BookBairn: Classics for Little Ones

Showing posts with label Classics for Little Ones. Show all posts

So you've (hopefully) read my gift lists but you might be wondering what books we would like to add to our collection. You may find what I'm about to say a little odd, and I guess it is but I can't lie... we don't buy books for BookBairn or The Wee Page Turner at Christmas. Ka-boom! Why not? Well, we get books all year round, so for Christmas we just don't. Even I think it's weird. Does it make me a bad book blogger? I don't know. I digress.

[*Edit: I totally bought them books. And one of them is on this list but I started the draft before I hit the bookshop! So...]

Anyway... here are some great books I've discovered this year but just haven't had a chance or the never-ending funds to buy. But they are wonderful and I wanted to share them with you.

The Bear and the Piano by David Litchfield

We really want to listen to the brilliant music accompanying this book! We have read the story when we borrowed it from a friend. It tells the story of a little bear who stumbles upon a piano in the forest and he teaches himself to play. The bear is then 'discovered' and sets of on an incredible journey to New York, where he becomes a huge star. He becomes rich and famous but still something is missing. His friends and family. And I want to hear bear play! If you want to know more about this one check out Book Monster Ally's review on her blog here.

Unplugged by Steve Antony

Having flicked through this one in the bookshop it just seems so sweet! We love Please, Mr Panda so whenever a new Steve Antony book appears we can't wait to see it. I love the idea of a story about a character as cute as BLIP who spends all day plugged into her computer, playing games and having fun. But when there is a power cut, Blip discovers playing games and having fun outside. An important reminder to enjoy the unplugged things in life!

Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis

Du iz tak? What is that? Aren't books that make grown-ups say silly things just great fun?! Little children just love bugs and have imaginations that create whole worlds for them! And of course, bugs can speak their own language. This book has me fascinated? What is it about? Will I be able to translate the bug language and understand the story? So many fellow picture book fanatics love it! So we really want to check it out!

Pancakes! Cook in a Book by Lotta Nieminen

BookBairn has really enjoyed some of the books that allow her to act out the story so why wouldn't she want to make pancakes as she reads along!? You can cook pancakes from scratch inside this interactive recipe book - readers whisk the eggs, flip the pancakes, and more! Using pull-tabs, wheels, and a punch-out piece, BookBairn will be able to join in the cooking. Cooking pancakes has never been so satisfying nor so clean! Sounds brilliant! And if we like this one I'll definitely be getting the pizza one too!

Bob the Artist by Marion Deuchars

I've heard a lot about Bob. Bob the bird is just like all his friends, apart from his skinny legs. When Bob is teased, he decides to try and change himself to fit in. But little does he know where all his efforts will lead him... Sounds like a great book for subtly building confidence of little ones. And I believe the artwork is brilliant and that readers will be inspired to make art as a form of self-expression too. I love books that encourage little ones to be themselves, if we can instill this while they are young then hopefully they will have the confidence to be themselves throughout their tween, teen and adult years too!

What a Wonderful World! by Bob Thiele, George David Weiss and Tom Hopgood

The concept for this series of books has me absolutely enchanted. Take some of the most famous, beautiful and inspiring lyrics and turn them into an equally beautiful and inspiring picture book: yes please! And this one is top of my list because I love the song. It follows one little boy as he discovers just how wonderful this world of ours can be. And I love that the book comes with an accompanying CD which includes the much-loved recording of the song by Louis Armstrong and an exclusive reading by Sophie Aldred because we love audiobooks at the moment but I would quite like to listen to some new ones as we listen to the same three or four on repeat. And it's always good to have a reminder of all the wonderful things in our world!

Baby Loves Quantum Physics by Ruth Spiro and Irene Chan

Papa BookBairn is a retired physics teacher and he used to always give us a little science lesson with whatever new toys we got - whether it was gravity, the bernoulli effect, electricity. And I noticed him starting to show BookBairn about waves with her new slinky (as well as gravity) - "science in action" I overheard him tell her. So I thought he would get a kick out of reading this series, and in particular this book, with The Wee Page Turner. Described as "big, brainy science for the littlest listeners. Accurate enough to satisfy an expert, yet simple enough for baby" I knew he would love it. This one it all about Schrodinger's cat and is told through a hide-and-seek style game. And I think it wouldn't do me any harm to brush up on my science too!

Animals by Ingela P. Arrhenius

This is one of the biggest books I have seen in the bookshop. And I have flicked through it's pages and can definitely say that the striking graphic style of the illustrations in this book are stunning! The retro style and bold typography absolutely has me desperate to add this to our bookshelf (although it's too big to fit on the shelf so it will need to have a special home!).

Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena and Christian Robinson

It feels like every single kidsbookstagrammer has this book already. And they all love it. And to be honest that's enough to sell it to me as I value their opinions so much. But if it's not enough to sell it to you here's a bit more detail. CJ begins his weekly bus journey around the city with disappointment and dissatisfaction, wondering why he and his family can't drive a car like his friends. Through energy and encouragement, CJ's nana helps him see the beauty and fun in their routine. Packed full of beautiful illustrations of people for different backgrounds and ethnicities I think this is a must have for a diverse bookshelf. Exploring themes of urban life with honesty, interest and gratitude I think this is a must have for an intentional bookshelf (a bookshelf full of books that share important values). Also, Last Stop on Market Street has won multiple awards and spent time at the number one spot in the New York Times Bestseller List.

The Secret Garden: A BabyLit Storybook by Mandy Archer and Jane Newland

I love the BabyLit books that we have but they are all primers of basic vocabulary and BookBairn is beginning to outgrow them as she wants a bit more from a book now than just words. And I really want to introduce her to the stories I loved growing up. BabyLit Storybooks give classics new life for the next generation of early readers. I have no doubt that we will end up with the whole collection of these books! But I want to start with this one as it's one of my favourites! And Pride and Prejudice too!

I hope that you enjoyed seeing some of our wish list. As you can imagine our house is pretty packed full with books but there's always a few more on our wish list. And, like you, we can't possibly justify buying them all. But maybe our budget could stretch to these beauties?

[*Edit - can you guess which book I had to buy in the time between starting this post and finishing writing it?]

Happy book wishes,

Mummy and the bairns xx

Anyone who is a parent and has enough of an interest in children's books (which I'm guess you probably do since you are reading this blog) will know of the very popular touch-and-feel series 'That's not my...'. Babies senses develop quickly and books that appeal to those senses, be it through sound or touch, are exactly what they need. And whilst we have some of this series in our library I don't intend to share them here because well, quite honestly, they are everywhere already and whilst they are great for little ones exploring textures they aren't exactly fun for parents to read over and over again. Great for encouraging independent playing with books and early reading skills but not really appealing for bedtime stories. Sure they serve a purpose but I can't get excited about reviewing them. You should get some, babies and toddlers love them, but they are boring to 'read'.

If you want a touch-and-feel book that as a parent you might actually enjoy reading, you should check out the classic fairytales series from Ladybird Books. There are a few things about these books that I truly love and one of them is that they have real 'growth-value'. What I mean is that they are appropriate at lots of different levels or abilities of reading.

They have touch-and-feel elements to every page meaning that even the tiniest hands are entertained throughout the story. From fluffy bear tummies, to gingham cloth baskets and houses made of straw there are plenty of different textures to explore. There are lots of things you can point to and talk about while you are sharing any of the books from this series. And like many touch and feel books, you can help your little one learn new words about touch like 'soft', 'shiny', 'smooth' and 'bumpy'. I think the Three Little Pigs book has the best texture elements with straw, wooden and brick houses to feel and I love that these are key parts of the story. In some of the others the textures are a bit less connected to the story but still lots of fun to explore.

At the next stage of reading, where children become more interested in the stories themselves rather than just the book as a 'toy' to explore, this series is such a fabulous introduction to classic fairytales that we know and love. They are child-appropriate (though the gingerbreadman does get eaten!) and capture the key elements over shortened versions.

But for those who are a little older there is a simplified version of each bit of text at the bottom of the page written in child-friendly language that they will be able to read themselves, once they are becoming independent readers.

Perfect for reading with the whole family! For babies, toddlers and early-stage readers (and parents who like a shorter bedtime story - sometimes you just need them to be in bed, right?). And the illustrations are bright and colourful and I discovered when writing this post, hidden in the small print on the back, that they are by one of our favourite illustrators - Emma Dodd!

As I say touch-and-feel books are great! I love them! But I also like a good story too so these ones are exactly what I want: both elements neatly packaged in a durable board book that I can read to BookBairn, or let The Wee Page Turner play with by himself and I look forward to the day BookBairn can read these aloud to us at bedtime.

Happy reading,

Mummy, BookBairn and The Wee Page Turner xx

*For anyone wondering the little characters are from the UK discount shop Wilkos and were brilliant value!

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.

When I heard about the #2016classicschallenge I couldn't help but jump on board. I have read several classics, many during my year living in Paris where the local library stocked mainly classics in it's English-language book section, but there are still so many more to discover. And, if you've read our post 'Do Children Still Need to Read the Classics?' then you will know that BookBairn is already well-versed in some of the literary greats!

I thought I'd start off this challenge by reading a modern retelling of the Jane Austen classic Emma (thanks for the Christmas gift Gma BookBairn), which has been reworked by Alexander McCall Smith. I have read Emma more times than I can count and I absolutely adore it! So much so that some friends were surprised that BookBairn was not named Emma! And so I had to get BookBairn a version of 'Emma' for her to read. Having already amassed a substantial collection of BabyLit classics, we have been reading one from the Cozy Classics series by Jack and Holman Wang.

This series of books are absolutely adorable! They tell a (very) abridged version of the classic story over 12 double page spreads using key words and photographs of felted figures portraying the main characters. There is only one word per page so they have clearly been carefully chosen in order to highlight the important moments of the plot, but the story is not explained any further so requires an adult familiar with the original story to fill in the gaps, help children make connections between the photographs and the text and bring the story to life. As I mentioned, I am a huge fan of Austen's Emma so that was not a problem. I found this approach to key word 'primer' books rather refreshing by moving away from books which group words according to concepts such as shapes, colours, animals, etc. and instead introduces key words through a narrative. Re-telling the classic stories using simple and child-friendly words but still maintaining the format of a narrative will help little readers to put these words in a context and I think this will help with their understanding. That is not to say that concept-based word primers are not valuable, I just liked having an alternative to go along side that approach, as I said it is refreshing.

Also refreshing is the fact that this book does not have traditional illustrations but instead has photographs of beautiful felted figures posed in appropriate settings to retell the story. I love the fact that many of the photographs have been taken outdoors! The dolls are created with incredibly expressive faces which will certainly help readers to understand the key words and the story. The tilted heads, winks and furrowed brows remind me of the way that the characters are brought to life on screen! As with the original text there is a rollercoaster of emotions but all turns out right in the end: it's amazing that such a small book can pack so much in! (But I guess it doesn't really pack it all in, it's just that I can fill in the gaps.) Obviously, there are many scenes, characters and events missing from this abridged version but, for me, it certainly captures the spirit of the story.

Of course, I hope that BookBairn will grow up to love the character of Emma as much as I do and I believe there is no substitute for the Austen novel so I look forward to the day when we can read it together. But I don't think that the authors have any intention of trying to dissuade older readers from enjoying the full story but rather provide a valuable introduction to the setting, characters and essence of the novels.

I will be looking out for more of the Cozy Classic series as we attempt to read a classic every month for the #2016classicschallenge, particularly Jane Eyre (which I am ashamed to say I have not yet read) and War and Peace (as we've been watching the dramatisation on BBC). But it is also worth noting for little (or big) Star Wars fans that Jack and Holman Wang have created an adorable series of books retelling the films in 12 words with felted versions of the characters we know and love).

Hope you've had a lovely weekend curled up with a cozy classic of your own,