BookBairn: A Scottish Twist

Showing posts with label A Scottish Twist. Show all posts

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Have you ever had a book that you know will stay with you, long after you have closed the last page?

For me Margaret's Unicorn by Briony May Smith is an example of picture book perfection!

We recently went to one of our local farm shops that boasts a marvellous steak barn for a family meal out and whilst we were waiting on our food we went over the the field to take a look at the highland cows, which BookBairn sweetly renamed the 'wighland cows'. These beautiful beasts have fascinated me for a long time with their shaggy orange coats and their incredible horns, which provide a mythical element that I love. And have you ever seen a baby highland cow? They are super cute! It's one of those things that I love about living in Scotland! And we love a story set in Scotland starring creatures, flora and fauna that we recognise from our walks, journeys and local environment!

It won't surprise you that we are big fans of the Isla and Pickle stories that star a feisty wild ginger-haired little girl and her adorably naughty Shetland pony. This time they are off on an adventure to the Highland Games (which are held this weekend in Edinburgh though lots of local towns hold their own, including our little town!). We unfortunately missed the ones held locally due to other plans but we did make the Fife Show which is an annual event with similar animal competitions, though none of the caber tossing and athletic events. BookBairn thinks that in this story Isla and Pickle are off to the Fife Show because so much of the story is similar to the things we saw there so we talk about that as we read too - it's a great way for us to make text to real life connections!

In 'Isla & Pickle: The Highland Show' by Kate McLelland, Isla can't wait to show off Pickle in the Perfect Pony Competition at the Highland Show. In Isla's eyes, Pickle is the perfect pony but when Isla sees her friend Rosie's pony, Belle, with her perfectly groomed coat and poise, she's not so sure that Pickle stands a chance. So they get into training and daily grooming but naughty Pickle just can't stay out of trouble! On the day of the show, he just can't stay away from the highland cows, and gets in an awful mess. There's no chance of him winning the Perfect Pony prize now. But maybe life isn't all about being perfect? Maybe there's a better prize? This is a delightful story about friendship and enjoying life - messy or not! The illustrations are delightful and packed full of humour and you are bound to fall in love with little Pickle and his loyal friend Isla. We love it!

As part of our stop on the Isla and Pickle Blog Tour we got the opportunity to ask Kate McLelland, the author and illustrator of the story some questions!

Mummy's Questions:

Isla is a lovely and fun little girl - is she inspired by someone you know?

Pickle is based on my sister, Emma, but Isla was inspired by an idea, rather than a personality. Most children have a dream of wanting a best friend and they imagine what a brilliant friend they would be in return. Isla really represents that - the loyal and loving friend we all hope we are.

What made you want to write stories that would appeal in particular to Scottish bairns? (Though personally I think Isla and Pickle would appeal widely!)

In many of the stories we read to our children we find well-known and wonderful characters such as knights, princesses, witches, wizards and talking animals. These characters inhabit fantastical worlds where anything can happen. These stories are wonderful and inspire our children to dream. However, I have always wanted to create stories set in a more familiar world - that is still fantastical, bright and colourful. My children are Scottish and I hoped they would read my stories and think ‘this could actually happen to me, anything is possible!’.

You also illustrated one of our favourite Scots books - There Was a Wee Lassie Who Swallowed a Midgie - what was you favourite Scots creature to draw?

Although it’s not the easiest, my favourite is the Highland Cow. I have always loved them and have such fond and funny memories of picnics in Scotland amongst herds of cows! My favourite drawing in Wee Lassie is the one where the cow is sliding down the pole.

On the blog we have we have a ‘Favourites Shelf’ feature of our favourite stories, which picture books would you have on your Favourites Shelf at the moment?

We are big readers and I have a bit of an out-of-control book-buying habit and we visit our local library! So, our favourites shelf can move about a lot. Our current favourites include Big Baby by Jon Ward and Claudio Munoz. This was one from my childhood. Both my 5 and 3 year old love the Oi Frog! series, by Kes Gray and Jim Field. Quick Quack Quentin is by the same duo and it’s a brilliant way to get kids thinking about how words are formed as well as being fun to read. My daughter and I have just read Dogs Don’t Do Ballet and it’s both funny and lovely - Sara Ogilvie is an incredible artist!

I’m sure there are illustrators who have inspired you, can you tell us a few that you like the most?

Eric Carle is probably one of the first mixed-media illustrators children are introduced to. Nurseries love setting projects to recreate his way of making art and I think he was the first artists to inspire me. Beatrix Potter’s style is very different, watercolour and pencil were used to create the world of Peter Rabbit. I was inspired by Beatrix Potter and author illustrator Ruth Brown, as they both created detailed worlds that kept you looking at the picture long after you had finished reading the words. There are many illustrators working today that I admire, including Sara Ogilvie (mentioned above), Benji Davies, Jim Field and Helen Stephens. These illustrators work in a totally different way to me, but perhaps that is why I find them so inspiring.

If you could choose any book or traditional Scottish story/rhyme to create new illustrations for, which would you choose?

I would love to illustrate a scottish picture book version of Peter Pan, JM Barrie. My parents lived in a building where he wrote some of the novel, and it has always been a favourite of mine. I imagine neverland to be an idyllic scottish island, with tartan mermaids!

BookBairn's Questions:

"I like Pickle - he is a funny pony. He likes to get messy. Does Isla have to brush him lots?"

She tries to brush him every day, but Pickle doesn’t like his hair brushed because it gets tangled and sometimes it stings when the brush gets caught.

"I saw horsies at the Fife Show. Was Pickle there?"

He didn’t make it - but he will be at the Highland Show in a few weeks time and he’s VERY excited! Isla has promised him a treat.

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

I like just about all the colours. My absolute favourites are blue/green, orange and yellow.

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

When I was little, my favourite animal was a tiger. I adopted one and raised money for tiger charities. I drew tiger pictures and put them on my walls and I had a giant soft toy tiger, that was almost as big as me. Now that I am bigger, I like a lot of different animals - shetland ponies, highland cows, foxes, red squirrels and Narwhals are amazing! Have you seen one? They look like sea unicorns!

“I like to draw snails. What are you drawing?”

Today I am drawing lots of different things that live in the sea, like crabs, fish, whales and even mermaids.

Thank you so much Kate for answering our questions! It was lovely to have you, Isla and Pickle on the blog! To check out more of the blog tour you can find all the details in the banner below!

Happy Reading,

Mummy, BookBairn and The Wee Page Turner xx

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DISCLAIMER: We were sent this book for free as part of our participation in the blog tour. Words and opinions are as always our own.

Do you believe in the Loch Ness Monster? We certainly do! Whenever we go for a walk to our local loch, BookBairn loves to go Nessie-spotting and every time we don't find her, as we are yet to spot her, BookBairn declares "she must be having her lunch at the bottom of the loch, mummy". We now have to take our Nessie spotting kit with us - binoculars, magnifying glass and camera. [My apologies that the photos are a bit wintry - we went spotting in March but the weather was freezing!]

And when we got home to warm up we read 'The Treasure of the Loch Ness Monster' by Lari Don with illustrations by Natasa Ilincic. It tells the story of Ishbel and Kenneth whose family are poor and hungry so they set off on an advneture across Loch Ness in search of treasure hidden in Urquhart Castle. When they reach the castle they find many treasures including a mysterious golden egg which they take back to sell to buy food for their family. But something lurking in the deeps of the loch is none too happy with her egg being stolen and she decides to lay claim to her egg knocking the small rowing boat sending the children overboard. Don't worry, they get ashore again but this is not a tale for little children who are easily frightened! BookBairn always takes Nessie's side - "they should have taken her egg, Mummy, that's her baby!" As a seasoned storyteller, Lari's writing is whimsical and has a wonderful quality to read aloud - you feel like a true storyteller yourself when weaving her carefully spun words. And the illustrations are a beautiful depiction of what makes Scotland great - mystery, beauty and magic!

And as part of our stop on the blog tour we hand over to Lari Don who tells us why Nessie captures our imaginations and why she has finally written a tale starring this infamous monster! Over to Lari:

Why do we love Nessie?

"Have you ever seen the Loch Ness Monster? Do you believe she exists?"

I'm from the north of Scotland; I've lived in Inverness and in other parts of the Highlands. So those two questions - have I seen Nessie, and do I believe in her - are questions I've been asked A LOT. Just to get them out of the way, here are my answers: "No, I haven't" and "No, I don't."

But what's interesting is that I've been asked those questions as a child, as a teenager, as an adult, as a writer, as a storyteller, as a tourist in other countries, and as a person buying socks in a shop in London. Everyone has heard of Nessie, everyone wants to know more about Nessie, quite a few people think that anyone who lives north of Glasgow is Nessie's close friend and neighbour, and everyone smiles when they talk about Nessie.

Why? Why do we all love Nessie? I wonder if it's because Nessie is such an unusual monster.

From a storytelling point of view, Nessie is definitely one of the most unusual and therefore most fascinating monsters around.

For a start, she's not really monstrous. She's not dangerous or scary or cruel or man-eating or child-eating...

The creature in Loch Ness, if she's there, hasn't done anything nasty to anyone since about 565AD, when St Columba met a monster in the loch. Since then, after a very long quiet spell, and a sudden reappearance almost 100 years ago, Nessie hasn't done anyone any harm at all! Here gentle reputation is very different from the other monsters we tell stories about: dragons, kelpies, krakens, werewolves...

The main story about Nessie is her mystery. There are non story-length tales about people meeting Nessie or tales about what Nessie wants, or any specific lore about her magic or powers or strengths or habits.

There is just the one question: does she exist?

Which is very unusual for a monster, particularly one who is so well known! We know her name and her location and we all have an image of what she might look like. But we don't know any of Nessie's stories. We don't really know very much about her at all. Which leaves our imaginations lots of space to play, lots of opportunity to make up our own stories.

Also, Nessie has chosen an amazing place to live. The loch and the monster are so closely linked that it's almost impossible to discuss one without mentioning the other. I'm sure that the beauty of the setting is part of her enduring attraction, for tourists, anyway.

So, we have a contradictory monster: ancient but also very modern; mysterious but also very well known; with lots of gossip about her, but no solid folklore stories...

No wonder we all love Nessie!

And now, after years of writing about Scotland's slightly less well-known magical creatures - selkies, kelpies, fairy warriors, wyrms etc - I've finally written about Nessie.

Inspired by folklore about the castle on the banks of Loch Ness and a 'what if' question about the loch's famous inhabitant, I've written The Treasure of the Loch Ness Monster, which has been illustrated by the wonderful Natasa Ilincic.

So, I can quite reasonably expect to be asked even more questions about Nessie from now on!

Thanks Lari! We certainly still believe in Nessie in our household - so much so that we look for her every time we visit our local loch, which isn't even Loch Ness!

To find out more about this awesome book check out the other stops on the blog tour in the banner below!

There's also the opportunity to win a bundle of signed Lari Don books by entering the Map My Monster competition:

The Discover Kelpies team are looking for young monster spotters to enter their Map My Monster art competition. To enter the competition for a chance to win a bundle of signed books by Lari Don just draw a picture of your local mythical monster on their special Map My Monster sheet. Don’t worry if you don’t have a local monster – you can borrow one from another place, or create your own! For more details visit

https://discoverkelpies.co.uk/picture-kelpies/map-my-monster/

Good Monster-Hunting,

Mummy, BookBairn and Nessie xxx

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Disclaimer: This book was sent to us from the publisher for review as part of our participating on the Blog Tour. Words and opinions are, as always, our own.

Lari Don grew up in the north-east of Scotland, and lives in Edinburgh. She has worked in politics and broadcasting, but is now a full-time writer and storyteller. Lari is the author of more than 30 books for children of all ages, including The Fabled Beast Chronicles and Spellchasers trilogy for middle grade readers, Mind Blind for young teens, and picture books The Tale of Tam Linn and The Secret of the Kelpie, and she regularly visits schools and libraries to share her stories. Almost all her books are inspired by her love of traditional tales, and absolutely all her manuscripts are covered in muddy paw prints from her helpful cats.

More info: www.laridon.co.uk Twitter: @LariDonWriter

Nataša Ilinčić is an artist and illustrator originally from Croatia, now living and working in Edinburgh. Nataša was brought up on the foot of the Italian Alps where she spent much of her childhood befriending ancient trees and exploring ruins. Following her academic studies in Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology, she moved to Edinburgh to pursue a career in art and illustration, drawing inspiration from mythology and folklore. Her work has been shortlisted for the Folio Society Book Illustration Competition 2017, and has been exhibited in various galleries, including the London House of Illustration.

As many of you will know we, the BookBairns, live in Scotland, and this week we celebrate one of the most beloved writers from our country, the Bard, Robert Burns. We love books which celebrate the Scots language and ones that share images of our beautiful homeland and I love the books produced by Scottish publisher - Floris Books and the imprints Picture Kelpies and Wee Kelpies.

So of course, we are very excited to share some of their beautiful picture books to celebrate Burn's Night. And make sure you check our social media for a giveaway of one of these fabulous books!

Ally Bally Bee (traditional rhyme) with illustrations by Kathryn Selbert

Also rather tasty apparently.

For any Scottish BookBairn readers out there you will no doubt be familiar with this much-loved Scottish rhyme. Originally an advertising jingle for 'Coulter's Candy', an aniseed tasting sweetie, this little ditty has been sung to many generations of bairns all over Scotland. Included my little brother, Ally. So it's a song I have sung often. It's a simple one about getting a few pennies to buy some sweeties. This new edition also includes the verse about growing up and 'going to sea' to make pennies to buy sweeties too. It's a lovely edition, with lift the flaps on each page to further reveal the next scene of the story or to show you where the sweeties are hiding. The Wee Page Turner loves this - he's already very familiar with the song as I have been singing it to him since he was born - but he can now lift the flaps in the book too, making it a more engaging book for him to play with on his own. But mostly he enjoys reading (or singing) it on his "mammy's knee". A perfect baby book for bairns!

Speed Bonnie Boat (traditional Scots folk song) with illustrations by Alfredo Belli

This is another book inspired by a traditional Scottish folk tune, and again it's one that we sing daily. (It wasn't until writing this post that I realised how many Scots folk songs I sing at home!) Speed Bonnie Boat is BookBairn's lullaby of choice. We used to sing Edelweiss from The Sound of Music but since hearing Speed Bonnie Boat at Bookbug rhyme time at the library she has insisted on this one every since. So I was very excited to get the picture book. It's essentially a song about Bonnie Prince Charlie and his efforts to evade capture by the Brits following the defeat at Culloden. Whilst this is a song we perhaps sing frequently to our bairns, I suspect many of us only know one or two verses and as you delve further into the lyrics you will realise that the song is quite dramatic. So it's only appropriate that this picture book is seeped in drama too. The illustrations show the power of the waves and storms, giving the whole journey the drama that it needs. It also includes a little Scottish history. This really is a lovely book but BookBairn is probably a little young to fully appreciate it so we'd recommend holding off until your bairn is school-age.

We're Gangin on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury, translated by Susan Rennie

You will probably know this story. It's 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' but in Scots. Such a lovely translation of a brilliant adventure rhyme. This family of brave bear hunters trudge through muckle forests, and skirlin snawstroms, claggie mud and a deep cauld river in search of a glowerin bear. (My spellcheck just had a melt down.) If you're naw a Scots reader, a great way to start is by reading familiar stories in Scots (I had a good giggle at the expense of two very English students in a St Andrews bookshop trying to read Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stane - there attempts were rather amusing). This is such a brilliant story and jings your kids will love hearing you trip over the Scots words. BookBairn actually enjoys this version more than the original - I thinks Scots words are a bit more descriptive and onomatopoeic than the original - and we will definitely be enjoying this one over and over again!

Ahhhhhh! A bear!

My Luve's Like a Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns and illustrated by Ruchi Mhasane

This version of Robert Burn's famous poem has been given a new, and beautiful, twist as it depicts the special love between a parent and child. Each line has been given a new meaning through the soft and whimsical illustrations. The line "O my Luve's like the melodie that's sweetly play'd in tune" is accompanied by a mother and daughter at a children's music class; the line "And I will luve thee still, my dear, till a' the seas gang dry" is shown through the illustration of a family enjoying the day at the beach. And the bittersweet part of the poem that has been given a whole new meaning for me are in the lines "And fare thee weel, mu only Luve! And fare thee weel, a while!" as the mother drops her precious little girl off at school/nursery; followed by "And I will come again, my Luve, tho' it were ten thousand mile!" as she picks her daughter back up and gives her a huge cuddle. This book has given me a whole new perspective on a poem I have known my whole life, and that's the magic of this picture book. We have a copy of this lovely book to give away on our Twitter page so please pop over to enter so you can add this beautiful story to your bairn's bookshelves!

We will be celebrating Burn's Night on Thursday with a meal of haggis, neeps and tatties and of course enjoying these lovely stories! In my first year of writing the blog I reworked the Selkirk Grace for BookBairn's so I'm going to share it again:

BookBairn Grace

Some hae books and canna read

And some wad read that want it,

But I hae books that mammy reads,

Sae let the lord be thankit.

Slainte,

Mammy, BookBairn and The Wee Page Turner xxx

*Disclaimer: we were sent these bonnie books for review by the publisher, including a copy of 'My Luve's Like a Red, Red Rose' for a giveaway. The words and opinions are, as always, my own.

It can't have escaped your notice that the bairns and I live in Scotland! And there are some great bookish experiences that being Scottish affords us. Firstly, the Bookbug scheme - all children in Scotland receive four bags of books before the end of their first year at school and each bag contains at least three books along with other goodies like drawing materials and simple toys. Bookbug also runs sessions in our libraries (and other venues) where children can join in with songs and rhymes as well as storytime. Also, Scotland is the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie - the father of libraries and therefore a hero of booklovers! We also have a great history of writers and poets and some brilliant Scottish rhymes and songs to share with our bairns.

So our littlest in the family enjoys a Scottish tune - Ally Bally Bee is his favourite; and his big sister now insists on singing the Skye Boat Song as her bedtime lullaby. And now we have a great selection of 'My First Scottish' Books by Kate McLelland to enjoy too!

These are perfect first word primers for Scottish bairns packed full of lovely Scottish characters, scenes and creatures. Just to be clear these books are not written in Scots (apart from the inclusion of the word 'bairns') and are in proper English. There are six books in this fabulous series: Animals, Numbers, Colours, Things That Go, Weather and Opposites (we haven't seen the latter two other than a quick flick through in the bookshop).

The illustrative style is just perfect for a first word primer - very clear and deceptively simple - with big spaces surrounding the object, colour or creature allowing little ones to really centre on the word that the page is focussed on. Using a limited colour palette of primarily bold colours, Kate has created adorable creatures from puffins to highland cows to Scottie dogs and depicted elements of daily Scottish life in a genuine way trams on Princes Street in Edinburgh (overlooked by the castle) or yellow wellies splashing in puddles. My favourite has to be the seals beneath the freezing North Sea (if you know about Scottish folklore you will understand that I wonder if they are selkies). The illustrations would make fantastic prints for a nursery or playroom too!

Such bonnie books for a bouncin' bairns!

Mummy and The Wee Page Turner xx

*DISCLAIMER: We own 'Animals' and 'Colours' and have borrowed 'Things that Go' and 'Numbers' from the library.

It's been a braw couple days for BookBairn as we've been celebrating Burns Night by reading a muckle pile of Scots books (and, yes, there will be more Scots words to follow!). What a bonnie time we've had. It helps that BookBairn is a muckle fan of haggis, neeps and tatties and could eat a Burns supper every night of the week! We've also been Scottish Country Dancing around the living room and reading a brilliant series of books by Itchy Coo publishing, written by James Robertson with illustrations by Karen Sutherland.

Of the series, there are a few that we like best. Firstly, 'Katie's Coo' is a collection of "Scots Rhymes for Wee Folk", which is delightful to all parents familiar with a Scots rhyme or two. Reading, and singing, this book with BookBarin was reminiscent of singing these Scots tunes with my own parents, to my brother when he was little and at school! It has all the favourites of Scottish bairns: Katie Bairdie, Three Craws, Ally Bally Bee (which I've been singing to BookBairn as a lullaby since she was born) and Wee Willie Winkie amongst others. It is a marvelous wee book for bringing the generations together over a familiar tune!

As I mentioned in previous posts, BookBairn, like many bairns, is a fan of a peekaboo/lift-the-flap book and in 'Katie's Moose' we've discovered another great book. As you search round Katie's hoose looking for her wee moose and other creatures, BookBairn giggles away and lifts the flaps to discover "keek-a-boo, there he/she is noo" hiding under a piece of furniture illustrated doing some of the most peculiar things. Who would expect to find a pig doing a jig behind the chair, or imagine a coo sitting on the loo? We are clearly not the only ones who adore this book, as when we were reading it over breakfast at the local soft play, a wee boy kept keeking over BookBairn's shoulder to join in the story, his mum told us he couldn't help it because it's one of his favourite books! Love that books are already helping BookBairn make friends!

My favourite is 'Katie's Zoo' in which Katie visits all the bonnie birds and braw beasts of the zoo trying to find her favourite creature. I love it because of all the Scots names for animals and words for parts of the body. Perhaps, I like this best because they are the Scots words I remember learning at school and hearing most often. The illustrations in this book are also slightly more detailed than in some of the other books and I think it would have more longevity than the other books by continuing to appeal the bairns as they get older.

The illustrations in the entire series are bright and bold and will certainly appeal to all wee bookbairns across the country. In Katie, Karen Sutherland has created a vibrant character with rosy cheeks who page after page grins from ear to ear. And who could blame her? James Robertson's text highlights all that is wonderful about Scots words through incredibly humorous rhymes. Adults will giggle as much as the children will, and at the moment, in our hoose the grown-ups probably giggle more! BookBairn giggles along with us and I hope that she will grow up to enjoy the playfulness of Scots language. She danced along (well swayed from side to side) whilst I sang some of the Scots songs, Three Craws proved a real favourite!

And for wee folk, there is also 'Rabbie's Rhymes' to introduce bairns to the wonderful verses of Scotland's national bard, Robert Burns. This book is a lovely introduction to the works of Burns, including some of the best-loved lines from his songs and poems. I should point out that it is simply an introduction, each page-spread includes two or four lines from each song or poem and whilst some other reviewers have suggested this is not enough, I would argue it depends on your audience. As these are books for wee folk, I think a few lines are sufficient and if I want to recite more with BookBairn as she gets older we will look them up (when my memory fails). In the meantime, this lift-the-flap book is great fun and includes 'Tae a moose', 'Ye Banks and Braes o Bonnie Doon', ' My Luve's like a Red Red Rose' and the national favourite 'Auld Lang Syne'. Younger children will enjoy Karen Sutherland's illustrations of animals, as in the Katie books and older kids will giggle with laughter as the lift the flap of the Scotsman's kilt! Even BookBairn knew that this was cheeky! My only qualm with this book is that it is now out of print and was rather difficult to get a copy: the library staff came to my rescue and despite requesting it at short notice the still managed to get me a copy in the week before Burns night - thank you!