Olga da Polga Written by Michael Bond Illustrated by Catherine Rayner Kane Miller 10/01/2015 978-1-61067-433-1 176 pages Ages 6+ “With a head full of stories and a nose for adventure, Olga da Polga is also quite a handful. And when she moves into the Sawdust family’s garden, life for Noel the cat, Fangio …
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Blog: Kid Lit Reviews (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Children's Books, relationships, pets, Chapter Books, adventures, Kane Miller, books for boys, guinea pigs, Michael Bond, Catherine Rayner, Library Donated Books, 5-Stars, Olga da Polga, Add a tag
Blog: Playing by the book (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Food, Friendship, Dancing, Inventions, Guinea Pigs, Dressing up, Bob Graham, Books / Libraries, Herve Tullet, Sheena Dempsey, Birgitta Sif, Jenni Desmond, Add a tag
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
Blog: Playing by the book (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Death, Sweden, Eva Eriksson, Guinea Pigs, Anna-Clara Tidholm, Ulf Nilsson, Add a tag
As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been struck by the number of Swedish books for children I’ve found in translation which are about death. Whilst researching my post about Swedish picture books in translation I came across two books that I felt were so very lovely I had to give them their own post.
Both written by Ulf Nilsson – All the dear little animals (illustrated by Eva Eriksson) and Goodbye Mr Muffin (illustrated by Anna-Clara Tidholm) are two gentle and powerful picture books about a subject sometimes taboo for children, death.
All the dear little animals is a marvellous, sensitive, funny, thoughtful book. A group of young children, bored one day, set up their own company, Funerals Ltd, to bury any and all the dead animals they can find. It starts with a bee they find in the windowsill, but before long they’ve got a dead hamster called Harold from a neighbour, three fish from a bag in the fridge, a squashed hedgehog from the road and more.
All the animals are laid to rest with great care and kindness. One of the children, who is scared of touching the dead animals, finds his forte is writing hymns for them, whilst they all enjoy making crosses, painting gravestones and planting flowers. Over the course of the day they create a beautiful cemetery in their secret clearing at the bottom of the secret path.
As the day draws to a close and they are heading home, they witness death actually taking place – a bird flies into a window and with a flutter and a shudder dies at their feet. The game suddenly takes on a whole new meaning, and as they give the blackbird their most beautiful send off “sadness lay like a black quilt over the clearing“.
I cannot recommend this book enough. Yes, it is about death, but it is so full of kindness, thoughtfulness and humour that the topic isn’t frightening or disturbing. Most picture books I’ve read about death I probably wouldn’t introduce to kids unless they were in the process of grieving (cf this round up on death themed picture books I
Blog: Shelf-employed (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: poetry, rhyming, book review, counting, poems, funny, toddlers, storytime, nursery rhymes, guinea pigs, E, goats, Add a tag
Wood, Audrey and Don. 2010. Piggy Pie Po. Boston: Harcourt.
Three very short, rhyming pig stories, starring the absolutely adorable, Piggy Pie Po - each with a humorous ending.
But when he's ready for the tub, to splish and splash and rub-a-dub-dub, Piggy Pie Po wears no clothes ... only bubbles, head to toes.Irresistible!
Raczka, Bob. 2010. Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys. Ill. by Peter H. Reynolds. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Guyku (rhymes with haiku) - illustrated haiku that features boys and things that boys like to do outdoors in each season. My favorite?
Hey, Who turned off allBrilliant! Teachers should be all over this one.
the crickets? I'm not ready
for summer to end.
Wish there were one for girls (but "Galku" just wouldn't cut it)
Fox, Mem. 2010. Let's Count Goats. Ill. by Jan Thomas. New York: Beach Lane.
Here we see an over goat. And this one's going under. But can we count the crossing goats, terrified of thunder?Mem Fox, Jan Thomas, silly goats, what's not to like? Great counting book for little ones. (You don't see the word careering very often. Interesting choice.)
Mavor, Salley. 2010. Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Traditional nursery rhymes illustrated in "hand-sewn fabric relief collages." Most of the rhymes are familiar - old classics including Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater, The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, and the like. But a few may be so old as to be new,
I'm dusty Bill from Vinegar Hill. Never had a bath and never will.The depictions of the exquisitely detailed needlework are simply stunning. Even a child who can't appreciate the work involved will know that this book is something special.
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Blog: Kids Lit (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: dandelions, guinea pigs, Book Reviews, Picture Books, environment, green, gardening, Add a tag
Nibbles: A Green Tale by Charlotte Middleton
The guinea pigs of Dandeville loved eating dandelion leaves. Nibbles loved eating them even more than he loved playing soccer. He ate them for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. But then dandelion leaves started to run low. Cabbage began replacing it on restaurant menus and dandelion leaves became a hot commodity on the Internet. Eventually, there were no more dandelion leaves because they had all been eaten. All but one dandelion that was growing outside of Nibbles’ window. Even though Nibbles wanted badly to eat the leaves, he didn’t. Instead he started to do research on dandelion and began to take very good care of his dandelion. He waited patiently until it grew seeds and then headed to a tall hill where he blew the seeds into the air. Soon the fields were filled with dandelions again, and Nibbles had found something besides eating dandelions that he loved. Growing them!
This is a very appealing book that takes the lesson of renewable resources to a level that even small children can understand. Middleton’s brilliant choice was to use dandelion greens as the scarce resource, because we all have dandelions taking over our lawns and gardens. In this way she made something that we see as a nuisance into a commodity. Middleton’s mixed media art is friendly, filled with round-bellied guinea pigs and plenty of green. The hair tufts and whiskers done in real fuzz and string make the illustrations engaging and interesting.
A great choice when talking with preschoolers about going green or gardening, this book will be a welcome addition to units and story times. Appropriate for ages 3-5.
Reviewed from copy received from Marshall Cavendish.
- Also reviewed by:
Blog: Shelf-employed (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: book review, nonfiction, math, J, Non-Fiction Monday, guinea pigs, addition, Add a tag
First up - another guinea pig related book (is there a trend here?)
Cuyler, Margery. 2010. Guinea Pigs Add Up. New York: Walker Books for Young Readers.
If a fun way to introduce math is what you're after, this is the book for you! A cute, rhyming tale of addition from one to twenty. And what are we adding? Guinea pigs, of course!
"Then -- uh-oh -- eight weeks later,After the teacher finds homes for all of the guinea pigs, there's still more fun to be had when the class gets a new pet - a rabbit! Simple, playful, watercolor and pen illustrations are complemented by a comic font. Cute!
five pets have fifteen more.
We count them -- one to twenty;
help -- guinea pigs galore!"
LaRochelle, David. 2010. 1+1=5: and Other Unlikely Additions. New York: Sterling.
Q: When does 1+1 not = 2?
A: In David LaRochelle and Brenda Sexton's whimsical picture book, introducing the concepts of addition, pairings, and sets.
One page shows two musicians entering separate doorways - one door marked Jazz Club, the other, Orchestra Hall. The boxed text reads,
1+1 = 6?The following page reveals the answer,
1 duet + 1 quartet = 6 musicians!The accompanying illustration shows all the musicians on stage with a sign reading "Double Feature Tonight!!" Other pairings include the Saltwater Reef Exhibit,
1+1=13?Yes, it does.
1 octopus + 1 starfish = 13 arms!A fun way to introduce new math concepts or practice counting!
David LaRochelle's website offers a teaching guide, coloring sheet, number hunt and lots more!
Another review @ The PlanetEsme Plan
Today's host for Nonfiction Monday is Write About Now. Writer Sherrie Petersen's got a great blog. Be sure to check out her site, and all of today's Nonfiction Monday posts!
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Blog: Shelf-employed (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: graphic novel, book review, mystery, series, funny, J, guinea pigs, Add a tag
Smartly written, funny, and filled with the sometimes brief,
"Little help?"sometimes verbose
"So there I was ...walking! And then I stopped and was like "Man, the ground is cold right here." And I stepped back and was like "Man, the ground is warm right here." And then I stepped forward again and I was all BRRRRR. And then I stepped back and was like, "It's so warm, I am going to get a tan!" It was so scary!"comments of the inhabitants and visitors at Mr. Venezi's Pets & Stuff, And Then There Were Gnomes is the second in the Guinea Pig: Pet Shop Private Eye series. The animals speak in the language of today’s kids, and take center stage in this mystery of the haunted aisle in the pet shop. Sasspants is the mystery-solving guinea pig, Hamisher is the loquacious, but not very bright Hamster, and Mr. Venezi is the lovable, scatterbrained shop owner, who regularly mislabels the animal cages. Interesting facts on the last page help the reader discover the difference between chinchillas and chimney sweeps, hamsters and gnomes, and other common mix-ups. ;)
a spread from the first book in the Guinea Pig Private Eye series |
A small, slim graphic novel, it may appear to be for the very young, but it's funny and trendy enough for kids up to 5th grade. Also available in e-book format.
Graphic Universe, a division of Lerner Publishing Group, leaves me nothing to complain about. This book is clearly and definitively classified as follows:
Reading Level 3
Interest Level 2-5
Ages 7-11
Lexile 220
ATOS 2.6
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Blog: Bugs and Bunnies (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: book review, humor, children's author, Stink, Megan McDonald, guinea pigs, Add a tag
When they finally got unstuck, Stink looked at the Great Wall. He could not believe his eyes. The Great Wall was moving. The Great Wall was quaking. "Look!" he said, pointing.
Blog: OUPblog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Politics, Current Events, American History, color, president, skin, american, A-Featured, African American Studies, black, oupblog, african, invisible, obama, garvey, ‘garvey, marcus, barack, demographic, Add a tag
Colin Grant is the son of Jamaican parents who moved to Britain in the late 1950s. He spent 5 years studying medicine before turning to the stage. He has written and produced numerous plays and is currently a producer for BBC Radio. In his new book, Negro with a a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey Grant looks at one of the most controversial figures in African-American history. Both worshiped and despised, Garvey led an extraordinary life as the founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association which had branches in more than 40 countries. In the article below Grant looks at Garvey through a modern lens, comparing him to Barack Obama.
During an outbreak of the unique American pastime of lynching in the 1920s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People sent for its secret weapon: Walter White. The NAACP operative was so fair-skinned that he could travel to the South incognito, infiltrate the lynch mobs and investigate their actions without fear of molestation or loss of life. Nonetheless, this unenviable task exacted a psychological toll on his delicate mind. In his later years, White would recall how petrified he was of being uncovered by hateful, bigoted Southerners who had refined their own pseudo-scientific tests for unmasking blacks ‘passing’ for whites. Caught in conversation with one such man, White was bid to hold out his hands so that his finger nails might be examined: ‘Now if you had nigger blood,’ said the smiling Southerner, ‘it would show here on your half-moons.’ Walter White survived the inquisition; his cuticles did not betray him.
In some regards, Barack Obama has pulled off a similar coup. (more…)
You three are just utterly amazing and inspiring! There’s so much magic dancing around you all – it’s a joy to read/see!
What a wonderfully fun way to spend the day! Amazing! Will definitely have to try making ice cream with my kids
Again, I want to be adopted by Zoe and her family.
Thanks for revealing some books I haven’t yet seen and of course, sharing your delightful family creative time.