She was so tiny when I took these photos! Time has flown by so fast! Time to share another Story Book Classic! The Hairy Maclary s...

A Story Book Classic - Hairy Maclary

Tuesday, April 26, 2016 BookBairn 6 Comments

She was so tiny when I took these photos! Time has flown by so fast!


Time to share another Story Book Classic!

The Hairy Maclary series by Lynley Dodd is a series of books that we have read, re-read and will read over and over again. If you haven't met Hairy Maclary and his friends yet you are truly missing out. Full of mischief and adorable characters these stories are wonderful for little readers.

All of the stories in the series are written in a wonderful rhyme which truly bounces along, like most of the characters in the book. Hairy Maclary is a wire-haired scrappy little chap who has a whole cast of doggy pals all of whom have the most wonderfully-imaginative names. Personally I love Schnitzel von Krumm with the very low tum, and Zackary Quack the duck.

In the original tale, Hairy Maclary and all his friends (and, yes, I can repeat the list off by heart and have been able to since BookBairn was just a bump!) walk along the street into town encountering one of the most villainous characters in children's literature: Scarface Claw the toughest tom cat in town. *Warning: we had to stop reading this book for a few months as BookBairn used to cry at the sight of Scarface Claw.* And then, understandably they all race home. This is a great story for little ones and will trip up a tired parent with the rhyming names if you try to race through the last pages of the story alongside the characters, making everyone giggle. I especially love Daddy Bookbairn's attempts to get around the list of names at full speed!

As brilliant as this book is, BookBairn generally chooses to read 'Hairy Maclary and Zackary Quack' more often (it is never far from her favourites shelf!). This is a delightful tale of hide-and-seek between Hairy Maclary and the cutest little duck! She loves to flip through and compare the first page with the last and pointing out the very small difference. I don't want to spoil the ending but it is very cute!

We also have two other versions of Hairy Maclary books that I would highly recommend for fans of this cheeky pooch! The Little Library box of Hairy Maclary books is one of BookBairn's favourite things to play with at the moment. She loves taking the books out of the box and putting them back in! But when she was younger, these books were just the right size for her little fingers to hold and play with. We also picked up a lift-the-flap 'Where's Hairy Maclary' book at the Edinburgh Book Festival last year (I think, actually it was G'ma BookBairn who bought it). This is a great book for any Hairy Maclary fans who want more of his stories!
There are many more Hairy Maclary (and friends) books available to and we often borrow these from the library as BookBairn is beginning to recognise the characters despite them being in different stories.

These stories are simply great fun and would make a great addition to any little bookbairn's collection!

Love Mummy and BookBairn xx



6 comments:

This month I have been reading lots of classic children's books to coincide with a daily photo challenge on Instagram (to see the photos...

All Kinds of Cars

Sunday, April 17, 2016 BookBairn 13 Comments

This month I have been reading lots of classic children's books to coincide with a daily photo challenge on Instagram (to see the photos click here) and it also fits nicely with taking part in the #2016classicschallenge on Twitter. One of the books I read recently was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang by Ian Fleming. Entirely different from the film that I adore, I loved the book and felt like I'd discovered a brand new adventure with familiar friends.

BookBairn has been exploring the world of cars too! She likes to point out the cars that we see on our walks and says "car". Fortunately we don't live in too busy a town otherwise we'd be stopping and pointing out cars all the time! We've been reading a brilliant book all about cars too!

"All Kinds of Cars" by Carl Johanson is a catalogue of cars and vehicles ranging from, as you would expect, cars, fire engines, ambulances to the strange and bizarre creations of moon car or cheese car or igloo car! The illustrations are set against a white background with black-line-drawn details befitting the scene, making the vehicles the stars of the show! And what a show!


   

The cars, buses, diggers, tractors, etc (!!) are brightly coloured in mostly primary colours and are created without lines defining their edges giving them a modernist feel (but perhaps I'm only saying that because I've been influenced by the 'Mondrian Car'). Several of the pages have a simple line-drawn background that depicts the scene such as the hospital, building sit or farming fields and are matched with the appropriate vehicles. But the best of the fun comes on the pages that are plain white backgrounds with cars lined up for closer inspection! You will not be disappointed by the bizarre and wonderful creations: rocket car, chewing gum car, guitar car, polka dot car, dinosaur car, and the list goes on! There are so many hilarious inventions in this book!
Apparently, this book is also
great for practising yoga on
top of. Here's Bookbairn's
Downward Dog.
For school-aged readers, there is an index page at the end which will be a great introduction to alphabetical order.

In short, this book contains a crazy collection of transport that will delight children as they search for their favourite creation. This book is like looking into children's imagination and as BookBairn loves to doodle and learns to draw I'm sure she will come up with her own crazy creations.


Happy car-spotting! Mummy and BookBairn x


*DISCLAIMER* I was given our book for free for review purposes, however, all words and opinions are my own.

MamaMummyMum

13 comments:

One of the wonderful joys of being a book-loving parent is looking forward to all the magical stories that BookBairn and I can share when sh...

First Stories

Thursday, April 07, 2016 BookBairn 8 Comments

One of the wonderful joys of being a book-loving parent is looking forward to all the magical stories that BookBairn and I can share when she gets older. And I hope that she will enjoy reading them together in a 'Mummy and BookBairn book club'! I have fond memories of reading many classic tales with my own mum, and we still enjoy reading and talking about books.

8 comments:

Many babies love to chew on books. BookBairn generally doesn't but then she's never been a fan of cloth, fabric or bath books and I ...

A Book Munching Buddy

Monday, April 04, 2016 BookBairn 12 Comments

Many babies love to chew on books. BookBairn generally doesn't but then she's never been a fan of cloth, fabric or bath books and I imagine she picked up early on that paper and cardboard don't taste very good and it's more fun to flip the pages. But, of course, most babies explore the world through their mouths and will chew on most things. At the moment we are constantly telling BookBairn not to eat the crayons for fear that they might quit! (She is so cheeky about this now, looking me right in the eye, grinning and then chomping down on the crayon anyway. Perhaps we should read The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers to encourage her to give the crayons a break!)

We recently discovered another book monster who positively thrives on munching his way through books! Meet 'Nibbles: The Book Monster' created by Emma Yarlett. It didn't take us long after opening our book post to unleash Nibbles from his crate, and even after a month of reading, this is still BookBairn's favourite thing about this book.

Once unleashed, Nibbles nibbles his way through a library of books and then through three classic fairy tales, the pages of which are cut to look like 'books within a book'. The nibble holes of Nibbles are also die-cut throughout the book truly bringing this story to life! Fortunately, Nibbles is returned to his crate at the end of the book and little Bookbairn loves to shut him safely and securely inside but... *no spoilers*

This is a wonderfully written tale of a little yellow ball of fluff with legs and arms who, despite looking adorable, leaves chaos in his wake! This story will appeal to younger readers thanks to all the wonderful interactivity through lift the flaps and peek-through holes but also to older readers who will enjoy learning about how Nibbles interacts with the fairy tale characters that they are familiar with and how his intrusion into their stories alters the events and endings of the fairy tales.

The illustrations in this book make reading it a truly wonderful and magical experience! You will be utterly charmed by the devilishly irresistible little book monster and the delightfully expressive fairy tale characters. Each page is layered with details of books and you will be drawn into the backgrounds, which older readers will love discussing. The fairy tale books within 'Nibbles' are beautifully constructed and I think it would be wonderful if Emma Yarlett would create a series of fairy tale retellings!

Undoubtedly, I love Nibbles because I empathise with his love of books, not that you will find me chomping or munching holes in my books, of course, but you might catch me devouring them before bedtime! This story is truly a celebration of books, reading and book lovers!

As you can imagine, Daddy BookBairn often returns home from work to a new book lurking around the house but this was the first time I've seen BookBairn crawl to the door to greet him, and then return to find her copy of 'Nibbles' and hold it out for him to read to her. She is often quite tired by the time daddy gets home (as am I!!) and usually quite clingy to mummy so this was a pretty wonderful experience for us all. Thank you Nibbles for bringing Daddy and BookBairn together for extra cuddles at the end of a long day. Books truly do work magic!

If you're hungry for more Nibbles reviews and discussion, he is doing a blog tour around some of our favourite book blogs this week, I have posted the itinerary below if you want another slice!

Enjoy, Mummy and BookBairn xx

*DISCLAIMER* I was given 'Nibbles the Book Monster' for free for review purposes, however, all words and opinions are my own. These books are set for release on 7th April 2016.

MamaMummyMum




12 comments: