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Peepsqueak LOVES BEARS!  …. and so do I!! I LOVE toys!  I love weird toys, stuff animals, special teddy bears, and more. Having three grandsons gives me a great excuse to buy MORE toys!  I took a trip to the thrift store just this week to look for action figures!  I ran them through the dishwasher and stowed in my big toy trunk.  Three more trucks are sitting near the book-case in the “YaYa” room.  Its great fun!  On Tuesday I played “Superhero”!  My youngest grandson loves the stuffies!  Including my own little Peeksqueak plush by Merry Makers.  If you want to order one, you can go to the website, or call them.

retail orders online at http://www.merrymakersinc.com and retail and/or wholesale orders at 888-989-0454 or via email at merrymakers@merrymakersinc.com

They are a great toy company.  I want ALL THEIR TOYS!  ha ha!

You can also find Peepsqueak on his Facebook page.  I am going to have another book Give-A-Way as soon as the new toy gets here!  Peepsqueak and I are so excited!  I may also put it on this Word Press site so stay posted!

You can win .... 

'Sleeping Bear - Journey of the Cubs' 

PLUS! (Yes, there is more!)

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.

Photo: ucumari

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:

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

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.

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:

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!

I really don’t know how it is that I only recently discovered the gorgeous work of Rebecca Cobb. She’s an illustrator with a lovely fresh look, full of colour and a real knack for perfect observation, capturing emotion and feeling with just the tiniest strokes of her pencil or paintbrush. We’ll soon be hearing lots and lots more about her, as she has a book with Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson due out this autumn, but don’t wait that long to discover her lovely books and art. Start now with Lunchtime, a delightful story about being simply too busy to to do what your parents want you to do. I know two children for whom this is true most days, and I bet you do too!

Lunchtime opens with a young girl busily being creative, painting and cutting and gluing. When her mum calls her for lunch, she’s too busy to stop what’s she’s doing. When cross words drive her to the lunch time table, a friend or two come to help clear her plate; the animals she’s been painting step out off the paper and save the day. Mum returns, and is delighted to see the plate clear. So far so good… but as well all know skipping lunch does have its consequences, and later in the day it’s not the growling of the girl’s bear we hear but rather that of her own tummy.

I don’t know if Cobb has children of her own, but she has captured several moments of parenthood/childhood very perceptively in this short tale; from the total absorption kids can experience when they are doing something they love (an immersion that really can bring to life imagined friends), to the parents exasperation when kids don’t eat their food (and – to my shame, because it does happen in my home – the kids being left alone to eat their food whilst Mum gets on with something no doubt “more important” like tidying up). These moments are so authentic, and they are matched with illustrations that are equally spot on with observation. The facial expressions of the animals, the body language of the little girl – it all rings true, and rings with glorious colour and texture; Cobb uses a variety of techniques in her illustrations which zing off their clean white backgrounds.

The endpapers of Lunchtime are a rich treat, totally covered in watercolour rainbow rings. The girls wanted to try to replicate this so of course I was happy for us to give it a go.

We used sponges to dampen our watercolour paper…

and then we started by putting “blobs” of one colour all over our sheets. Gradually we built up circles around our blogs, giving our paper a peacock look.

4 Comments on On being too busy having fun to do anything else, last added: 7/12/2012