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How will you be celebrating this Saturday February 14th?  Some see it as a chance to demonstrate the most romantic of gestures, showering their special ones with gifts of affection. Others only need to show an act of kindness to prove they care. Either way, whether it’s Valentine’s Day, International Book Giving Day or Library […]

It’s holiday time so some shows based on outstanding children’s books are currently being performed in Sydney and surrounds, as well as in other cities around Australia. A highlight is The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Penguin), a production created around four books by Eric Carle: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, of course, The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse – […]

We think it's so fun that one of our all-time favorite Christmas books is our best selling picture book from our affiliate store this month—we just love Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler's Stick Man. As per usual, we've shared our hand selected titles of the most popular picture books from the nationwide best selling picture books, as listed by The New York Times.

• ISBN-13: 9780803726574
• Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
• Pages: 32
• Age range: 4 - 8 Years

If you were invited to design a school library launch, how would you go about it? What events would you want to facilitate? Who would you want to involve?

These questions have been very much on my mind since the start of the year, for designing and delivering a school library launch is exactly what I have been asked to do by a local infant school. Can you imagine how excited I feel?

It’s an honour to be asked and trusted by the school to design a whole day of activities and I’ve loved every minute of it so far. Library Launch day is February 12th and now we’re counting down the days…

With apologies to NASA, whose original image I’ve modified.

Having got to the stage where I’ve everything prepped and in place, I wanted to share my plans and resources with you as many of them are easily replicable in families, in classrooms, in clubs, anywhere would you might like to help young children and their families get excited about books. And with World Book Day coming up next month, you could take any of these ideas and use them to celebrate perhaps my favourite day of the year

Today I’ll share the activities the 3-5 year olds will be getting up to, and next week I’ll share the session plans for Year 1 (5-6 year olds) and Year 2 (6-7 year olds), although I believe many of the activities could be adapted to work with children of any age.

We were keen to get as many children into the new library during the day as possible so each class of 3-5 year olds will spend one session going on a treasure hunt for book characters in the library. The basis of this session with be Katie Cleminson’s Otto the Book Bear, in which a bear in a book steps off the pages and into real life. Having read the book, kids (in pairs) will be given a treasure card to identify which books and book characters they need to find in the library.

Some of the sheets of cards kids will be given so they know which characters to hunt for in the library

No doubt 30 kids hunting 30 soft toys is going to be quite chaotic! Once all the characters are found, the session will finish with a reading of one of the books found by the kids during the session.

A couple of trips to charity shops resulted in a good number of soft toys that either were actual book characters (for example I found Paddington Bear, Pooh, and Poppy Cat without even really looking), then I raided my kids’ soft toys and chose ones which matched (near enough) great books. So, for example, I am borrowing a soft toy squirrel and teaming it up with A First Book of Nature, by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Mark Hearld.

I supplemented these with a few extra official character soft toys (who wouldn’t love the excuse to get a Mog cat or Tiger who came tea toy?). Castlemere Books, based in the US, is the most comprehensive site I found for official book character soft toys, though I didn’t end up using them because of shipping costs to the UK.

Some of the characters kids will be searching for in the library!

On returning to their classrooms the kids will paint/colour their own bookshelves and Otto the bear. You can download the shelves here and the bear here.

The second session will be based around Lulu loves Stories by Anna McQuinn and Rosalind Beardshaw (follow the link to read it for free online). This is a gentle story about a child who is taken to the library every Saturday by her father. Each book they read together inspires different sorts of play, from being on a farm (having read about Old Macdonald) to making a pretend aeroplane (having read a story about going on an adventure).

Each table in the classroom will be set up with a different activity taken from Lulu Loves Stories: there will be one with princess dressing up, one with farm animals and one with construction toys. A fourth table will be set up for each child to create their own library to take home, by selecting and gluing lots of images of children’s book covers onto these shelves.

I’ve spent a fair few evenings cutting up old publishers’ catalogues to create enough “library stock”, but other than time in preparation, this activity has been very cheap to prepare with many publishers willing to send catalogues upon request. (If you were working with older kids you could simply give them the catalogues and ask them to do some fantasy shopping – seeing what books they themselves would chose for their library would no doubt be very informative.)

On a fifth table children will be able to cut out Lulu bookplates. These are available as part of an activity guide on the US publisher’s website. Don’t be confused by the name change – Lulu (in the UK) becomes known as Lola (in the US), but this doesn’t affect the bookplates.

This session will be rounded off by reading Lulu reads to Zeki also by Anna McQuinn and Rosalind Beardshaw, which is a simply delightful (and funny) window into a later stage in Lulu’s life;she now has a younger brother, and is passing on the love of books her father instilled in her to little Zeki, reading to him whenever possible.

The third session for the 3-5 year olds will open with a reading of I Love My Little Story Book by Anita Jeram, which is all about the delights you can find inside different books, and the various places they can transport you to.

Each child will have the opportunity to make their own bunny which comes with a hidden story book of its own. It’s a simple collage activity to make the bunny out of an envelope, a pompom, some dried spaghetti, googly eyes and cardboard ears, all stuck on to an envelope, inside which each child will find a blank mini book (blue to match the one in the story). Kids will be encouraged to make the story book their own with whatever mark-making they like.

The mini books are each made from a sheet of A4 paper, using this technique, my favourite way of making small paper books as it requires no sticking or stapling.

As well as there being tables set up with fairy tale activities (castles and knights to play with, dressing up, plastic animals in a forest play scene) kids will also be able to colour in and cut out several book plates designed by Anita Jeram.

These are all available to freely download (as long as you’re not using them for commercial purposes) from this brilliant website, http://www.myhomelibrary.org/, created by former Children’s Laureate, Anne Fine.

If time allows a reading of I like books by Anthony Browne will finish off this session. This is a very simple introduction to different types of books with just one sentence on each page. It’s a great reminder that there are all different sorts of books you can enjoy reading, not just story books.

The fourth session of the day will be based around an all time classic, Charlie Cook’s Favourite Book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Once the story has been shared, each child will be given their own cardboard treasure chest to embellish with sticky jewels. I sourced some great treasure chests (from http://www.littlecraftybugs.co.uk/) so large that kids will be able to store favourite books inside them.

Elsewhere in the classroom during this session kids will have the opportunity to dig for buried treasure in a sandpit, make aliens out of green playdough, and play with plastic dragons, as well as the chance to colour in this Charlie Cook sheet which you can download from the official Gruffalo website, or to draw their favourite book on this Charlie Cook activity sheet from the US Scholastic website.

This session will be wrapped up with a reading of We are in a book by Mo Willems – a perfect book for this age range where the oldest kids may well be able to join in with reading this funny story about what characters in a book think about their readers.

And as well as all of this, all classes will have a session with the award winning author who is coming to join the school for the day… but more about this in a later post!

I think it fitting that I follow up the last Video Sunday bit of teacher enthusiasm with this subsequent sneaky teacher taping.  “We’re just smelling books, Mr. Lewis.”  That would be Mike Lewis and though they acknowledge him at the start, it’s pretty clear they don’t know he’s taping until much later on.  This should give heart to anyone worried about the fate of the paper book.  Big big thanks to Mike Lewis for this video.

So happy Sunday to you, one and all.  It’s not Banned Books Week, or Banned Books Month, or even the Year of the Banned Book, but even still this video was so nicely put together that I figured it deserved to be shown at a time of year that wasn’t designated “banned”. And naturally I liked that so many of the books read here were children’s as well as adult.

Well written too, come to think of it.  It was created by Bookmans, a kind of used bookstore/everything else in Tucson, Mesa, Phoenix, and Flagstaff.  Thanks to Ben Collinsworth for the link.

Now for fun personal stuff.  As you may know I’m writing a book with Jules from Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  Certainly finding videos of me on the web is easy enough but finding videos of Jules can be a bit tricky.  Fortunately as part of their We Believe in Picture Books campaign, Candlewick has been soliciting and posting videos from folks of all stripes.  I’m sure you’ve been following the various videos they’ve posted.  Here we find my co-writer in the flesh talking about all things picture bookish:

Then the book trailers cometh.  And this next one for Chronicle Books just sort of cements them as my favorite book trailer publisher.  It’s for this year’s Project Jackalope from the Senior Producer of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Emily Ecton.

Not that Candlewick does a bad job.  This one showed during SLJ’s Day of Dialog with slightly different music.  It’s Jon Klassen sequel to I Want My Hat Back called (appropriately enough) This is Not My Hat.  Gorgeous trailer.

And heck, Penguin too.  I mean, tell me this trailer doesn’t make you want to go out and rip the book from the arms of young people so that you can read it yourself.

Not sure if this one counts as a book trailer.  Is it a trailer if they read the whole thing?  Basically, I figure that if you read anything in that magnificent accent you are allowed to read as much of it as you like.  This book’s a pip but I can’t imagine it would be half as interesting to hear from an American mouth.  We just don’t pronounce the word “kennel” correctly, do we?

Thanks to Lisa Abid for the link!

And finally, when the tough can’t find any off-topic videos, the tough go to BB-Blog and plunder what they find there.  It’s a Caketrope (a zoetrope cake) in a Burton style.  Yum!

Thanks to the very generous folk at Walker Books I got to do something which makes me very happy earlier this week – read aloud lots of fabulous picture books with friends and their kids, and then give the books away, all part of a Picture Book Picnic…

The day started early, baking “Walker Bear” Gingerbread biscuits…

With the first of our “emergency supplies” ready for scoffing, we got to to the main business of the day – reading together!

We started with The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? by Mo Willems, humorous take on why it’s so nice to be polite.

Full of chocolate chip cookies (we used this recipe) and cold milk I then read How to Get a Job by me The Boss, actually by Sally Lloyd-Jones & Sue Heap. After a long conversation about what everyone wanted to be when they grew up, I interviewed the kids for the post of Explorer. All the kids sailed through their interviews (Do you like being outdoors? Yes! Are you afraid of snakes? No! Do you like climbing trees? Yes!) and so we got down the map of our local area and off we set on our bikes to have an adventure.

We set up our first camp by a sunny stream, perfect for a reading of Arthur’s Dream Boat by Polly Dunbar.

After the story we made paper boats and floated them off down the river.

Then we climbed up a hill to one of my favourite climbing trees, and in we all clambered to read Anna Hibiscus’ Song by Atinuke and Lauren Tobia.

Anna Hibiscus’ Song is an exuberant, joyous book about what makes people happy – just perfect for me on a day doing what makes me happy!

Anna Hibiscus (yes, the very same character as in the fabulous early chapter books also by

Within just a few hours of arriving back in the UK last week I was off to the annual conference organised by The Federation of Children’s Book Groups (FCBG). The FCBG is a UK charity which works both locally and nationally to promote reading for pleasure amongst children.

Local groups run meetings for both adults and children interested in children’s books, author visits, and book themed activities. On a national level, the FCBG organises the Red House Children’s Book Award, promotes National Share a Story Month, and National Non-Fiction Day, and hosts an annual conference packed with author, illustrator and publisher talks amongst other things.

Having recently joined the National Executive of the FCBG this was my first time at conference. I had a tremendous, inspirational time, and here’s a flavour of who I saw and what I got up to:

Friday night saw a special party to celebrate 25 years of Winnie the Witch. Winnie’s illustrator, Korky Paul, gave a great talk about his work (revealing the reason behind Winnie’s crumpled hat). He also showed us his stripy socks which was a particular delight to me as last time I met him we talked about underpants.

Saturday morning kicked off in the most fantastic fashion, with Eileen Browne (author and illustrator of Handa’s Hen amongst many others) interviewing Axel Scheffler. Axel was quiet, unassuming and charming.

Axel revealed that the Gruffalo we now know and love started life as something rather more menacing – I hope you can see the grumpier, meaner Gruffalo in the photo below. Later he also revealed that the BBC are currently working on an animation of Room on the Broom for Christmas 2012.

First thing Sunday morning Sally Gardner gave an passionate talk about her background and her life with dyslexia. Sally did not learn to read until she was 14, and by this time she had been labelled as “unteachable”. Her’s is a remarkable life story, almost impossible to believe if you have read I, Coriander, a book set partly in 17th-century London and partly in a magical fairy world, which is both beautiful and lyrical, and a book I think many 8-12 year old (girls) would adore as much as

The Gruffalo, a beloved children’s picture book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler, has hit the silver screen.

The Gruffalo

A Magic Light Pictures Production in Germany brought The Gruffalo to life. In fact, The Gruffalo was nominated in the Best Visual Short Film (Animated) category at The 83rd Annual Academy Awards held this past Sunday. Here’s a trailer:

In my opinion, A Magic Light Pictures Production got it right. And let me tell you, I don’t say that very often.

One way to get closer to a country’s culture is to explore its proverbs and idiom. Being fans already of illustrator Axel Scheffler, we couldn’t resist his Proverbs from Far and Wide (Macmillan, 2001) when I came across it recently.

Scheffler depicts facial expressions with a cartoonist’s eloquence, whether on humans or other animals, and he really comes into his own here in conveying the meaning of each proverb through its accompanying vignette. The people are all shown wearing the traditional costumes of the proverb’s country of origin, which contributes to the global feel of the book; and the universality of humankind is communicated by the gathering of the proverbs into categories like “Friend or Foe?”, “What Happens Next?” or “That’s Not Fair”. Some of the gems included are:

Those who have one foot in the canoe and one in the boat are going to fall in the river - Tuscarora

A hasty man drinks tea with his fork - India

If I peddle salt, it rains; if I peddle flour, the wind blows - Japan

Trust in God, but tie your camel. - Persia

You cannot find a striped squirrel in every fence pole - North America

All in all, this is delightful book for introducing small - and not so small - children to some great expressions from different cultures… And it has got me looking around to see what other similar books there are out there for children. Here are a couple I’ve spotted and would love to know more about - if you know them, do tell us about them:

Tigers, Frogs and Rice Cakes: A Book of Korean Proverbs by Daniel D. Holt, illustrated by Soma Han (Shen’s Books, 1999);

Mi primer libro di dichos / My First Book of Proverbs by Ralfka Gonzales and Ana Ruiz (Children’s Book Press, 1995)

I’ve also come across Many Ideas Open the Way: A Collection of Hmong Proverbs by Randy Snook - it’s out of print now but there are some fun images here, although you don’t get to see the original Hmong as you would in the book…