If you were invited to design a school library launch, how would you go about it? What events would you want to facilitate? Who would you want to involve?

These questions have been very much on my mind since the start of the year, for designing and delivering a school library launch is exactly what I have been asked to do by a local infant school. Can you imagine how excited I feel?

It’s an honour to be asked and trusted by the school to design a whole day of activities and I’ve loved every minute of it so far. Library Launch day is February 12th and now we’re counting down the days…

Having got to the stage where I’ve everything prepped and in place, I wanted to share my plans and resources with you as many of them are easily replicable in families, in classrooms, in clubs, anywhere would you might like to help young children and their families get excited about books. And with World Book Day coming up next month, you could take any of these ideas and use them to celebrate perhaps my favourite day of the year

Today I’ll share the activities the 3-5 year olds will be getting up to, and next week I’ll share the session plans for Year 1 (5-6 year olds) and Year 2 (6-7 year olds), although I believe many of the activities could be adapted to work with children of any age.

We were keen to get as many children into the new library during the day as possible so each class of 3-5 year olds will spend one session going on a treasure hunt for book characters in the library. The basis of this session with be Katie Cleminson’s Otto the Book Bear, in which a bear in a book steps off the pages and into real life. Having read the book, kids (in pairs) will be given a treasure card to identify which books and book characters they need to find in the library.

No doubt 30 kids hunting 30 soft toys is going to be quite chaotic! Once all the characters are found, the session will finish with a reading of one of the books found by the kids during the session.

A couple of trips to charity shops resulted in a good number of soft toys that either were actual book characters (for example I found Paddington Bear, Pooh, and Poppy Cat without even really looking), then I raided my kids’ soft toys and chose ones which matched (near enough) great books. So, for example, I am borrowing a soft toy squirrel and teaming it up with A First Book of Nature, by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Mark Hearld.

I supplemented these with a few extra official character soft toys (who wouldn’t love the excuse to get a Mog cat or Tiger who came tea toy?). Castlemere Books, based in the US, is the most comprehensive site I found for official book character soft toys, though I didn’t end up using them because of shipping costs to the UK.

On returning to their classrooms the kids will paint/colour their own bookshelves and Otto the bear. You can download the shelves here and the bear here.

The second session will be based around Lulu loves Stories by Anna McQuinn and Rosalind Beardshaw (follow the link to read it for free online). This is a gentle story about a child who is taken to the library every Saturday by her father. Each book they read together inspires different sorts of play, from being on a farm (having read about Old Macdonald) to making a pretend aeroplane (having read a story about going on an adventure).

Each table in the classroom will be set up with a different activity taken from Lulu Loves Stories: there will be one with princess dressing up, one with farm animals and one with construction toys. A fourth table will be set up for each child to create their own library to take home, by selecting and gluing lots of images of children’s book covers onto these shelves.

I’ve spent a fair few evenings cutting up old publishers’ catalogues to create enough “library stock”, but other than time in preparation, this activity has been very cheap to prepare with many publishers willing to send catalogues upon request. (If you were working with older kids you could simply give them the catalogues and ask them to do some fantasy shopping – seeing what books they themselves would chose for their library would no doubt be very informative.)

On a fifth table children will be able to cut out Lulu bookplates. These are available as part of an activity guide on the US publisher’s website. Don’t be confused by the name change – Lulu (in the UK) becomes known as Lola (in the US), but this doesn’t affect the bookplates.

This session will be rounded off by reading Lulu reads to Zeki also by Anna McQuinn and Rosalind Beardshaw, which is a simply delightful (and funny) window into a later stage in Lulu’s life;she now has a younger brother, and is passing on the love of books her father instilled in her to little Zeki, reading to him whenever possible.

The third session for the 3-5 year olds will open with a reading of I Love My Little Story Book by Anita Jeram, which is all about the delights you can find inside different books, and the various places they can transport you to.

Each child will have the opportunity to make their own bunny which comes with a hidden story book of its own. It’s a simple collage activity to make the bunny out of an envelope, a pompom, some dried spaghetti, googly eyes and cardboard ears, all stuck on to an envelope, inside which each child will find a blank mini book (blue to match the one in the story). Kids will be encouraged to make the story book their own with whatever mark-making they like.

The mini books are each made from a sheet of A4 paper, using this technique, my favourite way of making small paper books as it requires no sticking or stapling.

As well as there being tables set up with fairy tale activities (castles and knights to play with, dressing up, plastic animals in a forest play scene) kids will also be able to colour in and cut out several book plates designed by Anita Jeram.

These are all available to freely download (as long as you’re not using them for commercial purposes) from this brilliant website, http://www.myhomelibrary.org/, created by former Children’s Laureate, Anne Fine.

If time allows a reading of I like books by Anthony Browne will finish off this session. This is a very simple introduction to different types of books with just one sentence on each page. It’s a great reminder that there are all different sorts of books you can enjoy reading, not just story books.

The fourth session of the day will be based around an all time classic, Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Once the story has been shared, each child will be given their own cardboard treasure chest to embellish with sticky jewels. I sourced some great treasure chests (from http://www.littlecraftybugs.co.uk/) so large that kids will be able to store favourite books inside them.

Elsewhere in the classroom during this session kids will have the opportunity to dig for buried treasure in a sandpit, make aliens out of green playdough, and play with plastic dragons, as well as the chance to colour in this Charlie Cook sheet which you can download from the official Gruffalo website, or to draw their favourite book on this Charlie Cook activity sheet from the US Scholastic website.

This session will be wrapped up with a reading of We are in a book by Mo Willems – a perfect book for this age range where the oldest kids may well be able to join in with reading this funny story about what characters in a book think about their readers.

And as well as all of this, all classes will have a session with the award winning author who is coming to join the school for the day… but more about this in a later post!

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I hope lots of you are getting ready to celebrate International Book Giving Day on February 14th If you do decide to give a book, even if it’s just one, please do let us know what you did, and how you enjoyed the day.

We invite those of you with blogs to share stories of how you celebrate International Book Giving Day via our International Book Giving Day blog hop!

One of the things that makes International Book Giving Day special is connecting with others from around the world who are giving books to kids! This blog hop offers one way for people from around the world to connect and share stories of how they celebrated International Book Giving Day.

To participate:

1. Write a post describing how you celebrated International Book Giving Day! A short and sweet post (e.g. a photo of you or your child leaving a book in a waiting room) would be great – just write and share whatever and however you like.

2. On February 21st or shortly after, add a link to your post to our blog hop at any of our host blogs:

My Book Corner (Australia)
Playing by the Book (U.K.)
Mommy Labs (India)
Gathering Books (Singapore)
Try Curiosity (Hungary)
sharpread (U.S.)
My Best Friends Are Books (New Zealand)
Jojoebi Designs (Japan)
Kids Indoors (Brazil)
se7en (South Africa)
Asia in the Heart (Philippines)
Delightful Children’s Books (U.S.)

The entire collection of links to stories about how people celebrated International Book Giving Day will be available at each of these blogs. The blog hop will remain live through March 21st.

For those of you without blogs:

We invite you to share photos via Instagram or Twitter by adding the tag #giveabook. You are also invited to email photos to amy dot broadmoore at gmail dot com, and we will share them here at International Book Giving Day’s website.

You can see how others around the world are celebrating International Book Giving Day by 1. following Instagram photos and tweets tagged #giveabook, 2. looking at the photos and stories that we share here at International Book Giving Day’s website, and 3. reading stories shared by bloggers as part of the International Book Giving Day blog hop.

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We’ve had a lot of snow this week and one of the ways we’ve been really enjoying it is by using it as an excuse to return to some favourite wintry books/scenes. First up we made Sugar Snow, inspired by the classic description in Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

I boiled up a jar of maple syrup, using a jam thermometer to tell me when it got to the firm ball stage. This took about 10 minutes. Then I poured the bubbling mixture onto fresh snow, where the maple syrup immediately hardened into Sugar Snow.

The Sugar Snow was delicious but very, very chewy – not one if you’ve got wobbly teeth!

Next we made an igloo, inside which we told stories, and reminisced about Holly Webb’s The Snow Bear (which we reviewed here), and the utterly gorgeous picture book Immi by Karin Littlewood (which we reviewed here).

I also brought the snow theme into my school story + craft sessions, and read Penguin and Pinecone by Salina Yoon. This simply illustrated book is quite literally full of heart (you’ll have to read it to see what I mean). The pictures are great for the youngest of listeners who appreciate bold, uncomplicated pictures, the penguin is undeniably cute and the story is perfect if you want a smattering of snow without any reference to Christmas.

You can get a good idea of what the book is like from this trailer:

Having read the story I helped my 30 5 and 6 year olds create their own play set for Penguin and Pinecone. I gave them each a pinecone (I collect these every year when a local tree sheds them) and a short stretch of felt, with a small snip in it, so one end could be threaded through the other to create the scarf around the pinecone.

To make the sledge each child had a craft matchbox, an elastic band and a small piece of pipecleaner. I prepped the matchboxes by making a hole in the matchbox drawer, and each child then threaded through the elastic band and inserted the pipecleaner to keep the elastic band in place.

We stuck lollypop sticks on the side to make sledge runners, and then we made pine trees and penguins using the templates below.

I printed this template on to green paper for the fir tree crowns and used strips of brown paper (about 8 inches long by 3 inches high) for the trunks.

The penguin templates can be downloaded here. They work fine printed onto regular paper, but for something more robust you could print them on card.

If you’re looking for some snowy, kid friendly, non christmassy music I can recommend:

This has some great lyrics!

A dreamy song for swirling around like snowflakes, with a pretty gorgeous video.

An all time classic…

For other activities to go with Penguin and Pinecone you could try:

Making a penguin out of a pinecone, using this tutorial from Martha Stewart.

Growing your own pine tree from seed. You can order some here from Forestart.

Introducing your kids to knitting, using this finger knitting tutorial from Flax and Twine.

Have you had snow recently? Or are you suffering in summer heat?

Disclosure: I received a free copy of Penguin and Pinecone from the publishers. I was under no obligation to review the book and I received no payment for this review.

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Oh Dear, Geoffrey! by Gemma O’Neill is a tale of friendship, finding out about yourself and what suits you best.

Geoffrey is a giraffe, keen to make friends. But when he reaches down low to say hello to the meerkats he stumbles, when he tries to make friends at the watering hole he slips and slides and makes a huge splash. Needless to say, Geoffrey hasn’t quite found his niche. Fed up with being clumsy and unappreciated, he sets off to find some comfort in food, with a nibble of his favourite leaves in a tall tree.

And here, where giraffes are at home, with their neck high up amongst the branches, Geoffrey is able to find friends; monkeys and birds, who also love tall trees, where “You can reach as high as the sky…and see as far as the stars!”

This is an easy book to enjoy reading aloud, with lots of sentence internal rhyme, and great use of onomatopoeic words. Both the text and the illustrations reminded me somewhat of Catherine Rayner‘s Solomon Crocodile (which I reviewed here); not just the theme of finding the right friends, but also the use of scale and splatter in the illustrations. In one spread, we only see the lower half of the giraffe’s legs, so tall is he that he can’t fit on the page. In another the giraffe’s nose manages to peer over the edge of the page, again giving us readers and viewers a sense of just how large the giraffe really is. Compared to Rayner’s illustrations, O’Neill’s pictures are glossier, with more intense jewel tones (rather than softer watercolours), and may appeal more to those who like crisp edges and a digital aesthetic.

Seeing as we’re starting to warm up for the forthcoming Edible Book Festival we set about baking some giraffe biscuit, taking inspiration from the patterns on a giraffe’s hide.

Ingredients for giraffe biscuits

150 g plain flour and 60 g cocoa (for brown biscuits) or 110g plain flour plus some yellow food colouring (for yellow biscuits)

1 teaspoon baking powder

A pinch of salt

200 g caster sugar

60 g unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

50g icing sugar plus either some cocoa (for brown topping to go on yellow biscuits) or yellow edible dusting colour like this (for yellow topping to go on brown biscuits)

1. To make brown biscuits with yellow patterns, sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and sugar into your food processor’s bowl. Add the butter and mix in the processor until it looks like coarse breadcrumbs.

2. Add the egg and vanilla to the food processor bowl and mix into the “breadcrumbs”. The ingredients will come together to form a sticky mass. Put the bowl into your fridge for 30 minutes or thereabouts to firm up.

3. Preheat the oven to 200°C (Gas Mark 6). Line two baking trays with baking paper.

4. Sift the icing sugar and yellow edible dusting colour into a bowl. After 30 minutes in the fridge, shape the dough into walnut-sized balls and drop into the now yellow icing sugar, tossing until well coated. Place on the baking trays, leaving about 5 cm between each. Bake for 10–12 minutes or until just set when lightly touched. Cool on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Although the dough goes into the over completely covered in icing sugar, it “cracks” as it cooks and cools, and so when the biscuits come out of the oven they have this pattern that is a little like that you find on giraffes.

To make the yellow biscuits with brown patterns, use 110g of flour instead of the flour/cocoa mix, but add yellow food colouring (preferably the thicker paste like this) to the food processor bowl to get the desired yellowness of dough. When the dough has set a little, roll it in a mixture of icing sugar and cocoa.

We were delighted with the results, both visually and gastronomically!

Whilst baking and munching we listened to:

Joshua Giraffe by Raffi

Gertie the Giraffe (not the greatest song writing ever but somehow it will get probably get stuck in your head)

The Giraffe by Rockin’ Rocky

Other activities which would be fun to do alongside reading Oh Dear, Geoffrey! include:

Putting a giraffe sandwich in your kid’s lunchbox – take inspiration from this post by bentoriffic

Raiding your washing line to make a giraffe out of clothes pegs, like this one on Parents.com.

Building a giraffe out of recycled boxes and tubes, as per this idea from the National Wildlife Federation.

And if you work for the council, perhaps you could persuade them to install these giraffe swing powered lights at bus stops – I think this would do a lot to encourage people to get out and use public transport!

Do you have a favourite fictional Giraffe?

Disclosure: I received a free copy of Oh Dear, Geoffrey! from the publisher. I was under no obligation to review the book and received no payment for this review.

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February 14 is International Book Giving Day, a day dedicated to getting new, used, and borrowed books in the hands of as many children as possible.

I’ll certainly be giving some books away and sharing others on February 14, and I hope you will too. For those books you’re giving away, you might like to put an International Book Giving Day bookplate inside them.

Last year Clara Vulliamy designed a gorgeous bookplate for International Book Giving Day:

This year Nicola L Robinson has designed another really fun bookplate you can download, print off, and stick in your books:

To download the full size bookplate from Nicola L Robinson click here.

If you are an illustrator and would like to design a bookplate for International Book Giving Day, please get in touch! We welcome bookplates written in a variety of languages. The bookplates must be 11.4 cm x 6.9 cm (or 4.5 inches x 2.7 inches) in size. We will make the bookplates available for free at International Book Giving Day’s website for people to download and print themselves.

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Gisele at Kids Indoors is a passionate sharer of children’s books. She happens to be based in Brazil, but thanks to blogging, our paths have crossed, and recently we swapped a few wordless picture books with each other. She sent me some real gems, but our absolute favourite has to be Calma, Camaleão! [Chameleon, calm down!] by Laurent Cardon.

As we turn the pages of this gorgeous book, we share in the delights of a young chameleon as he discovers he can change his colour depending on his background. He plays joyously with this ability (as any baby does when they discover a new activity they can master), and one day discovers, quite by chance, that not only can he change colour, he can also change form.

He bumps into a chicken and suddenly has a chicken’s comb. Whilst chasing after the chicken he then barges into a flamingo, and Boof! The chameleon has a flamingo’s beak as well as a chicken’s comb. This game continues with other animals until suddenly the party’s over and poor little chameleon is tired, confused and weepy. Along comes his mother, who reassures and calms her child down. The chameleon’s upside down world returns to normal, though his newly established, exuberant friendships with all the animals he met along the way remains.

Chameleons are one of those animals which pop up in children’s books rather a lot. There’s Eric Carle’s Mixed-Up Chameleon, Emily Gravett’s Blue Chameleon, to say nothing of Mwenye Hadithi’s Crafty Chameleon amongst others. So why would I recommend you look out for this book?

The illustrations are amazing; full of humour, energy and a sumptuousness that I can’t resist. Cardon’s acute observations of body language and facial expressions lift the images right off the pages. The sheer excitement the chameleon experiences when he discovers his special abilities is infectious and Cardon’s use of colour on white pages adds to the dynamism his story exudes. Carle and Gravett are indeed illustrious illustrators, but this little Brazilian chameleon turns out to be my very favourite, one I’m sure you’d adore too.

Here’s a trailer for the book, which will give you a good impression of the narrative and Cardon’s illustrations. (Just as the book is wordless, this animation has no soundtrack).

As I said, Calma, Camaleão! by Laurent Cardon is entirely wordless so anyone anywhere can enjoy it, although it may be difficult to find via your normal book sources. Wolf, Wanted by Ana Maria Machado is also illustrated by Laurent Cardon, and this has been translated into English and is published by Groundwood Books so is rather easier to track down. I’ll certainly be on the look out for it, given how much I enjoyed Cardon’s Camaleão.

Having laughed so much whilst reading the book, M and J immediately announced they wanted a chameleon as a pet. Well, I couldn’t facilitate that, but I did promise I would get them some colour changing chameleons to play with… and here’s how we did it.

First we got a red cabbage and chopped it finely in our food processor, along with a small amount of water (about 150ml).

We then strained the cabbage mush through a muslin to extract all the purple liquid created.

I poured the purple liquid into a baking tray and we soaked sheets of blotting paper (you could use coffee filters instead) in the liquid and then left the now-purple pieces of paper to dry on the laundry rack over night. Once dry I cut out chameleon shapes and set up a colour changing station for the girls.

In a weekly pill box (you could use an ice cube tray instead) I lined up small samples of various (nearly) colourless liquids, including vinegar, lemon juice, water with baking powder dissolved in it, a sugar solution, a salt solution, water with washing soda dissolved in it and lemonade.

The girls painted with this liquids on the chameleons and saw how the different liquids changed the chameleons’ colours in different ways. Some colourless liquids made the chameleons turn blue or green, others made them turn various shades of pink.

What we’d done here is create our own litmus paper, and by painting the chameleons we were investigating the effect of different acids and bases, combining art and science in one easy and very satisfying little project!

Whilst our chameleons changed colour we listened to:

Karma Chameleon by Culture Club (an absolute favourite of mine when I was young!)

Why Chameleon Changes Colour! from Tinga Tinga Tales (lovely thumb piano on this one)

Million Chameleon March by Ellis Paul (a political kids’ song, which you can listen to for free on MySpace)

Other activities which would go well with Calma, Camaleão! include:

Experiencing something of what it feels like to be a chameleon with this great activity using party tooters. Do watch the video!

Using tracing paper to create a chameleon which can magically change colours just like Helping Little Hands did when they read another good chameleon picture book, A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni

Making a chameleon out of pipecleaners, using this tutorial form Lines Across.

And finally, the delight that’s come from swapping books with Gisele has encouraged me to commit to running another Perfect Picture Books by Post swap later this year. I’ll be announcing details in April so mark your diaries if your interested in swapping great picture books with other people around the world who, just like you, are passionate about fabulous children’s books.

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A plague of locusts…
A pride of lions…
A flock of sheep…

But what do you call a collection of books about collective nouns?

A brilliance?
A giggle?
A talent?

When it comes to the set published by PatrickGeorge, all of the above could apply.

A filth of starlings, A drove of bullocks, A crackle of crickets and A shiver of sharks each take a themed set of collective nouns, illustrate them in witty and bold ways, a provide a paragraph of information about each animal in question. Part non-fiction book, part English-language/literacy book, part science book, part word-play book, each of these volumes is inventive and engaging.

Whether you are reading about a run of salmon, where an optical illusion allows the illustration to look both like a salmon’s head and a running shoe, or a culture of bacteria, where the contents of a petri dish looks like Mona Lisa, each page plays with our understanding of language and the way we look at objects.

The modern, bright illustrations are crisp, cool and clever. The text is informative and playful. Perfect for any kid who enjoys puns or animals, these bold books are fun for all.

With these books in mind the girls and I made our own volume of collective nouns:

We all enjoyed playing with language and sitting down simply drawing together.

Now, I’m delighted to say I have one set of all 4 books on collective nouns to give away to a lucky reader.

The giveaway is open to anyone WORLDWIDE.

To enter, simply leave a comment on this blog post. I’d love it if you could suggest a new collective noun for books about collective nouns – but any comment is fine.

For extra entries you can:

(1) Tweet about this giveaway, perhaps using this text: Win a set of really clever & rather stylish books by @PatrickGeorge2 over at @playbythebook’s blog http://www.playingbythebook.net/?p=23269 #giveaway

(2) Share this giveaway on your Facebook page or blog

You must leave a separate comment for each entry for them to count.

The winner will be chosen at random using random.org.

The giveaway is open for one week, and closes on Wendesday 12th December 6am UK time. I will post the winner on this post, and also contact them via email. If I do not hear back from the winner within one week of emailing them, I will re-draw a winner.

Good luck!

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There are not many books which give me nightmares but Snow Bear by Piers Harper is one. It was a favourite of both girls when they were toddlers, even though I couldn’t stand the sight of it (you can read more in my review here). But months, even years, after I last read that book, it recently came back to haunt me with a vengeance.

Piers Harper’s Snow Bear is about a young polar bear who has lost his mum. A young Inuit girl helps to reunite mother and cub and all live happily ever after.

Fine.

Snow. Being lost and then reunited. Cuddly animals. All good. At least for my kids.

But can you imagine that sinking feeling in my stomach when last month a new book arrived for review, a book about a polar bear cub who has lost his mother, but who is reunited with her thanks to a young girl?

Not only that, it too is called The Snow Bear and it’s by an author I associated (without every previously having read anything by her) with soppy, girly stories full of fluff and nonsense?

Uh-uh. No Way. Hide it to the back of the cupboard. Give it away to some unsuspecting soul.

I was not going to go through another round of polar bear hell.

But then the twinkling stars conspired against me. M needed a new book to read (when J has ballet lessons on a Saturday morning we have a little routine going whereby I wrap up a new-to-M book/comic and give it to M to read – a Saturday morning treat instead of sweets) and I had nothing in the house that I could offer. Well nothing other than a book I didn’t want to share.

But aren’t I a book champion? Don’t I believe that all reading is good reading? Don’t I try to be that sort of gatekeeper where the gates are always open allowing a flood of variety through rather than thinking I know best about what ought to be locked up and kept from prying eyes? Don’t I believe, on some level, that every book has a reader somewhere out there for whom it will be just right?

All this as preamble to get to the point where I let my personal demons out of the wardrobe and gave M The Snow Bear by Holly Web.

And of course, M devoured this book. She LOVED this book. She was so excited and happy to read this book. M loves reading, but even I was a little taken aback by the enthusiasm with which she talked about this book and INSISTED that I read it.

So I read it. I read it on my own.

Uh-oh.

It looked like I was going to have to admit I was wrong. It looked like I was going to have to do that hardest of things and change my opinion.

To be doubly sure, I read it again, this time aloud as a bedtime read to J.

Double Uh-oh.

J adored the book, and even on a second read I still thought this book was really rather good.

It’s about people being kind and thoughtful, it’s about family bonds and tensions, it’s about love, loss and longing, and it’s got a real air of authenticity about it.

From the historical / geographical / social details of Inuit life to the emotional world of a young child, Holly Web has written a story which rings true (even in that final moment when you have to decide has it all been a dream or not).

For a young independent reader it’s a wonderful book. It looks and feels lovely to hold – a proper hardback, with a little bit of sparkle. Black and white illustrations every few pages help draw you in and then the magic of the tale takes over. There’s the adventure of making a real igloo and camping out in it, there’s the delight of listening to your grandpa tell what seem like impossible tales. There’s the reassurance that whenever you’re lost, you will always end up being found and reunited with those that matter to you.

So don’t let any misapprehension you might have about soppy girly stories (or polar bears) put you off picking up this book. If you need any more persuading check out Polly’s brilliant review on her blog, The Little Wooden Horse (interesting not least because she reviews as a mother of two boys) or Library Mice’s review which include a video of the author talking about her book.

Given the season, we decide we’d make some Christmas tree ornaments to remind us of Holly Webb’s Snow Bear. Like the hostess with the mostest I was able to conjure up out of General Supplies some wooden die-cut polar bears (bought several years ago from Hobbycraft) which the girls painted and then covered in sparkles.

Some drilling and thread later our first tree decorations were ready:.

Whilst making our polar bear decoration and banishing nightmares we listened to:

Polar Bear by The Quiet Two

It’s Wintertime by The Hipwaders

Dans notre igloo by Philippe Lhomme

Other activities which would be great fun to try along side reading The Snow Bear by Holly Web include:

Building your own indoor igloo just like we did here with icecubes!

Taking inspiration from the always inspirational Betsy Bird and making decorations based on children’s book illustrations using shrinkies. I can’t get onto Besty’s blog at the moment, but here’s basically the same idea on Craftster.

Making snow playdough, using this recipe from Cathy at NurtureStore.

When was the last time you had to change your mind about a book? When was the last time you came face to face with your own book prejudices?

Disclosure: I received a free copy of The Snow Bear by Holly Web from the book’s publishers. I was under no obligation to review the book and I received no money for this post.

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Can you believe it’s the very last day of Picture Book Month 2012?

Holidays is the theme of the day, and in taking that to mean festive celebrations, I’ve chosen to wrap up a wonderful month with a gentle, charming, heart-melting story set at Christmas: Ernest & Celestine by Gabrielle Vincent, translated by Sam Alexander.

Celestine, a mouse, and Ernest, a bear, are perhaps an unlikely pair of friends. But good friends, thoughtful and kind friends is what they are. So when one wintry day out on a walk Celestine loses her favourite toy, Ernest is determined to make things better.

Ernest’s first attempt to make everything all right doesn’t work, but a second attempt puts a smile back on Celestine’s face. Then to spread the goodwill and to ensure that Ernest’s earlier attempts don’t go to waste, friends and neighbours are invited around to celebrate Christmas together.

It’s a terribly simple story, with the drama familiar from other tales (I first thought of that terrible moment in On the Banks of Plum Creek when Laura discovers her beloved Charlotte abandoned by Anna Nelson in a frozen puddle, and more recently there’s Mini Grey’s Lost in Space) but several aspects of this book make it stand out, head and shoulders above other similar books on offer this season.

Vincent’s illustrations are graceful, full of poise and seemingly effortless. They are soothing and calm. They are what I imagine a lullaby might look like – and certainly this book would make perfect bed time reading. Ernest and Celestine are two characters it is very easy to fall in love with. Their expressions and body language are all about love and care, about that sort of connection you feel when all you want to do is scoop up your child and hug them tight.

The tender illustrations are given centre stage by the minimal text which accompanies them. This book is an example par excellence of where the relationship between image and word is full of breathing space, where scenes and phrases are left lingering in the air to savour. There’s no “He said,” or “She said,”, no “Then this happened,” or “that happened,” but rather the reader and listener need to take their time to sew the threads together, This slower pace adds to the calm, soothing feeling I’m sure will envelop all readers and listeners of this book.

A book full of reassurance, joy, and deep, profound love, sprinkled all over with a dusting of sparkling snow and a Christmas party to boot – I’m not sure there’s a better picture book to be found under your tree this year.

Ernest and Celestine was originally published in French in 1981 under the title Ernest et Célestine ont perdu Siméon. It was a great success, and more than 20 further Ernest and Celestine books were published. Some of these were translated into English in the 1980s by various publishers, but all are now out of print.

Catnip, the publishers of this Ernest and Celestine, will be bringing out The Picnic (Ernest et Célestine vont pique-niquer) in April next year, and plan to publish one to two Ernest and Celestine books a year if they take off in the way they deserve to.

Hopefully the new animated film based on the characters Ernest and Celestine, with a script written by Daniel Pennac, will boost the books’ popularity. You might like to watch a trailer for the film (although I don’t think the animation is as beautiful as the original illustrations):

A busy week means that we haven’t yet played out this book as per the kids’ request – the plan is to spend the weekend making a pram out of cardboard, plumbing pipes and a broom handle (sounds crazy, but the plan IS a good one!). Celestine has a lovely pram which she plays with and that’s what what we’re going to try to make together.

Instead, however, you could “play by the book” by:

Making a soft toy based on a drawing by a child – Celestine draws a picture of her lost toy for Ernest, which he then uses as the basis to sew a new one for Celestine. Child’s Own Studio are a business doing exactly this, but you could make a much simpler one like we did here.

Going for a stomp in the snow, perhaps taking The Snowy Day by Jack Ezra Keats along with you.

Making Duck toys – lots of duck toys peep out from behind boxes and furniture in the illustrations of this book, and this tutorial from About.com is pretty kid friendly.

Now one last thing before I wrap up for this month…

If I could have chosen the theme for today, I would have simply chosen Celebration – because that’s what this month has been – one great big celebration of everything a picture book can be. Huge thanks go to Dianne de Las Casas for all her hard work and enthusiasm throughout the month, and for having the vision to create this month-long party. Well done Dianne! And here’s to Picture Book Month 2013!

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Earlier this week Caryl Hart suggested I watch this TED talk:

I’m very grateful she did, and now I can’t help but suggest you watch it too, although I should warn you that it left me in tears and might do the same for you. It’s a powerful piece about the importance of caring for other people, of being open to planting a seed of inspiration, one that could turn round someone’s life.

Then today, I heard about an amazing project looking for Patrons of Reading to work with schools, to promote a passion for reading. You can find out more via this post on Lynne Rickard’s blog, but basically there’s a Head teacher in N Wales who is wanting to facilitate a nationwide Patron of Reading scheme, linking up authors (and presumably illustrators) who want to make a difference, with schools who want to make a stand for reading and a love of books.

Maybe you’re an author/illustrator who would like to work with children, plant a seed, be an inspiration. Maybe you’re a teacher at a school where you’d like some support to foster a passion for reading. Either way, I think the Patron of Reading scheme could be something for you.

So go and find out more here. If you’re not in the UK, why not find out about the scheme and see if you could get involved with setting up something similar wherever you are. All it takes is one person to connect with one kid, one person to share their enthusiasm and knowledge to plant a seed of inspiration.

As Plan B says in his TED talk “There’s one person out there that can change these kids’ lives. They can come from a negative family environment. They only have to bump into one person that can plant one positive seed in their head, or their heart and it can change their life.” Maybe you’re the person that can plant that seed?

“Put in time and effort, and energy into these individuals and engage with these individuals, and everybody out there you can do that for one individual person. And the point of my lecture is that I’m one of those people, I’m willing to do that.”

So am I.

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Today’s Picture Book Month theme is PIGS and I have two books I think you’ll enjoy

Florentine and Pig Have a very Lovely Picnic by Eva Katzler, illustrated by Jess Mikhail with recipes and crafts by Laura and Jess Tilli is one half story book, one half recipe book. It’s about two best friends (one of whom happens to be a pig) having fun in the kitchen, preparing for a summery picnic, but there’s a problem when they realise they don’t have one of the ingredients they need. A dash of porcine derring-do saves the day and after an afternoon of baking, caking, whisking, wiggling, cooking and crunching Florentine and Pig settle down for a feast.

This gentle story about the delights of spending time together, doing simple things like baking, is charming. It’s a great text for reading aloud, with lots of onomatopeoic words to relish and giggle over; the author of this book is also a singer-songwriter and her sensitivity to rhythm and cadence really shines through.

The colourful, flowery illustrations are bright and cheerful. I particularly like the frames used by Jess Mikhail; many images are edged with blanket stitch, further adding to the cosy handmade, homemade ambience of the story.

The story is followed by six illustrated recipes for all the picnic food featured in the story, plus a tutorial for making picnic bunting. Given that we’re rather fond of picture book picnics, of course we road tested all the recipes in Florentine and Pig Have a very Lovely Picnic to create our own (indoor) picnic.

The recipes are really very good! They are easy for the kids to follow, using simple ingredients to create slightly unusual picnic fare; the savoury flapjacks and the mini quiche using bread instead of pastry were especially fun for little hands to make. I’ve investigated a lot of recipe books for kids over the last few years, and few have done as good a job as Laura and Jess Tilli have done here in creating fun and yet healthy food, a delicious feast that can be made almost entirely by kids.

Fans of Sarah Garland’s Eddie’s Kitchen or Jacqueline Wilson’s The Four Children and It (which features lots and lots of amazing picnics) might particularly enjoy this book.

Whilst preparing our picnic we listened to:

An old favourite, Big Pet Pig by Key Wilde & Mr. Clarke

Teddy Bears Picnic played here by The Clyde Valley Stompers

Florentine March by Julius Fučík. Here’s an excerpt from the film Brassed Off:

Other activities which would go well alongside reading this book include:

Making florentines! I’m sure these would be welcome at any picnic. Here’s a recipe from Delia.

Creating your own Pig – a friend or a piggy bank – using this tutorial and recyclced objects from LooleDo

Helping the kids revamp some of their clothes by sewing on fun buttons. Florentine’s dress is decorated with buttons, and with a little help, even quite young children could enjoy choosing and decorating a jumper or dress with some buttons. Sewing together, like cooking together, can be lots of fun!

My second dose of piggy goodness today comes in the form of Churchill’s Tale of Tails by Anca Sandu. This book isn’t published until just after Christmas, but I couldn’t resist including it today because it’s not only about a pig, it’s also enormous fun, and by a debut author/illustrator I hope we’ll be seeing lots more of in the future.

One day Churchill the pig loses his curly tail. He sets off to find a replacement, and with help of his friends he tries on everything from a zebra’s tail to a crocodile’s tail, enjoying how each tail makes him feel different. Caught up in dressing up, Churchill soon forgets his friends. But without them, how will he solve the mystery of his mislaid tail?

A book full of pastel pinks and blues embracing issues around identity, hubris and humility might sound rather baffling, but Sandu has created a gorgeously funny fable which also explores kindness, empathy and the great feeling that comes from generosity. A lightness of touch and a good deal of old fashioned silliness ensures Churchill’s Tale of Tails never overextends into worthiness.

Sandu’s illustrations are a great deal of fun, with some very clever compositions (look out for the mirror, and the elephant), and a spread which has the same WOW factor as that one by Nadia Shireen last year (but this time with a peacock rather than a wolf). The pig’s expressions, with just tiny adjustments to his ears and eyes, are superb – even in his most narcissistic moment you can’t help feeling rather fond of Churchill.

Churchill’s Tale of Tails is going to be the next book I put in our dressing up box, and I shall also be reading this book at one of my story+craft school sessions in the new year.

I haven’t quite worked out all the details yet, but I’m hoping to get the children making their own tails to wear once we’ve read the story. Although some of these ideas will need adapting to work in class with 30 5 and 6 year olds, here are some of the ideas I’m mulling over:

I’m wondering if we might make paper/card versions of these gorgeous mermaid tails from etsy seller missprettypretty

Or paper/card peacock tails using this halloween costume as inspiration

Not sure that we’ll manage sewing in 45 minutes, but I like this Tiger Tail tutorial by One Charming Party

Of course somehow we’ll fit in making Pig tails out of pipecleaners!

I might try adapting this idea from Oriental Trading to create tails which the kids can paint using fabric paints. It would require a fair bit of preparation, but I think the activity would be very popular.

Maybe a few of the older kids could try making non droopy animal tails with coat hangers as inspired by Made by K. This might require more supervision than is on offer for the session, but perhaps I can make myself one to wear whilst I read!

Using old tights and stuffing – the kids could scrunch up newspaper for the stuffing and then we could use string to attach the tights to tummies… (here’s a tutorial from Animal Welfare League, Queensland.)

Have you any more ideas for making tails? And what are your favourite pig picture books?

Disclosure: I received a free copy of each of the books I’ve reviewed today from their respective publishers. I was under no obligation to review the books and I received no money for this post.

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First up: An Apology.

This post will mention Christmas.

Sorry.

Yes, I know it’s still months away, but Christmas cards are on sale everywhere I go at the moment and so I’m jumping on the bandwagon and giving you what may be my only Christmas post all year so be generous, and stick with me… please?

The Story of the Snow Children by Sibylle von Olfers is an utterly delightful wintry tale full of whimsy, sprinkled with magic and sparkling with charm.

You know how when parents are off out of the scene, all sorts of interesting things can happen that might otherwise never be possible? Well one day when Poppy is left alone, she spies a group of snowflake children dancing through the sky. She can’t resist going out to join them (who can blame her?) and they quickly invite her to visit the Snow Queen. Her palace is “a castle of ice all shining white – the turrets like sugar, the walls smooth as glass.”

Poppy and her new friends share a huge feast, a ball and enormous amounts of fun but at the end of it all Poppy is tired and wants to go home. The Snow Queen understands and returns Poppy back to her mother in a polar-bear drawn sleigh. All’s well that ends well, sweet and simple as that.

This tale is full of comfort, joy and excitement; Poppy’s Snow Queen couldn’t be further from that found in Narnia. And the final line is so deliciously tantalising, addressing the reader directly, as it does, about the possibility that we too might one day be able to visit the Snow Kingdom.

The illustrations are full of pale blues, greens and white, with Poppy in her red coat, hat and gloves acting as a perfect foil to the cool wintry landscapes. Sibylle van Olfers’ style has often been compared to that of Kate Greenaway and Elsa Beskow, and in this book the snowdrop panels used to frame her pictures have echoes of Arts and Crafts design.

The Story of the Snow Children has recently be re-published in mini-format (only a little bit bigger than an iPhone) and this little edition would make a perfect stocking filling, especially if you can conjure up some snow for Christmas morning.

Having read The Story of the Snow Children we just couldn’t resist trying to create our own palace of crystal, all sparkling and bright.

First we made some snowflake crystals using powdered alum (also known as potassium alum or alum potash – we ordered ours online). We three-quarters-filled a clean jar with hot water and then stirred in powdered alum one spoon at a time until the solution was saturated (i.e. until we could see the alum collecting at the bottom of the jar and no longer dissolving in the hot water). We then hung a star made out of bent pipecleaners into the solution using a paper clip hooked round a pencil, making sure the pipe cleaner didn’t touch the sides/bottom of the jar. Within a couple of hours this is is what we had:

You can imagine how excited we were! We then tried to repeat the process but with many more snowflake shapes.

Perhaps because our solution wasn’t so saturated, the second batch of snowflakes took much longer to grown (several days), but an unexpected bonus was that beautiful crystals did grow on the bottom of the container we were using, so we turned that on its side to create our crystal palace.

We decorated our palace with the crystals we had grown, and then populated the palace with some painted figurines to represent Poppy and her new friends.

Around the side of the palace we stuck sugar cubes using icing sugar as glue, to further create the illusion of a building made completely from sparkly crystal.

Here are some of our crystals close up:

Growing the crystals was a great deal of fun, and definitely worth the price of a packed of powdered alum. Science, sparkles + a sweet story = success!

Whilst making our crystal palace we listened to:

The Waltz of the Snowflakes from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky

Snowflake, Snowflake by Tony Mottola and Tom Glazer

Lionel Hampton playing the vibes – the vibraphone is exactly how I imagine a flurry of happy, swirling snowflakes sound!

Other activities which would be fun to get up to along side reading The Story of the Snow Children include:

Listening to (or even making) musical instruments made out of ice. Here are videos of ice xylophones, ice drums and ice guitars, didgeridoos and more!

Making an ice palace with ice cubes – we made a toy igloo this way here.

Creating snowflakes to dance on your windows – perhaps using coffee filters like the Artful Parent did here.

So… is Christmas on your radar yet? Are any books you’re hoping to give or receive in mind?

Disclosure: I received a free copy of The Story of the Snow Children from Floris Books. I was under no obligation to review the books and I received no money for this post.

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Once you’ve finished a book what do you do with it? Shelve it away so it can barely be seen?

How about, instead, exhibiting it on a window sill or mantelpiece to invite comment, to become an ever present part of your life?

Not all books lend themselves to this of course, but High Times: A History of Aviation by Golden Cosmos, and Swan Lake by Ping Zhu are not your everyday sort of book.

An almost wordless, non-fiction accordion book, High Times: A History of Aviation takes you on a journey from Icarus via Leonardo da Vinci, to the Wright Brothers, through the Second World War on to Concorde and the Space Shuttle. Key dates and inventions are picked out and briefly explained in the book’s wrap-around cover, which acts as a key for details to spot in the exciting and broad landscape presented as the book opens out.

Ping Zhu’s Swan Lake, which takes the same format, is entirely wordless. One side of the book shows the audience watching a performance of the ballet, whilst on the reverse you can see behind the scenes as the ballerinas prepare themselves to go on stage.

Both books are wonderfully tactile to hold and interact with. Printed on heavy-weight card these are books you really want to feel between your fingers.

Swan Lake‘s illustrations reminded me of 1960s illustrations, and the girls really enjoyed exploring the audience and making up stories about the different characters they could see, from the bored looking lady with a pearl necklace to the rather mysterious animals who have somehow snuck in to the theatre (they made me think of a Finnish illustrator I like, Hannamari Ruohonen, who also creates fabulous wordless picture books).

The printing technique and bold colour scheme of High Times ensures the book feels both retro and modern. Again, there is lots of fun to be had looking for details, from the family going on holiday with their rubber duck, to the zoo animal being transported by Boeing 747. This book is a great example of how science (in this case, engineering and inventions) can also be explored through art. Team it up with The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont by Victoria Griffith, illustrated by Eva Montanari (which I reviewed here) and The Story of Inventions, by Anna Claybourne, illustrated by Adam Larkum (which I reviewed here) and you’ve got a terrific trio of books to inspire the next generation of flying machine inventors.

But these books are not just for the young. Both NoBrow books are immensely stylish, and as such, will no doubt appeal to adults as well as children. I can easily imagine them unfolded and on display in beautiful, architect designed houses. And why not?

Displaying stories and illustration on your walls is great way to integrate books into your lives, and at £10 a pop I can’t think of a cheaper way to get some eye catching, discussion-inducing art up on your walls.

Inspired by the idea of displaying an illustrated story, the girls set about making their own “mural book”. I blu-tacked a length of fax paper (yes, such a thing still exists, I got mine from Rymans) up our staircase and the girls took turns to illustrate a story chinese-whisper style.

M would illustrate a stretch of paper, then J would take over the story and add her twists and turns. Because I was nervous about pen marks going on the wall I illustrated a simple border along the length of the paper and explained that the girls had to draw inside the border. This worked really well and The HWA (Humane Wall Association) can confirm “No walls were harmed during the making of this book”.

The story grew and grew…

The narrative was somewhat complex, with lots of free association going on, but some of my favourite cameos were these:

The girls’ mural book is still up on the wall and it’s the first thing anyone sees when we open our front door. I rather like how a story welcomes people into our home.

Whilst we were all illustrating we listened to

Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky (although dancing on stairs is not to be encouraged…)

Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines

The Flying Machine by The Sippy Cups

Other activities which could be fun to get up to alongside reading High Times: A History of Aviation or Swan Lake include:

Making an accordion book. Here’s a tutorial from Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord.

Watching Swan lake ballet clips. making peg doll ballerinas and more – as per our Swan Lake round up from last year.

Creating a cardboard airplane you can fly in – I love this one from Joe’s Secret Lab.

What books have you enjoyed recently that are gorgeous enough for you to want to display them as art?

Disclosure: I received free copies of High Times: A History of Aviation by Golden Cosmos, and Swan Lake by Ping Zhu from NoBrow Press. I was under no obligation to review the books and I received no money for this post.

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Ulf Stark is an author I only discovered this summer, but what a discovery! I’m very excited that he will be here in the UK next month as part of The Children’s Bookshow, an annual tour of children’s authors and illustrators across the UK.

I recently chatted to Ulf over email about his work and here’s what he had to say…

Playing by the book: Were you a bookworm as a child? What children’s books did you especially enjoy?

Ulf Stark: I was not exactly a bookworm as a child. More like a book elephant – a sleepy one with big ears. My first contact with literature was through my mother’s voice. She sat in a chair below mine and my brother’s bed reading for us, every night. It was Pippi Longstocking, Winnie the Pooh, Biggles, books about poor dogs and the stories about Babar, the elephant. My favourite stories were some by the Swedish writer and illustrator Elsa Beskow, Burroughs’ Tarzan books and – best of all – Linklater’s The Wind on the Moon (which is still a favourite).

Playing by the book: I’ve just started reading The Wind on the Moon – what a lot of mischievous fun! I can certainly see why it’s a favourite. So you listened to lots of stories as a child, but did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

Ulf Stark: I never thought about it. I was left handed when I began school – but was forced to use my right hand. So I hated writing. And I understood that a writer has to write. So, not at all, never in my life!

I wanted to be a story listener. Or perhaps a vet, because I loved animals – especially poor dogs (another book I liked very much was Doctor Doolittle). My interest in writing began more as result of normal teenage depression (Who am I?, Why am I?, How can anyone love me?). Writing become a way of escaping from myself. And a way to be / become myself at the same time.

Playing by the book: So what about being an illustrator – you’ve illustrated a few books too. Is that something you wanted to be from an early age? And now, how do you find the process of illustrating different and/or similar to writing?

Ulf Stark: Drawing was my best subject in school. I drew caricatures of my teachers. I drew animals, bats and aeroplanes. And I tried to impress my young friends by drawing nude women, the way I thought they looked.

Playing by the book: [laughing] That sounds like a lot of fun!

On a more serious note, given that your books (at least those which are available in English) deal with themes which don’t often appear in (English) children’s books (death, sex), how do you think writing for children is different from writing for adults (which you’ve also done)?

Ulf Stark: Writing for children doesn’t differ from writing for adults with respect so much to themes. But rather it’s the perspective that’s different. I´m using language as an instrument to approach my childish experiences – my almost forgotten feelings, the way I looked at the world. And when I look back I know that I was definitely thinking a lot about death and sex among thousands of other things. I find it more joyful to write for children. Perhaps because I can write about very serious things without being too pretentious.

Playing by the book: I believe five of your books have been translated into English, Can you whistle, Johanna?, Fruitloops and Dipsticks, My friend Percy’s Magical Gym Shoes, My Friend Percy and the Sheik and My friend Percy and Buffalo Bill. You’ve said in other interviews that Can you whistle, Johanna? is perhaps your personal favourite of all the books you’ve written – you must be pleased it has been translated, but which of your other books (of which there around 50, no less!) would you like to see translated into English?

Ulf Stark: Perhaps: ”A dog named Ajax”. This is a small picture book about a dog (Ajax) who gets given a boy when he is seven years. The dog gives the boy his first sausage (from the dog plate), he teaches him his first word: Woof!, and he’s there for the boy when he takes his first steps. The boy and the dog are the best of friends. As the boy gets older, so does the dog. And now the boy gives the dog his sausages, he’s the support for the dog when the dog has problems walking. And then the dog dies. And the boy goes to the sky, trying to persuade the Master of it all to give him back the dog (who is now a star). But the Master says it’s not possible. He can however have the star’s shadow, so the boy puts this under his bed and one morning he hears the shadow bark.

Playing by the book: To what extent are the books of yours which are available in English representative / typical of your writing? What are we missing out on having so few books translated? Friendship, identity, male relationships, ageing, death, sex, – these are some of the key themes I see in your English books, but what other themes do you like to explore?

Ulf Stark: I think the books which have been translated are representative of my semi-autobiographical works. But I have also written more mythological books, for example The Angel and the blue horse [this was transformed into a play for children in the UK in 2006, and you can listen to the first part of the book (in Swedish) here/PBTB]. This is about God, an Angel and a blue horse, a book about jealousy, for there is a child-god who feels sad and angry when he looks at the angel and the horse playing together. And I have also written a book called Asmodeus about the son of the Devil – a problem child because he all he wants to be is calm, he doesn´t want to be evil at all… You could perhaps categorize it as having a religious theme, but in a very non confessional way. Perhaps another theme could be that about power, a very essential part in the life of children. I have just written a book called The Dictator, about a small dictator and his thirst for power – now conveniently translated into Belarusian.

Playing by the book: Yes, that’s rather good! I hope it does well there

Based on your books which have been translated into English it seems that you weave quite a few autobiographical details into your writing. To what extent is the Ulf in Can you whistle, Johanna?, or the My friend Percy trio of books you? What is enjoyable for you as a writer about including personal stories and details in your books?

Ulf Stark: The Ulf in the books is definitely me. He shares a lot of my feelings and early experiences, we share the same brother and have been brought up in the same house with a bakery and an old people’s home as nearest neighbours. But of course, the autobiographical details are not interesting for the readers because they are true but rather because they are interesting.

Playing by the book: In the UK if you ask someone to name a Swedish children’s author, perhaps the only person many will be able to name is Astrid Lindgren, but who else should we know about? Which other Swedish children’s authors should I be lobbying to be translated?

Ulf Stark: Barbro Lindgren, a wonderful writer. Also Ulf Nilsson and Pia Lindenbaum. In Sweden there are (as in every country) a lot of good writers and a handful of really good ones.

Playing by the book: For The Children’s Bookshow, you’ll be on stage with your English language translator Julia Marshall. Can you describe for us the process of translating your books – for example, do you get any say in how they get translated? Do you and your translator discuss passages, particular words or phrases?

Ulf Stark: Not very often. The translators work in silence. And they don´t want to disturb us unless it’s very urgent.

Playing by the book: Ah, I see! And what do you hope the children and adults attending your Bookshow event will bring with them to your event? And what do you hope they will take away, having heard you and Julia speak?

Ulf Stark: I hope they will bring their good spirits with them, and a lot of questions! And that they walk away in good mood, with a smile on their faces and a lot of more questions in their heads.

Playing by the book: I’m sure they will, Ulf!

And now, for one last question: What are your working on at the moment?

Ulf Stark: A book called The Sister from the Sea. It´s about one of the 7000 children from who were evacuated from Finland to Sweden during the Second World War. Sirrka is evacuated to a family where the daughter is longing for a dog – and is disappointed when instead she gets a ‘sister’. It´s about the way the girls who start out as enemies end up as friends.

Playing by the book: That sounds very interesting. Thank you Ulf, for taking time to answer my questions. I hope you have a a great time as part of this year’s Children’s Bookshow.

The Children’s Bookshow takes place in every autumn and coincides with Children’s Book Week. Its aim is to foster a lifelong love of literature in children by bringing them the best writers and illustrators to inspire and guide them. You can find out more on their website http://www.thechildrensbookshow.com/.

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(1) All this past week, and next week, BBC Radio 4 Extra is serialising Patrick Ness’ A Monster Calls. It’s wonderfully read by David Hayman. Anyone can listen, worldwide, but episodes are not available for long online so don’t hang around. In each case the reading of A Monster Calls starts about 45 minutes into the host programm (The 4 O’Clock Show)
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5, today’s episode, isn’t yet available on line.

A Monster Calls continues all of next week, every day at about 16.45 on Radio 4 Extra (digital or online).

(2) The House of Illustration has created a gorgeous looking set of resources for teachers of science at KS2 (7-11 year olds, here in the UK, though I’m sure these will be useful anywhere science is taught). Science + Illustration? I love it! You can find out more by watching the video below, or by clicking on http://www.houseofillustration.org.uk/teachers-resources/.

(3) Finally, we’re huge comic fans here and I found out this week about a comic which needs your help.

“LOAf Magazine is a new publication for 9-12 year olds, jampacked with comics, stories, puzzles and more. LOAf is dedicated to creating a place where the imaginings of brilliant emerging and established illustrators, writers and narrative artists are collected for children to read and enjoy. More than that: it’s our aim to make it a magazine where children ARE some of those talented contributors. A perfect circle!”

It sounds terrific, but it needs financial help to get off the ground and so it’s working on crowd-funding the first issue. If you’d like to support LOAF you can find out more, and pledge your support here: http://www.peoplefund.it/loaf-magazine/

It’s current list of contributors includes Joff Winterhart, Rose Robbins, Mel Castrillon, Alexis Deacon, Liv Bargman, Daisy Hirst, Mike Smith and Trudi Esberger amongst others, and I for one would love to see it get off the ground.

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Last week I reviewed a gorgeous debut picture book, Red Cat, Blue Cat by Jenni Desmond and I’m delighted to be able to bring you an interview with her today.

Playing by the book: Hi Jenni, I was so delighted to discover your picture book Red Cat, Blue Cat – Can you tell my readers and me a little bit about your journey to becoming a published illustrator? Is it something you always dreamed of doing?

Jenni Desmond: As a child I would draw all day and it was always my dream job to be an illustrator. After doing an art foundation, I was very aware of how tough a career as an artist would be, and decided to take the ‘sensible’ route and study English Literature and History of Art, pursuing my passion for stories. After graduating, I taught English in France for a year, but the thought of illustration and drawing always followed me, and when I got back I enrolled on a week summer course in children’s book illustration in Putney, London.

Something in me switched on during that week, and I then spent the next year doing more short courses and obsessively drawing for up to 18 hours a day. I then started the MA in Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art (APU) where I studied part-time for 2.5 years. What I learnt on the course was invaluable, and it fuelled my passion for children’s books even more. It became normal to think about illustration every second of every day. After my graduate show, I joined Bright Agency who I’ve been with for just over a year now, and who have been wonderful in keeping me busy.

Playing by the book: What were some of the key points that helped shape your career so far?

Jenni Desmond: The short courses were great to learn about the format of children’s books. My first exhibition with my friend Amy Wiggin where we sold our work to friends and family was a huge learning curve and very exciting. Doing textbooks from quite early on (after sending a mail-out) meant I learnt about how the industry worked. The MA course and the Agency have both been great, but the most important thing has been the support and encouragement from family and friends.

Playing by the book: Who were your favourite authors and illustrators when you were a child? And now? (I wonder about Edward Lear, or Der Struwwelpeter given your penchant for the slightly ridiculous, occasionally macabre cautionary tale like aspects of your own work…)

Jenni Desmond: My mum was very passionate about children’s books so I think her tastes probably rubbed off on us when we were little. Our favourites included Dogger by Shirley Hughes, Burglar Bill by Janet and Alan Ahlburg, Father Christmas by Raymond Briggs, Granpa by John Burningham, The Bad Tempered Ladybird by Eric Carle, In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak, Not Now Bernard by David McKee, Babar by Jean de Brunhoff, Noisy Nora by Rosemary Wells, The Tiger Who came to Tea by Judith Kerr, Five Minutes Peace by Jill Murphy, anything by Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake, Anthony Browne, the list goes on forever. We would sit around finding the hidden details in the illustrations, making up our own versions of the stories. I still love these author/illustrators today and have also discovered so many new ones. My favourites at the moment include Elena Odriozola, Anne Herbauts, Wolf Erlbruch, Beatrice Alemagna, Oliver Jeffers, Laura Calin, and John Klassen.

Playing by the book: You’ve said in a past interview that music inspires you a great deal – what sort of music? Do you listen to music whilst you work? Where else do you draw inspiration from?

Jenni Desmond: I use music as a tool. I find that it transports me to my imagination. Upbeat music (with a lot of black coffee) makes me incredibly energized and excited to the point where I can barely sit still, but instead of moving physically I scribble the characters down onto the page, making them dance around. I work to 1920’s Jazz, pop, classical, rock, indie… everything really.

These days I try not to get too influenced by other illustrators. I get my inspiration from a lot of different places. Interior design, nature, people-watching, cycle rides, travel, textures, fabrics, films, literature, food, Japanese art and culture, French art and culture, photography, exhibitions…

Playing by the book: Tell me a bit about you and the use of colour; one of the aspects of Red cat, blue cat which I absolutely love is its colour, and yet I read that the colour came into the book only towards the final stages so I’m curious about what you think of colour, how you use it in your work…

Jenni Desmond: When I was younger I always found black and white line drawing most natural, and having to colour things in a bit of an inconvenience. There was one point though, when I showed a tutor some collage work I’d done, and they pointed out that I was using too many colours and it was a bit hectic. On the way home, I over-thought my use of colour so much that when I looked out of the train window suddenly everything clashed and looked so ugly. It was a really weird train journey. From that point I decided to create my own visual world only using colours that I really loved, that all went together harmoniously. I’ve always liked Matisse’s quote when he says that art should be ‘a soothing, calming influence on the mind, something like a good armchair’. My sense and understanding of colour developed during and after my MA, and although I’m not confident with it, I am learning how to use it through trial, error and experimentation.

Playing by the book: Printing, particularly etching, is something you enjoy. It’s not a technique often seen in children’s books – do you have any ideas/hopes/plans for using it in a picture book? Or is it something you see more for your other creative outlets (your design work, the greetings cards and wedding invites you create for example)

Jenni Desmond: I discovered etching by doing a short course a couple of years ago. It was fun working in a print studio and I loved the smell, the mess, the process, the big printing press. A slightly boring line suddenly takes on a new quality when it is a print. Through beginners luck, I entered one of those first etchings into the Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibition and got in, which gave me confidence to produce more to sell at other exhibitions as another source of income. I would love to do a book using etchings so much. I don’t know why printing isn’t used in books more. I have actually been plotting a book using etching for the last few months, and I hope it will happen one day.

Playing by the book: Cats are a theme in many of your illustrations – not only is there Red Cat, Blue Cat, but your next book (I believe), also features a Cat (Backstage Cat, written by Harriet Ziefert to be published in 2013). Are you a Cat Person? What are your favourite cats in illustration?

Jenni Desmond: I am more of a dog-person believe it or not. However, my family cat Kinga was a massive source of inspiration as she was very loud, demanding and a bit bonkers. The second book Backstage Cat wasn’t written by me so it wasn’t my choice to have a cat as the protagonist. I’ve loved drawing cats, but I think I’ve had enough now. However, it is always very tempting to add pointy ears, whiskers and a tail to things.

Playing by the book: Can you tell us a little about the work you have in the pipeline? The Emperors new clothes – or is this already published in South Korea?

Jenni Desmond: The Emperors New Clothes is being published this autumn in South Korea. It has buttons that you press to listen to the story in Korean, which is pretty cool. I am doing a few new and exciting book things but they are top secret at the moment! My friend Caro and I have just launched a wedding stationary company at foldedpaperdesigns.com, and at some point I would love to develop an illustrated textile and interiors range.

Playing by the book: Thank you so much Jenni, it’s been a delight to talk to you. I’m really looking forward to your next book!

You can find Jenni on twitter @JenEDesmondArt
You can read Jenni’s blog here.

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Emma Reynolds! Congratulations! Random.org chose the 6th entrant and Emma was the 6th person to email with the correct location of the Yellow Duck.

Emma, please do look out for an email from me regarding postal details.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and to Usborne for providing the winning bundle of goodies.

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Alexandra Strick is specialist in the field of children’s books and disability. For more than 10 years she has been a passionate campaigner for making children’s books accessible and inclusive, working as a freelance consultant in all aspects of children’s books and disability. I was utterly delighted when she accepted my request to write a piece for the blog today as a follow up to yesterday’s round-up of reviews of children’s books which include characters with a disability. So today I hand Playing by the book over to Alexandra – with huge thanks – I think you’ll find what she has to say very interesting.

And could there be a more perfect time to discuss the subject? With the heady exhilaration of the Paralympics having just drawn to a triumphant close, this has to be an ideal opportunity to look at how books can help to build on children’s increased awareness of disability, develop a better understanding of disability issues and harness a growing interest in disability sport.

There’s no doubt that the Paralympics have had an extraordinary effect on the nation. At that opening ceremony just two weeks ago, I remember gasping at the talents of the hand dancer David Toole, and then glancing briefly at Twitter to see a tweet which read ‘OMG look at the adorable little man with no legs trying to dance! Aw bless!’

However, two weeks on, I feel things have definitely shifted. And a Channel Four poll confirms it. Two-thirds of those surveyed said the Paralympics have had a positive impact on their perceptions of disabled people. Paralympic audiences quickly forgot about the competitors’ impairments, to focus on the excitement of a particular sport and the sheer sporting excellence of the athletes. The Paralympians were inspiring not because they were disabled but because they were so incredibly good!

I think children’s books featuring positive images of disabled people have the ability to create much the same effect on their audience – and more. I think they can really help our children to see disability in a different way.

Historically, disabled characters in books haven’t always presented the greatest of role models. Disability was generally invisible but where it did appear it often seemed to almost define characters – embodying their evil or bitter nature or positioning them as an object of pity. Heidi, Colin in The Secret Garden, Katy in What Katy Did, Tiny Tim, Captain Hook….I struggle to remember may disabled characters who just ‘happened’ to be disabled without it being a key aspect of the plot.

However, in recent years, some really good inclusive books have started to appear. They give us interesting, fully-rounded disabled characters, so that is their personalities, actions, adventures and aspirations which stand out, not the fact that they happen to be disabled.

It is great that some of these books show disabled people without comment. Disabled characters do not always need to be endowed with superhuman powers or magic wheelchairs! There is also always the risk that books about disabled characters resort to the ‘triumph in adversity’ approach. Instead we need books to show that it isn’t the disability which makes a person different or special, but rather what they do or how they handle a particular situation.

We need to show disability as a normal part of life. So I am always on the lookout for high-quality books which show images of disabled children joining in alongside their non-disabled friends, without comment. Books like those by Child’s Play are good examples. Their board and picture books are full of a diverse range of characters, including children and adults with hearing aids, cochlear implants, mobility aids, wrist splints and wheelchairs. Likewise in picture books like Goat Goes to Playgroup and Tabby McTat by Julia Donaldson (and illustrated by Nick Sharratt and Axel Scheffler respectively), we see deaf and disabled characters appear without comment.

I am not saying that a children’s book should avoid talking about disability at all or showing a disabled person having any problems or weaknesses. Suggesting that every disabled person is a saint – or that there are never any challenges to overcome – is both unrealistic and unhelpful. Again, one of the things that the Paralympics have achieved is to make people more aware of the different forms of disability which exist and the diversity of experience. Alongside the ‘incidental’ images of disabled people, we also need books which help us to learn more about disability.

Recently I particularly enjoyed the teenage read Whisper by Chrissie Keighery, which shows a girl trying to adapt to life with deafness and struggling to establish whether she can still fit in amongst her hearing friends or find a place within the unfamiliar Deaf community – I think it really reflects the wide spectrum of emotions, views and experiences of deafness. 

I’m also glad that we have a growing number of well-written books which remind children that disability isn’t just about wheelchairs – but also Asperger’s Syndrome, mental lillness, learning disability or facial disfigurement. Then there are other great books which really challenge the way we think about disability. For young adults (and adults!), Stuck in Neutral by Terry Trueman, Naked Without a Hat by Jeanne Willis and Accidents of Nature by Harriet McBride Johnson will provide particularly challenging food for thought. In their own ways, they each contest some of the common myths, stereotypes and assumptions about disability.

There are lots of great sites to help us find good inclusive books – including Booktrust’s Bookmark site, Letterbox Library and Scope’s In the Picture website.

I hope by exposing children to a range of really good inclusive books, we can help sustain the positive ‘Paralympic effect’ whilst also developing a better understanding of disability issues, and from an early age.

Above all, what children’s books can surely do is to help ensure that the future generations recognise that – very simply – disabled people are just like the rest of us.

Some useful websites with information about children’s books and disability, as recommended by Alexandra:
www.childreninthepicture.org.uk
www.letterboxlibrary.com
www.withoutexception.co.uk

You can read more about the work Alexandra does on her website http://www.alexandrastrick.co.uk/. You can also follow her on twitter @stricolo and do check out the web resource she has created for Booktrust on disability in books, www.bookmark.org.uk. If you’ve any comments, or questions you’d like to put to Alexandra, please do leave them in the comments to this post – Alexandra is happy to reply to any queries.

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You may have seen Walking with Dinosaurs, but this summer we instead went Reading with Dinosaurs, inspired by the witty new book from Julie Middleton and Russell Ayto, Are the Dinosaurs Dead, Dad?, which is published today.

Reading with Dinosaurs involved setting off to a near-ish-by museum, The Herbert, to see their special exhibition Dinosaurs Uncovered with a rucksack full of dino treats (made with the help of this great cake tin) and our copy of Are the Dinosaurs Dead, Dad?

Reading in unusual places is always a good way to excite kids about books and reading a dinosaur book whilst a “real” dinosaur is breathing down your neck is ESPECIALLY exciting…

Even if you don’t have a dinosaur who can join you at story time, this book is one I think you should track down. For a start it poses questions about whether something which is alive in one’s imagination can ever really be said to be dead; Dad and son are visiting a natural history museum full of dinosaur skeletons and as they walk from exhibit to exhibit the father reassures the son that dinosaurs are indeed dead, long gone, extinct. The young boy is not so sure… One appears to grin at him, another tries to eat his burger. So who’s right? Are dinosaurs done and dusted or could it just be that one or two still live on…

This book hits the spots on lots of counts. Dinosaurs? Check. Laughs? Check. Child outwitting parent? Check. Stylish illustrations? Check. (Russell Ayto has a style all of his own, perhaps best seen in his Captain Flinn and Witch’s’ Children books, but there’s something a little Oliver Jeffers-esque about his drawings in this particular book). The opportunity to ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRR? Check. You see? It’s most definitely a book to seek out.

As well as inspiring us to read on location, Are the Dinosaurs Dead, Dad? led us to create our own pet dinosaurs. We hatched these from a few sheets of card, some clothes pegs (clothespins), and a few socks with a little bit of glue and some zig-zag scissors (pinking shears).

Dino heads were drawn on folded-over pieces of card. These were cut out so that for each design there were two matching heads. A cut was made across the middle of the head with the scissors (to create teeth) and the pieces of card were then stuck onto the clothes pegs to create snapping dinosaur heads. Socks went over our hands to create dinosaur bodies and soon these baby dinos were running amok.

Whilst making our gnashing dinosaurs we listened to:

Dinosaur by The Baby Grands – here’s the video for your delight and delectation:

Dinosuar in My Backyard by Hullabaloo – watch this video and try not to nod along…

The Dinosaur Song by Johnny Cash – because any day is better with a sprinkling of the man in black!

You can find even more dinosaur music in this article from education.com.

Other activities which would be fun to try alongside reading Are the Dinosaurs Dead, Dad? include:

Another way to use clothes pegs to make a dinosaur, this one from No Time for Flash Cards

Or if you’re a bit more handy with wood, you could create this moving dinosaur sculpture, also featuring a clothes peg!

And if you’ve a plumber in the family, perhaps she could make this dino radiator… how cool would that be?

Where’s the craziest place you’ve ever read a book? If you could read a book anywhere, where would you read it?

Disclosure: I received my copy of Are the Dinosaurs Dead, Dad? from the publishers. This review, nevertheless, reflects my own and honest opinion.

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A couple of weeks ago I was able to realise a long held dream: I got to spend a day at Seven Stories, “the national home of children’s books in Britain”.

Opened in 2005, Seven Stories showcases a national collection of manuscripts and illustrations of some of the UK’s greatest authors and illustrators for children. It has an extensive archive, and a wonderful museum-cum-gallery-cum-exploration space in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in NE England.

Seven Stories is located just outside the centre of Newcastle on the banks of the Ouseburn in a part of town which has a quirky, slightly bohemian feel to it, surrounded by artists’ studios.

Spread over seven floors (the name also refers to the seven basic plots that reoccur through all types of storytelling) there is plenty to see and do. We spent about 4 hours at Seven Stories and all of us, including the kids, would have liked to stay longer.

There are two main gallery spaces in the building and these host special exhibitions. Until the middle of September this year you can see Daydreams and Diaries, the Story of Jacqueline Wilson, whilst A Squash and a Squeeze: Sharing Stories with Julia Donaldson runs until February next year.

Both exhibitions explore the published work of both authors, their backgrounds and family, and the illustrators with whom they’ve worked. The exhibitions are bright, spacious and wonderfully hands-on – each little nook or cranny has something for visitors to try, take part in, listen to, make, dress up in or crawl inside!

Unfortunately (from the point of view of this blog), it was not possible to take many photos (the use of flash is prohibited to protect the exhibits, and most objects can’t be photographed because of copyright issues). Nevertheless, I hope the photos below (a mixture of my own and some shared by Seven Stories) will give you a good flavour of the two exhibitions

In addition to the enormously enjoyable and well thought out exhibition spaces there are several creative spaces in the building, places where kids (and their grown ups) can get crafty, make things, draw, dress up, listen to or read stories.

Seven Stories is situated on the banks of the Ouseburn, almost next door to a city farm with pigs, chickens and goats as well as lots of vegetables growing. This setting was a wonderful place to while a way another hour or so with the kids before we walked down the banks of the Ouseburn to join the Tyne – a pushchair-friendly, delightful walk.

Seven Stories was everything I hoped it would be and I can’t wait to return – hopefully in October to see the new exhibition Gronckles and Doomfangs, celebrating Cressida Cowell and her How to train your Dragon books.

Seven Stories is a wonderful place to visit with something for all ages. I highly recommend it!

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As a kid I loved looking for the yellow duck which hid in the pages of books illustrated by Stephen Cartwright. I first discovered the yellow duck in Cartwright’s First Thousand Words in English. There was something very magical about looking at (what seemed like) the entire world I knew spread before me in this bright yellow book.

Although Cartwright died in 2004 (you can read an obituary from the Guardian here), his work lives on and is still an important part of childhood for many kids growing up in the UK. Whether it’s through Farmyard Tales or the First Experiences series, the yellow duck continues to hide and delight kids everywhere.

This month Usborne are celebrating 35 years of publishing Stephen Cartwright’s illustrations and as part of the celebrations I’ve got a great giveaway here on the blog. Find the yellow duck and you could win a brilliant bundle including:-

a Farmyard Tales Animals Sticker Book

2 Farmyard Tales flip books

a Farmyard Tales colouring book

a First thousand words in English pack

and a duck toy

He’s hiding somewhere on my blog… so find him, let me know where he’s got to and you’ll be entered into the draw for the prize. The duck you’re searching for looks exactly like the one above, but is not the one on this page

Here are the details:

To enter this giveaway you must find the yellow duck who is hiding somewhere on my blog and then tell me where he is hiding. CLUE: On the right-hand side of this screen is a list of topics/themes and using this will help you find the yellow duck. I can tell you that the yellow duck has gone to be with another of his species created by an illustrator who is not short but who will make him laugh.

So that the location of the duck remains secret, please enter the giveaway using this contact form (comments on this post are disabled). In your message make sure to include the URL of the page/post where the yellow duck is hiding:

[contact-form-7]

The giveaway closes on Wednesday September 12th 6am. The winner will be selected at random from those who have told me where the yellow duck is hiding, and will be contacted via email that day. The winner will have one week to get back in touch with me with their postal address. If I have not heard from the winner by September 17th I will redraw the winner.

This giveaway is open to UK residents only.

Whether or not you can find the yellow duck on my blog you can follow him on twitter @Find_the_Duck and find him on Facebook www.facebook.com/usbornelittleyellowduck.

Wishing you lots of luck with finding the duck!

So far 0 people have entered this giveaway.

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I’m a great believer in the power of seeing an author / illustrator live to spark kids’ imagination and excitement about reading. So you can imagine how much I like the idea of The Children’s Bookshow, an organization which arranges an annual tour of children’s authors and illustrators across the UK.

The tour takes place in the autumn and its aim is to foster a lifelong love of literature in children by bringing them the best writers and illustrators to inspire and guide them. One of this year’s featured author/illustrators is the Belgian illustrator Carll Cneut.

Born in 1969 in a small village on the Belgian/French border Carll did not grow up dreaming of being an children’s book illustrator. In fact, he seriously considered a career as a circus artist before eventually settling down to study Graphic Design at the Saint-Lucas Arts School in Gent, the city where he still lives today.

Following graduation, Carll worked for a publicity agency but a chance meeting let to him being asked to illustrate a children’s book, Varkentjes van Marsepein (Piglets of Marzipan), in collaboration with Flemish author Geert De Kockere. This was the start of something unexpected and exciting for Carll, his first major project as a children’s book illustrator. Now he has more than 30 books to his name! Several of these have won prestigious prizes in the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and France and in 2010 Carll Cneut was one of five illustrators shortlisted as finalists for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

My kids and I have been familiar with Carll Cneut’s work for some time now, having several of his Dutch language books. When I saw he was coming to the UK as part of The Children’s Bookshow I jumped at the opportunity to interview him. Here’s how our conversation went…

Playing by the book: Hello Carll!

I write about children’s books at Playing by the book and I’ve a special interest in books translated into English from other languages, so it’s a real pleasure for me to be able to put a few questions to you ahead of your visit to the UK as part of The Children’s Bookshow.

What role did books play in your childhood? What were your favourite books? Given how popular comics are in Belgium, and that you went on to study Graphic Design (a route into creating comics), were comics indeed part of your childhood (as it happens my two girls love Suske en Wiske – we’re a bilingual English/Dutch home)?

Carll Cneut: Comics like Suske en Wiske and Jommeke are part of every child’s upbringing here in Flanders. I especially liked Jommeke as his adventures were more based on real life. And early on I started to draw the Jommeke character everywhere. I consider those – together with Mickey Mouse – my first attempts to drawing.

From an early age I started collecting illustrated fairy tale books, intrigued as I always was by the actual book, meaning the beautiful object a well published book can be; and the images. And although I didn’t read very much as a child, I owned tons of books, to just look and feel them. 

Playing by the book: Elsewhere you’ve described how you didn’t start out aiming to be a children’ book illustrator but now you are very happy to be exactly that – can you share with us some of what you enjoy so much about being an illustrator (and perhaps how it is different from what you imagined)?

Carll Cneut: As it is – I can’t even imagine being anything else than a book illustrator even though I never planned to become one. As a book illustrator you have the chance to create time after time an entire universe between two bookcovers. Also a book has a long life, opposed to editorial illustration. But the biggest difference from what I imagined it to be, is that it is not a solitary job. I’ve been travelling a huge amount the past years, meeting the public, doing readings or presentations. The time that being a bookmaker meant sitting behind your drawing or writing table seems so far behind us. I equally enjoy all the meetings with the public as much as sitting behind my desk. It keeps me balanced. 

Playing by the book: I’ve read that your first name came about possibly by accident – your father added an extra “l” when he went to register your birth. What role (if any) do accidents play in your illustrations? I’ve heard other illustrators say that key details in their work are sometimes the result of an accident (and how this is perhaps becoming less common as more illustrators move to the computer); your work, however, seems painstaking and precise, without room for “mishaps”.

Carll Cneut: I’ve always believed that there are 2 kinds of book illustrators, one type who works from the heart, and the other one who constructs books from the mind. Both are equally valuable, but I definitely belong to the second category. I construct. So coincidence rarely happens, as everything is decided whilst making the dummy of the book. I don’t have the natural ability of drawing easily, so I work with several layers whilst drawing, to bring al the different elements together in the final illustration.

That said, coincidences do happen whilst painting, like finding a new way to paint, or having different brands of paint conflicting with each other  bringing a weird effect to the result. A good example of a coincidence in my work are the backdrops in the book ‘Het geheim van de keel van de nachtegaal’ (The secret of the nightingale’s throat ) where I needed a Chinese inspired feel to the book. I created the backgrounds by dragging different layers of paint with an old piece of board over the paper, which was an accidental find whilst cleaning my working table.

And I do love the sense and smell of the material, the white scary paper before starting an illustration. I would miss it too much if I moved to the computer. 

Playing by the book: Even though your work is meticulous and has the quality of “fine art”, you enjoy leaving it somehow “unfinished”, to create a space for viewers to add their own contribution. Was this aspect of your work something you consciously worked on, or is it something that has become apparent by itself over time? I guess this is a lead in to asking how do you think illustrators can and do develop their own style – and how do you discuss / teach this, in your current role as a teacher of illustration at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent?

Carll Cneut: It is something I always have found very important as I always believed a picture book should leave room for interpretation by the reader. A reader who should actively participate and be part of the book. I try to drag the reader into the book. A good example is the first illustration in my book Willy. On the first page you see a piece of a trunk and two feet, and no background. It is a human reflex to complete the drawing in your own head. Everyone sees an elephant, although he isn’t shown.

It is like drawing without a pencil. At that moment the reader becomes the third maker of the book. I also try to create the same demand to contribute through many other things, like often only showing the main characters in profile, but having their emotions shown through how they hold their bodies, so the reader enters into this character to imagine the facial expression. Or by spending time on the outfits of the characters, working through many layers of paint to give the clothes some life and history, so the reader should wonder why the character might wear these specific clothes, and why the clothes don’t look brand new, leaving space for the reader to imagine where this character comes from, how his life was before he ended up in this book etc… Or by adding little stories in the illustrations which have nothing to do with the main story. The funny thing is that children notice these extra little stories very quickly, whilst adults almost never notice them

I think the most important thing I can teach my students about book illustration is ‘everything which isn’t written in the text, is the freedom of the illustrator’. Of course everything should correspond correctly with the written story, but there is so much freedom which can be used to make the book more interesting, or more layered. As for developing their personal graphic style, that is a matter of thorough research of materials and their use, and of course some luck too. 

Playing by the book: We’re lucky at home because we read your books published both in English and in Dutch. Do you think the books of yours available in English are representative of your work in general? Which of your books not available in English would you like to see translated?

Carll Cneut: I would have loved for “Het geheim van de keel an de nachtegaal” (The secret of the nightingale’s throat) to be translated, but I guess it is an a-typical book, in the sense that it is much more text than a regular picture book, and aimed at older children. I also did a book called Dulle Griet, where the story is based on the painting De Dulle Griet by Breughel. It has an entirely black cover, and the story talks about hell, and the devil , and even death. I am aware that this book would cause a scandal in the UK, but it might initiate a discussion about the use of children’s books, in these times where we have to box up against the digital world. I also should say that children only pick up from this book what they are able to assume, so most kids don’t pick up on the suicide thing, they just think the monsters and skeletons in the book are very cool But that said, Belgian picture books are aimed at slightly older children then they are in general in the UK.

I really would love to see “Een Miljoen Vlinders” (One million butterflies) translated into English. 

Playing by the book: Can you share some of your experience about how children’s publishing is different in the UK and/or US as opposed to Belgium? What sort of thing works well in the UK, but not in Belgium?

Carll Cneut: I feel the biggest difference is the approach towards picture books. In Belgium we have this huge array of different graphic styles, and themes . Heavy subjects are not avoided; subjects which are often unthinkable in other countries (like death, or suicide etc). A lot has to do with the fact that picture books are aimed at slightly older children than they are in the UK. But – and I am not sure about this - also to the fact that books are often used here [in Belgium] to initiate a discussion with children, raising questions for children, rather than simply being bedtime stories.

Playing by the book: When you started doing shows about your work, you surprised yourself with how much you yourself enjoyed them. Can you tell us a little about what you’ll be doing at your Children’s Bookshow event? How does the show work, what do you do with the children who attend? Is there anything you’d like attending children to have done in advance of coming to one of your shows to “get them in the mood”?

Carll Cneut: For the moment I think I will mainly work with the energy of the crowd, not knowing where I will end up. But one thing is sure, the whole show will be worked around three books of mine which I will show and read aloud: Ten Moonstruck Piglets, Willy, One Million Butterflies.

Playing by the book: What are you working on at the moment? Another collaborative work? More costume design? What’s your next book to be published in English and/or any language?

Carll Cneut: At the moment I am working with a young Italian writer on a picture book, called ‘The Golden Birdcage’, a story about a cruel princess who collects birds. As for the English/US market, most likely it will be “One Million Butterflies”, but I do have to stress that that is still unsure for the moment. As for other languages: De Blauwe Vogel (The blue bird) and Fluit zoals je bent (Whistle as you are) are shortly coming up in Italian and French, along with a few other languages. 

Playing by the book: Thank you Carll, I hope you have a great time this year on the Children’s Bookshow.

Find out more about the The Children’s Bookshow here. Anybody can book tickets for any of the events, and schools can also book free workshops with the authors and illustrators taking part in the tour.

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Back in March you did something wonderful. You helped me to raise nearly £600 for Book Aid International when you tried to guess the number of books in my home at that moment in time. Just 6 months later I can now tell you how your donations have made a huge difference to these very children:

These kids are enrolled in Chilambila Community School, 60km from Lusaka, in Zambia. Chilambila Community School, built and supported by Zambian Open Community Schools (ZOCS) provides vital access to education in an area that lacks any government provision specifically targeting orphaned and vulnerable children.

In 2009, Book Aid International started providing support to develop a school library which is now equipped with furniture and a great range of reading material suitable for all levels of reader, and it’s this library which recently received a new batch of books funded, in part, by your generosity.

Book Aid‘s Programme Development Librarian, Judith Henderson, recently visited Chilambila Community School and met with Billy Kadondwe, the teacher responsible for looking after the library. He introduced Judith to some young library members who were excited to tell us about their favourite books: for Betha, Charlotte’s Web was her favourite, Miriam was drawn to the books that contained cartoons, and Elvis’s favourite books were those that taught him about the environment.

Harriet Sianjibu Miyato, Programme Coordinator for ZOCS said “With the help of Book Aid International, ZOCS has helped to provide books and teaching materials to numerous schools to help lower the very high pupil-book ratio. This has helped to improve reading culture and ultimately increased the pass rate for children in all grades.”

So thank YOU for believing Books Change Lives. Thanks also go to the wonderful illustrators Katie Cleminson who provided a gorgeous original illustration, and Chris Haughton who provided signed prints as part of my fundraising project.

If seeing how your donations make a real difference has inspired you, you can donate to Book Aid via my Just Giving page here.

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It’s been a while since I fell in love at first sight, but that’s precisely what happened when I saw the front cover of Red Cat, Blue Cat by debut author/illustrator Jenni Desmond.

The cats’ gorgeously grumpy expressions, the boldness of the image as a whole, the delicate detailing of the birds in flight – it made me catch my breath, nod and smile.

And on turning the pages my sense of excitement and delight only grew. Red Cat, Blue Cat (published later this month in the UK) turns out not only to be beautiful but also witty, original, and jam-packed with joie de vivre; a gentle and humorous exploration of identity, envy and friendship.

Red Cat is fast and bouncy whilst Blue Cat is clever and creative. They share a house but the only other thing they have in common is a secret wish: to be more like the other. Try as they might, all they end up doing is fighting and getting in a big mess. Finally it dawns on them that not only is imitation really the sincerest form of flattery, but happiness also comes more easily if your comfortable with the skin you’re in. A friendship is born based on acceptance and appreciation of difference.

Desmond tells a great story, full of giggles (regular readers of my blog should be delighted to know there are more pants on heads!) as well as having a more thoughtful side. Her illustrations are clean, fresh and eyecatching. Definitely a talent I hope to see much more of in the future.

Inspired by the terraced housing on the title page of Red Cat, Blue Cat we set about creating our own street scene with cats.

We each had a bunch of plain white postcards onto which we drew house fronts. We use origami paper for the roof tiles and added telegraph poles and wires made from barbecue skewers and yarn, and chimney smoke made from toy stuffing fibre.

M added TV aerials made from paper clips and passport photo booth images of us looking out of windows.

I particularly like the bird nesting in the chimney of the house below, and the bicycle in front on the road.

Whilst making our street collage we listened to:

Cat Quartet by James Gill and Frank Young – out of tune but definitely made us smile:

Boy Who Turned Into A Cat by Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Cat in a Bathysphere by The Hipwaders

Other activities which would work well alongside Red Cat, Blue Cat include:

Colour collecting (each cat collects and eats things of the other cat’s colour in an attempt to change colour) – using this idea from Crafts’n'Things for Children you could go an a hunt for red and blue treasures. Older kids might enjoy a similar photo project, like this one described by Family Blog Tips.

Making your own cat softies – I like this one from Sew Delicious and this one from Hoogli Art.

Eating food which makes your tongue change colour – you could try powerade, blackjacks, beetroot or M&Ms. Go on, you know you want the excuse to play and pull silly faces with your kids in front of a mirror…

So what’s the last book you judged by its cover? Was it one you didn’t read because of the way it looked, or one you bought straight off because the front cover spoke to you?

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Welcome to “I’m looking for a book about….”, the topic-themed monthly carnival of children’s literature.

Every month I’ll be encouraging anyone who likes to review books for children (of any age) to leave links to their reviews of books that match the given month’s theme. The idea is that over time, this carnival will become a resource for parents, teachers, carers, librarians looking for books by subject.

Old reviews, new reviews, and reviews for any age are welcome. You may also submit multiple reviews, as long as they are all relevant to this month’s theme.

This month’s theme is…

**Disability**

I say theme, but actually I’m hoping that we’ll create a resource of books which are about all sorts of things, which just happen to feature characters with some disability, rather than disability being the sole focus of the books in question. I’m hoping that with the close yesterday of the 2012 Paralympics, lots of children will have seen many more people with varying disabilities and that it will have been both a topic of conversation and also something “normal”, part of everyday life.

Let’s kick off this round up with a review from Sandie at Picturebooks in ELT of Susan Laughs by Jeanne Willis, illustrated by Tony Ross. As the blurb on the book cover says “Without being condescending or preachy, the words, pictures and design of this very simple picturebook show that a physically disabled child is ‘just like me, just like you’”

Denise, writing at the Nerdy Book Club, has a whole shelf-ful of books to recommend featuring characters with disabilities ranging from speech difficulties to Downs Syndrome. The list, mostly of picture books, was inspired after a reading of Wonder by R.J. Palacio.

Over on the Nosy Crow blog there is a wonderful list of books and other lists of books featuring characters with hearing and or sight loss. Do check out the comments for even more useful ideas about (reading and writing) books which include characters with a disability.

Looking forward to discovering more books as you link to your reviews (new or old) of children’s books which include a character with a disability. Please add them by clicking on the blue “Add your link” button below, or by leaving them in the comments.

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