As many of you will know, or be able to imagine, adjusting to being a parent of two children is a bit of a learning curve! And one of the things I've been struggling with is leaving The Wee Page Turner lying on his mat without any entertainment whilst I spend time with BookBairn. But these 'books' from The Wee Gallery have begun to capture his attention and because they fold out so easily I can pop them around him wherever he is - changing mat, pram, floor, cot. Perfect as we chase BookBairn from room to room!

These cloth books are such a revelation to me as BookBairn was never really into cloth books but we never had ones like these that fold out. The Wee Page Turner enjoys looking at the high contrast illustrations of animals and BookBairn enjoys lying down beside him to tell him which animal is which.

The 'Faces in the Garden' book (the cat) is purely black and white and features a cat, dog, raccoon (not a face we see in the UK), bunny, owl and bee.

 'Tiptoe Tiger' has black, white and orange illustrations starring a tiger, bird, bee, flower, monkey and butterfly and on the reverse side it shows the tiger interacting with each of these creatures in a wider variety of colours. It's more like a story than a single word primer and I imagine his big sister will make up her own tale to go along with the pictures to 'read' to him.

 I love these illustrations and have wanted some of The Wee Gallery's range for some time. They describe their range as "smart art for little minds" and that sums up their range so well.
 
Their high contrast pictures are great for little ones but also are rather stylish and would make a lovely collection for a nursery wall. 

And these cloth books make me feel less guilty about getting down on the floor to play with BookBairn (or sort the washing, or cook tea) whilst The Wee Page Turner is occupied by something valuable, educational and developmentally appropriate.

So lovely to share The Wee Page Turner's first real review with you on the blog! I'm sure he will feature in many more, after all he's much easier to photograph sitting still than BookBairn is these days!

Happy reading, playing, relaxing on the floor!

Mummy and The Wee Page Turner xx

I'm handing over this weeks recommendation to Rebecca from the.bookplate. Rebecca serves up some fantasy recommendations on her table and her photos are a feast to behold! And I love her post so much I plan to write my own 'A (Bookish) Mother’s Wish' when I get a little more time to think about it!

Not only does she adore her new shoes, she fascinated by a new book from the Favourites Shelf: 'So Many Feet' by Nichole Mara and Alexander Vidal. When this book first arrived from the publisher I will admit I said to Daddy BookBairn, "a whole book about feet? Sounds a bit boring" but I will also admit I was completely wrong! 

This is a great non-fiction book about all sorts of animals and their different feet. From the slow feet of the giant tortoise to the fast feet of the ostrich, from the dancing feet of the shovel-shouted lizard to the hanging feet of the sloth, from the thumping feet of the elephants to the soft feet of the tigers: who knew there were so many variations of feet in the animal kingdom? Starring sixteen animal species, each page introduces you to an new adjective to describe their feet followed by a sentence explaining the special properties of them. And the final page asks the question: "what can your feet do?" and BookBairn just loves this part! She tells me her feet can dance and then shows off her signature dance moves.

A post shared by BookBairn and Mummy (Kim) (@bookbairn) on May 24, 2017 at 11:21am PDT

A post shared by BookBairn and Mummy (Kim) (@bookbairn) on May 24, 2017 at 11:29am PDT

The illustrations are incredibly appealing too. Each page takes a different colour to be the centre of the colour palette and keeping simple shapes and shadows for the background, the animals and their feet really stand out. The style of illustration is also really interesting with lots of straight lines and simple details: they almost look like stencils. They certainly appeal to BookBairn as we've read this one over and over and it's even snuck its way into the living room several times for daytime reading too.

This is a great non-fiction book for little readers, a genre which I'm glad to see is developing beyond the traditional first word primers, which are important too, but for bright sparks, like BookBairn they don't have much longevity. Wee learners are never too young to find out about the world around them if it's done at their level and 'So Many Feet' is pitched perfectly for toddlers who want to know a little more about animals and their features. A great addition to our library!

What can your feet do? For now I'm taking a moment to put mine up and enjoy a little rest whilst BookBairn dances her cares away!

REVIEW OF THE BOOK: Have You Seen Birds?
Author: Joanne Oppenheim
Illustrator: Barbara Reid

Description:

Through Joanne Oppenheim’s engaging poetic verse and Barbara Reid’s intricate Plasticine sculpture illustrations, this title lyrically portrays the widely varying birds seen throughout the four seasons in different habitats (i.e., sea birds, fishing birds, marsh birds, etc.). The Plasticine illustrations bring an interesting 3-D look to the pages. Many of the scenes are depicted from the perspective of a bird.  The text is placed in various locations on each page in order to best fit the changing size and location of the illustrations.  It is uniquely set up to be a cross-over between non-fiction, poetry, and a picture book. This beautiful title is a re-release of the original 1986 book and includes a new title page and a list (on the last page) of the breeds of birds depicted in the various illustrations.

This picture book has received numerous awards, including:
•    Winner, Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Award
•    Winner, Canada Council Children's Literature Prize (Re-named the Governor General's Literacy Award)
•    Winner, Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award

My Experience:

My 3-year-old LOVES this book!  We have read it upwards of twenty times.  The 2-year-old twins grab this from the shelf and pour over the illustrations.  It has been fun to watch them reach out and try to touch the realistic-looking 3-D-reminiscent Plasticine sculpture-type illustrations.  The text employs a wide variety of descriptive language that has helped increase my toddlers' vocabulary - we stopped to further discuss several of the words!  I highly recommend this title as a must-have for preschool and beginning independent reader collections.


Likes:

•    I am so grateful that this new edition now includes a list of all the birds illustrated on each page (list is located on the last page)
•    3-D-like illustrations that leap off the page
•    A wonderful introduction to poetry - the text is gentle and engaging
•    A wide variety of descriptive language gives a lot of opportunity for introducing new vocabulary

Dislikes:

•    none!

Why/How Use it with kids:
 
•    Play a guessing game trying to identify the birds on each page (use the legend at the end to verify your guesses)
•    Research more about any birds that interest your child
•    Identify those birds that may live in your area (research may be required) and try to spot them (introduction to bird-watching)
•    Create and illustrate a poem describing another type(s) of animal (modelled on this book's format) - do it in poster or book or e-book format, etc.

Thank you so much for sharing this one Erin! I think BookBairn would really enjoy it too as she just loves birds! 

Hope you enjoyed this most recent guest post, to find them all click here.

Happy Reading, 

Mummy, BookBairn and The Wee Page Turner xx

BookBairn is obsessed with nature at the moment. She's fascinated by all things beastie, flower and birdy! She loves spotting the birds in the trees and listening for their bird song. So it's no wonder that when 'Fly' by Xavier Deneux arrived in the post it fascinated her from her very first read.

'Fly' is the newest release in the 'Touch Think Learn' series that we previously reviewed here. But this one is a little different. Similar to the previous books in the series, the illustrations are simple and colourful with plain white backgrounds and they feature the cut-outs and raised elements that encourage little hands to interact with the book. But unlike the previous simple word-primers 'Fly' tells a story. And you need to interact and move the cut-outs around to make the story come to life.

On the first page, we meet a little yellow bird who has found a tree to make her home in. And you have to lift the yellow birdy out and move the character into the tree! Then a little red birdy pops along and he moves in too (and again you can literally move him in). Next you can help them build their nest by moving the twigs around, and help their babies hatch from the eggs by removing the shell pieces. And finally, of course, you can lift out on the of babies and make it fly off into the sky!

I've mentioned some great books for getting toddlers to interact with a story (you can find them here) but this has to be one of my favourites. It's innovative, well-thought out and, frankly, just great fun!

BookBairn enjoys playing with the little birdies both as part of the story but also as separate play-pieces. I just hope we don't lose them when she's playing with them away from the book. She has a tendency to hide things at the moment (she just loves hide and seek) and then she can't remember where they are and Daddy and I have no idea! Fingers crossed these little birdies continue to nest in their book.

Please, Mr Panda by Steve Antony 

Every Sunday morning BookBairn and her Daddy go off for a walk to the park and they pop to the shops to get a doughnut for Daddy and a cookie for BookBairn. It's their special time together. And BookBairn was delighted to read this book where doughnuts play such an important role! Mr Panda has a box of doughnuts that he wants to share but many of the other animals don't seem to have very good manners and are rather bossy and demanding. "I want..." "Give me..." they are all forgetting the magic word (which BookBairn is surprisingly good at using herself thank goodness!). Until the final creature that is and his reward for using that little magic word is great... turns out Mr Panda doesn't even like doughnuts so he shares the whole box! A simple story with a simple message! The illustrations are also lovely with the colourful doughnuts the star of each page with a black and white (the illustrator is colourblind so perhaps this is the reason for his monochrome choices) animal requesting the doughnuts. BookBairn really loves this one and we've read it dozens of times since we borrowed it from the library. We might need to get a copy of this one to add to our collection!

Papasaurus by Stephan Lomp

For anyone who read our Papa Penguin review a few weeks ago, you will know that BookBairn has a great fondness for her Papa! And we were delighted when 'Papasaurus' arrived in the post. Not only that but the Babysaurus and the Papasaurus are playing one of BookBairn's favourite games: hide and seek! Babysaurus is counting and Papasaurus is hiding and when Babysaurus can't find him she asks all the other dinosaurs in the wild jungle if they have seen him. We won't give away the ending other than to say Babysaurus finds his Papa in the most surprising place! We love the illustrations of all the different dinosaurs in this one and the black background, though unusual for children's books, makes them really stand out. Each dino is cute but true to the characteristics you would expect of their species so provides a little early learning too. I just learned this is a sequel too so we will be on the lookout for 'Mamasaurus' by the same author/illustrator.

What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks

I can't believe we haven't featured this one before!! It was one of BookBairn's first ever favourites and we listen to the audiobook (and song) on a daily basis in the car. So much so she can pretty much recite the whole story by heart! This is a great story about a little ladybird who overhears two thieves plan to steal the fine prize cow from the farm and how the animals hatch a plot of their own to thwart them. Packed full of animal noises and brilliant rhyming prose this is a must read for all toddlers! The illustrations are perfect and the glittery ladybird on every page creates an extra little bit of fun for tiny fingers. If you haven't picked this one up yet you absolutely must find a copy! And we also recommend the audiobook!

Playtime with Ted by Sophy Henn

We recently reviewed 'Bedtime with Ted', the other book in this duology, and as we loved it so much I ordered a copy of 'Playtime' for BookBairn too! As brilliant as the 'Bedtime', starring the terrifically imaginative little toddler Ted, 'Playtime' is a great companion story. Ted finds a box to play in and under each flap you reveal what he imagines the box is: a submarine, a racecar, a rocket. But BookBairn's favourite is the big yellow digger! She loves diggers at the moment! Sophy Henn does a wonderful job (again!) capturing the world of a toddler and bringing it to life in the pages of her books. And her illustrations are great for little ones with enough details to discuss but without overfilling the page with superfluous extras. Sophy Henn's books feature on our Favourites Shelf on a regular basis so well worth keeping an eye out for her books in the library or bookshops.

Dino Tails by Anne Wilkinson (for Jellycat)

This is The Wee Page Turner's first contribution to the Favourites Shelf (though it doesn't technically sit on the shelf as it's a cloth book!). As you can imagine when it comes to new baby gifts people are wary of sending us books: we have so many already! But one brave soul (Book Lover Jo) sent us this brilliant cloth book and both BookBairn and The Wee Page Turner love it! BookBairn likes to describe the touch and freely tails to her little brother and he likes to feel the different textures. It's the beginning of them reading stories together! And for that reason it makes the list of favourites even if it's not actually on the shelf - it's on the playmat so we have it at hand to grab easily!

 
Today I'm handing over to 'Acorn Books' to share one of her favourite books for babies. Acorn Books is a brilliant blog where she reviews books with her two boys and I love reading her posts as she has quite similar taste to us (though a slightly older reader means she also has some great recommendations for us to look forward to!) and her reviews are spot on! She also has a great selection of diverse books and books celebrating Jewish faith and festivals which I just love to see! I'll hand over  now...

In this beautiful book we're introduced to lots of different babies being born all over the world in lots of different places. A wonderful rhyming text flows through the book with repetitive lines that create a wonderful rhythm:

"There was one little baby who was born far away and another who was born on the very next day. And both of these babies, as everyone knows, has ten little fingers and ten little toes."

This book is one I hold a special place for as it's one that I bought for my youngest when he was a tiny baby. It became part of our routine at bedtime and one that we still read regularly. Here's why we think it is so perfect:

And here's my little one, comparing his ten little fingers and toes to those in the book.

Beautifully sentimental, this would be a perfect gift for a new baby and an excellent start to their library. 

It seems that my baby girl has grown up in more ways than simply becoming a big sister. But becoming a big sister has extra responsibilities too!

We recently took part in the Let's Talk Picture Books Exchange on Instagram and were delighted to get some books about becoming a big sister. Whilst I read these at the time, they honestly didn't mean an awful lot to BookBairn and I popped them aside until after her brother was born. And when I got one of them back out, there was a little bit of magic inside that book.

'Little Big Girl' by Claire Keane tells the story of a little girl, Matisse, who is very little in such a big world: she brushes her little teeth, puts on her little shoes and climbs into her little car seat going on big adventures across her big city! Sometimes she even needs a big nap after all her adventures (lucky for Matisse's Mummy, huh?). And then her little brother comes along and the little girl is suddenly not so little anymore. She is the big girl. He has the little fingers and the little toes and he yawns little yawns.

Reading this one for the first time after The Wee Page Turner was born I cried. It moved me. The girl in the story was my little girl who now seemed so big. It captured moments I want for my two children: playing together, reading together, going on adventures together.

The illustrations in this book differ greatly from the sorts of illustrations I usually appreciate in picture books. Instead of the bright and bold colours I normally praise, this book has a soft pastel coloured watercolour finish. With a colour palette limited to pale yellows pinks, turquoises and orange, Claire has created gentle illustrations which perfectly match the feel of her story. The children are playful and sweet and look a lot like my two (though both my little ones have brown hair rather than blonde) and some of the images match our life beautifully.

BookBairn enjoyed curling up on my lap whilst her brother slept on Daddy's shoulder (thank goodness for Daddy's shoulders - I don't know where I'd be without them) and we read this one over and over together. She liked spotting the things from her life in the illustrations: the "aquarium" (yeah, she added that to her vocabulary too), the little white mini just like her "grandma's car", 

It's hard to explain in a review how much a book can touch your heart. This one came along at the exact right moment to touch mine. For any little girls who have become big girls this book really is a must have. Beautiful, moving and inspiring. My little big girl is learning to be a big sister and with role models like Matisse as well as her friend that I mentioned at the start of the post I know she will be fine.