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Although not the best photo’s, I just had to capture this moment. When Ned saw that his little sister was on my bed he made a dash for his bookshelf to choose some stories to read to her. He realised that he had a captive audience in Tess but boy did she love it.

Around the same time I took these photo’s I had also read an incredible article on The Guardian website by Sarah Franklin about reading aloud to her blind grandfather. The article is emotional and really made me think again about the joy that reading aloud can bring to both children and adults. Often reading aloud to children can become just part of a routine, just a way to get them to bed at night.  But when you are really in the moment there is nothing nicer than sharing a story with the ones you love and that was what Ned was doing when he went to find some of his favourite books to read to his new little sister.

It was delightful to see Tess at just three months watching her brother adoringly as just listening to his voice reading the Max and Ruby story was bliss to her. I was so proud to hear him reading to her as his dad or I would, using tone and expression, playing up the entertaining storyline. He has found the joy in reading aloud and also appreciates that listening to a story read aloud is enjoyable and comforting.

There are two amazing books written about reading aloud – Reading Magic by Mem Fox and The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. Both these books are excellent resources for encouraging children to read themselves as well as how to get the most joy out of reading aloud to them.

On reading to adults, there is a gorgeous collection that was released last year called A Little, Aloud, compiled by Angela Macmillan. The book has a blog here , it truly is very special.

One of the most important and popular picture books of all time now comes in a pop up version to celebrate it’s 20th Anniversary. This is so exciting!

This pop up looks amazing because it has been created by one of the best paper engineers in the world, David A. Carter. We will have some stock in our store in a little over a week.

If you would like a copy reserved please let us know via email – [email protected]

One of the most beautiful self published books I have seen has arrived in our store. I Hear Two Birds is a counting book and a work of art written and illustrated by Brisbane local Kathy Panton.

Kathy has a Bachelor of Visual Art, and has recently given up her job as a special education teacher to be a fulltime artist. She told us … ‘I really believe in following your passion and that is why I am an artist.’

‘I can’t say I have any specific influences, but I have long studied the work of other artists that illustrate children’s books. A lot of people say my work is like Eric Carles, and that is a great compliment, as I think he was a real innovator in children’s book illustration.’

Kathy actually paints first and then cuts up her work which she uses in a collage technique to make her exquisit pictures. We are so lucky to have these photos of Kathy’s studio to share…

You can see here where she keeps her cut up paintings for use in her pictures…

I believe that Kathy has really captured the essence of what all the great, classic children’s books have. I Hear Two Birds works on so many different levels, it has beautiful flowing, rhythmic text, counting, recognition of colour, shape and everyday objects including animals and nature. It truly is a stunning book and we are very proud to have it.

 Kathy also sells her beautiful prints, that are perfect art for a child’s room, from her Etsy store here.

I found these in a lovely indie bookshop near me. A collection of 12 of Eric Carle’s most famous and popular images in full colour posters. These would look gorgeous in a classroom or framed in a nursery. Published by Chronicle Books I think they were up around $50 but well worth it for 12 prints.

If they are too big we also think the Eric Carle Flash Cards also published by Chronicle would make a lovely frieze or wall art in a nursery.

Also very much looking forward to seeing the pop-up version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar due be released next month in Aus. You can see some lovely pictures on Eric Carle’s blog. Also see the book used on this great blog as the centre of a Hungry Caterpillar party theme.

I have never met anyone, child or adult, that hasn’t adored The Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters. First published in 1986, Janet and Allan Ahlberg created one of the best known and most popular children’s books ever. Together they created the concept of combining text with real letters to be opened and read within a picture book. 

Once upon a bicycle, So they say,

A Jolly Postman came one day, From the hills And far away..

With a letter for the Three Bears.

The story follows the lovely ‘jolly’ postman as he delivers letters to familiar fairytale characters. Mr and Mrs Bear receive a sincere apology letter from Goldilocks, Cinderella gets a sample from the Royal Publisher of the book they have created to celebrate her marriage to the Prince and the wolf dressed as ‘grandma’ gets a letter from Little Red Riding-Hood’s solicitors demanding a cease in harassment. The humor in this book is fantastic and it works for so many age levels - little ones like the gorgeous illustrations and the familiarity of the characters and older children and adults can enjoy the very clever puns.

In an article in the Guardian in 2006, Allan Ahlberg explained that the concept had been born from his 2-year-old daughter Jessie’s fascination for opening their mail. I can really relate to this at the moment because Ned just loves posting letters as well as opening them. As it was his birthday recently I really noticed the excitement that he had from opening birthday cards and he was just as excited about the cards as he was about the presents.

Actually does the excitement of receiving mail ever go away? Well maybe not getting bills! I LOVE coming home to find a parcel, a magazine, a pretty catalogue or a postcard in the mail!

This week I came across a simply beautiful post on the blog Oh, hello friend that mentioned author Danni’s love for the Postman books. This week she had created her own envelope book for her partner, here are some gorgeous photos…

Have a look at Danni’s post for more photos and read about her memories of the Postman books.

I was thinking about how lovely it would be to create a book like this for or with a child.

||The Jolly Postman or Other People’s Letters available online from Readings||

Whether or not you approve of the rise of the ‘babyccino’ in cafes around the globe,  I think urban babies are here to stay.

Michelle Sinclair Colman started a lovely series of books chronicling new age babies, when she wrote Urban Babies Wear Black in 2005. With stylish and stylised illustrations by Nathalie Dion, the books were a success, and a series was born. I love the concept: as board books, these are meant to be read to babies, and it’s the babies who are the focus of the illustrations (the adults’ faces are never visible). But the text and illustrations are pitched firmly at the adult reader, poking fun at us parents of the ‘noughties’ and cleverly playing with double-meanings.

When you’re the parent of a baby, a book that provides a bit of entertainment for you is much appreciated.

The next two books in the series were released in 2007, Winter Babies Wear Layers and Beach Babies Wear Shades. And hot off the press are two more, Eco Babies Wear Green and Foodie Babies Wear Bibs.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster Australia, we have a copy of each of the Urban Babies books to giveaway. To enter, jump to our Win! page.

||Urban Babies Wear Black series available from Readings||

||Urban Babies Wear Black series website||

Ned is currently transport-mad, as are most of his mates. It has intrigued me how he has just picked up this absolute obsession.

Who’s Driving? by Belgian author/illustrator Leo Timmers is a spectacular book with numerous forms of transport. and it’s pleasing even for us (mum and dad). The book’s simple text, punctuated with vehicle ‘noises’, creates great excitement in our house.

Who’s driving the fire engine?

Elephant! He is driving to the fire station. Wheeooh wheeooh wheeooh!

As the jacket picture illustrates, all the animals that are driving the vehicles have a real crazy, almost unhinged look in their eyes that just make me laugh every time I read the book. And the colours Timmers uses are just so vibrant and rich that it is an incredible technicolur explosion.

Our other favorite is Dig Dig Digging by Margaret Mayo and illustrated by Alex Ayliffe. Whenever we see a truck, a tractor or even just a road work ahead sign, Ned yells “Dig Dig”. We have the touch-and-feel, board book version of the picture book (which is also available as a paperback). Once again the colours used by Ayliffe are really vibrant with an emphasis on yellow and red - the colours of most diggers and trucks I guess!

The text has a nice jogging rhyme to it that exaggerates the noises and the movements the vehicles make.

‘Big red digger dig, dig, digging. Scooping up the earth, lifting and tipping’

The touch and feel element is small but adds a nice dimension to the book and means that the book can be loved from babies right up to 2+. The team of Mayo and Ayliffe have also written Emergency and Choo Choo Clickety Clack - which will be under the tree for Ned this year.

In August we had a guest post by mum Lisa, in which she also gave some great suggestions on transport books for ‘busy boys’.

||Who’s Driving? available online from the We Heart Books Store||

||Dig Dig Digging available online from Amazon||

Recently I was discussing the books I loved as a child with my mum, getting some inspiration for When We Were Little Sunday, when she told me that when I was a baby she actually borrowed books of Haiku poetry from the library to read to me.

I thought this was really lovely and then I found this little board book called Haiku Baby by Betsy Snyder and I have fallen in love with it. 

Flower

In tickly-toe grass,
a buttercup offers up
yellow nose kisses

The little blue bird on the jacket flits across the pages of this sweet book visiting his animal friends. Each gorgeous illustration is accompanied by a haiku celebrating an element of nature.

When I read this book I realised what a perfect form haiku is for reading to a baby; it is simple but melodic and soothing. I just find it really nice to find something different to all the other board books available and to find a book that has been so lovingly produced.

I am looking forward to sharing this gorgeous book with my new baby niece or nephew next year.

The author/illustrator Betsy Snyder is a blogger herself and recently mentioned we heart books on her blog, along with another of our favorite books Around the World With Mouk. The book Haiku Baby also has a really spectacular website, which even sings to you, it’s really worth a look.

||Haiku Baby available from the we heart books/store||

||Betsy Snyder’s Blog||

||The Adventures of Mouk available from the we heart books/store||

This was my favorite of all the Miffy books when I was little. When our family went to the beach, we would all yell ‘I see the sea’, excitedly, just like Miffy.

I love the Dick Bruna website where Miffy is described as ‘uncomplicated and innocent’, don’t we all need more of those qualities these days! Dick Bruna is the master of creating beautiful simple characters that yet have so much personality. I was interested to find out that he has always used the same colours through all his work and never varying. His trademark  use of solid blocks of colour and his use of white as well as strong black lines are instantly recognisable.

On the Bruna website I discovered that it is only when he has finished the pictures for a book that he starts the text, ‘For Bruna is first a painter and illustrator and second an author’.

Even the text in his books is clean and simple, they are perfect to read aloud to children and they may even read them back to you before long.

Recently Madman in Australia have released the original Miffy animation series onto DVD. The packaging they have chosen is gorgeous, it’s cardboard and has been designed to look like a book.

Have a look at this sweet little clip, it’s in Japanese and so cute!

The Japanese have really embraced Miffy because she is so kawaii. They have Miffy licensed product galore, like on this site.

I’m a little ashamed to say this, but we didn’t have a copy of Goodnight Moon on our shelves until I bought a copy for Rowan this week. First published in 1947, I’m actually not sure whether this title was very prominent in Australia when I was growing up. It isn’t one I remember from my childhood, or even from my early bookselling days. Don’t know if I was under a rock – maybe other Aussies can shed some light…

I’m confident the same couldn’t be said of US readers, as the book seems to be have been a hugely popular classic there. It is of course very popular here now too. Numerous ‘celebrity mom’ citings of Goodnight Moon verge on the off-putting (especially if you have a perverse streak like me). Anyone from Hilary Clinton to Tori Spelling seems keen to mention Goodnight Moon. Even ‘our’ Cate and Naomi are fans.

At first reading, the text of Goodnight Moon may almost seem a little glib. But you soon realise its charm. The rhyming, lilting text is mesmerising and the repetition of the words and illustrations is just so comforting. It is the quintessential bedtime story.

The book got a resounding nod of approval from Rowan. He is going through a stage at the moment when he often resists new books, especially at bedtime when he refuses anything unfamiliar. But he picked up Goodnight Moon with some curiousity and happily listened to a first reading and then requested THREE further readings.

There’s a lovely post over on Collecting Children’s Books discussing the identity of the ‘quiet old lady’ who features in Goodnight Moon. Worth reading, especially if you remember the story from when you were young.

1) My dog breaking through the electric fence and attacking a dog that was walking by.

2) My dog with bleeding eye and paw

3) Having to spend the afternoon when I *thought* I'd be writing my political column at the vets.

4) Waiting anxiously for the other person to tell me if their dog is ok and wondering if they are going to sue me.

5) Having the vet tell me that I should call the doggie shrink.

6) Thinking - "Holy Cr*p! I'm in therapy. My kids are in therapy. Now my freakin' DOG is going to be in therapy!"

7) The $350 vet bill.

8) Wondering how much the doggie therapist bill will be.

9) Going to the drive through Dunkin Donuts for an iced coffee and deciding to order myself a pumpkin muffin for emotional eating purposes.

10) Finding out they are out of pumpkin muffins.

11) Ordering 4 chocolate Dunkin munchkins as substitute emotional eating fix. Driving away and realizing that they've given me five non-chocolate Dunkin' munchkins.

!2) Wanting to bang my head against the steering wheel and burst into tears because my Munchkins are the wrong flavor.