dancing with Dick Van Dyke as well as the horses on the Merry-Go-Round. The pink one is her favourite! Which is probably because she has a pink unicorn ride-on pony of her own.

I am absolutely adoring seeing The Wee Page Turner in a t-shirt given to us by a friend who knows us very well as it's slogan proclaims "leaders will be book fans"!! Could this be anymore perfect for us? Unfortunately he has outgrown it so I'm going to have to see if I can find it and buy it in all the sizes!

It has been a tricky month to choose a favourite toy as we got so many new ones for Christmas (though I have quite a few unopened toys stashed away for a rainy day) but one of the toys that BookBairn has had a lot of joy out of playing with has been her Go Jetters toys that she asked Santa for. For those of you who don't know, Go Jetters is a Cbeebies TV show where a team of characters, the Go Jetters, aided by Ubercorn the Unicorn rescue world monuments from Grandmaster Glitch who always seems to accidentally cause chaos in his wake. So when BookBairn goes for her nap - I 'glitch' things. Messing around with her toys - breaking up jigsaws, stacking her cubes the wrong way, stealing the top of her Eiffel Tower puzzle - and she flies the vroomster to the rescue and 'fixes that glitch'. It's a great game. And we have lots of fun and giggles playing together.

I would love to be someone who was a maker but to be honest I find it hard to be creative in any sort of real artistic way and I don't have much patience for baking. But I do like to do papercrafts - journals, scrapbooks etc. And mostly my daily planner. So I gave BookBairn an old spiralbound notebook of her own and she just loves to draw in it and pretend to be mummy. It's also a great place for her to stick all those stickers that used to get stuck all over the house and now she can look back at them over and over again. It's not a clever make but it works for us!

This is an interesting one for me to think about as I sometimes feel we don't listen to enough music but we do listen to audiobooks a lot. During one slightly fraught teatime - BookBairn can be a challenge when she is tired and I'm giving my attention to The Wee Page Turner to feed him his tea - I decided to pop on to the Nosy Crow Podcast and play one of the stories we have been reading a lot - Neon Leon by Jane Clarke and Britta Teckentrup. Because she is so familiar with the story already she really enjoyed listening to it again and again and as she listening she absent-mindedly ate all her dinner. And now we do this quite a lot at tea time. If you haven't checked out the Nosy Crow podcasts you should - they are a great way to read with your kiddos when you don't have your hands free.

One of the things I have really enjoyed doing over the last week is @afriendlyaffair 'look up challenge' that has encouraged my to put my phone away and look up at my kids, to meet their gaze, to show them I am available to them and that I am interested in what they are doing. It's been a challenge, I'll admit, I love surfing social media, especially Instagram, but I realise the benefits my kids get of me being there. I've been bored at the park, I've spent more time playing on the floor until my knees ache, I've got FOMO (is that still a thing?) but I've also seen my children do things I didn't know they could, I've spent more time getting to know them. And I've chilled out more. And do you know what, I'm happier. Honestly, they are happier, I am happier. (And it may be a huge coincidence but less media for all of us + more time together = both my kids are sleeping all night in their own beds. This is a miracle. But maybe they don't need me at night anymore because maybe they have my attention all day. Or maybe they are just exhausted by bedtime.) But lastly, it's made me happier. Once you finish reading this, I encourage you to pop your phone away, or off, and go play. Enjoy a happy moment. Look Up!

I hope you enjoyed reading a bit more about the things we loved this month, I'm going to try and stop and take stock at the end of each month and share with you our 'Little Loves'.

Hope you had a lovely January - where did the month go?

Mummy and the bairns xx

Male characters are twice as likely to take leading roles in children’s picture books according to recent research by the Observer newspaper. Not only that male characters were given more speaking parts, were portrayed in more masculine roles and, shockingly, in a fifth of books (of the top 100 sellers in 2017) there were no female characters at all. Where female characters were portrayed in books they are less likely to have a speaking part. Male characters are eight times more likely to be a villain (despite the fact that the best villain of all time, in my opinion, is a female - who isn't terrified of Cruella DeVille?) and have more stereotypical masculine roles.

And yes I know you're thinking a lot of children's picture book characters are animals - but even here we seem to encounter an inherent sexism: where gender was revealed it was 73% more likely to be male; and males were more typically embodied as powerful, wild beasts like dragons, bears and tigers where females tended to be smaller creatures like birds and cats.

Before I get to riled I should state that of the top 100 books sold last year, only half of the titles were published in the last five years. Meaning we have the power of our purse to change these awful statistics by buying more of the brilliant flurry of newly published titles that celebrate boys and girls equally.

So I'm starting a new series here on the blog: The Little Feminist Book Club. And it's not just for girls. It's important for our little boys to read about strong female characters too. It's all about creating empathy in our little boys as well as empowerment for little girls.

So I'm starting off by sharing this awesome little board book box set with four books featuring sixteen amazing women! The 'Little Feminist Book Set' by Emily Kleinman and Lydia Ortiz celebrates some truly wonderful and inspiring women in a way that even the littlest reader can appreciate. Divided into four categories: pioneers, activists, leaders and artists.

Artists: Maya Angelou, Lucille Ball, Frida Kahlo and Ella Fitzgerald prove that girls can take the spotlight, they showed that all girls are beautiful and that we all have a story.Leaders: Cleopatra, Queen Elizabeth I, Indira Gandhi and Hilary Clinton proved that girls can be in charge, they are powerful and that "girls rule".Activists: Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Gloria Steinem and Malala Yousafzai defied the system, proved that girls have a voice and that we deserve equal rights. Pioneers: Marie Curie, Sally Ride, Amelia Earhart and Billie Jean King proved that girls are explorers, winners, clever and can shine bright! What a wonderful collection of women to be introduced to before you can even read. Inspiring, strong and wonderful.

The illustrations are absolutely perfect. They are bright, colourful and simplistic enough for the littlest readers turning our heroes into characters they can enjoy. They are instantly recognisable and, whilst simple, they are incredibly stylish. These are a great place to start sharing books about mighty girls and women to your little readers, boys and girls. (There's also a jigsaw puzzle and set of cards that I'm going to get my hands on soon because I adore the illustrations so much!)

"Here's to Strong Women.

May we know them.

May we be them

May we raise them." - Unknown

And may we raise our boys to respect, admire and love them.

Next month I'm going to be reviewing 'Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls' - a book that has been widely celebrated but also criticised. I'd love for you to join me in a Twitter chat on Sunday 25th February at 8pm to discuss the book - you'll find it under #littlefeministbookclub

Happy Reading,

Mummy and the little feminist book club xx

Today is a celebration in the children's book world of 'Multicultural Children's Books Day' encouraging parents, teachers, caregivers (and anyone who reads aloud to children) as well as children themselves to read books from all over the world. And I've been inspired by 'gathering books' blog's 'literary voyage around the world challenge' to set ourselves the challenge to read books from as many different countries as we can.

We are aiming to reach the first level of the challenge: literary hitchhiker (25-40 countries). And we will be sharing books based on the country of the author, illustrator or even the setting of the story or character's nationality. And we will be keep a track of all the countries we have visited on our social media using the hashtag #bookbairnreadstheworld so you can journey along with us.

I've also picked up this lovely scratch map so we can keep a record of all the countries we have read in a visual way for BookBairn. And I'n really excited. So pack your bookcase and come on a reading journey around the world with us!

Happy book journeys,

Mummy, BookBairn and The Wee Page Turner xxx

I often get nervous about agreeing to take part in blog tours because we only ever review books on the blog that BookBairn or The Wee Page Turner (or sometimes me!) really truly love. It's our guarantee of quality to you. But I needn't have worried in this case because BookBairn truly enjoys reading (and reading and reading) 'My Colourful Chameleon' by Leonie Roberts.

This lovely book tells the story of a little girl and her pet chameleon who just keeps disappearing. Her mum thinks her beloved pet is a pest when they lose it on a daily basis because, of course, it just keeps changing colour. Quite frankly, mum has had enough and she wants to get rid of the chameleon for causing so much trouble. But when she takes her chameleon to school for show and tell things go from bad to worse and the teacher thinks it's trouble too. So they take the chameleon to the vet who reveals to the parents the natural instincts of a chameleon. So will it get to stay? Written in delightful rhyme this is a lovely read aloud story and little ones will enjoy spotting the colour-changing chameleon on each page (and grown ups you will enjoy hearing your little ones attempt to say 'chameleon'). The illustrations are simply adorable and the changing coloured chameleon is irresistible - why wouldn't you want to keep him? BookBairn is now fairly insistent on a pet chameleon! A wonderful book that we were lucky enough to have been sent two copies of by mistake so look out for the competition on our Instagram account.

We were lucky enough to get to know Leonie Roberts over the last few months and she was kind enough to answer some of mine, and of course BookBairns questions.

Mummy's Questions:

Where did you get the idea for My Colourful Chameleon?

I was living and working in Italy at the time and one day I was walking home in the sunshine and the idea just popped into my head. I had to rush home to get it written down.

In BookBairn’s room we have a ‘Favourites Shelf’ of her favourite stories, which picture books would you have on your Favourites Shelf at the moment?

I would have Oi Frog by Kes Grey, Be Brave little Penguin by Giles Andreae and The Princess and the Christmas rescue by Caryl Hart.

I’m sure there are writers who have inspired you, can you tell us a few that you like the most? We know you love Roald Dahl already!

I would say that Jill Murphy and Giles Andreae have inspired me the most because I never get tired of reading their work. In terms of learning about rhythm and rhyme of course I have studied the fabulous books of Julia Donaldson.My favourite of hers is The Smartest Giant in Town because I like the singing part.

We love the illustrations in the book - how did that collaboration with Mike Byrne come about?

I submitted my story to the publisher and then it was their job to match the story with an illustrator. I was very very happy that they chose Mike as I love his style. We haven't met in person but I hope that one day we will get the chance to.

What are you working on next? Can you give us a sneak peek into your next story?

At the moment I am working on two non-rhyming picture book stories. They involve dinosaurs and aliens. I am also trying my hand at writing for older children.

And now BookBairn's Questions:

"We have a rabbit. He doesn't change colour. He is black. Do you have a chameleon?"

No I don't have a chameleon because I found out that they are quite tricky to look after and that they don't really like to be touched. I have a dog called Chester who loves to be patted and he snuggles up with me on the sofa.

“Orange is my colour. What’s your best colour?”

My favourite colour is blue. I think that this is why most of my clothes are blue.

“I like a lion best. What’s your favourite animal?”

I like most animals but my favourite animals (apart from dogs) are giraffes because they have lovely faces.

"The chameleon is good at hiding. I am good at hide-and-seek. Are you good at hide-and-seek?"

I used to be good at hide and seek but I don't think there are many places that I could hide any more because I am fairly tall now and can't get into small spaces.

Thank you for Leonie for joining us and answering our questions!

To read the other blog posts in the tour, check out the banner below to find out when and where to be (and I'll also be sharing on our Twitter). And don't forget to keep and eye out for our competition!

Happy reading!

Mummy and BookBairn xx

*DISCLAIMER We were sent two copies free for review purposes, words and opinions are our own. And we are going to post out the extra copy to one lucky UK-based winner.