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With Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman out next month after a 55 year wait, gaps between (the publication of) sequels are the talk of the town. After all, we readers all love it when a great book has a sequel that we can dive into, sparing us the loss of having to leave a new world behind, allowing us to continue being part of a landscape we’ve fallen in love with.

Some gaps between children’s books and their sequels are very large indeed: There were more than 50 years between Heidi and the first publication of Heidi Grows Up, in excess of 90 years between Peter and Wendy and Peter Pan in Scarlet, and 102 years between Five Children and It and Five Children on the Western Front.

But hang on – in each of these cases these sequels were written after the original author had died.

What about story arcs which have been returned to by the original author after a considerable period of time? 18 years went by between the publication of the third and forth volumes of Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea series (The Farthest Shore in 1972 and Tehanu in 1990). 23 years after Richard Adams penned Watership Down (1972), he returned with Tales from Watership Down (1996). Alan Garner finally completed his Weirdstone trilogy with Boneland almost 50 years after the second book in the series, The Moon of Gomrath (1963).

It’s not just novels which are sometimes returned to after a long gap. There are several cases where picture book sequels have appear a considerable time after a first book about a given character. There were 9 years between the debut Winnie the Witch (by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul) and Winnie in Winter (1996). Despite a slow start, there are now 15 books in the series!

There was an even longer passage of time between the first Elmer book by David McKee and the second outing for Elmer although they weren’t quite sequels; Elmer was first published in 1968 and 21 years later a re-written, re-illustrated version came out with a different publisher (Andersen), essentially as a new book. More easily identified as sequels, Chris Van Allsburg’s Jumanji and Zathura were also published 21 years apart.

But the longest gap I can find in the world of picture books, when it comes to time elapsed before a sequel appeared, is 47 years. Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins first appearing in 1968. It’s been 47 years in the coming, but this year finally saw its sequel hit bookshelves, in the form of Where, Oh Where, is Rosie’s chick?

When we first met Rosie the Chicken we delighted as she walked about her farm, managing to avoid being captured by a wiley fox. Was she really entirely oblivious to the vulpine threat as she strutted about? Was the fox simply so stupid he only had himself to blame for his downfall? Great fun is had by the two stories running in parallel and yet intricately entwined. It’s a super joke – the fox isn’t ever explicitly mentioned, and yet without the fox there would be no story.

Fast forward nearly half a century and we meet Rosie just as her chick is hatching. Just as the chick tries to leave the nest, Rosie loses her little one. She searches high and low whilst the little chick faces threats from cats and fish and… yes, foxes, each time being saved serendipitously, by the un-knowing actions of her mum. It’s a funny read, with elements of slapstick, rounded off with reassurance (even the foxes appear only to have been playing family hide and seek), faithfully echoing the original palette and style of artwork. A little bit of nostalgia helps carry the the visual and written stories; the sequel’s ending doesn’t have quite the wicked joy of the original, but can nevertheless be enjoyed both those new to Rosie, and by old friends.

Inspired by Hutchins distinctive art we tried our had at making landscapes through which Rosie and her chick could wander. First we painted swathes and patches of various shades of green and yellow. Once these patches were dry we use leaf and fruit shaped stamps made from modelling clay (plasticine) to created repeated motifs on top of our blocks of colour. Once leaves and fruit were dry we went round the contours with a black permanent pen.

Hutchins herself creates her art in quite a different way creating the line drawings first and adding colour afterwards, but even so, our end results mirrored her landscapes rather pleasingly.

One of the lovely things about returning to Rosie years after I first met her is in the opportunity the sequel gives to reflect on how my life has changed since I first read Rosie’s Walk as a child, and years later shared it as a parent myself. There’s something very comforting about now having the story of Rosie’s chick to giggle over together with my own children. It’s a treat I suspect many parents and children, or even grandparents and grandchildren will enjoy.

But what about you? What sequels have you eagerly waited for? And what sequels (real or only dreamed of) are you or your children still waiting for?

My thanks go to Lisa Davies, Liz Cross and Clare Helen Walsh, Emma Layfield, Libby Hamilton and Ellen Duthie for help with some of the research for this post.

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of Where, Oh Where, is Rosie’s Chick? from the publisher.

Image: be_khe

Yes, I know it’s not Easter, but I have two lovely egg themed books that deserve to be read NOW, not only in 9 months time so please go and scrabble in the back of your kitchen cupboards to find that secret stash of chocolate I won’t tell anyone about, break off a piece and enjoy whilst I tell about these two egg-tastic picture books.

Croc and Bird by Alexis Deacon explores how very different two friends can be (so different they come from quite separate species), and yet, how they can still be the best of friends if they listen to their own hearts, and are not forced into conformity by others. If you like, it’s a reworking of the themes explored in Stellaluna by Janell Cannon, but this time with a crocodile instead of a bat.

It asks questions about who your family is. Can long lasting ties only be based on shared customs and cultures, or can friendship and love transcend such differences?

Deacon’s illustrations have a magical and somewhat mysterious air about them; indeed they reminded me of William Blake‘s paintings. Unlike Deacon’s earlier Beegu, the characters in this book are not so cute. The young bird is as ugly as they come – and this too says something about friendship and brotherly love.

Croc and Bird is not a sugary, all sweetness-and-light picture book. I think its themes and images are somewhat more challenging and thought provoking than you’ll find in many books on the kids’ bestseller list, but its is not without humour and it’s certainly full of hope.

The Fishing Trip by Béatrice Rodriguez (sold in the US under a different title – Fox and Hen Together) is also about cross-species friendship, this time between a chicken and a fox.

In this wordless story Chicken entrusts the care of her Egg to Fox (it is clear they have set up home together), whilst Chicken goes off to bring food home for them all. The fishing trip referred to in the title turns out to be a rather hair-raising, risky experience, but

Recently I’ve been feeling rather guilty here on the blog as my Reading Round Europe tour has been on hold now for far longer than I would have liked. I can assure you I haven’t forgotten it and I will be continuing with it… it’s just that so many other good things keep popping up along the way (like this, this and this).

One of the reasons I’m determined to pick up where I left off, is that through researching the Reading Round Europe posts I’ve discovered some fabulous authors and illustrators I’m pretty sure I would not have come across otherwise.

Swedish Sven Nordqvist is a case is point. Back in January I reviewed two of his books, Pancakes for Findus and When Findus was Little and Disappeared and today I’m buzzing with excitement because I can bring you a third Findus and Pettson story – Findus and the Fox.

The bottom line is simple: This is a story with heaps of humour and so much warmth at its heart that its hard not to want to hug the book when you’ve finished reading it.

But if you want to know a little more about it… Pettson, a slightly crazy old bachelor farmer lives with his deceptively clever cat Findus. One day their neighbour Gustavsson visits to warn them that there’s been fox in the neighbourhood stealing hens. Gustavsson is determined to shoot the fox.

“So you think the fox will come here tonight,” muttered Pettson.
“That means we should lock our hens up now, eh Findus?”
“You should lock up Gustavsson,” said the cat. “I don’t trust men with guns.”
Don’t you think he should shoot the fox?” asked Pettson. “Otherwise it will come and eat our hens.”
“Foxes shouldn’t be shot,” said Findus. “They should be tricked.
That’s what I do.”
“Mm, I bet you do,” Pettson chuckled. “But I agree, Findus. It’s a shame to shoot foxes. We’ll work out how to frighten it off, so it won’t want to eat a hen ever again.”

And thus Pettson and Findus start work on a grand plan to frighten the fox.

First they create a decoy chicken stuffed with pepper. Not certain this will do the trick, they wire up a string of fireworks around the farmyard ready to set off and startle the fox when he tries to run off with the booby-trapped chicken.

Just like two big kids with an idea fizzing in their head, the plans don’t stop there but get crazier and even more outlandish. To be certain that the fox gets spooked off for good, Pettson and Findus decide their pièce de résistance is a zip line down which Findus will fly dressed as a ghost shouting at the fox.

Night falls and the farmer and his cat wait for the fox. Gingerly the fox, “a thin little thing, with a limp” does make an appearance. Pettso

Fox almost finished.

...whenever I'm stuck on the train or some such. I seem to get stuck on trains a lot. On Sunday I was actually stuck in a luggage rack for an hour.

As we read around Europe I’ll be making occasional brief trips back to the UK to review some of the latest releases in the anglo-saxon kidlit publishing world and today is such a day. One of my favourite books last year was One Smart Fish by Chris Wormell (which I reviewed here, and which later in the year deservedly won the Booktrust Early Years Award), so when I saw that Wormell had a new book out I was keen to get hold of a copy and see if he could follow up One Smart Fish with another gem in the form of Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice.

Photo: Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden

One dark night a kindly bear thinks on his feet to save the life of six white mice hunted by an owl, a fox and a snake. As the mice curl themselves up into tight balls, Scruffy Bear convinces the predators that what he has at his feet are not mice, but rather snowballs, eggs or apples. At the last moment the hunters realise they’ve been tricked but by then Scruffy Bear and his new friends have made off and are safe and sound thanks to his quick thinking.

I’m sure some reviews will say that this book celebrates ingenuity, quick wittedness and courage, all characteristics we might wish to encourage in our kids as we read to them. But I’m afraid that this is not a book that has shot into my early-favourites-for-2011 list.

Scruffy Bear’s alternative descriptions of what the owl, fox and snake find on the ground just don’t work for me. I suppose they are meant to be clever but they lacked the kernel of believability that I think is necessary to carry the story forward.

Maybe this is a case of where an adult reaction to a book is very different to that which it might receive from a child. Indeed, M and J have both enjoyed this book a great deal and find Scruffy Bear’s white lies very funny indeed, but reading the book out loud I didn’t enjoy it to the same degree. In an ideal picture book I’m looking for something that my kids and I enjoy equally (even if for different reasons) and for this reason Scruffy Bear and the Six White Mice didn’t thrill me the way One Smart Fish did.

Maybe I’m missing the point entirely and Scruffy Bear’s alternative explanation for the six furry balls at his feet are meant to be totally outrageous and unbelievable in order that we can enjoy laughing all the more at fooling the owl, fox and snake. But if the enemy turns out to be just plain stupid, rather than the protagonist actually clever, the story falls a little flat for me.

The illustrations are perfectly nice and Wormell can definitely draw beautiful animals but like the story, whilst the illustrations are fine and appeal to the children I didn’t fall in love with them or feel that thrill of excitement I d

Finished the new painting! What fun to paint! This one was done for Edward, John Reppion and Leah Moore's son. I hope you like it, Ed!

Some more pictures of the painting I'm doing for John, Leah and Edward. I'm having tremendous amounts of fun doing this. These photos show a slightly different process step then usual. Here, instead of doing a full under-painting like I often do when the painting will be in gouache/mixed media, I've done a sepia under-painting/drawing. This is how I did the book Anything But Hank, hoping it would unify the colours more and give it an almost Victorian look.

My sister Myndi is here with her family, and we're having a great time catching up! 

One of the first things I did was take them to the lake where we saw one of these





circling overhead. 

We also were lucky enough to catch Mama loon feeding her baby again!





I

I'm still not satisfied with these photos, so I'll be staking out the lakeside (when I can get away from the store) for better shots.

Myndi is a professional photographer (her blog link is on the right) and never goes anywhere without her camera.  I even watched her climb into a two man kayak with her husband and three year old son . . . with her camera around her neck!  Ack!




She got some shots of the loons too, and I'm anxious to see how hers came out. 

Her camera is bigger than my camera! 

As we talked on the store porch this morning, one of my campers told us a fox was sunning himself on the volleyball court!  Myndi went right down to get some photos, which I hope to show you soon.  We think he might have been in a fight . . . . he was favoring his right leg and his nose looked a little cut up.  He's been seen quite a bit lately during the week when the campers are gone, so we'll be keeping an eye on him to see how he fares.

I'll keep you all posted.