BIG kids magazine

BIG kids magazine is here - a fabulous magazine for kids which values the art of children alongside that of artists. I have been lucky enough to be involved with BIG as a copy editor - a wonderfully creative collaboration with Jo and Lilly. But even though my kids have seen the magazine in draft form and enjoyed some of the activities when they were still in proof form, they were so thrilled to see and hold the 'real' magazine!

So far we have built boat parts, cooked artcakes, coloured in the artprint, shown our bird's nest photo featured in the miniature art gallery, painted birds outside and read the 'First Flight' story over and over again! And there is still a lot more to discover!

One of my favourite things about BIG is that for every copy sold, another copy is provided to a child who may not usually have access to such a resource.

I am also enjoying our conversations about exactly what bravery, imagination and generosity means ...

The second issue will be available in February.

Jo and Lilly interviewed me on their BIG blog - please go and visit!

Silhouette pictures for Father's Day

My husband received a pair of slippers for Father's Day from the kids because his old pair were nearly trotting themselves off to the rubbish bin - too many holes even for ventilation purposes! But we also made him a present that was just for him - three silhouette pictures of the kids.

Brooke at Inchmark has made beautiful silhouettes in many different forms and her instructions are clear to follow and inspiring. I took an individual, profile photo of the kids - not easy when the two-year-old wants to wriggle and look in every other direction! I printed the photos, cut around the heads, then traced them onto black cardboard, cut them out and framed them.

Lots of wonderful Dads in these picture books. Dads who build cubby houses, carry small boys on their shoulders to provide a different viewpoint of the world, look for lost toys, care for injured birds, realise the importance of bedtime kisses, put up with grumpy behaviour ... The wonderful character of Dads represented in these picture books, just as in real life, are far more unique and individual than a pair of slippers!

Book Week in Australia

It is the Children's Book Council of Australia Annual Book Week! Lots of events going on - I have already visited a fabulous bookshop, a new (to me) local online bookshop, a school book fair and am looking forward to kinder duty later in the week with a 'come as your favourite book character' theme!

The books in the photos below were purchased at Books Illustrated, a beautiful Melbourne bookshop in Middle Park. I did buy most of them as presents for my kids' birthdays - I hope I can keep them hidden for that long ...

As you can see, a couple of them were signed by the author or illustrator, which always makes a book feel more personal to me.

Books Illustrated was open to the public last Saturday for National Bookshop Day. Usually, they are open by appointment only, as they focus now on travelling exhibitions. They specialise in Australian children's books, and are a wonderful showcase for picture book illustrations - you can buy many original and limited illustrations there. Lots of wonderful stories, beautiful illustrations - and I was met at the door by two dogs and offered a cup of tea (not by the dogs!) - what more can you ask for in a bookshop?

How to make an alphabet tree

This is another fabulous library find - "The alphabet tree" by Leo Lionni. An oldie - published in 1968 - but a goodie.

The alphabet tree is full of letters, living a happy life, hopping from leaf to leaf on the highest twigs. However, when the wind blows, some letters are blown away and the remaining letters are frightened.

Luckily, the word-bug visits and explains that if the letters stick together and form words, they will be strong enough to resist the wind's force. He is right, and the letters, or words, are safe.

A wandering caterpillar sees the words and is confused by their apparent randomness. "Why don't you get together and make sentences - and mean something?"

The caterpillar is pleased with the sentences formed by the letters but encourages them further. "You must say something important." said the caterpillar. Their message - I won't spoil it for you! - is one that is still relevant today.

I love the gentle teaching philosophy behind this book, the slow beginning of understanding letters, then words, then sentences, all building up to the importance of communication and making your words count. This book lends itself beautifully to teaching the alphabet, as well as all the wonderful artwork it could inspire.

So we just had to make our own alphabet tree! And after creating our small version, I've decided that when Annalise is ready to learn the alphabet, I am going to make a huge, moveable one that will not only inspire her learning but be a thing of beauty and joy! Stay tuned, my friends!

Meanwhile, to make our small tree, I painted a cheap canvas with a blue sky and brown earth and added a tree. Then I used a white wax crayon on watercolour paper to draw tiny leaf veins, painted over them with green paint in rough leaf shapes and cut them out. (Note the use of "I" - we were going to do it together but then the kids' distraction grew in direct correlation to my focus!). However, Annalise was back at my side to help stamp the letters. She stamped random letters on the leaves but contributed the word 'peace' to our ideas. We used a spray adhesive to attach the leaves, and added the word-bug and caterpillar as well.

Here's hoping the letters on our alphabet tree live a happy life too!

Book borders

Often it’s only after the 85th reading of a picture book (because we do read them 85 times, don’t we?) that you notice the small details. Like the borders. We hunted down a few fabulous border books and found a whole array of styles.

We found Beatrix Potter’s neat squares, the curling ribbon around a nursery rhyme book, the tattered and torn paged look for a pirate book, an intricate border with highlights and shading, sequins and rick-rack for a felt-illustrated book and a border which included captions.

Tom, Annalise and I had a go at a few borders ourselves. Tom understood the pattern concept and decorated a menu with a squiggly border. I’d like to do this again, in particular with Annalise, as it’s a great way to practise patterns. And while technically I know that patterns are an important mathematical concept, I think it’s just good fun to swish a few paint brushes around!

By the way, Nicole at Planning with Kids asked me to write a guest post for her. I’ve started my Christmas preparations early this year and have written a post on our ten favourite Christmas books – have a look! Nicole has a brilliant blog about organising every aspect of your life so that there is more time to be spent with your kids. There is something for everyone there!

ABC learning with Alison Lester – and so much more

I attended a workshop with Alison Lester a week or so ago. Alison is a well-known Australian author and illustrator, and very generously shared her experience and knowledge of writing and illustrating children’s picture books. Inspiring is an understatement! She talked us through her various books and explained the ideas behind them, as well as the art techniques. We also saw many examples of the books she makes with children from remote indigenous communities – I’m really looking forward to exploring some of these ideas with my kids. Alison taught us to plan a storyboard and even let us loose with paints, crayons, stencils and watercolour paper!

While our family has many favourite books by Alison, I’ll write about just one today – ‘Alison Lester’s ABC’. This is perfect for Annalise at the moment – at four, she is beginning to recognise letters. Alison’s alphabet book has plenty of detail to keep her interested in the pictures, which of course, are all linked to a particular letter. Even though it is an alphabet book, the story behind it of Alice and Aldo’s day is a lovely thread holding everything together. It's also a fabulous opportunity to introduce the concept of alliteration! It's as simple as this - look, I can see lots of words together that start with the letter G!

Inspired by Jennifer’s post at the write start, Tom and Annalise painted these wooden letters I found at a craft shop. Not surprisingly, it was all about family for Annalise. She painted a letter K blue for me – “because your name starts with a K and blue is your favourite colour!” She also found a J for baby Joe – I didn’t know she could even recognise the letter J.

Such baby steps towards reading and writing, but so very important. Inspiration can start from anywhere ...

Book vs. film

On the weekend, my cousin J invited me to see the film of John Marsden’s “Tomorrow, when the war began.” I hadn’t read any of the Tomorrow series for young adults, (the first book was originally published in 1993) but I quickly read the book over three days, because I wanted to experience the original story first. Not surprisingly, my local library’s copy was reserved for probably the next six months, so I ended up by buying a copy. Not surprisingly, the only copy of the book had a scene from the movie on the cover. I am probably just being a purist, but I would prefer a book that is just about the book, rather than being used to market a particular film.

I finished the book about three hours before I saw the movie, became immersed in the movie, then listened to a panel discussion about the merits of book versus film. I think this is the “engaging with text” my English teachers used to talk about!

The story focuses on a group of seventeen-year-old teenagers from a small Australian country town and its rural surroundings. Their parents agree they can go camping in a remote area for a few days, and it’s only when they arrive back, that they realise something is wrong. Australia has been invaded by a foreign army, their parents, families and most of the town have been imprisoned in the Showgrounds during the annual show day, the town has been looted, burned, and people have been killed.

Ellie and her friends face a different world, where they must look out for each other, think strategically, act like guerillas, learn new survival skills and find courage within themselves.

After the movie, there was a panel discussion on the book and film, with contributions from the audience. There was a general consensus that the movie was good and reasonably faithful to the book.

I can understand that movies need to change the events in order to keep the pace flowing. I don’t mind when circumstances change slightly, when tiny parts are left out or the order rearranged slightly. But I don’t like it when they change the characters! One of the panellists didn’t like the way one of the teenagers had been typecast, and made weaker. Another panellist commented on a movie scene where a character had almost destroyed a defensive attack – this didn’t happen in the book.

Audience members noted that the film had been given a reasonably large budget for an Australian film, and that there were great hopes for its success in the international market. Hence the characters’ use of “second grade” instead of Grade 2, and “vacation” instead of “holiday.”

There are plans for another two movies, and I certainly have plans to read the remaining six books in the series. Here's hoping they aren't on the library reserve list!

A Book About Books

Sometimes it’s just a given that kids will learn the ins and outs of a book. We spend so much time reading them the actual story, that we forget about how a book is actually constructed. I thought I knew the basics of a book – years at uni. taught me how to find the information I needed to put together a reference list at the end of every essay. It was only when I began to work as an editor and studied a postgraduate course in publishing that I realised how much goes into the ‘other’ sections of a book besides the main story or text.

Let me introduce you to Parsley Rabbit – our guide to book parts! Parsley has put together a book for us (with the help of author Frances Watts and illustrator David Legge!), appropriately called “Parsley Rabbit’s Book About Books”.

Parsley introduces us to endpapers, the title page and the imprint page. With the help of a carrot trail, he teaches us to read from left to right (something we often assume, but forget to point out to our small listeners). He discusses page numbers, flaps, fiction and non-fiction. He talks about sharing books, places to read books and giving books as presents.

Wish I had met Parsley in my early editing days – he would have taught me a lot!

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!

Choosing books

It’s Book Week in Australia, and there are many literary events around the place. To celebrate Book Week at Earthly Joyride, I thought I would spend the week talking generally about children's books. Why should we read them to our children? How do you choose the right book for your child? What are the best books to read aloud? How can you make your own book?

First of all, how do you choose a good book for your child or any child, for that matter? My Mum always bought me books for my birthday and for Christmas. She still does. My kids always receive books for birthdays and for Christmas. And I tend to buy books for my nieces and nephews, as well as other children whose parties my kids are invited to. I figure that if those kids are in a family who love books, the book will be appreciated. And if that particular family is not into books, well it’s my responsibility to provide a quality book for them!

Seven steps for choosing a good book

1. If you can, read it all the way through from cover to cover. As the kids grow, the books become longer, but you can read a picture book all the way through while you’re in the bookshop. Read it aloud if you like. I have made one mistake in buying a book that I only flicked through at the bookshop. Once I read it to Tom at home, I haven’t read it since. Poor language, silly story.

2. Do you like it? You’re probably going to be the main person to read it aloud, so if you’re not enthusiastic at the first reading, you probably won’t be at the 117th reading.

3. Do you like the illustrations? Are the characters expressive? Do the pictures help to tell the story? Are there extra details in the pictures that aren’t mentioned in the story?

4. Is this book memorable? Does it make you think a little differently about the world? Does it have a unique viewpoint? Does it make you smile? Have you instantly thought about the child who will read it?

5. The language – is it funny? Joyful? Fluent? Enjoyable to read aloud? Beautiful? Evocative? Stirring?

6. Ask for help. The bookseller should be able to tell you the best dinosaur books, the most popular books for a four-year-old girl, the most recent releases and the books which have been nominated or have won an award.

7. If you have a particular book in mind, borrow it from the library. Read it with your child and see whether they like it. I can still remember Mum borrowing “A Little Bush Maid” by Mary Grant Bruce from the library for me. I loved it. A few weeks later, on my birthday, the whole set, all 15 of the Billabong books, were there on a bookshelf in the study for me. I still have them.

Why books matter

I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by books my whole life. My Mum read picture books to me as a child and has bought me beautiful books for every birthday and Christmas. My Dad read Roald Dahl’s books to us in the school holidays. I have worked in educational publishing. I do a small amount of work now as a freelance editor. But the most important work I do now is read to my three small children.

I read about superheroes and pirates and dinosaurs to my six-year-old son. We talk about the different methods the illustrator has used – is it watercolour or acrylic paint? I read stories about monkeys and shoes and frogs to my three-year-old daughter. Sometimes, she tells me to read the blurb first so we know what the story is about – even though we have read it eighty-five times already. I read rhymes and point at simple pictures with my 12-month-old son – sometimes I have to read really, really quickly before he flicks the page over!

Reading to my kids is one of the best gifts I can give to them – I’m giving them my time, my attention. And if I’m reading something wonderful, their language is richer, their view of the world is expanding and our connection is stronger.

Through this blog, I hope to offer some reviews of picture books and some ideas for connected craft and playing.

Happy reading!