Child-Led Chaos, showing us how it should be done when it comes to book blogging!

We had such an enthusiastic response to our call for Book Bloggers to join in with our #readitmd13 theme week but how could we possibly resist featuring someone from our home town? Of course we couldn't, so here's Anne-Marie from "Child Led Chaos" to round off what has been a fantastic and very enjoyable week looking at book blogs.



ReadItDaddy: Tell us your blog's name / who you are

"I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie" - So do we, lovely Rhino, so do we!

Day Four of this week's #ReadItMD Campaign theme of "Brilliant Book Bloggers" and we have a genuine book fairy with us to share her experiences in book blogging. Over to you, Carmen Haselup at Rhino Reads!

ReadItDaddy: Tell us your blog's name / who you are:


Hi, I'm Carmen from RhinoReads where I review big books for little people and play host to Ronnie Rhino. Http://www.rhinoreads.wordpress.com



ReadItDaddy: How long have you been blogging (book or otherwise) for?

I've been blogging for a couple of years now but I only started blogging about children's books with Ronnie in January, so I'm still a newbie on that front. I started the Rainbow Library - a nursery library for disadvantaged children - for International Book Giving Day in February and things have really taken off from there.



ReadItDaddy: What's on your book stack this week (childrens / grown up books count) ?

Well, I technically have more than one book stack. I try to review books from the local library, my own collection and books donated to the Rainbow Library so I have piles everywhere.

In the book stacks this week are:

From the local library:
Not on a School Night - Rebecca Patterson
Dog Loves Books - Louise Yates

From my collection:
Goldilocks and Just the One Bear - Leigh Hodgkinson
The Cloud - Hannah Cumming
The Darkness Slipped in - Ella Burfoot
Oliver - Birgita Sif

And from the Rainbow Library:
Mum and Dad Glue - Kes Gray
Harold Finds a Voice - Courtney Dicmas
Copy Cat - Mark Birchall
No! - Marta Altes
Flip-up Fairy Tales by ChildsPlay

Ronnie and I are going to be busy this week! Extra cake will be required.



ReadItDaddy: Give a very brief summary of why you think books are important to children...


I think books are a vital part of childhood. Children learn so many things from looking at books and being read to. Not just how to hear and see language but how to see the world and their place in it. They learn how to feel and to understand how others might be feeling. They see themselves and the self they could become. They can find comfort, reassurance, inspiration and knowledge. In short, everything they need to thrive in life.

(I'm not good at 'very brief' when it comes to the importance of books)



ReadItDaddy: If you had to name one booky person as your complete and utter book-idol (Writer, Illustrator, Publisher etc) who would it be and why?

I think it would have to be ChildsPlay. I have admired their ethos since I first came across them when I started working in early years education. They were the first publisher I hoped I could get on board with the Rainbow Library, because they believe in, and stand up for, the child. And every child. I am inspired and encouraged by their philosophy and am proud to share their books with the rainbow library children.



ReadItDaddy: Name 5 books you think everyone should have in their book case (childrens OR adult book, or a mix if you like!)

5? 5?!! Ok, 5. Wow, that's a daunting thought. But 5 books that everybody should have, in age order:

A ChildsPlay baby book. It doesn't matter which particular book as they are all wonderful, but every baby should have one.

Martha and the Bunny Brothers I Heart School - Clara Vulliamy

Matilda - Roald Dahl

Skellig - David Almond

Northern Lights - Philip Pullman

Written on the Body - Jeanette Winterson

What do you mean that's six? One, two, three, four, four and a half, five. Job done.

That was fun! Now for some cake.

Hooray! Our theme this week is "Brilliant Book Bloggers" and as part of our #ReadItMummiesAndDaddies2013 theme weeks I've invited Six (count them SIX!) of the best bloggers in the business to take part.

Being the wonderful folk they are, they've all accepted so you're in for a treat this week - a window into the inner workings of This Day I Love, Storyseekers, The Library Mice , Rhino Reads, and Child-Led Chaos (with Story Snug hopefully following - see edit note at the bottom)

We came up with some pretty tricky questions for them, and they rose to the challenge magnificently. So our first post, by Leyla at This Day I Love is coming up at 10am with the rest to follow during the course of the week.

If you've ever thought about book blogging and you'd like to know how high the bar has been set by these lovely folk, then dip in for the rest of the week, it's going to be fun!

Edit: Unfortunately due to technical difficulties we're sad to hear that Catherine from Story Snug won't be joining us for the theme week. Nasty blog hackers have had their wicked way with her site so hopefully they'll be back up and running very soon. Our sympathetic thoughts and hopes that it's all quickly sorted out.

For this week's theme we thought we'd take a look at the stories parents tell their children that can't be found in books.

At some point, parents may be stuck in the middle of nowhere - or be unable to reach into their capacious bookcases to grab a book to entertain their children with, so we resort to making things up on the fly. Parents are natural storytellers - we impart our wisdom to our children on a daily basis (usually in the form of "Don't do that" or "No that's not supposed to go in your mouth" or even "Wet Paint is NOT an instruction!") so is it much of a stretch to turn your good advice into a little moral tale perhaps?

Our imaginations are boundless and if you can use yours to feed your child a good story, the chances are they'll reply in kind.

For a long time I've made up daft little stories about a character named "Merlin the Happy Pig". Often "Merlin" is used as a bit of a lure. If Charlotte is taking ages over breakfast, or I can't get her to go and get ready in the morning, I'll promise her a "Merlin" story. Making a rod for your own back isn't always advisable though because you can never get away with "Merlin the Happy Pig went into town one day, bought some sweeties and then came home, the end" - You sometimes get stuck in a loop of making the stories more complex, more convoluted and (usually, because Charlotte is obsessed with spooky stuff) more scary.

So Merlin, the rather haphazard little piggy fellow has morphed from a character who usually did really silly things (like eating too many lemon drops and needing trips to the dentist) into some sort of globetrotting ghostbuster.

I recently changed tack a bit after we got bored with trying to think up ever-increasingly dangerous situations to put Merlin in, and drew on my love of fantasy and science fiction to come up with another character for a set of made up stories, called "Epona" - A beautiful white horse who lives in a magical land - as a bit more of a 'girl friendly' story. Again Charlotte always demands that the stories are packed with adventure, excitement and magic but we bounce ideas off each other and often stories can last a lot longer than reading a quick picture book can.

As an incentive for hurrying up, getting ready, polishing off a meal, made up stories have become a reward - but a reward that doesn't cost anything, and doesn't rot their teeth (like a sweet reward would) - and one that also gives them something to start building their own story library in their heads.

It's not easy, and not everyone will be able to just pull a story out of thin air - but you can always cheat a bit by drawing on your own story influences, old wives tales, myths and legends - or just re-version a story you know and love yourself.

Try it, you'll be pleasantly surprised at the reaction.

Think you've got a great story to tell and can do it in less than 100 words?

Enter our competition, in conjunction with Child's Play Publishing!

"Garbage, Monster, Burp" by Tom Watson. A cracking example of a brilliant self-published e-book

For the #ReaditMD2013 campaign week this week, we thought we'd take a dip back into the archives to look at some of the self published and independently published books we've read and loved over the past few years.

There's a quiet and steady revolution going on as more families buy tablet PCs and start to look around at what's available in e-book form. The Amazon Kindle Publishing Service is one route to go down, as well as other e-publishing portals like CreateSpace.

Some folk, such as Hazel Nutt (with the brilliant "Secret Life of Squirrels" trilogy of books), even go as far as offering a complete site with books available in print form.

We've taken a look at Beachy Books in the past too and the message that comes across from self-publishers is that if you've got the passion and drive to put your book out there, and promote it as widely and as far as possible, it can be really rewarding.

We get a steady stream of self-published authors contacting us with books. Some are absolutely amazing and of the highest quality like the recent "Great Reef Race" by Leyland Perree and Stuart McGhee. Books made for the love of sharing stories and great sites like "Stories For My Little Sister" and "Once Upon a Slime" are also well worth a visit for even more booktastic fun. 

Most self-publishers are under no illusion that it's a route to riches but from time to time some books become so popular and sell so well that it gives their authors enough of a raised profile to secure them a deal with a major publisher. Looking outside children's books, the massive book-industry-rebooting "50 Shades of Grey" started out as a piece of fan fiction, so you never know what might happen with your book or collection of stories.

We have a lot of admiration for folk who have the sheer guts to put their work out there into a public forum for others to take a look at. Long may they continue to do so!

Got a great indie or self-published book recommendation? Let us know in the comments below!

It's a welcoming place even if you dribble and eat rusks!

As the fallout from the "Deary" debacle continues aflame on Twitter, several authors are now beginning to come round to the way of thinking that the current model for libraries is indeed outmoded and outdated and are talking up the possibility of introducing some sort of fee system.

At a point when libraries are woefully underfunded and underused, on paper a fee system or a way of raising the revenue made available to authors whose books grace the shelves sounds like a fairly good idea.

In practice, at a time when parents are scrabbling for every penny (parents like me, parents who aren't fortunate enough to earn a six figure sum or be able to waltz into their local independent bookshop and buy up their entire stock to keep our little ones amused), asking for money for something you already effectively pay for from your Council Tax contributions (which in our locale are going up again this year) might feel like a final kick in the teeth.

Libraries are free. They always have been, and though arguments against the current system speak of 'tradition' and 'old fashioned notions' the idea of a library is to be able to access a huge range of books for nothing.

It's very easy to completely fall on the side of being a budget-wary parent and feel that there's a certain element of greed going on here, after all we increasingly live in a world where virtually every other form of entertainment costs you in some way, shape or form.

I just can't see this suggestion working out well for anyone. Certainly not for libraries, who would see a demonstrable fall in visitors and footfall if fees were introduced. Certainly not for authors - if parents are unwilling to pay a library fee they're sure as hell not going to pay between £6-12 for your new book. Certainly not for children who would again end up deprived of a valuable resource that has always been there for them.

I rather like the current model of encouraging more library visits (and let's face it, this is what needs to happen - library customer numbers need to increase tenfold if not more, to ensure that the services can survive and are given priority in local and national government budgeting). The current model in several locales is to encourage parents right off the bat, as soon as their children are born, to sign up for free library membership. Our locale produces a neat little information pack encouraging parents to drop in and sign up their babies at the local library. Libraries also run incentive schemes, certificates and sticker charts so that kids (if not their parents) at least have the lure of the books and the added bonus of a 'reward' to look forward to if they become regular visitors.

It seems a shame that this debate is now raising the sort of questions from some authors sympathetic to Terry Deary's view that "MOAR MONEY" is somehow going to magically come their way if libraries start charging fees or start discouraging people from bothering to visit. There is a need for change but it's certainly not by nickel-and-diming your customers even further. They've been nickel-and-dimed enough.

"Goodnight Tractor" by Michelle Robinson and Nick East (Puffin Books)

Shout like Tarzan!

Where there's a rhyme, there's a reason!

We've always been aware of how effective rhyming verse is in helping children to read, learn and memorise. Most of the best loved Children's Picture Books contain rhyming verse - and a child's predisposition to retaining the memory of written or read text through rhyme starts as soon as they can hear and understand a parent's speech.

Reinforced through nursery rhymes, songs and of course children's books, children do begin to learn to read more quickly if common sounds and clever use of language engage their ears as well as their brains.

There's a great piece on the Booktrust website about early literacy initiatives and studies into how rhyming helps children's literacy levels early on. It's a sentiment echoed by many children's authors too, who use rhyme in their own work to make it accessible, memorable and most important of all, fun!

It goes without saying that one of the greatest children's authors, Dr Seuss, used often nonsensical rhyme so brilliantly and effectively in a whole series of children's books that have gone on to become legendary classics. It was well known even back as far as the 1950s that rhyme provided a compelling and attractive way for early readers to become more competent and confident.

Oddly though, it's very rare to see rhyming verse used in children's phonics books. Though there are programmes that recommend the use of rhyme, current national curriculum standards seem to be geared more towards fairly disjointed 'choppy' text that doesn't flow like rhyming verse does. Sometimes, to a child this feels too unnatural, and very unlike books they'd otherwise be exposed to (for instance, books read to them by a parent, or even early story readers that use rhyme effectively).

This is a problem we've encountered before with Charlotte - that even the most intriguing subject or premise in a phonics book is still a fairly stilted and 'forced' experience, so again this may offer a good indication of why rhyme is so attractive to children - if it's as far distant from classroom reading as it's possible to imagine, it's all the more interesting to a child.

We are completely in awe of anyone who can produce brilliant rhyming stories. We'd love to hear what your favourite rhyming recommendations are below.

The MeBooks Library. Classics old and new

This week's theme for #readitmummiesanddaddies2013 is dipping into technology, and the various ways that new portable devices such as tablets and netbooks are changing the way children enjoy stories.

Some time ago we covered a rather innovative app called MeBooks by MadeInMe, a company that produces engaging apps to stimulate a child's love of stories and plays.

MeBooks is one of a brace of storefront-led storybook apps but what makes MeBooks stand out is the ability for parents and children to customise the stories themselves.

Shown below is a typical MeBook page layout with the innovative hotspots in place:

Hotspots mark out areas where dialogue and sound can be added to your favourite stories

Though most MeBooks are beautifully read by a host of celebrity readers, the fun begins when parents sneakily have a play with the app while their children are tucked up in bed, and record their own dialogue (and silly voices of course!) over a child's stories. Equally enjoyable is working your way through a book together, taking it in turns to read and record the story as you go - eventually playing it back or even saving it for later.

The store works particularly well, and has a brilliant selection of books both old and new (including some of our all time favourites like "Not Now, Bernard" by David McKee and the sublime classic Ladybird children's fairy tale books, complete with all that lovely lovely painted artwork.

To get you up and running, you get a book for free with optional in-app purchases for the other titles. Depending on your point of view about paying for e-books these aren't too unreasonably priced so you can soon build up quite a library of brilliant stories to share, read, record and enjoy.

MeBooks (available from the app store, free with optional in-app purchases)

We're starting to see more and more instances of 'customisation' in e-books and storytelling apps and we firmly believe that if you can let a child and their parents 'own' a story in some way, putting their personal stamp on it, it feels all the more enjoyable and truly 'theirs'.

Apps that allow children to make up their own stories are equally welcome, particularly when an app gives children the assets they need to start building a story or even an interactive play without needing artistic skills and expertise. We've seen quite a few apps like this but the standout is definitely Top That Publishing's 'The Froobles'. Again, available for free with optional in-app purchases, the free version is absolutely packed full of potential.

Make your own plays and stories with The Froobles

Seen here is the 'make a play' part of the app - which is by far our favourite bit of this feature-rich app. Children can choose a scene, choose their favourite froobles characters and start recording short movies (complete with speech and sounds they add themselves) to tell a story. Once they hit the record button, they can move characters around, and act out a scene - then save it for later playback. Charlotte can literally spend hours with this and it's so easy and intuitive to use that she can even be left to her own devices while playing it.

The app also contains a great selection of entertaining stories featuring the Froobles gang, as well as other activities like colouring and drawing.

Colour in your favourite members of the Froobles gang

The Froobles range is expanding this year and Top That are also producing toys and merchandise based on these very popular characters. The app is slick and very well done with a great range of celebrities taking up reading duties for the stories (Johnny Vaughan is brilliant and funny reading Little Jack Potato - which surely was based on him!)

The Storybook app market is exploding at the moment, but in our next article we'll be looking into (perhaps not so) dim and distant future, and how new emerging technology may offer new and exciting ways to engage children and parents with reading using their favourite gadgetry.

Please take a moment to hop over to The Library Mice blog for a fantastically written piece on 'The Gift of Reading'  which was written to support the #readitmummiesanddaddies2013 campaign to get more parents reading to their children.

It beautifully underlines the things we clamour frequently about on ReadItDaddy, specifically those precious moments when you have a child's attention and are reading them a story that spurs their imagination and makes them want to hear more.

As Mel over at The Library Mice points out, the hardest 'sell' are parents who have yet to experience that 'wow' moment. They're a tough crowd and if we can reach them with this campaign, it'll be worth all the effort and time and then some. Just watch the video on the article to see true brilliance in action.

A brilliant post from a blog that consistently makes our jaws drop. Top work, Library Mice!

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner - an e-book 'done properly'

There seems to be a war raging between the luddites and the technocrati and it's a war that seems as odd as any other war. Two sides are gathered, with a fair amount of neutrals in the middle, claiming that their favourite method of enjoying stories is better than the other and will somehow 'win'.

As we know, in a war there are no winners and what this has to do with the #readitmummiesanddaddies2013 campaign is this. Quite simply, there's more than enough room on your shelves and in your tablet / kindle / e-reader for both Print books and E-books.

This week on ReadItDaddy we're going to be focusing on some of the best e-books around and some of the publishers who fully understand the statement topping this article - that 'E' doesn't just stand for 'Electronic' it stands for 'Enhanced'.

We've used Sally Gardner's utterly amazing and mind-bendingly brilliant book "Maggot Moon" as our first example of an e-book that brings more to the table than just the ability to flick through its pages on a tablet or e-reader. Working in conjunction with Sally herself, Hot Key Books have produced something that, at first glance, seems just like an ordinary everyday e-book. Flip your iPad on its side though, read the book in Landscape Mode and things start to happen...

The Maggot Moon introduction in 'Enhanced' mode. Hello Standish!

We start to see Maggot Moon how Sally herself sees the book. You see, Sally is Dyslexic and working with Hot Key Books has developed several rather clever methods to show readers how the book and how text appears to her. 

Great little box-outs and video clips enhance the written text at various points in the story

• The Pirates Next Door by Jonny Duddle (from Templar Books)
• Pants by Giles Andreae and Nick Sharratt (with a sing-a-long CD performed by Lenny Henry)
• Mog's Christmas by Judith Kerr (read by Geraldine McEwan)
• The 'Flip Up Fairy Tale' range from Child's Play (popular children's fairy tales with beautifully read story CDs)
• The Snowman by Raymond Briggs (wonderfully read by the legend that is Bernard Cribbins!)
• Stories for a Prince by various authors (produced for Charity and Prince William back in the 80s)
• The Froobles story and audio range from Top That! Publishing

We're very lucky to have some amazing people backing the #readitmummiesanddaddies2013 campaign. Elli Woollard, ace poet and all round Twitter Goddess penned us a poem for the campaign.

How brilliant is this!

"The Chicken Thief" by Beatrice Rodriguez

For Week 2 of the "Read it, Mummies and Daddies" 2013 campaign I wanted to take a look at various topics, resources, links and of course children's picture books that can help parents and children who aren't confident about reading aloud for any reason.

We've taken a look this morning at an innovative children's story app that uses sign language to enhance children's story books in an electronic form, with both 'read' and 'signed' text adding to the experience and utilising the power of modern tablets and PCs.

Here's an alternative idea for parents who don't want to go down the technology route for any reason and it's a fairly simple idea but one that can be really powerful. Stories without words.

We have looked at several picture-only story books while putting together content for Read It Daddy including Beatrice Rodriguez's utterly fantastic range of children's stories like 'The Treasure Thief' and the above pictured 'The Chicken Thief'.

For early readers there's the opportunity to take a breather from having to decode text or wrestle with phonics. For adults, there's the opportunity to shape a story themselves and describe their interpretation of what's going on in the illustrative panels.

Better still, for non-confident readers who have children who can't yet read, this is a unique opportunity to let them 'guide' the story. While we read 'The Treasure Thief' it was great to see Charlotte's reaction to what she thought was going on in the tale, and it was easily as satisfying as having the story laid out in text form to compliment the images on show.

When I first started reading to Charlotte, I felt that text-free story books felt a bit disappointing as they took away the opportunity to do silly voices or took away the ease of interpretation. But to fuel the imagination and to spur a child's mind into describing what they're seeing, they're utterly invaluable and can lead to some seriously rewarding moments.

I'm really interested in hearing from anyone who uses text-free story books and has any recommendations as we've really encountered very few and are probably missing out on some real classics. Do you have a favourite picture-only story book? Please drop a comment below, we'd love to check it out!

Other wordless story books to try: 

'The Snowman' By Raymond Briggs

'Banana Skin Chaos' by Lili L'Arronge (as suggested by @TheStrollingMum)

'Window' by Jeannie Baker (as suggested by An Vrombaut)

'Mirror' (also by Jeannie Baker - as suggested by Polly Faber @ TheLittleWoodenHorse.com)

'HUG!' by Jez Alborough (suggested by several people, and technically it's a one-word book but we'll allow it anyway because Jez is such an ace chap!)

'Clown' By Quentin Blake (suggested by Jane Porter)

'The Arrival' by Shaun Tan (in fact any Shaun Tan book! They're all incredible!)

'Flotsam' by David Wiesner (Recommended by Sarah Kimmelman @ Andersen Press)

'Squirrels' by Brian Wildsmith (Recommended by Catherine Friess @ Storysnug)

'Moonlight' and 'Sunshine' by Jan Ormerod (Recommended by CJ Harper)

'The Lion and the Mouse' by Jerry Pinkney (Recommended by Laura B Main Ellen)

'Foxley's Feast' by Owen Davy (Recommended by Templar Publishing)

'Up and Up' by Shirley Hughes (Recommended by Anne-Marie @ Child-Led Chaos)

Books that have words, but predominantly encourage communication and discussion between parents / children (like wordless books do)

'You Choose' by Pippa Goodhart and Nick Sharratt (Recommended by Tracey Kewley)
'Rosie's Walk' by Pat Hutchins (Recommended by us and Tracey Kewley)