How to use this Page

Get your glad rags on, pull out your dancing shoes and join me At the Animal Ball by Ella Bailey! A delightful, playful action-packed flap book mixing costume design and dance moves in such a fun way, this is a board book with a difference.

Bailey’s illustrations are fantastic, using great colour combinations and lovely details. Her use of texture adds a vintage touch, reminding me of the collection of dolls’ in national costumes I had as a child. Fans of of Marc Boutavant‘s work will not be disappointed; Bailey’s cute (but not cutesy) funky animals seem to me to be Mouk‘s friendly cousins, dressed in a wide range of get-ups inspired by national costumes around the world, from kilts to grass skirts, sarongs and even leather jackets.

Each page is split into three so readers can mix and match heads, tops and bottoms, creating their own bespoke tailoring. Each flap also comes with its own dance moves, from fluttering a fan to shaking a rattle, stamping your feet and wiggling your hips: By combining any three flaps, you could choreograph your own dance!

The charming animals and the beautiful clothes combined with the great excuse to boogie make this a winner of a book – and not just for kids who can’t sit still whilst they’re being read to. It’s fun, pretty and robust – this larger-than-average board book utilises a little bit of simple engineering to make sure the satisfyingly chunky pages of At the Animal Ball can put up with lots of to-ing and fro-ing.

Lovely, lively and full of flaps – an glorious read for anyone with young kids!

Inspired by the fabulous illustrations and this video…

…we made some masks (there’s nothing like a masked ball, is there?)….

…and had lots of fun dressing up in all sorts of finery and breaking out some moves… This video of our antics makes us laugh a lot!

Whilst dressing up we danced to these toe-tapping tunes (but unfortunately couldn’t include them in our video because of copyright issues):

Animal Ball by Lizzie Miles, and the same song but in a different arrangement – At The Animals’ Ball by Bobby Short

The Ugly Bug Ball sung by Burl Ives

Animal Dance by Phil Rosenthal & Randy Gates. I’m a sucker for a bit of bluegrass. You can hear a better quality extract here.

Other activities which would go well with reading At the Animal Ball include:

Playing Head, Bodies, Tails – you just need some paper and pencils and away you go!

Reading two other mix-and-match books I love – Mixed Up Fairy Tales and Mixed Up Nursery Rhymes by Hilary Robinson and Nick Sharratt

Making fans – to decorate or to dance with! I like this tutorial, this one and also this one.

When did you last get down and boogie?

Disclosure: I was sent a free review copy of this book by the publisher.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy this post where we made a glitter disco ball or this very pink post featuring a perfect flamingo.

If you’d like to receive all my posts from this blog please sign up by inputting your email address in the box below:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Add a Comment

Out in the depths of the Spooniverse Space Dog is getting read to return home following a long mission sorting out planetary problems in the Dairy Quadrant. Just as he starts to unwind a distress call comes through on his Laser Display Screen. Without a moment’s hesitation our super hero, Space Dog, jumps to and rescues the occupant of a flying saucer drowning in an thick ocean of cream on a nearby planet. But what’s this?

It turns out he’s saved his sworn enemy: Astrocat.

Uh-Oh.

Will they be able to put aside their differences as another cry for help comes in over the space ship tannoy? Will teamwork triumph as they face terror together?

Space Dog by Mini Grey is an anarchic, adrenalin-packed adventure of The Highest Order. Utterly and joyously playful, wildly and lavishly imaginative, this dynamic and delightful journey exploring space and friendship is sublime.

Grey’s witty language, from the hilarious exclamations made by Space Dog (“Thundering milkswamps!”, “Shivering Stilton!”) to the deliciously outlandish names of rare alien life forms (the Cruets of West Cutlery, the Fruitons of Crumble Major) has had us all giggling time and again, even on the 15th reading of Space Dog. Her pacing is timed to perfection, with dramatic stretches interspersed with moments of great relief and humour, drawing readers, listeners, grown-ups, children ever more closely in to Grey’s fantastic, phenomenal universe Spooniverse.

Grey’s illustrations are equally packed with panache. From the detailing given to brand labels and packaging (whether on space food or game boxes) to her powerful use of suggestion (look out for what is almost missing off the page on the spread immediately before Space Dog and Astrocat land on Cheesoid 12, or the shadow redolent with threat as they turn to leave the Cheesy planet), Grey’s illustrations richly illuminate the world she has built to share with us, giving enormous pleasure every time they are returned to.

Although there are echoes of super hero comic strips and silent movies with their intertitles, dramatic soundtracks and expressive emotions theatrically mimed, Mini Grey’s visual and verbal style is truly unique. Spirited and inventive, Space Dog is an outstanding book and fortunately you can find it right here right now in our very own universe.

Every single page turn of Space Dog was met with “Mummy, can we do that??!!”, whether it was making a planet out of cereal packets, coming up with a recipe for supper based on the Spaghetti Entity in the Pastaroid Belt, designing our own version of Dogopoly, rustling up Astrocat’s cake, making spewing tomato ketchup volcanoes, or playing with fondue. In the end we settled for making spaceships for the characters in the book, and flying them over our patio.

Using this fantastic tutorial from one of my favourite library blogs as a starting point, we created spaceships using paperplates, plastic cups and stickers. Where Pop Goes the Page used toilet cardboard rolls, we used yoghurt pots instead, and aliens were replaced by Space Dog and other astonauts cut out from print-offs of these drawing pages created by Mini Grey.

We dressed up as astronauts ourselves, making space suits from disposable painting overalls, decorated with electrical tape and completed with control panels from cardboard.

Once appropriately attired we were ready to launch our space ships. Unlike Pop Goes the Page we used nylon bead thread rather than wire to make a zip line, partly because this is what we had to hand, but also because it’s extremely smooth and there are no issues with kinking. One end was tied to the bathroom window, the other to the end of the washing line in the garden.

Soon spaceships were zooming all over our patio…

Later we turned our hand to making hats for a fruit and vegetable parade, inspired by the hat competition which Space Dog has to judge:

We used origami hat tutorials to come up with these millinery masterpieces, including this army cap and samurai helmet with plenty more hat ideas here.

Whilst making our spaceships and competition-winning hats we listened to:

The bilingual song Los Planetas by Nathalia

Cheese Please by Chris Stapleton – essential listening for any cheese lover

Sputniks and Mutniks by Ray Anderson & The Home Folks. I discovered this thanks to this interesting NPR article, Sputniks in Space.

Other activities you could try inspired by Space Dog include:

Making space ships big enough for kids (and their grownups?) to fit in. A large cardboard box, a roll of tin foil and some plastic lids or moulded plastic from biscuit boxes is all you need to get you started. (Here’s one we made earlier).

Playing with your food. Mini is just so inventive when it comes to playing with food, but if you want even more ideas, you could take a look at Carl Warner’s A World of Food or The Art of Clean Up by Ursus Wehrli. Both of these books are massive hits with my kids.

Reading the extraordinary graphic novel Laika by Nick Abadzis. This is more for us grown ups than the kids (though my 10 year old has read it) but I can’t resist recommending it whilst I’ve got a chance.

Would you like to go into space if you had the chance?

Disclosure: I was sent a free review copy of Space Dog by the book’s publisher.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Thinking recently about books and stories which have been shared across at least three generations of our family, I was reminded of the Flower Fairy books by Cicely Mary Barker.

It was a little like suddenly seeing the trees for the wood, as Flower Fairies have long been a favourite with my girls; they love dressing up as Flower Fairies, they’ve recently “wallpapered” their bedroom walls with Flower Fairy postcards, and with autumn now approaching, they’ve been using the dried seed heads in our garden as Flower Fairy wands; as you wave them about ‘fairy dust’ (seeds) fly out casting magic which will grow next year.

These seed heads come from poppies, love-in-the-mist, bluebells, Granny’s bonnets (also known as Columbine), teasels and cow parsley. Playing with these natural objects is such a delight – not only are they free, they are exquisite. (Poppies, love-in-the-mist and Granny’s Bonnets have the added advantage of being the easiest flowers to grow: Just throw the seeds onto soil and forget, and they’ll reward you returning year after year!)

Apart from the original collections of Flower Fairy poems and illustrations, my girls favourite book is How To Find Flower Fairies. With truly magical paper engineering, replete with hidden treasures, and lavish illustrations this is a book they treasure.

In searching for new Flower Fairy related books I came across some incredible illustrations that actually pre-date Barker’s Flower Fairies:

These images come from “A Floral Fantasy in an Old English Garden. Set forth in verses & coloured designs” by Walter Crane (1899) and I found them in the British Library’s Flickr stream.

Whilst they’re not designated as fairies, you can see why I made the connection with Barker’s illustrations. I particularly love that there are so many men in Crane’s illustrations.

A second book by Crane also caught my eye. The following illustrations are taken from “Flora’s Feast. A masque of flowers, penned & pictured by Walter Crane” (also first published 1899), and again found in the British Library’s Flickr stream.

How I would love to dress up as any one of these next World Book Day!

If your kids also love the Flower Fairies, here are some other resources that might inspire them:

Flower Fairy Fashions from Artful Kids – a free printable to use with flower petals to create your own real flower fairies!

How to press flowers by Red Ted Art

Fairy glitter wands (and a great book about fairness) – an old post on Playing by the book

Flower fairies made from wooden beads, artificial flowers and pipecleaners – a tutorial on Spoonful.

The Flower Fairy poems set to music – I haven’t got a copy of this myself, but it could be just right for dancing to.

What books have been shared across three or more generation of your family? If you HAD to be a flower fairy, which one would you chose to be?

Display Comments Add a Comment

My girls were away for a couple of days last week staying on their own at their grandparents and whilst I LOVED having a bit more time to myself, I couldn’t resist a special welcome home picture book party; a day spent reading, playing, eating and dancing.

On the evening they arrived home I gave them invites inspired by the artwork in The Zebra who Ran Too Fast by Jenni Desmond. Set on the African plains, this book explores rings of friendship, how they can break and make up again – a simple, kind and non-threatening exploration of a situation many children find themselves in at one time or another. Desmond’s use of muted stone and moss colours is stylish, and the illustrations feel loose and free with lots of “scribbles” and splashes.

I used Desmond’s sun motif to form the basis of the party invites; a round piece of watercolour paper with flamecolour centre, surrounded by drops of ink, blown outwards using a straw.

Whilst I made these invites, the process is definitely easy enough for kids to enjoy too (if you’re worried about kids drinking up the paint/ink accidentally you could use food colouring instead).

The following morning we started as we meant to go on. We made vanilla ice cream (without a freezer) and tested different vanilla flavoured icecreams to discover our favourite. This was inspired by Vanilla Ice Cream by Bob Graham. Graham is THE master of global perspective. He knows how to zoom in and out of scenes and stories like no other teller of tales I know, and once again he works wonders with this understated story, following a sparrow who hitches a lift on a cargo ship. Masterful picture books often include a clever “reveal” in their final pages, so I should have known something was coming. Still, I was taken by great (and joyous) surprise with the twist Graham pulls off in this colourful, delightful story endorsed by Amnesty International.

To make icecream without a freezer you need cream, sugar, icecubes and salt. The cream and sugar go in one bag – here’s the cream, sugar (and vanilla in our case):

And below you can see it having frozen; the cream-containing bag is put inside a larger bag full of ice and salt. Because salt lowers the freezing temperature of water, the icecubes melt, extracting heat from the cream as they do so. After about 5 minutes shaking the icecubes were mostly melted and the cream mixture was like soft icecream.

And here’s the final result – definitely the most luxurious vanilla icecream I’ve ever eaten!

For full details on how to make your own icecream without a freezer and in under 10 minutes, do take a look at these instructions from the National STEM centre.

I love a good book about books and storytelling and Herve Tullet has created a mischievous and inventive interactive piece of theatre exploring story characters, plot and the need for a title in his Help! We Need a Title!. A motley collection of characters are in need of a good storyline and a punchy title. They appeal directly to you the reader/listener for help. With plenty of surprises this book is lively and highly amusing.

If you like the sound of Tullet’s book do look for Do not open this book by Michaela Muntean, illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre, one of the funniest books in our home – an absolute must-have for families who like a bit of interaction with their books and harbour dreams of writing stories.

Taking our lead from characters who walked in and out of the pages of Help! We Need a Title! I set up a book “stage” with the help of the patio doors, a basket of dressing up costumes and a selection of liquid chalk markers (you could also use whiteboard markers).

My girls love drawing on photos in newspapers and magazines so it was a natural extension that we then drew “on” the characters who walked into our patio-door picture-book.

And finally the contents of our picture book were included too.

After lunch, for some chill-out time, we got out good old staples: lego and the wooden railway, this time brought to life by Bruno and Titch: A Tale of a boy and His Guinea Pig by Sheena Dempsey. Bruno has always wanted a guinea pig. Titch, a guinea pig, has always wanted to be taken home from the pet shop by a Big Person. One day their paths cross – but does it work out how they’ve each always imagined it would? Deadpan guinea pig humour (yes, really!) and fabulous illustrations full of new details upon each reading add something special to this tale about friendship, imagination and looking after pets. We especially loved Bruno’s passion for invention, right down to the poster of Einstein by his bed.

Our interpretation of Bruno and Titch’s lego/railway play:

No party is complete without dancing, so following a reading of Frances Dean who Loved to Dance and Dance by Birgitta Sif we cleared the kitchen to create space for a good old boogie, aided by a prop or two.

Put your cynical adult brain to one side and remember a time when the phrase “dance like no-one’s watching” felt like something utterly joyous and liberating. Sif’s book is all about holding on to that freedom and not being afraid of a little bit of exuberance mixed in with a good shot of rhythm. It’s an encouraging story about holding on to what you care about, even when others seem to doubt you, a message I think every child deserves to hear time and time again.

For a book bursting with so much heart and happiness, the colour scheme is particularly interesting; there are lots of natural greens and browns rather than the bright sparkly jewel tones often used by illustrators to convey intense happiness. For me this speaks of the impact being connected to the outdoors can have on feeling content and happy; indeed all of the scenes showing Frances Dean dancing take place in parks and forests surrounded by space, trees and wildlife.

We reused embroidery hoops and ribbons to create waves of colour we could dance with.

Jumping for joy? Yes, that pretty much sums up our 2014 Picture Book Party An all day festival of playing and reading – just what summer holidays are made for.

Disclosure: All the books featured in this picture book party were sent to me a free review copies by the Walker Books, as part of the Picture Book Party blog tour. See how how more families have been partying at the following stops on the tour: 26 August: www.mummymishaps.co.uk, 27 August: www.culture-baby.net, 28 August: www.theboyandme.co.uk and 29 August: www.beingamummy.co.uk

Display Comments Add a Comment

Imagine packing up your home, leaving Earth and setting out to travel across space to colonise a new planet.

The journey will take so long you’ll be put into a cryptobiotic state. But there is absolutely nothing to fear: You’re on sleek new spaceship, looked after by a team of well-programmed robots, and everything has been carefully thought through. When you finally arrive at Nova Mundi (it only takes 199 years to get there), you’ll be woken up to a delicious breakfast and the start of a whole new and wonderful life.

It sounds great, doesn’t it?

And so it is in Cakes in Space by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre. Astra and her family are on their way to their new home but – you’ve guessed it – something goes wrong. Astra wakes from her suspended sleep, and feeling peckish goes off in search of a chocolate biscuit.

The Nom-O-Tron (a highly developed version of Star Trek’s Replicator) satisfies Astra’s request, but when she’s tempted to ask for something a little more outlandish (how many times have you seen the word “Ultimate” used to describe a dish?) something goes awry. Soon Astra is hurtling through space surrounded by cakes which have learned to evolve. Cakes which are fed up of being eaten themselves. Cakes which have developed a killer instinct.

Will Astra be able to save her family from the Ravenous Crispy Slices and Ferocious Fruit Cakes stalking the spaceship’s corridors? How much more complicated will things get when a second front opens up and her spaceship is raided by alien life forms known as Poglites, desperately searching for their holy grail, that technology which they haven’t been able to master: SPOONS.

Yes, this is a totally surreal and deliciously outrageous story of friendship, ingenuity and hundreds and thousands.

It’s fast-moving, exciting, just ever so slightly scary in that enjoyably adrenalin pumping way and above all it’s FUNNY! Add into the mix some genuinely beautiful writing (sometimes young fiction is all about the plot and the language – especially for an adult reading it aloud – can be somewhat unremarkable, but Reeve at times writes sentences which I found myself wanting to copy out), a plot which will enthral both boys and girls of a wide age range, and the subtle inclusion of some philosophically meatier issues (the consequences of greedy desire, the demonisation of that which we don’t know and can’t name) and you’ve got yourself a remarkable book.

McIntyre’s illustrations are a crazy but perfect mix of 1950s brave new world sleekness and outrageous sponge-and-icing based fantasy. I’m delighted that Astra’s family are mixed race (this isn’t mentioned in the text at all, but how great to see some diversity just as-is, without it being an issue in the book).

The top-notch content of Cakes in Space is matched by a stunningly produced physical book. Like last year’s Reeve and McIntyre production, Oliver and the Seawigs, this is first being published as a small hardback in pleasingly chunky, strokingly hand-holdable format. Everything about the book is appealing.

After indulging in a solo read, I read this book aloud to both girls over a couple of days last week. Before we’d even finished the books my girls were off to raid the cutlery draw in the kitchen for highly prized spoons to create a collection of which any Poglite would be proud.

Carefully curated, they labelled every spoon with where it had been found in the galaxy, its rarity and its monetary value (I can see how this could develop into a Top Trumps game…)

Spoons are one thing, but cake is another, and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to host our own mini Cakes in Space party. We baked a host of fairy cakes and then turned them into KILLER CAKES…

Lollies made great eyes on stalks…

… as did Maltesers and Aero balls.

We had fun making teeth out of snapped white chocolate buttons, tictacs and rice paper snipped to look like rows of sharp teeth.

We also had some Ferocious Florentines and Sinister Swiss Rolls (helped along with edible eyes).

Other characters from the book were also present: The Nameless Horror was a big bowl of wobbly jelly dyed black with food colouring and with licorice shoelaces reaching out across the table, and jars of purple gloop (thinned down Angel Delight, again dyed to give a good purple colour) with gummy snakes in them made perfect Poglite snacks. Alas these were guzzled before I got to take a photo!

Preparing for the party was at least as much fun as the party itself…

Great music for a Cakes in Space party includes:

Cake by Mindy Hester & The Time Outs – heavily influenced by George Michael’s Faith

Peggy Seeger with Ewan MacColl, “The Space Girl’s Song”

I like Pie, I like Cake by the Four Clefs

To the Moon by the Mighty Buzzniks

Man in the Moon by The Full English. This comes from the album Sarah McIntyre listened to a lot whilst illustrating Cakes in Space.

Crunch munchy honey cakes by The Wiggles… not everyone’s cup of tea but it is sort of earwormy…

Other activities which would make for a great Cakes in Space party include:

COSTUMES! Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve have the most amazing Cakes in Space costumes (you can see them here), but if you want some inspiration for your own costumes you could try these: Using a bucket and plastic tray to create an astronaut costume as per Spoonful, how to create a papier-mâché helmet on StitchCraftCreations, a Pinterest board dedicated to cake costumes.

ROBOTS! I’d pile a load of “junk” from the recycling bin on the table and let the kids loose on designing and building their own robots or spaceships. NurtureStore has some ideas to get you going.

SLEEPING PODS! For the grown ups at the party if no-one else… You could use large cardboard boxes painted silver lined with duvets, and with the lids cut out and replaced with something see-through, with bottle tops/lids stuck on for the various buttons… you get the idea!

We’ve all heard of Death by Chocolate, but what’s the nearest you’ve come to being killed by a cake?

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of Cakes in Space from the publishers.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Wolfman is terrifying!

Wolfman is threatening!

Wolfman is unstoppably destructive!

And he’s coming your way!

But let me reassure you: Wolfman by Michael Rosen and Chris Mould is also so funny, you might just wet your pants

On one level a moral about how those we demonise are human underneath, this wickedly enjoyable book about what can turn us into monsters is an enormously enjoyable book to read aloud. It’s thrilling and frightening, secretly appealing to many kids’ desires to wreck havoc and run wild, whilst (without revealing the brilliant final twist of the tale) drawing on a situation just about every child can identify with (one of Michael Rosen’s especially honed skills).

Chris Mould’s illustrations, with a limited and unusual palette, are sublime. Scary and scared eyes pop out everywhere and the scratchiness of the drawings befits Wolfman to a T.

Rosen’s story was first published 16 years ago and I haven’t been able to track down a copy to see if it was illustrated then, but Mould’s illustrations exude the vigour and excitement of the story in such a way as makes the text and these images seem inseparable. In fact, the penultimate page of this edition is one of my favourite illustrated spreads of the year; its drama and framing guarantees reader and listener will be holding their breath and scared to turn the page at that precise moment. (You’ll simply have to read the book yourself to see what I mean – it’s far to much fun to give the game away here!)

Attention to detail in the production of this book is another of its delights. From the name plate which encourages reading as a shared experience, to the die-cut “rips” in the front cover this is yet another great book (designed in such a way to support parents with dyslexia) from Red Squirrel.

Hair-raising and horribly fun, Wolfman is a riotously funny read, bound to be requested time and time again.

Once we’d stopped giggling and got our breath back J decided to make herself a Wolfman mask using a paper plate and some wool.

I cut out two small eye holes in the plate and drew the outline of large eyes. J then painted the plate with a mixture of poster paint and glue.

Having mixed in the glue with the paint, it was very easy for J to stick on lengths of wool all around the edge of the plate, as well as adding two ears cut from a brown paper bag.

J scrunched up the rest of the paper bag for the nose, added a few white paper squares as teeth and taped a bamboo pole on the back to hold the mask up to her face.

Then all that was left was to rush around the garden terrorising everyone

Whilst J made her mask we listened to:

Smokestack Lightning by Howlin’ Wolf

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Here’s the Disney version:

Raised By Wolves by Barney Saltzberg (you can hear a sample on his Crazy Hair Day album here)

There’s also Radiohead’s A Wolf at the Door with an interesting Red Riding hood themed video, but perhaps neither the music nor the video are so young-kid friendly.

Other activities which would go well alongside reading Wolfman include:

Playing “What’s the Time Mr Wolf?”, a golden oldie, but with the same deliciously fearful anticipation as Wolfman.

Talking about the things that make us mad or irritable. I know I turn into something like Wolfman when I get really hungry!

Using a pair of toy glasses to give yourselves eyes just like the characters in Wolfman – find some with a black rim, and then cover the lenses with white paper with tiny holes cut out for looking through. The back of these toy glasses (found here) gave me the idea:

What makes you grizzly? What naughty-but-nice picture books have you read recently?

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of Wolfman from the publisher.

Display Comments Add a Comment

Indulge me: Have a quick brainstorm about picture books you know for young kids which explore what it feels like to be different?

[Go on! Play the game!]
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Of those you’ve come up with, how many are about emotions rather than physical characteristics?

How many of them feature humans rather than animals?

How many of them have a boy lead character rather than a girl?

[I came up with very few, and even then I needed help from the ever resourceful and generous Letterbox Library. Between us we came up with Oliver by Birgitta Sif, Eliot Jones, Midnight Superhero by Anne Cottringer and Alex T Smith, Weslandia by Paul Fleischman and Kevin Hawkes but that was pretty much it.]

So when Made by Raffi written by Craig Pomranz, illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain (@madgiemadge) appeared in my hands for the first time I sat up and noticed; it’s about a boy who feels he doesn’t quite fit in, for instead of football, his passion is knitting and sewing.

Although he’s a curious and generous kid, he feels sidelined at school. Unlike most of his classmates, he doesn’t like noise and rough play. But thanks to a supportive teacher he discovers a new passion – making his own clothes. When it is time for the school play could this new skill help him gain the respect of his peers? Without giving the game away, the ending is upbeat, but also authentic. This isn’t a sugar-coated story. (For the really interesting background to the story, take a look at this article).

This book deserves to be in every school and read in every family for a whole plethora of reasons. It’s bold, tackling gender issues that many adults might skirt around: I love Pomranz daring to use the word “girly“, and it certainly helped us talk about how being a girl interested in ‘boys’ things’ is often more accepted by society than a boy interested in ‘girls’ things’. It’s big hearted; not just the warm, loving family Raffi is part of, but also his supportive school. It shows all sorts of children playing together, with different skin colours and different physical abilities, as well as different interests. It’s a joyously inclusive book, which tackles big themes gently and playfully.

Margaret Chamberlain’s illustrations are delightful. She uses colour very cleverly to portray moods and to mirror how much more interesting – indeed colourful – the world is for a diverse range of characters; wouldn’t the world be a dull grey place if we all liked only the same things?

A book about loneliness, respect, difference, and learning to trust your instincts even when it means you don’t follow the crowd, Made by Raffi is a vital, delightful and unusual book I urge you to share.

M and J were recently shown how to knit by their Grandma, and reading Made by Raffi offered the ideal opportunity to practice their recently acquired skills. (Here are some Youtube tutorials we found helpful to refresh our memories of what Granny had taught us: Casting on, knit stitch, casting off.

Having a ball of wool with lots of different colours on it was an effective tool in motivating the kids; each child would knit one or two colours and then hand the needles and ball over to the other. It gave them easy targets to aim for, and I’m sure this is partly why they completed a long scarf far more quickly than I was expecting.

Whilst knitting we’ve been listening to:

Lots of songs by Raffi (an Egyptian-born Canadian singer-songwriter who creates great kid-friendly music), – here’s a whole playlist on youtube.

The Knitting Song by Bill Oddie

Knitting by Arthur Askey. Massively old fashioned but a great rumble through all sorts of stitches and garments.

Other activities which would go well with reading Made by Raffi include:

Learning to finger knit. Here’s the youtube video we used to learn how to fingerknit.

Letting the kids embellish their own clothing. I found this the easiest/most satisfying way to let the kids have a go at making something themselves – they chose buttons they liked and sewed them onto a couple of pieces of clothing. Simple sewing but with a relatively big (and ‘real’) result.

Making a cloak as described in the story. Alternatively, if you can find a department store selling off curtain samples (eg in John Lewis or House of Fraser), you can pick up pretty much prepared cloaks – all you need to do is add something (eg a large hook and eye) so you can have the cloak safely stay on your shoulders as you zoom around wearing it.

If in a school or a library setting, making a display with images of clothes designed by men (Galliano, Versace, Gaultier for example, cut out from glossy magazines) and as the centre pieces place Made by Raffi and The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams. Whilst not for primary school kids, I’d also encourage you to read Boys Don’t Knit by T.S.Easton, a hilarious take on a teenage boy who loves to knit. Ben Fletcher and Raffi would definitely like to meet each other!

Other picture /illustrated books which feature knitting include:

Socks for supper by Jack Kent

Knitting Nell by Julie Jersild Roth

Mr. Nick’s knitting by Margaret Wild and Dee Huxley

Shall I knit you a hat? : a Christmas yarn by Kate Klise and M Sarah Klise

Derek, the knitting dinosaur by Mary Blackwood and Kerry Argent

Annie Hoot and the knitting extravaganza by Holly Clifton-Brown

Mrs. McDockerty’s knitting by Ruth Martinez and Catherine O’Neill

Noodle’s knitting by Sheryl Webster and Caroline Pedler

The knitting of Elizabeth Amelia by Patricia Lee Gauch and Barbara Lavallee

Knitty Kitty by David Elliott and Christopher Denise

The truly terribly horrible sweater that Grandma knit by Debbie Macomber, Mary Lou Carney and Vincent Nguyen

Carrie measures up! by Linda Williams Aber and Joy Allen

Pa Jinglebob, the fastest knitter in the West by Mary Arrigan and Korky Paul

Pa Jinglebob and the Grabble Gang by Mary Arrigan and Korky Paul

The best little knitter in the West by Sermsah Bin Saad and Samantha Cook

The three billy goats Fluff by Rachael Mortimer and Liz Pichon

The long red scarf by Nette Hilton and Margaret Power

It’s gone, Jac! by Rob Lewis

A winter’s yarn by Kathleen Cook Waldron and Deborah Turney Zagwyn

Love from Woolly : a lift-the-flap book of woolly gifts by Nina Michaels and Nicola Smee

Pelle’s New Suit by Elsa Beskow

Milo Armadillo by Jan Fearnley

If you like the sound of Made by Raffi and are anywhere near Edinburgh in August, don’t miss the chance to meet author Craig Pomranz talking about his book as part of the Edinburgh Book Festival.

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book from the publishers.

Display Comments Add a Comment

There are lots of recipes for great picture books but Rebecca Patterson has certainly worked out one of the best set of ingredients. She takes a good dose of humour, a non-patronising, reassuring, sincere child’s-eye view of the world and adds in highly observant illustrations and a sprinkling of drama. She did it with the Roald Dahl Funny Prize winning My Big Shouting Day!, the brilliantly perceptive My Busy Being Bella Day, and has pulled it off once more with her latest book, Nightbear.

An old bear has arrived at a new home; the book opens with us following him from the factory where he was made, to his first (and unappreciative) home, to a charity shop where he is eventually bought by a young girl out shopping with her mum. The bear is thrilled to have been chosen, but how will he fit in, when he discovers that the girl already has lots of teddy bears with very important roles in her life?

A heartwarming, delightful story not just about having a great teddy bear to hug, but also about the importance of having someone listen to your stories, and the reassurance that comes from being ‘picked’, about the everyday, real worries a young child can have (from nightmares, to being ill in the night), and most of all about the enormous fun to be had with imaginative play, Nightbear is a perfect picture book.

Starting with the gorgeous, dark sparkly cover, this book is so much fun to look at as well as to listen to. Patterson draws with a delightful, fluid simplicity; lots of smooth curves abound – as if echoing the cuddliness of the bears, and the warmth of the family. Some of the tiny details in the illustrations are like poems; they ring true in an uncluttered, authentic way that makes you see them anew, for example the way the mother holds the hand of the child when they’re browsing in the charity shop, or the manner in which the father holds the hair of the child whilst she is being sick.

A book every nursery and infant school should have, a book every charity shop should use to make a brilliant, eye catching window display, a book every family with young children will enjoy, Nightbear is an ideal book to cuddle up with.

Feeling sad at the thought of all those unloved teddy bears leading lonely lives on charity shop shelves we armed ourselves with 50ps and went off with a mission to each rescue and bring one home.

This one (above) looked pretty comfy.

This one looked rather resigned to its fate.

These two had fallen over and were asleep when we saw them.

This one was too expensive.

But eventually we each found a teddy that we loved, came home, and celebrated by dressing them up (as happens in Nightbear). I’m rather jealous of the bustle and headgear newly named ‘Treacle’ got to wear:

Little ‘Buttercup’ got a pretty nifty hat:

But ‘Candy’ stole the show with her badges and slides…

Whilst dressing our teddies we listened to:

Stompy the Bear by Caspar Babypants

Freddy Bear, The Teddy Bear by Ralph’s World

Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear by Elvis Presley

Other fun activities to get up to alongside reading Nightbear include:

Making a patchwork blanket. Even the youngest kids can have fun making a paper collage out of coloured squares, whilst older kids could paint fabric in blocks of colour (thinned down acrylic paint is great for this if you don’t want to get dedicated fabric paint).

Having a Teddy Bears’ Picnic! A blanket, some bears, some biscuits… oh and a good book or two and you’re all set!

Ready Baggy Brown by Mick Inkpen for another great view of a teddy bear factory line

Enjoying these pictures of really old teddies and wondering what sort of lives they’ve led

Have you a favourite teddy bear? Or a teddy bear who is assigned a special job?

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher.

Display Comments Add a Comment

It's cupcakes from now on.




Yummy Cake Books:

The High Rise Glorious Skittle Skat Roarious
High Pie Angel Food Cake - Nancy Willard, Richard Jesse Watson
The Woman Who Flummoxed the Fairies - Heather Forest, Susan Gaber
Round is a Mooncake - Roseanne Thong, Grace Lin 
Clever Jack Takes the Cake - Candace Fleming, G. Brian Karas
Mud is Cake - Pam Munoz Ryan
Thunder Cake - Patricia Polacco
Moon Cake - Frank Asch
Babycakes - Karma Wilson, Sam Williams
The Fairy Tale Cake - Mark Sperring, Jonathan Langley

What are your favorite yummy books?

Display Comments Add a Comment

Display Comments Add a Comment

How To Get a Job By Me The Boss. Sally Lloyd Jones and Sue Heap. 2011. Random House. 40 pages.

If you want to get a Job, first you need to know what exactly a Job is. A Job is so you can have something to do and get money for your family. And sometimes a Job is so you can get all dressed up and wear your new shoes to work. Some jobs are very BIG. Like President of the WORLD. Some jobs are very small. Like Balloon Holder.

I am a big fan of Sally Lloyd Jones. I have enjoyed each of her "How To" books: How To Be A Baby...by Me, the Big Sister, How to Get Married...by Me, the Bride, and now How To Get A Job...by Me, The Boss. Each book has been fun, with lots of little details that make it work. Small things, really, that bring a smile to your face. For example, this little informative note to readers:

Here's what ISN'T a JOB:
Sitting in your chair eating cookies.
(School is a sort of job because you do HOMEWORK.
Except they don't pay you ANY MONEY.)

and yet another informative note to readers:

Here's What Else You Do If You're A Doctor:
Look inside patients' mouths for germs and tonsils
Listen with your stethoscope
Write stuff like "ear infection" and "DANGEROUSLY allergic to Broccoli!" on pieces of paper and give it to them.

Because the text is layered, because there are notes to the readers, and lists, and speech bubbles, this may not be the best book for reading out loud to a group. The fun is in the details, and you're going to want to read this one carefully for full effect!

The book is creative, imaginative, silly, and delightful. With phrases like "Gangrene-chicken-scarlet-mumpy-pox!" It's a fun little picture book that I'm happy to recommend.

My review of How To Be A Baby By Me The Big Sister. 


© 2011 Becky Laney of Young Readers

Add a Comment

The second Norwegian picture book for our Reading Round Europe adventure is The Race of the Birkebeiners by Lise Lunge-Larsen (born and raised in Norway, but now living in the US), illustrated by Mary Azarian.

Based on a true story from 13th century Norway, The Race of the Birkebeiners tells how a small band of peasant warriors, the Birkebeiners, rescued the heir to the Norwegian throne, the infant Prince Hakon from his enemies by skiing across mountain in blizzard conditions. A tale of courage and faith, this exciting story would make an excellent, unusual choice for a Christmas book; the events not only take place at that time of the year but Christian faith is also a central theme throughout. That said, don’t wait till Christmas to look for this beautiful book as it is also a lovely introduction to several aspects of Norwegian culture, history and geography.

Mary Azarian’s illustrations, woodcuts handtinted with quite intense watercolours, are stunning and a perfect match for the historical setting of the book. Like the modern text based on an ancient saga, Azarian’s work also feels fresh yet full of echoes from the past.

The Birkebeiners, literally translated from the Norwegian as “Birch Leggers”, are so called because their armour consisted of birch bark wrapped around their legs. Thus the journey which began with reading The Race of the Birkebeiners continued with us going on a Birch tree hunt. Fortunately Silver Birch trees are pretty easy to spot, and the girls loved looking out for them, in gardens and in the local park.

We found a dead Silver Birch and this gave the girls the perfect opportunity to strip some bark from it – they loved the silver sheets they were able to peel off.

This bug caused a squeal of delight too!

Once home the girls wanted to be Birkebeiners themselves so shields were made…

… and the birch bark we had collected was used to create armour.

Then our

Display Comments Add a Comment

Tweet

By Ulinka Rublack

I will never forget the day when a friend’s husband returned home to Paris from one of his business trips. She and I were having coffee in the huge sun-light living-room overlooking the Seine. We heard his key turn the big iron door. Next a pair of beautiful, shiny black shoes flew through the long corridor with its beautiful parquet floor. Finally the man himself appeared. “My feet are killing me!”, he exclaimed with a veritable sense of pain. The shoes were by Gucci.

We might think that these are the modern follies of fashion, which only now beset men as much as women. My friend too valued herself partly in terms of the wardrobe she had assembled and her accessories of bags, sunglasses, stilettos and shoes. She had modest breast implants and a slim, sportive body. They were moving to Dubai. In odd hours when she was not looking after children, going shopping, walking the dog, or jogging, she would write poems and cry.

Yet, surprisingly, neither my friend nor her husband would seem very much out of place at around 1450. Men wore long pointed Gothic shoes then, which hardly look comfortable and made walking down stairs a special skill. In a German village, a wandering preacher once got men to cut off their shoulder-long hair and slashed the tips of the pointed shoes. Men and women aspired to an elongated, delicate and slim silhouette. Very small people seemed deformed and were given the role of grotesque fools. Italians already wrote medical books on cosmetic surgery.

We therefore need to unlock an important historical problem: How and why have looks become more deeply embedded in how people feel about themselves or others? I see the Renaissance as a turning point. Tailoring was transformed by new materials, cutting, and sewing techniques. Clever merchants created wide markets for such new materials, innovations, and chic accessories, such as hats, bags, gloves, or hairpieces, ranging from beards to long braids. At the same time, Renaissance art depicted humans on an unprecedented scale. This means that many more people were involved in the very act of self-imaging. New media – medals, portraits, woodcuts, genre scenes – as well as the diffusion of mirrors enticed more people into trying to imagine what they looked like to others. New consumer and visual worlds conditioned new emotional cultures. A young accountant of a big business firm, called Matthäus Schwarz, for instance, could commission an image of himself as fashionably slim and precisely note his waist measures. Schwarz worried about gaining weight, which to him would be a sign of ageing and diminished attractiveness. While he was engaged in courtship, he wore heart-shaped leather bags as accessory. They were green, the colour of hope. Hence the meaning of dress could already become intensely emotionalized. The material expression of such new emotional worlds – heart-shaped bags for men, artificial braids for women, or red silk stockings for young boys – may strike us as odd. Yet their messages are all familiar still, to do with self-esteem, erotic appeal, or social advancement, as are their effects, which ranged from delight in wonderful crafting to worries that you had not achieved a look, or that someone just deceived you with their look. In these parts of our lives the Renaissance becomes a mirror which leads us back in time to disturb the notion that the world we live in was made in a modern age.

Ever since the Renaissance, we have had to deal with clever marketing as well as the vexing questions of what images want, and what we want from images, as well as whether clothes wear us or we wear them.

Ulinka Rublack is Senior Lecturer in early modern European history at Cambridge University and a Fellow of St John’s College. Her latest

0 Comments on Dressing Up, Then and Now as of 1/1/1900

Add a Comment

An oil-spilling CEO; a serial killer in mourning; and a tie-dyed rainbow meme -- the Halloween costumes cache for 2010 is vast. Faithfully imitating hip and colorful cultural icons is a stellar way to stand out at any party.


To help transform average Joe's, Jane's and groups into pop-culture icons, CouponSherpa.com has compiled two lists: 20 plus-size Halloween costumes and 30 trendy getups. Along with a healthy dose of tongue-in-cheek humor, most can be made with items found around the home or at a local thrift shop.

Our list of 2010's hottest costumes includes:

• Vuvuzela Guy/Gal (World Cup Fan) - Remind partygoers of the world's most annoying instrument by stringing a series of the plastic horns together, hanging them around your neck and wearing your favorite team's colors.
• Betty White (Comeback Queen) - This riff on a classic old-lady costume can be spiced up with second-hand sports trophies. Adorn them with labels like "Betty White: MTV Best Kiss Award."
• Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock (The New Ro-Sham-Bo)- The concept is simple: Grab some friends and decorate white t-shirts with your chosen symbol from the quirky "Big Bang Theory" game. Don't become separated or run the risk of looking absolutely lame.
• Tony Hayward (BP CEO) - Sport a yachting outfit and carry a black, oily substance to randomly spill on unsuspecting revelers. Afterwards, deny all allegations and mumble things like, "I want my life back!"
• Old Spice Guy (Advertising Phenomenon) - Isaiah Mustafa's musk-scented manly-man is a cinch if you have washboard abs and a deep, sexy voice. Wrap yourself in a towel and carry a bottle of Old Spice. (Or paint a t-shirt with abs and fake it.)

Check out Coupon Sherpa's 30 Trendy Halloween Costume Ideas for 2010

Add a Comment