Showing posts with label All the awesome animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label All the awesome animals. Show all posts
Thursday, 12 September 2013
Wibbly Pig Picks a Pet by Mick Inkpen (Hodder Children's Books)
Labels:
#ReadItMD13,
All the awesome animals,
Hodder Children's Books,
Mick Inkpen,
Wibbly Pig Picks a Pet
Wibbly Pig Picks a Pet
Written and Illustrated by
Mick Inkpen
Published by
Hodder Children's Books
Hodder Children's Books
More Wibbly goodness from Mick Inkpen, and more animal stories for this week's #ReadItMD13 theme week celebrating all the awesome animals. So what are Wibbly Pig and his best friend Scruffy Pig up to now?
This story is all about pets. Big Pig's sister's friend (phew!) wants a new pet, and heads down to the pet store. Wibbly and Scruffy imagine what would be the coolest pet to own. An elephant perhaps? Hmm, too much trumpeting and huge food bills. How about a pair of mix-and-match dinosaurs? Cool! But deep in their heart of hearts they know Big Pig's Sister's Friend will choose something dull and boring - like a rabbit.
Which is, of course, exactly what she does choose but rabbits can be brilliant too. For instance, we were rocked by the revelation in this book that rabbits do not just one but TWO types of poo! See, bet you didn't know that (well you probably did if you're a parent who has had to clean your little darlings' rabbits out once they've gone off the idea).
Rabbits are cute and fluffy and loving though, so in fact they make perfect pets - as Wibbly and Scruffy soon find out.
Once again, as with "Wibbly Pig and the Tooky" here's a charming and whimsical story about pet ownership, with plenty of chuckles (and poo) along the way.
Charlotte's best bit: When the adorable rabbit nuzzles Scruffy Pig. Awww!
Daddy's Favourite bit: Animal-based antics with a huge dose of cute! Oh and poo. What's not to love?
(Kindly sent to us for review by Hodder Children's Books)
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
#ReadItMD13 Theme Week - "All the Awesome Animals - Which do we like best? Cat books or dog books?"
#ReadItMD13 Theme Week
All the Awesome Animals
Which books do we like best?
Cat books or Dog Books?
We've often been lucky enough to interview authors and artists and sometimes we sneak in a very unfair question. "Which do you prefer? Cats or Dogs?" As part of our #ReadItMD13 theme week all about awesome animals we thought we'd take a look back through the ReadItDaddy archives and turn the question on ourselves. Are we predominantly cat-obsessed or are we canny about canines instead?
It was a tough challenge. When you're faced with some of the greatest characters in children's picture books, how can you possibly choose favourites?
On the cat side, our favourite characters (amongst others) include:
- Mog (the forgetful cat from Judith Kerr's peerless books)
- Mog (the witch's cat in Meg and Mog)
- Chester (From Chester's Back)
- Splat the Cat
- Moonpie, Andre and Tiny (from "There are / aren't cats in this book by Viv Schwarz)
- The Tobermory Cat
- Ginger (from Charlotte Voake's excellent books)
- The Lighthouse Keeper's Cat
- Wilbur (from the Winnie the Witch books)
- Red Cat and Blue Cat (and Yellow cat too) from Jenni Desmond's book of the same name
- Six Dinner Sid
- Amazing Mr Zooty
- The Cat in the Hat
- Backstage Cat (again from Jenni Desmond with Harriet Ziefert)
- Keith (the cat with the magic hat)
- Tootsie (from "Please don't torment Tootsie" by Margaret Chamberlain)
- Holly (from Ruth Brown's book of the same name)
Quite a strong showing - but then on the dog side of things, another cracking list including:
- Dog (from Louise Yates' fabulous "Dog Loves" series)
- Dr Dog (From Babette Cole's delicious duo of Doc Dog books)
- Dog (from Eddie and Dog by Alison Brown)
- Black Dog (from Levi Pinfold's dark and lovely book)
- Harry (from Margaret Bloy-Graham and Gene Zion's fantastic book series)
- NO! (from Maria Altes brilliant book of the same name)
- Clifford (the big red dog)
- Old Dog (from Tony Ross's brilliant book of the same name)
- Dog (from Dogs don't do Ballet)
- Nina and George (from "Stop that Barking Nina" by Anita Pouroulis and Becky Jeffries)
- Claude (From Alex T. Smith's utterly brilliant series of books)
- Hairy Maclairy (from Lynley Dodd's brilliant series)
- Laika (from Laika the Astronaut by Owen Davey)
- Bored Bill (by Liz Pichon)
- Mr Renny (by Leo Timmers)
- Dixie O'Day and Percy (from Shirley Hughes and Clara Vulliamy's fabulous new book)
We couldn't decide - so we painstakingly went through the blog counting up each and every review to see how many dog or cat books (books where each were either the main characters or quite a strong part of the story) and the numbers are now in...
CATS - 42 books!
DOGS - 31 books!
So there you have it. Cats scrape it by a whisker but something tells me it won't take long till the dogs catch up!
Sunday, 8 September 2013
#ReadItMD13 Theme Week - "All the Awesome Animals!"
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| Even rats can be cuddly and cute! |
Without a doubt, one type of book dominates our book collection at ReadItDaddy. This week we'll be looking at all the awesome animals, and the books they star in. From fictional fables, to true stories of animal derring-do, there'll be something for everyone.
We thought we'd kick off with a few of Charlotte's favourites - favourite animals featuring in favourite animal-based children's books of course!
Charlotte would probably have a tough time choosing between our first two books and the animals who feature in them but with her it's all about the bunnies and the kittens.
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| "The Stray Kitten" by Judy Waite and Gavin Rowe |
"The Stray Kitten" is a bit of a heart-wrencher, so make sure you are armed with plenty of tissues to sob into as you read the tale of a lost little kitten looking for a loving family. A kitten's life in the wild is fraught with danger, but little kitten digs deep to find bravery and courage and eventually someone spots the poor little mite and saves it from starvation. It's darkly tinged but definitely has a lovely ending.
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| "Rabbityness" by Jo Empson. The most perfect animal-based picture book. |
We wouldn't dare feature an animal round up on the blog without one very special bunny in particular. "Rabbityness" captured our hearts the moment we first laid eyes on the cover, and it only gets better from thereon in. It's a book that deals beautifully with a very tough subject of course, the subject of loss - but as the book celebrates life too, in particular the life of one very special artistic and wondrous bunny, we love the way it makes us feel happy, sad, then happy again. Don't take our word for it, I dare you to try and find a bad word spoken about this book, it's pretty much as perfect as it gets.
From the sublime to the ridiculous. We love it when animals misbehave and there are so many books where animals arrive to teach us a lesson or two about good manners and decorum.
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| "I Am The King" by Leo Timmers. Animals behaving badly! |
In Leo Timmers' superb "I Am The King" we see what happens when animals find a crown lying around one day. Animal egos clash as each animal thinks they have a particular attribute that means they should rule over all others.
Of course, being a big showoff, or having the loudest grunt or even the curliest tale isn't a good enough reason to be king. Humility and caring about others are far more 'royal' traits so dive into Leo's book to see who comes out on top.
We've got lots of other animal books waiting in the wings to join us throughout the week so these are just a small taster to whet your appetite. Join us for our next article where we settle one of the biggest arguments in children's picture books - which are best, dog books or cat books?
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