Showing posts with label Rabbityness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rabbityness. Show all posts
Monday, 13 July 2020
#Booky100Keepers Day 71: "Rabbityness" by Jo Empson (Child's Play)
Labels:
#Booky100Keepers,
Child's Play,
Jo Empson,
Rabbityness
"Rabbityness" by Jo Empson is one of those books we've recommended to so many people over the years, and still continue to do so to this day.
It begins as the happy story of a rabbit who loves to do lots of rabbity things, but also loves to do quite a lot of distinctly un-rabbity things, like paint, or play music, or dance.
Mid way through the book there's a thud - the sound of your heart breaking as the rabbit passes on - but leaves behind a legacy for its fellow rabbits - a huge collection of all the non-rabbity things for them to discover themselves.
That way they'll always remember their rabbity friend and all their wonderful non-rabbityness too.
There's such a lot of layers to this book, and the way it can be used to help children understand loss and grief, but also to help them remember loved ones - even pets - they've loved and lost.
Jo set out here to produce a book that did away with the usual sombre messages you'll see in any books that deal with the death of a loved one, instead imbuing her glorious artwork and beautiful storytelling with huge dollops of joyful colour and a real vibrancy that makes this book stand out, and feel way ahead of its time even now.
We'll go on thinking about Rabbityness any time anyone asks us for a book on this subject. Geniunely one of the most amazing books we ever got to cover on this blog.
Original Review Links (with some more excellent work from Jo):
ReadItDaddy's Second Book of the Week - Week Ending 26th February 2016 - "Little Home Bird" by Jo Empson (Child's Play)
Chimpanzees for Tea by Jo Empson (Picture Puffin)
Never Ever by Jo Empson (Child's Play International PLC)
Charlotte's Book of the Week - Rabbityness by Jo Empson (Child's Play International Ltd)
Monday, 4 February 2013
#readitmummiesanddaddies2013 - Writing for children's books - Strong Words, Softly Spoken
Labels:
#readitmummiesanddaddies2013 Writing for children's books,
Pants,
Rabbityness,
We're going on a bear hunt
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| Words are gifts when freely shared |
For this week's #readitmummiesanddaddies2013 theme I thought we'd take a look at writing for children's books and some of our favourite CBs that are intoxicating more because of their use of the language than their use of flashy illustrations (that's not to say that each and every one of the books we've picked in our list isn't also visually beautiful, but it's the way they were written that meant they became books of the week).
First, one of the earliest books we read to Charlotte - and one that so many parents (and children) will be able to recite by heart...
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| "We're going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury (Walker Books) |
The genius of this book is how interactive it is for young children. Before they can even begin to form words properly, before they can understand what words mean - they can get a lot out of a book that has such deliciously addictive alliterative sounds in it. Squishing, squelching, swishing, stumbling. Lots of 'S' words that trip off the tongue and for babies and toddlers, the chance to bounce in their seats and attempt to match what mummy or daddy are saying.
It evolves with the child too. As they get older, they love the feeling of tension that ramps up as the book reaches its brilliant climax. If you're like me, you read the last 3 pages of the book in an absolute mad rush (it's funnier if you trip over your words at the end too, as I often do in a mad dash to get them all out and jump under the duvet to safety!)
The power of language is self-evident in this and it's really not hard at all to see why it's such a well-loved classic.
Moving on and another book that appeals to a child's built-in subversive streak...
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| "Pants" by Giles Andreae and Nick Sharratt |
Whether you like it or not, your little darlings will undoubtedly go through a phase where they find pants funny. Pants, bottom burps, belches and of course poo and wee. Here, the power of "Pants" is put to brilliant effect in a book that causes kids to giggle uncontrollably as it's all about something slightly 'naughty' (in fact, in a whole brace of books but really we only liked "Pants" and "More Pants", "Socks" was a bit of a miss!)
It helps that Pants is rhyming, and rhymes can help a child memorise and identify a story extremely quickly. Again before Charlotte could read, she could recite this story word for word, start to finish (also helped by the fact that this was read almost nightly for quite a while when she was tiny). Rhyme is very well established as a method of engaging a child with a book, and "Pants" is such a good fit (pardon the pun) that you can even sing along with Lenny Henry if you've bagged the version with the bonus music CD.
Last but by no means least there's the power of words to help children understand concepts and subjects that are seen as the realm of the grown up, and often steered well clear of in children's books.
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| "Rabbityness" by Jo Empson |
How does one begin a discussion about death with a child, when a pet or a loved one dies? Many books have tried to deal with the subject fairly directly. The beauty of Jo Empson's book is in the way it helps a child think past death itself, and through to the fairly abstract concept of dealing with grief and celebrating a person's (or a rabbit's) life and their influence on others around them. It's done in a way that doesn't insult the intelligence of a child, doesn't ask them to buy into an esoteric and idealogical view to 'soften the blow'. Rabbit dies, but it's what Rabbit leaves behind that triggers the further discussion.
I remember reading this to Charlotte for the first time and watching the rollercoaster of emotions the book invoked, but the look of sheer joy when she realised that all Rabbit's friends would inherit its "Rabbityness" as a legacy. Utterly, utterly beautiful.
Writing for children's books is definitely no easy option. Many celebrities seem to think that this may be a great inroad into mass adulation by a whole new generation of fans, that it's an easy gig. But it isn't. Not if you want your books to become classics like these, and the sort of books that parents and children are happy to read for years and years to come.
Friday, 9 November 2012
Charlotte's Book of the Week - Rabbityness by Jo Empson (Child's Play International Ltd)
As we mentioned in our "The Flower" review, we simply could not choose between two books so we've rather slyly chosen a book each for "Book of the Week" this week. Again, this book came as a recommendation from Beth Cox (who is either going to develop a big head or a complex if we keep mentioning her but she is awesome!) after a discussion about a worry that inclusive books would be a bit 'grey and boring'.
The description 'grey and boring' couldn't be further from Rabbityness. Though it starts off fairly monochrome, with some lovely inky drawings of a Rabbit doing - well - rabbity things, it soon explodes into an ocean of colours as we discover that our rabbity friend loves doing unrabbity things too.
He paints, he dances beautifully, he plays music, and he soon fills the forest where he lives with beautiful colours and sounds.
It's infectious stuff so all the other rabbits soon discover that they love what he does too!
Then one day Rabbit disappears. No one can find him, all that is left is a deep, dark hole...
At this point in the book - when we first read it together - Charlotte stopped, and a look crossed her face that I'd never seen before. A look of absolute and complete sorrow. As parents we're probably quite used to seeing our children upset, crying, having tantrums - sometimes over the most trivial things, but I hadn't seen this - it was actually fairly upsetting and made me cuddle her close as we continued with the book.
I feel we're meandering into spoiler territory here so please - stop right now if you want to experience the book unsullied by our review or our opinions - but we should carry on and tell you that Rabbit doesn't just leave a deep dark hole - he leaves a legacy behind, a legacy of sharing his unrabbityness, his delicious infectious enthusiasm for colour and music and fun and laughter with his friends in the forest.
We've seen a few books that deal with loss and grief in a fairly rudimentary (and sometimes outright clumsy) fashion, but nothing that deals with it as delicately but also as triumphantly as Rabbityness. It is quite unlike anything we've come to expect from children's picture books but I'll let you into a secret - this is exactly the sort of thing that Child's Play do, and make it look so durned easy too.
Charlotte's best bit: The one frame where Rabbit is tucked up snugly having a snooze. So...rabbity!
Daddy's favourite bit: That moment where the book's tone momentarily changes and the impact (and I do mean impact) it had on Charlotte. Even when we re-read this, it had a similar effect - simply because to a child that feeling can be so wholly unfamiliar and seeing how she dealt with it was absolutely amazing.
(Kindly supplied to us for review by Child's Play International Ltd)
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