Showing posts with label the girl who lost her name. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the girl who lost her name. Show all posts
Wednesday, 27 November 2013
Indie Pen-Dance Wednesday - A great guest post from one of the creators of "The Girl / The Boy Who Lost her / His Name"
 |
| Scrumptious stories and a name book with a difference! The Little Girl Who Lost Her Name |
Today for our Indie Pen-Dance Wednesday we're featuring a guest post from David Cadji-Newby from "lostmy.name" - genius creators of a name book with a difference.
You can check out our review of "The Girl Who Lost Her name" but now it's over to David to tell us a little bit about what reading with his son means to him.
"OH GOD NO NOT THAT BOOK AGAIN!"
I don’t know about you, but for me, there was this one book. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good book. One of the best. I remember enjoying it the first, ooh, twenty times I read it to Elias. But every night?
‘What book would you like?’ I’d say.
‘This one.’
‘Right... Sure?’
‘Yes.’
‘You wouldn’t prefer this one? It’s got great pictures.’
‘No.’
‘This one? Look, it’s got pop-up, um, thingies.’
‘No.’
I ended up sounding like a desperate call centre worker trying to hawk double glazing. And it never worked. He wanted that book. And I had to read it to him, otherwise I’d be a bad dad.
So I had to come up with strategies, to get through it. Do silly voices, that was one. Really start interrogating the stories, look for subtext.
‘What do you think that gorilla’s motivation is?’
‘What?’
‘Why has he nicked the bananas?’
‘Oh. Because he was hungry?’
‘Awesome.’
But here’s the thing. The older and more familiar the book got, the more I had to interact with Elias to get through it. And looking back, we talked so much and learned so much together, that it was more than worth it. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Bedtime stories are on the wane. Parents are reading less with their children. Kids are spending more time in front of screens. Which we think is a shame. Reading a story with a child is such a magical thing. And it’s over so quickly. Too quickly.
Now, Elias reads on his own. And he’ll come out with things like, ‘Did you know the Roman god of the sea is called Neptune?’ And I’ll say, ‘How do you know that?’ ‘Oh, I read it,’ he’ll say. And while I’ll be proud of him for knowing it, and impressed by his reading (he’s only seven after all), a part of me will still wish that maybe we could have discovered it together. Even if it was in a book we’d read together, like, a gazillion times.
"OH GOD NO NOT THAT BOOK AGAIN!"
I don’t know about you, but for me, there was this one book. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good book. One of the best. I remember enjoying it the first, ooh, twenty times I read it to Elias. But every night?
‘What book would you like?’ I’d say.
‘This one.’
‘Right... Sure?’
‘Yes.’
‘You wouldn’t prefer this one? It’s got great pictures.’
‘No.’
‘This one? Look, it’s got pop-up, um, thingies.’
‘No.’
I ended up sounding like a desperate call centre worker trying to hawk double glazing. And it never worked. He wanted that book. And I had to read it to him, otherwise I’d be a bad dad.
So I had to come up with strategies, to get through it. Do silly voices, that was one. Really start interrogating the stories, look for subtext.
‘What do you think that gorilla’s motivation is?’
‘What?’
‘Why has he nicked the bananas?’
‘Oh. Because he was hungry?’
‘Awesome.’
 |
| Hippos can help with a letter. Guess which one! |
But here’s the thing. The older and more familiar the book got, the more I had to interact with Elias to get through it. And looking back, we talked so much and learned so much together, that it was more than worth it. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
Bedtime stories are on the wane. Parents are reading less with their children. Kids are spending more time in front of screens. Which we think is a shame. Reading a story with a child is such a magical thing. And it’s over so quickly. Too quickly.
 |
| By gad, it's a B! |
Now, Elias reads on his own. And he’ll come out with things like, ‘Did you know the Roman god of the sea is called Neptune?’ And I’ll say, ‘How do you know that?’ ‘Oh, I read it,’ he’ll say. And while I’ll be proud of him for knowing it, and impressed by his reading (he’s only seven after all), a part of me will still wish that maybe we could have discovered it together. Even if it was in a book we’d read together, like, a gazillion times.
(Our thanks to David for a brilliantly funny post. Don't forget, your own "lostmy.name" journey is waiting for you at the "lostmy.name" website! Create something uber special today!)
Wednesday, 6 November 2013
Indie Pen-Dance Wednesday. Spotlight on "The Little Girl Who Lost Her Name / The Little Boy Who Lost His Name" - a fabulous personalised book from lostmy.name
Labels:
Indie Pen-Dance Day,
lostmyname,
personalised name book,
the boy who lost his name,
the girl who lost her name
The Little Girl Who Lost Her Name / Boy Who Lost His Name
Written by David Cadji-Newby
Illustrated by Pedro Serpicos
Published by lostmy.name
We're stunned by the sheer quality of indie titles that have been added to our "Indie Pen-Dance Wednesday" roster. This is something unique and special though, a small-time business founded by three dads (David, Pedro and Asi) and one uncle (Tal) who are the genius collective behind "Lost My Name".
Name books have a habit of feeling impersonal. Gluing a child's name into an identikit story often falls quite flat, and we've received books like these as presents that - though the intention is to make the book feel like the child is the star - end up making them feel anything but special.
"The Little Girl Who Lost Her Name" (For obvious reasons, we chose "the girl" over "the boy") is a story that starts off with a girl who - yep you've guessed it - has forgotten everything about herself, even her own name. Over the course of the story, the girl slowly manages to reclaim all the letters that spell her name - and due to some extremely clever branching software, repetition is avoided and the child's name is woven delicately into a story that doesn't feel pieced together. It has a flow to it.
The other bugbear we have about 'name books' are that they often look a bit cheap and nasty compared to children's picture books that your child will already know and love. Not so in this case, "The Girl Who Lost Her Name" is an utterly and completely beautiful book.
 |
| The Boy meets a Robot with a letter "R" to give... |
You can start building your child's book in seconds on the "Lost My Name" website. The whole process from start to finish took us next to no time, and was actually quite good fun. With Charlotte having a nice long name, we wondered how children like Amy or Eve, or even Ian would fare. Thankfully they get as great a story and as good a deal as children with longer names (£16.99 for a book that is as luxurious as this, and that feels as personal as this is a pretty good bargain methinks - the quality of the finished product is stunning!)
If you're on the hunt for a unique christmas gift, definitely take a look at "The Little Girl / The Little Boy who lost her / his Name" - An utterly fabulous idea and we wish this plucky team of dads (and uncles) all the very best with their venture!
Charlotte's best bit: The discovery of the girl's identity at the end of the book (She's razor sharp so she had guessed, but the book's journey was a wonderful one for her)
Daddy's Favourite bit: An absolute doddle to create, loved the emails that go out to confirm your order, and the wonderful way the book arrives. Such an awesome idea!
(Kindly arranged for review by Asi at LostmyName)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
