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The Bear With Sticky Paws Won't Go To Bed by Clara Vullimay is a night adventure that takes Lily and her bear friend on a magical bed to a tropical island. As the party starts the Bear fills himself with goodies. They build sand castles, play volleyball, and pick coconuts. However, soon Lily starts to get tired. The bear is still wide awake. He dresses up in an Hawaii outfit and whirls and twirls until Lily calls out, "No more! It's my bedtime." As the Bear dances away Lily starts to fall asleep and is tucked in my her mother.

This is a sweet and imaginative way to say goodnight to a child.

Inside the front cover is a tag similar to the one Paddington Bear wore that reads This Bear with Sticky Paws book belongs to: ___________ (a little space left for a children's name) and a warning KEEP YOUR PAWS OFF and a sticky print!

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Last week the UK Secretary for Education Michael Gove suggested that children as young as 11 should be reading 50 books a year as part of a drive to raise literacy standards. This raised a lot of eyebrows amongst the British book-loving public, not least as it comes following large cuts in funding for libraries in the UK.

Whilst most commentators of course agreed that reading should be encouraged, many argued against a prescribed list of set length:

“I feel it’s the quality of children’s reading experience that really matters. Pleasure, engagement and enjoyment of books is what counts – not simply meeting targets” ~ Anthony Browne
“The important aim is a reading that should be wide and deep rather than numerical” ~Alan Garner
“When it comes to reading books children should be allowed – and encouraged – to read as much rubbish as they want to” ~ Philip Pullman

In response to Gove’s 50 books a year suggestion, The Independent newspaper published an article “The 50 books every child should read“, containing books for 11 year olds suggested by Philip Pullman, Michael Morpurgo, Michael Rosen and others. This list gave me lots of food for thought. Of course I want to do all I can to encourage a love of reading in my children, and one of the ways I do this is by reading lots and lots to them – if they don’t love books when they are 6 it’s unlikely they’ll love books when they are 11 or 16.

So I try to let them read whenever or whatever they want, but I also try to ensure they’re surrounded by superb, stimulating, brilliant and breathtaking (picture) books. But how do I, you, or any other person discover and choose such books?

I approached six brilliant UK-based illustrators and asked them to contribute towards a list of books every child should be read. Tim Hopgood, James Mayhew, Jan Pieńkowski, Katie Cleminson, Viviane Schwarz and Clara Vulliamy all very gamely accepted my challenge of producing a list of 10 or so books each that they love.

This list is not prescriptive, this list is personal. This list does not claim to be the definitive top 50 picture books of all time, although it certainly would create a fantastic library for any child. This list is merely a starting point and this list, hopefully, will generate lots of discussion; I look forward to hearing what you think about the books, authors and illustrators which have been included (and those which have been left out).

Tim Hopgood

Tim says “This is not my top 10 – that would be impossible! My top 10 changes constantly as I discover more and more new (or sometimes old) picture books to add to my collection. And I don’t claim to be an expert on what makes a great picture book. The list I’ve put together is simply 10 books that I find inspiring and enjoyable to look at time and time again and hope others will too!”

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I’m so excited! The wonderfully talented, super generous author and illustrator Clara Vulliamy is kicking off a new series here on Playing by the book today.

Every month (where possible), she is going share some ideas to encourage children to tell stories of their own, using the monthly theme from the “I’m looking for a book about…” carnival. She and I will be turning her prompts into a library of mini books you can print off and give to the kids in your life (and yourself!), along with a blank mini-book ready and waiting for stories and illustrations to fill its pages.

These mini books are unique little treats, and Clara and I hope that with her prompts, and a great list of books to read/share from the monthly carnival, we’ll be firing up imaginations and encouraging kids, young and old, to create tales of their own.

As Clara says…

I’ll suggest a starting point, a few nudges along the way to keep the story flowing along and an inspiring object or two (I always find an actual THING helps me when I’m writing a story) –

- and the rest is up to them!

Now to the first mini-books from our library-to be…

For each book you’ll need to download a pdf file (see below), print it off, and then use the method shown in this video to fold/cut the paper to create the actual book:

To download Clara’s Small Book of Big Story Ideas (No. 1), on the theme of elves and fairies, please 4 Comments on A World Exclusive! A mini illustrated book for inspiring young story tellers, by Clara Vulliamy, last added: 5/14/2012