Crankiness, mothers and bears

The bear in Nick Bland's "The very cranky bear" is not a mother, and there are no mothers in his story. However, it is very easy as a mother to identify with Bear's need for sleep and peace and hibernation - and to understand his crankiness when he is interrrupted by little ones looking for a perfect place to play!

This is our three-year-old's most requested story at the moment. Joe loves the beginning - In the Jingle Jangle Jungle on a cold and rainy day - and the rhyme of the story which makes your voice lilt up and down as you read it.

This picture book tells the story of Moose, Lion, Zebra and Sheep, four friends with different looks and personalities who attempt to play a game in a cave without realising that a cranky bear is trying to sleep. While Moose, Zebra and Lion are the braver and more flamboyant characters, it is plain Sheep who manages to save the day and appease Bear.

There is lots of repetition which is fabulous for little ones, and the rhyme makes it a wonderful read-aloud book for toddlers and preschoolers.

The illustrations, also by Nick Bland, use broad brush strokes and larger than life characters so that the animals seem vivid with lots of personality.

And as today is a cold Melbourne October day, it seems like Bear has the right idea for hibernating!

A classic school tale

'I'm not interested in creating a book that is read once and then placed on the shelf and forgotten. I am very happy when people have worn out my books, or that they're held together by Scotch tape.'
Richard Scarry

Richard Scarry is a writer and illustrator from my childhood, and his books are definitely classics to keep. His annotated pictures offer plenty of opportunities for young readers to pore over the details and to make the connection between the pictures and the words.

'Great Big Schoolhouse', another school story for my school series like this one and this one, tells the story of Huckle, a young cat. Huckle rides the school bus, learns something new every day from Miss Honey, his teacher, plays in the playground with his friends (remember Lowly Worm, anyone?), learns the alphabet, counts to ten, learns how to tell the time and the months of the year, among many other things.

This book is fabulous for encouraging kids to look at books by themselves, as the labels for all the different objects make it easy for 'pretend' reading aloud. There's also lots of humour in the story and illustrations.

School beginnings

This book, "Splat the Cat" has it all:

- an adorable feline
- a teacher called Mrs Wimpydimple
- alliteration with a tail that wiggled wildly with worry
- many novel excuses for not going to school  - "The front door won't let me out, Mum" or "The gate won't let go of my fingers, Mum." 
- a clever pet mouse called Seymour who lives with Splat
- a cat worried about starting school, who learns some amazing facts, saves the day with Seymour and looks forward to coming back to school!

Rob Scotton, the author and illustrator, has created a very likeable character, who is a little anxious about starting school.

My very likeable 8yo and 5yo characters drew some pictures of Splat with charcoal today. While I admire Scotton's incredibly detailed illustrations - look at the individual cat hairs on the cover! - I am equally awed by Tom and Annalise's 'smudged to perfection' charcoal cats!

Setting up the nativity - day 6

Today we read Martin Waddell's "Room for a little one", one of my favourite Christmas stories. The story and the illustrations are gentle, and my kids enjoy hearing the traditional story of the nativity told from the animals' viewpoint. We are always repeating the title, "There's always room for a little one here!" as someone tries to squeeze in on the couch or find a spare knee!

The Christmas star in the Advent calendar for today suggested we should set up our nativity. When my Grandad died about eight years ago, Mum gave me his old nativity set. We set it up for a few years but each year another piece would literally crumble in our hands. So a couple of years ago we bought a beautiful wooden set from Honeybee Toys. We use the kids' farmhouse as the stable, and today they pulled out the fairy/farm playmat I made for them a couple of years ago. (Not really sure how many fairy flower rings there were in Bethlehem!) Tom found our farmhouse animals and aded them to the stable too, even the wonky sheep.

When we chose our wooden nativity set, I wanted one that the kids could play with, one that wasn't precious or just for looking at on a high shelf. Annalise made up her own nativity story - Mary, Joseph and Jesus were lost by our windowsill - but, wait, wait for it - their guardian angel came flying, flying, flying all over the family room until she found them and showed them the way to the stable.

I hope Grandad would approve of this modern version ...

The Qantas strike as explained by a picture book

The Qantas strike has meant we are still on holidays in sunny Queensland, unable to fly home. Isn't that devastating - another day or two or three of holidays?

At the fabulous local bookshop here, I bought a picture book called "Click Clack Moo, Cows that Type" by Doreen Cronin. Intriguing title, isn't it? Farmer Brown has a problem - he has cows that can type demanding letters. And they have threatened to hold back their milk if their demands for electric blankets aren't met. And the cows are typing letters for the hens as well - the hens are witholding their eggs. Farmer Brown calls on Duck, a neutral party. There are more typed letters and negotiation until the terms are settled.

Can you guess where I'm going with this? Yes, you can use this story to explain the Qantas strike to kids! Unhappy workers (3 unions/cows and hens), demands (equal pay/electric blankets), strike action (cancelled flights/no milk or eggs) and neutral party (Duck aka Fair Work)... You can see the similiarities, can't you?

And after all that, it is just such a fun book to read aloud - Click clack moo, Click clack moo, Clickety clack moo!


Meanwhile, I'm just going to sit by the pool, read this story again to any of my kids who aren't in the water and wait for the cows and Farmer Brown to stop typing letters and sort our flights out ...

Zoo art

Sometimes literature and art just need to be simple. Less is best. "My heart is like a zoo" is one of Joe's favourite books. One of his party tricks is to imitate all the animal noises - such a rite of passage for a two-year-old!

The short amount of text on each page is just enough to hold his attention. The similes are unique and imaginative - rugged as a moose or bothered as a bull with a hornet in its hair or peaceful as a portly walrus lounging on a towel.

The illustrations are made of heart shapes - Michael Hall used hundred of hearts to create his zoo animals. The last page is gorgeous - one of those "a-ha" moments for adult and child readers alike. Won't spoil it for you! Annalise just had to have a go at creating her own heart collages.

I traced around our set of heart-shaped biscuit cutters on construction paper, cut them out and then Annalise glued them on scrap paper.

I'm not sure that her animals are anatomically correct - they are her "made-up animals, you know" but they're as wonderfully bright as Michael Hall's animals.

More zoo books here and here.

Melbourne outings

It's been a while since I've posted. But even though I've been busy with editing projects and writing courses, we've still been reading, of course!

Pamela Allen's book, 'Alexander's Outing', is set in Sydney but here in Melbourne, we have taken it to heart. During our own outings in the recent school holidays, we have quoted extensively from Alexander's mother, "Stay close, take care!" Most of the time it was a gentle reminder to my kids - but sometimes it was a rather loud or anxious quack!

Alexander and his mother and four brothers and sisters set out in search of adventure. But unlike his brothers and sisters, Alexander did not stay close or take care. So of course he gets into trouble, and it takes many interested onlookers and a brilliant idea to rescue him.

There are gorgeous, active illustrations which show all the drama and fun and problem-solving. Lots of white space so the flapping wings really stand out.

My two-year-old loves ducks, and loves this book because of all the "quacks". Remember this post? We might have to make some yellow playdough again. Or perhaps see whether Alexander has meandered down to a local Melbourne park?

Dreaming BIG

Our family nest of five is flying haphazardly through February - new routines for school, kinder and work. There is a little bit of nudging, shoving, pecking, some very excited flapping and singing, and yet quite a bit of soothing ruffled feathers, as everyone adjusts to their new rhythm.

We did manage to find time in the last week of the school holidays to make our family collage - inspired by BIG.

BIG is a brand new magazine, coming out later this year. It's about art and creativity and kids - three of my favourite things! The bird gallery there looks amazing - it's very inspiring to see the creative work of kids presented beautifully next to an artist's interpretation of the same theme. Tom, Annalise and I spent two afternoons crafting our birds and their nest, and they feel very proud that their work is featured on the BIG blog.

There's still time for kids to draw, paint, sculpt or write about the theme of birds - any photos sent in by Monday February 14th will be posted on Jo and Lilly's BIG blog.

More zoo stories

These zoo stories tick a lot of boxes for me - they make my kids laugh, the rhyming is phenomenal, they are fantastic read-aloud books and the illustrations are realistic and humorous.

"Edward the emu" by Sheena Knowles tells the story of a bored emu at the zoo who thinks the grass is greener on the other side of the fence - or cage - or enclosure. He hangs out with the lions, the snakes and the seals until he finally realises that being an emu is really the best, However, there is a surprise for Edward when he returns to his emu home. "Edwina the emu", also by Sheena Knowles, is the follow-up story, focusing on Edwina's attempts to find a job. It's probably worth reading Edward before Edwina if you can.

Humorous - well, have you ever heard of a bored emu, let along an emu attempting to emulate a lion or a seal? The picture are fabulous - look at how the illustrator, Rod Clement, has drawn Edward imitating the other animals. The matter-of-fact language plays up the humour -

Edward the emu was sick of the zoo,
There was nowhere to go, there was nothing to do,
And compared to the seals that lived right next door,
Well being an emu was frankly a bore.

Rhyming - the language is simple enough, but as a rhyme, it becomes a fast-paced action story.

'Yeek!' the man shouted, he seemed to be choking,
'An emu dance ballet? You've got to be joking!'
'I'm not,' said Edwina, 'but don't laugh at me,
I'll find the right job soon, you just wait and see.'

Reading aloud - as there's lots of conversations in both books, it's easy to read in an animated tone - try reading the two paragraphs above aloud. Besides, "Yeek!" is a wonderful word to say loudly!

Illustrations - these are a great contrast of realistic animals with animals in unusual situations.

We found the seals at the zoo but although we looked carefully, we couldn't find Edward. Perhaps he was being a kangaroo for the day?

Zoo activities

“Mummy’s taking us to the zoo today …” I heard this refrain sung over and over and over again yesterday. The singing wore me out, but the trip to the zoo itself was great fun. Before we went, there was a lot of preparation.

- Tom wrote a list of must-see animals.
- Annalise imitated Tom and ‘scribbled’ her list, and then read it to me.
- Tom, Annalise and Joe played with the zoo duplo, building homes for the animals.
- We made butterfly cakes for morning tea to take to the zoo.

At the zoo, we saw our favourites – the elephants, tigers, butterflies, meerkats, seals and many more. Tom was quite good with following the map, (unlike his geographically dyslexic mother!) and drew his own version when we came home.

After we came home, all of us exhausted, we flopped on the couch with a pile of zoo books. This one is a great zoo book for toddlers. I’ll post about other zoo books later in the week for preschoolers.

Rod Campbell’s “Dear Zoo” is a lift-the-flap book, with lots of white background and bright, strong colours. The repetition is fun for toddlers and the different types of flaps to open make it interesting. The adjectives to describe each animal will extend vocabulary. We’ve been lucky enough to receive a couple of “Dear Zoo” books – and we have needed them as they have been well loved here! Joe at fifteen months is at just the right age to really enjoy opening the flaps and learning the animal sounds, so this is a perfect book for him.

Dancing girl

My dancing girl turned four last week and requested the ballerina cake from Grandma’s Women’s Weekly Cookbook, the birthday one that I use to love looking at when I was a kid. We had a small family gathering on the weekend, and Annalise was very excited by a gorgeous ballet outfit, chosen by her kind Nana and Auntie L.

Josephine is a kangaroo who loves to dance. Jackie French’s book, “Josephine wants to dance”, is filled with beautiful language that makes you want to jump up and twirl. It makes you want to soar to the music of the wind and whirl like the clouds across the gully.
 

Josephine is a kangaroo with determination and vision. She manages to ignore her brother’s insistent voice that kangaroos aren’t able to dance, and dreams of finding another way to dance. Josephine’s voice is always strong and certain – “I’m going to… I am …”

Bruce Whatley is the illustrator – lots of lovely clear white background so Josephine can jump and leap through the page. Notice how the text is placed – the surprised comments from the other characters are at an angle shooting up to the right of the page and the text describing Josephine’s dance movements is set in a wave-like motion. Clever! Something else to talk about to your listeners.

If you are a fan of this talented duo, you might notice Wombat and the shearers from their earlier books in the last few pages. Another talking point!

This book is a blend of the comical and lyrical, the hysterical and the beautiful. Exactly the emotions I feel when I watch my small ballerina twirl and fall over and laugh at herself.

Bugs and their looks

This book, "Bugs in a Blanket" is a wonderful combination of beautiful story, gorgeous illustrations and valuable life lessons. The little bugs who live in a blanket in the garden have never met, until Little Fat Bug invites them all to his party. They are all very surprised to discover that even though they are all bugs, they don’t look the same.

Italian author and illustrator, Beatrice Alemagna, has made the pictures look so tactile – linen, wool, buttons, fabric, sequins, beads – you really want to touch each little bug.

It’s a pretty simple lesson for kids, that

in the blanket, just as in the rest of the world, we can’t choose what we look like – we are all born the way we are, and we’re all different.

Imagine what we adults would let go of if we embraced our “brightly speckled” coat or delighted in having “always been yellow all over”?

Making a Mem Book

Tom and I are on a roll with our book-making. We created our own accordion books, based on Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord's instructions from her website. She has heaps of other ideas for making your own books - the photos of her book-making workshops are very inspiring.

As it's Book Week, we had to look at one of Mem Fox's books. But which one to choose? What to say about it that hasn’t already been said? So this is a brief list, my best attempt at conveying to you why we love this book, “The Magic Hat.”

- A magic hat – who wouldn’t want one?
- It’s funny – people changing into animals – hilarious!
- The anticipation – wait for it, wait for it – which animal will it be? Can
we guess the rhyme? Do we have any clues from the picture?
- The illustrations are joyful watercolours, with lots of detail by Tricia Tusa
- And the rhyme is wonderful -

Oh, the magic hat, the magic hat!
It moved like this, it moved like that!
It spun through the air and over a road
And sat on the head of a warty old …. Toad!

We used watercolour paints and had a go at painting the hat, the people and the wizard. Imitating the style of the illustrator gave us an appreciation into the correlation between the text and the pictures - you start to notice all the clues in the pictures which hint at the text on the next page. The magic blue hat with its ability to spin through the air was a perfect choice to illustrate our accordian books - which stretched out to accommodate the dancing antics of the hat!

Reading aloud

One of the most important elements of reading aloud is how the words actually sound when reading them aloud. Because that’s what we do, isn’t it? We read the words aloud to our kids, because they can’t read them for themselves. (And because even when they can read for themselves, it's still lovely to listen to a story.) If the words don’t sound wonderful and interesting and entertaining to us, then we are not going to convey that excitement to our audience.

So this is an example of one of my favourite read-aloud books - “Tiger Can’t Sleep” by S. J. Fore. It makes me laugh so I exaggerate the frustrated voice of the little boy and the repentant voice of the tiger. This book calls out for loud, noisy shouts as well as quiet, soft whispers. Tom found this book at the library a few years ago, and we bought it for his birthday because he requested it so frequently.

The little boy in the story has just settled down to sleep in his comfortable bed but he

… can’t sleep because there’s a tiger in my closet … a tiger in my closet eating potato chips!

Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!

The tiger is most apologetic when the little boy tells him he is making too much noise, but this excitable tiger forgets to be quiet, so the noises continue all night – cartwheel spinning, tuba playing, bouncing a ball and so on.

It makes us smile to observe the way the little boy takes on the role of the adult –

And no more cartwheels! You are going to hurt yourself.

The tiger is the mischievous kid, full of good intentions but just unable to stop having fun and making noise.

Oops! Tiger is sorry. Tiger won’t make another sound.

Now, here’s a fancy word for you – onomatopoeia. (I did have to check my dictionary for the correct spelling, and I'm not entirely sure I know how to pronounce it!) Onomatopoeic words are formed by imitating sounds. So in our tiger book, we have the tiger eating chips – “Crunch! Crunch! Crunch!” He also does “Tap–tap! Tap-tap! Tap-tap!” as he tap dances in the closet.

So, you can explain the meaning of onomatopoeia to your kids if you want to or you can just use lots of emphasis and exaggeration when reading out these sounds!

Potion potential

There were a lot of arguments in our house between the two older ones. Typical sibling stuff. I tried to block my ears so I could concentrate on cooking dinner. Then it became quiet, too quiet.

Annalise had started mixing glue with water to try a little painting. Tom decided it was worth joining in. Then the small cups of gluey water with sequins, pipe cleaners, feathers and staples were taken outside so that grass, chalk, leaves and twigs could be mixed in. More water was added so it would “grow”. It had become a potion!

The potion in this green bucket does not have quite the same magical power as the potion in this witch’s cauldron. Lucky – I don’t really have the storage room for a witch’s broom…

Julia Donaldson’s books are made for reading aloud – the rhyme and repetition are fabulous. We have used them as a reader for Tom because there is such satisfaction in saying the lines aloud.

How the cat purred
and how the witch grinned,
As they sat on their broomstick
and flew through the wind.

But how the witch wailed
and how the cat spat
When the wind blew so wildly
it blew off the hat.

The witch in “Room on the Broom” is a bona fide witch because she has a long hooked nose with a wart. But she is quite a kind witch and very hospitable to the animal friends she meets on her travels. Which is just as well really, because she needs their help when she bumps into a dragon.

Even a reluctant reader would feel satisfaction at saying this line aloud –

“Buzz off! –
That’s my witch!”

Windy night here in Melbourne. Wonder whether there are any witches flying around, looking for a pre-made potion? Wonder whether you can make a potion to promote sibling peace and harmony?