Thursday, April 12, 2018
One of the lovely ways to spend time together with BookBairn is poring over a good book. And whilst we read lots of lots of stories, we a...
One of the lovely ways to spend time together with BookBairn is poring over a good book. And whilst we read lots of lots of stories, we also love to look at illustrations and have recently started getting excited about seek-and-find books. There's lots of evidence that having a coordinated gaze with your child helps to develop empathy, compassion and lays the groundwork for learning. Basically, looking together and talking together about what you see helps your child to learn and grow. And seek-and-find books are perfect for that! So many of these sorts of books (Where's Wally/Waldo) are aimed at older readers than BookBairn. Fortunately we've discovered a great list of simple seek-and-find books that are a little easier for younger readers. So you can seek-and-find together with you little one.
Look and Find Jungle - Gareth Lucas
This is BookBairn's current favourite of the seek-and-find books that we have discovered. She loves the frog page: so much so that she has memorised it. (Which sort of spoils the point of the book but nevermind!) The illustrations in this one are so bright and cheerful - I love Gareth Lucas's bold designs. On each page there are half a dozen or so speech bubbles setting a little seek-and-find challenge for children which is great for younger ones as it's not too overwhelming in terms of things to find. It's also a wonderful jungle theme which will appeal to many kids! The other to mention about this book is that this is a library copy which I have discovered is a great way to
read these sorts of books because after a few reads little ones can master these simpler ones so you can return them and swap for another. If you've never seen seek-and-finds in your library, I hadn't before, ask your librarian if they have any or if they can get some in!
Look and Say What You See in the Countryside - Sebastien Braun
Another library borrow, I just adore this one! It's full of British countryside flora and fauna. Along the bottom of each page is a glossary/seek-and-find list and there additional, more challenging questions in the illustration. This is great as there's room for growth in this book meaning that your little one won't get bored of it too quickly! But the reason that this one makes the list is that the illustrations are enchanting. Sebastien Braun illustrates the Can You Say It Too? series for the same publisher and we love those books too. I find his style so engaging which is exactly what you want from these sorts of books. The focus on British wildlife is also wonder (it was made in collaboration with the National Trust) as BookBairn can relate to the creatures she sees from blackbirds to pheasants to woodlice to nettles and bracken. So not only can we look together at this book we can take what we have spotted (and learned the words for) and seek-and-find them when out for countryside and woodland walks!
Town and Country - Craig Shuttlewood
The key selling point of this book is that it is a 'turnaround book'. Basically it's a book of two halves! You hold the book horizontally and flip the pages upwards the lower page features a countryside scene and the upper page, when you turn it around, shows the town page. You can see in our photographs that it means two children can play in tandem in our full review of this book linked here. But it's great for siblings or playmates to play together. You could even do speed challenges to see who can find all their things the fastest. The illustrations are brilliant and it's no wonder it's been recognised for it's artwork as well as the conceptual design of the 'turnaround'. All the animals have quirky expressions and would make great characters in stories of their own rights and everything is easily recognisable but also appealing to children. The final pages feature a book-long glossary as well as a few extra things to find!
Deep in the Forest: A Seek-and-Find Adventure - Josef Anton & Lucie Brunelliere
This is truly one of the most beautiful books that I have ever seen. I adore the illustration! Each page is packed with
jungle animals and the flora and fauna of the rainforest. The colours are vivid, striking, intense, brilliant, bright, strong, rich deep... I could go on! Each page takes a different perspective showing the forest from above, delving underground, floating down the rivers, above the tops of the trees, and even a night scene where the eyes of all the creatures are glowing luminously. It really is a work of art. The seek-and-find element of this book is less blatant with the 50 animals to find are listed on the back and throughout the text with an animal truly hidden under a flap on each page too. But it's definitely one to lay on the floor, stretch out and explore together.
One Hundred Things to Spot - Naomi Wilkinson
This is a brilliant book for creating discussion with your little one. In this book there are one hundred things to spot and each double-page spread gives your little one a list of things to find and then they turn the page to look for them! The instruction page says "shout as you find each one". And on each finding page these are a cat and mouse so you can play
cat-and-mouse in every scene. But it's also a first concepts book - the things you have to find are certain numbers of objects, shapes, colours, patterns, feelings and opposites. The illustrations are more sparse than some of the other seek-and-find books making this a perfect starting point to look at together. They also have a retro feel which is so appealing. This is a chunkier book than some of the others meaning that it's packed full of entertainment!
Party Animals - Clea Dieudonne
Part narrative story and part seek-and-find this book has provided hours and hours of fun! As you unfold each page of the book part of the story is revealed and you get a suggestion of which animals to spot. The animals are performing an amazing balancing act, piling one on top of the other to form a teetering tower of creatures: some in fancy dress, some putting up decorations, helping with gifts and organising the food. The illustrations are bright and colourful, and the creatures are a fun interpretation of the real thing. The party scene is certainly fun and every time we read it I spot something new and fascinating. BookBairn still finds comfort in re-finding the same things but every time I draw her attention to something different she looks for it again the next time. Mostly I think she enjoys the size of this one and unfolding it across the whole floor - such a novelty! Seriously, it requires lots of space to play: check out our photos in our full review linked here. But if you find a space to stretch it out you'll find it such fun!
Look for Ladybird in Plant City - Katherina Manolessou
This one is one that we are just growing into as the illustrations are far more cluttered (in a good-way for a seek-and-find) and she finds spotting things a bit more challenging. Ladybird has gone missing and is hidden in every scene as well as other things to spot. We tend to just focus on the ladybird at the moment to make it simpler and then talk about the things we can see rather than the things we need to find. Also in this one there isn't a picture glossary of the things you need to find - it's written in the text so definitely need an adult if your child isn't reading yet. But that's part of the fun is doing the seeking and finding together. This is such a quirky style of illustration it's great fun to spend so much time appreciating the artwork with your child.
Hope we've helped you to seek-and-find a good book to look at and explore together!
Mummy and BookBairn xx
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DISCLAIMER: We borrowed the first two books listed from our local library and the others were sent from the publishers for review. Words and opinions are, as always, our own.
Friday, January 12, 2018
Are you about partied out? We certainly are! Christmas chaos, followed by New Year fun and a couple of birthday parties thrown into the m...
Are you about partied out? We certainly are! Christmas chaos, followed by New Year fun and a couple of birthday parties thrown into the mix and we have truly danced our socks off, and played enough games of pass the parcel than we could unwrap. But seriously, it has been lots of fun.
We have one party invitation left to join the 'Party Animals' by Clea Dieudonne and it looks like a party to remember! Part narrative story and part seek-and-find this book will provide hours and hours of fun! As you unfold each page of the book part of the story is revealed - it's the hoopoe's birthday and she's having a huge party - and you get a suggestion of which animals to spot. The animals are performing an amazing balancing act, piling one on top of the other to form a teetering tower of creatures: some in fancy dress, some putting up decorations, helping with gifts and organising the food.
BookBairn loves finding the creatures that she is familiar with like the penguin, puffin, lion, crocodile, lemur, etc. But what I find fascinating about this book (if you can call it a book in the traditional sense of the word) is that it is full of less commonly celebrated creatures - armadillo, opossum, komodo dragon, alpaca, skunk, porcupine, etc. Fortunately, each page of text is bordered with mini illustrations of the animals that can been seen on that page (or that fold-out) so that dumbfounded parents, like myself, will be able to identify all the creatures without having to guess or look them all up - there's nothing worse than having a child ask a question that you have no hope of answering, right?
The illustrations are bright and colourful, and the creatures are a fun interpretation of the real thing. The party scene is certainly fun and every time we read it I spot something new and fascinating. BookBairn still finds comfort in re-finding the same things but every time I draw her attention to something different she looks for it again the next time. Mostly I think she enjoys the size of this one and unfolding it across the whole floor - such a novelty! And such fun!
This would make a great party gift!
Happy reading! And enjoy the post-party clear up!
Mummy and BookBairn xx
*Disclaimer: These books were sent to us by the publisher and we were truly delighted to receive them. Words and opinions are our own.
Monday, August 21, 2017
BookBairn is really enjoying playing I-spy at the moment using what she knows about colours to guess. Her favourite is "I spy with my...
BookBairn is really enjoying playing I-spy at the moment using what she knows about colours to guess. Her favourite is "I spy with my little eye something the colour orange?" Anyone able to guess what it is? So when I saw that 'Town and Country' by Craig Shuttlewood had won Best Book for Children (5+) at the Junior Design Awards, it triggered my memory to dig it out and play it with her. (She was just a bit little when it first arrived in our book post and I often stash books away for a little while until she's ready for them. It's no reflection on the book, just BookBairn's readiness to appreciate it.) And now she loves it and want to play the "spotting book" all the time.
One of the magical things about this book is that it's more of a game than a story, making it a great way to interact with your little one. Better than traditional seek-and-find books that we have read, each page features a glossary on illustrations and words for little ones to find hidden in the pictures. BookBairn is too young to read the words herself but I suspect this is a great feature for emerging readers. Instead we play it as an "I spy" type game, which she loves!
And one of the other delightful elements of this book is that it is a 'turnaround book'. Now this isn't something that I had heard of before but now that I know what it is I'm on the lookout for more. Basically it's a book of two halves! You hold the book horizontally and flip the pages upwards the lower page features a countryside scene and the upper page, when you turn it around, shows the town page. You can see in our photographs that it means two children can play in tandem (or a child and her orange bestie lion!). Great for siblings or playmates to play together. You could even do speed challenges to see who can find all their things the fastest.
One of the things I like most about this book is that it is totally appropriate for our lives as we live in a small town on the edge of the wonderful Scottish countryside. We have tractors drive passed our window but also diggers, fire engines and 'town' traffic. We have ducks on the pond at the park as well as cows and sheep in the fields. We can go to the beach to fly our kites or to watch the watersports. This book really compare the two lifestyles but for us it blends them all together and we can relate to both halves!
The illustrations are brilliant and it's no wonder it's been recognised for it's artwork as well as the conceptual design of the 'turnaround'. All the animals have quirky expressions and would make great characters in stories of their own rights and everything is easily recognisable but also appealing to children. The final pages feature a book-long glossary as well as a few extra things to find! And the endpapers were featured in my #EndpapersWednesday feature on our social media as they are pack full of interesting things - and they are bright yellow so delightfully coloured!
So if you like to play "I spy" this is definitely a great book for you and we are delighted to be working with the publisher to giveaway three copies! Details on how to enter are below.
*UPDATE* This competition is now closed and the winner has been notified!
***We have a been sent three copies of this brilliant book to giveaway. If you would like to win a copy of Town and Country please comment below with you guess of what orange thing BookBairn was referring to in our game of I-Spy. (Additional entries will be available so keep an eye out by following us on Twitter, Instagram and on Facebook.) UK residents only please. Competition closes 27.8.17.***
Love Mummy and BookBairn x
*DISCLAIMER* I was given our book for free for review purposes, however, all words and opinions are my own
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
If you read our post about ' Where We Read ' you will know that BookBairn's nursery got a revamp into a bedroom suitable for...
If you read our post about 'Where We Read' you will know that BookBairn's nursery got a revamp into a bedroom suitable for two - and of course we had to get rid of the baby pink walls and choose something a little more gender neutral. So we went with one of BookBairn's favourite passions - animals! And having found a beautiful fabric for curtains we now have two little monkeys in their own little jungle. So I thought it would be appropriate to share some of our favourite jungle reads with you!
Baby's First Very Noisy Book: Jungle by Stella Baggott, Josephine Thompson and Anthony Marks
This was given to The Wee Page Turner as a new baby gift but unfortunately he's lucky if he gets to have a look at it! BookBairn loves a noisy book and this is one of the best that we've had. The sounds are lovely and have a little bit of percussion and music behind the animal noises. This means that BookBairn not only enjoys pressing the buttons and saying what animals she can see, she also likes to dance along to the music and is beginning to act out the animal actions: slithering on her tummy like a snake and jumping around like a frog. The illustrations are typical of Usborne books: bright and colourful! The only thing about this book is that it doesn't have any text beyond the animal noises written out in words meaning that it won't necessarily stand the test of time the way that other books do. But for the moment it's great fun for BookBairn and hopefully her little brother enjoys hearing the sounds even if he doesn't get a look at the pages yet!
Safe and Sound by Jean Roussen and Loris Lora
This is a lovely book which mixes story and non-fiction with incredible artwork. Most baby animals need protecting from the world until they are big enough to look after themselves and this book explores the different ways their parents protect them. Little chipmunks stay safe in their underground burrows; bluebird chicks cosy down in their nest; wolves stay protected within their pack; kangaroo joeys travel safely in their mothers' pouch; crocodile hatchlings hide inside their mothers mouth; monkeys ride on their daddies' backs. And of course human children get tucked up in bed! This is a book of wonderful artwork of animals from the treetops of the jungle to the depths of the ocean but I adore it! I would love some of the illustrations as artwork on the wall. This makes a lovely bedtime story about all the animals being tucked in safe and sound!
The Only Lonely Panda by Jonny Lambert
We all know that pandas are an endangered species so it's not surprising that the panda in this book finds himself all alone with no friends to play with. He tries to fit in with the flamingos but his stilts make him topple over rather than gracefully dancing like the flamingos. His attempts to bounce like the sifakas (a type of lemur) end in a bumped bahookie. He gets on the wrong side of the peacock when he plucks their feathers in efforts to make himself a magnificent tail. So he plods off in search of some bamboo for dinner and who does he find? Another panda of course! Such a lovely story and the illustrations are adorable. Each page is a shimmery silver making the animals stand out and almost appear to move on the page. Love this one!
Where's the Elephant? by Barroux
This is a brilliant wordless picture book from the fabulous Barroux. If you read our '
Finding Nemo' post you will know that his books are a wonderful introduction to environmental issues for little ones. Elephant (and his friends parrot and snake) are hidden amongst the jungle foliage and as you turn the pages the forest is reduced and reduced as the loggers come and chop down the trees and developers build houses on the land. It becomes easier and easier to spot Elephant, for he has no place to hide. Eventually the only tree left standing is put inside the fencing of a zoo. What will happen to Elephant and his friends? This really is a great way to introduce children to the plight of the rainforest in an approachable way. The illustrations are so adorable and the colours are very vivid. And I like that this one has no words and you can discuss the issues facing Elephant and the rainforest at a level you feel is appropriate for your child. This one is suitable for children of all ages from the littlest toddlers to primary school aged children, who may enjoy telling their own version of the story. Great for reluctant readers too as it's a story they can enjoy without needing to read! Brilliant! And meaningful!
Tiger Tiger by Jonny Lambert
When Old Tiger gets asked to cub-sit for Cub, he's not too impressed. He just wants to have an afternoon snooze (I sympathise!). But little cub has other ideas and wants to explore the jungle and investigate all the world around him and all the animals in it and, of course, like all little ones he wants to play. Old Tiger follows along dutifully and soon his eyes are opened as he sees the wonder of the jungle through little Cub's eyes. The magical thing about this story is the way the colour changes subtly as you turn each page. The initial pages feature illustrations of the jungle that predominantly feature grey-greens and browns and duller colours, but as you read on the colours become more vibrant and vivid. It brings to life the vibrancy and dynamism of the jungle. The back cover describes the book as "a touching celebration of the light and colour little ones can bring to the world." Which sums the story up perfectly. I certainly know that since BookBairn and The Wee Page Turner entered my life it has been turned upside down, become chaotic and full of wonderful wonderful colour. And if I stop to see the world through their eyes I realise how magical it really is. This book has a thing or two to teach us grown ups and it's a great read for little ones too.
Deep in the Forest: A Seek-and-Find Adventure by Josef Anton and Lucie Brunelliere
This is truly one of the most beautiful books that I have ever seen. I adore the illustration! Each page is packed with jungle animals and the flora and fauna of the rainforest. The colours are vivid, striking, intense, brilliant, bright, strong, rich deep... I could go on! Each page takes a different perspective showing the forest from above, delving underground, floating down the rivers, above the tops of the trees, and even a night scene where the eyes of all the creatures are glowing luminously. Seriously they look like the glow in the darkness of the deep purples and blues of the night scene. It really is a work of art. To add to the brilliance of the artwork there are over 50 animals to find which are listed on the back and throughout the text with an animal truly hidden under a flap on each page too. Slightly over-sized and hardback it's definitely one to lay on the floor, stretch out and explore. It's a perfect non-fiction encyclopedia of jungle creatures. It's a brilliant brilliant book. I can only give it the highest of praises!
And I guess I will end it on that wonderful note!
Let's hope my two jungle monkeys like their new room! Happy jungle reading!
Mummy, BookBairn and The Wee Page Turner
*Some of these books were sent to us by publishers for review and others are ones that we have borrowed from the library or purchased ourselves.
This is BookBairn's current favourite of the seek-and-find books that we have discovered. She loves the frog page: so much so that she has memorised it. (Which sort of spoils the point of the book but nevermind!) The illustrations in this one are so bright and cheerful - I love Gareth Lucas's bold designs. On each page there are half a dozen or so speech bubbles setting a little seek-and-find challenge for children which is great for younger ones as it's not too overwhelming in terms of things to find. It's also a wonderful jungle theme which will appeal to many kids! The other to mention about this book is that this is a library copy which I have discovered is a great way to read these sorts of books because after a few reads little ones can master these simpler ones so you can return them and swap for another. If you've never seen seek-and-finds in your library, I hadn't before, ask your librarian if they have any or if they can get some in!
Another library borrow, I just adore this one! It's full of British countryside flora and fauna. Along the bottom of each page is a glossary/seek-and-find list and there additional, more challenging questions in the illustration. This is great as there's room for growth in this book meaning that your little one won't get bored of it too quickly! But the reason that this one makes the list is that the illustrations are enchanting. Sebastien Braun illustrates the Can You Say It Too? series for the same publisher and we love those books too. I find his style so engaging which is exactly what you want from these sorts of books. The focus on British wildlife is also wonder (it was made in collaboration with the National Trust) as BookBairn can relate to the creatures she sees from blackbirds to pheasants to woodlice to nettles and bracken. So not only can we look together at this book we can take what we have spotted (and learned the words for) and seek-and-find them when out for countryside and woodland walks!
The key selling point of this book is that it is a 'turnaround book'. Basically it's a book of two halves! You hold the book horizontally and flip the pages upwards the lower page features a countryside scene and the upper page, when you turn it around, shows the town page. You can see in our photographs that it means two children can play in tandem in our full review of this book linked here. But it's great for siblings or playmates to play together. You could even do speed challenges to see who can find all their things the fastest. The illustrations are brilliant and it's no wonder it's been recognised for it's artwork as well as the conceptual design of the 'turnaround'. All the animals have quirky expressions and would make great characters in stories of their own rights and everything is easily recognisable but also appealing to children. The final pages feature a book-long glossary as well as a few extra things to find!
This is truly one of the most beautiful books that I have ever seen. I adore the illustration! Each page is packed with jungle animals and the flora and fauna of the rainforest. The colours are vivid, striking, intense, brilliant, bright, strong, rich deep... I could go on! Each page takes a different perspective showing the forest from above, delving underground, floating down the rivers, above the tops of the trees, and even a night scene where the eyes of all the creatures are glowing luminously. It really is a work of art. The seek-and-find element of this book is less blatant with the 50 animals to find are listed on the back and throughout the text with an animal truly hidden under a flap on each page too. But it's definitely one to lay on the floor, stretch out and explore together. 
This is a brilliant book for creating discussion with your little one. In this book there are one hundred things to spot and each double-page spread gives your little one a list of things to find and then they turn the page to look for them! The instruction page says "shout as you find each one". And on each finding page these are a cat and mouse so you can play cat-and-mouse in every scene. But it's also a first concepts book - the things you have to find are certain numbers of objects, shapes, colours, patterns, feelings and opposites. The illustrations are more sparse than some of the other seek-and-find books making this a perfect starting point to look at together. They also have a retro feel which is so appealing. This is a chunkier book than some of the others meaning that it's packed full of entertainment!
