Friday, 9 December 2011
Cottonwool Colin
Dynamic Duo Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross can always be relied on for a good yarn, and Cottonwool Colin's relatively simple central theme - about an over-protective mum - might ring a few bells with some of you.
Cottonwool Colin is the smallest mouse in the mouse family. His brothers and sisters are all bigger, and his mum worries about Colin a lot. After a throwaway comment from Granny Mouse, Mother Mouse decides that the best way to protect Colin from the outside world is to wrap him up in cotton wool.
Poor Colin struggles on with his life until a revelatory series of events show Colin, and his mum, that being wrapped up in cotton wool will only get you so far.
It's such a simple idea but so beautifully executed by Willis and Ross. Superb reading and Ross' trademark scratchy colourful drawings really help to bring the simple tale to life.
Charlotte's best bit - Colin being mistaken for a snowball
Daddy's favourite bit - Poor Colin being mistaken for a meringue by a hungry swan.
Rating - 4 out of 5 stars
Thursday, 8 December 2011
Stuck
A new Oliver Jeffers book? Sign us up! We love Oliver Jeffers' superb art and simple eye for a good story that's wrapped around a (usually) surreal central theme.
A boy loses his kite in a tree one day, and rather than do what any normal person would do, the boy proceeds to find as many objects as he can to throw at the kite to dislodge it.
If you remember the nursery rhyme "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly" you'll see what Jeffers has done here, but it's so beautifully presented, utterly ridiculous and charmingly done that you'll forgive him a bit of creative thieving.
An excellent addition to Jeffers' near-legendary output. Simple but beautifully effective.
Charlotte's best bit - The inquisitive whale
Daddy's favourite bit - The house across the road
Rating - 4 out of 5 stars
The Usborne Book of Christmas Art Ideas
It might've just slipped your notice that Christmas is coming and the month of December seems to have gone into hyperdrive, swinging towards that day when all children wake up at 3am wondering if Santa has been.
Taking a look at a few seasonal books over the last few weeks, one stuck out as a particularly valuable resource - particularly when you're trying to think of interesting Christmassy makes for your children to make then send to family and friends.
The Usborne Book of Christmas Art Ideas by Fiona Watt is chock full of really simple but beautifully effective ideas for christmas decorations, wrapping paper, or fun festive pictures. Each idea is clearly illustrated and the list of required items can mostly be found around the house (if your house is anything like ours, and seems to be bursting at the seams with glitter glue, PVA and odd scraps of coloured paper).
We've made quite a few items from the book already, and it's a clear winner with Charlotte. I'm quite looking forward to doing the massive Snowman montage finger painting.
Charlotte's best bit - The crazy santas made from torn up coloured paper and newspaper
Daddy's favourite bit - The simple but effective christmas lanterns
Rating - 5 out of 5 stars, Book of the Week
Friday, 2 December 2011
All I Want For Christmas...is Books!
When we asked Charlotte what books she'd like for Christmas, she came up with a list of various books - some with a christmas theme, and some without.
Here's the top ten books on Charlotte's christmas list. She probably won't get them all, but you never know what Santa might pull out of his sack.
In no particular order:
10) The Art of Pixar - 25 years of Animation (Chronicle Books)
A fantastic book rounding up the last 25 years of Pixar animation, and containing plenty of artwork and scripts from some of Charlotte's favourite films. Glossy and beautifully presented, this would probably be quite high up my present list too.
9) Aliens Love Panta Claus (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)
Claire Friedman and Ben Cort's "Aliens / Underpants" series are always popular, and this is fantastic. Aliens don't steal underpants at Christmas, they give them away and enlist the help of Panta Claus to make sure everyone has a nice snug warm pair of briefs in their christmas stocking.
8) The Illustrated Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Pop Up Book (Puffin Books)
Roald Dahl's timeless classic, in conjunction with Quentin Blake's fabulous scratchy drawings bring Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to life in a whole new way. A gorgeous and luxurious hard backed pop-up book that the whole family can enjoy. Forget the movies, this is the definitive way to enjoy the sweetest, tastiest, yumscrumptious children's book ever written
7) Barefoot Books World Atlas (Barefoot Books)
A beautifully illustrated educational atlas presented in the trademark Barefoot Books way, with so much to look at and absorb it deserves to become a definitive children's resource. Nick Crane and David Dean have gone to town producing something that has fold-out maps, tons of information on each continent and country, and plenty of activity ideas to fire up your child's imagination. Absolutely perfect.
6) Goodbye Mog (HarperCollins Children's Books)
Given the choice between the various Mog books Charlotte doesn't already own, she chose Goodbye Mog. An odd choice, a book beautifully written and illustrated by Judith Kerr that deals with one of the most difficult subjects a parent has to tackle, the death of a loved one. As with all Kerr's books, it's timeless and wonderful and deserves to be read again and again.
5) Richard Scarry's Best Christmas Ever (Sterling Books)
Richard Scarry's fantastic anthropomorphised animals have set the standard for donkeys years for cute cuddly animals doing the things we humans love to do - including celebrating Christmas! Enjoyed for generations, Richard Scarry's Best Christmas Book Ever is back in print, and the colourful panels and illustrations are full to the brim with detail. Absolutely every childhood memory you have of a perfect christmas is jam-packed into this book. A must-buy
4) Tangled - Storybook and CD (Parragon Publishing)
Disney's latest animated feature, and newest addition to their Princesses, is a massive hit with Charlotte and there are a ton of books based on Rapunzel available this christmas (as well as dolls, hairbrushes, Barbies and a whole lot more. We chose the Tangled CD and Story Book as it follows the movie more closely than some of the other available books. Illustrations and panels from the movie compliment a simplified abridged version of the Rapunzel story. Movie sound effects and music are used to good effect on the accompanying CD too.
3) Usborne Illustrated Fairy Tales (Usborne Children's Books)
Probably one of the best anthology collections of classic children's fairy tales. This big thick luxurious hardbacked volume is one that children can come back to again and again at any time of the year, not just Christmas. Though Disney might lay claim to a lot of the characters and stories you'll find in this book, these are the original tales and are beautifully illustrated without a lot of that Disney cuteness tacked in.
2) The Strictly Annual 2012 (BBC Books)
Oh dear, how did this get in here! Two things rule the roost at home at the moment - Strictly and Take That (I blame CanIWalkMummy entirely!). Saturday and sunday evening are entirely consumed by Strictly fever (Charlotte wants Jason to win, but I think CanIWalkMummy is voting for Harry). The Official Strictly Come Dancing 2012 annual is a glossy, glitzy catch-up with the stars and professionals from the 2011 series. If you just cannot get enough Strictly, keep dancing down to the shops to pick up a copy of this
1) A Dose of Dr Dog (Red Fox Picture Books)
Without a doubt, one of the biggest "hits" of the year with Charlotte was Babette Cole's Dr Dog. Here's a little more Dr Dog as our favourite medical canine looks into all sorts of cures and potions to test out on the hapless Gumboyle family. Dr Dog was so popular I think it has spent more time at home than in the library this year, so this quite rightly goes straight to the top of Charlotte's "wanted" list.
Time to dig out the moth eaten wallet and see how many of these we can grab. Of course, if any publishers are reading - with promotional copies just sitting there gathering dust.... :)
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from ReadItDaddy, Charlotte and CanIWalkMummy
Thursday, 1 December 2011
We Honestly Can Look After Your Dog
I have this little girl, Charlotte. She's small and very funny - and seems to be slightly obsessed with Charlie and Lola. In "We honestly can look after your dog" Lola takes centre stage as usual, and aided and abetted by her best friend Lotta, offers to help look after Sizzles.
Those of you who've seen the TV programme will probably know that Sizzles is the cute and rather clever (and extremely hungry) sausage dog belonging to Marv, Charlie's best friend. While Charlie and Marv have a game of football, Lotta and Lola look after Sizzles (poor Sizzles ends up with a rather fetching bow on his head, and hair slides attached to his ears, owch!)
Needless to say, Lola can't quite look after Sizzles as well as she expected and when not one but TWO sizzles end up vying for her attention, things get out of hand.
Any of you with children who constantly clamour for pets might easily identify with the message in this book. With Lauren Child's superb art work and montages, it's a winner for fans of the show.
Charlotte's best bit - Sizzles' expression after being "made over" by Lotta and Lola
Daddy's favourite bit - Sizzles one and Sizzles two reacting differently to the "Sit" command.
Rating - 4 out of 5 stars
Captain Gamma - Mission to Mars
Coming across like a slightly more bullish and mean version of Buzz Lightyear, Captain Gamma is the first human to set foot on mars. Claiming it for earth, Captain Gamma doesn't realise that he might not be alone up there.
An amusing little tale that makes you wonder how we'd react to meeting an alien species for the first time. Captain Gamma's bullish and rather greedy ways are soon put in check when he meets his match in a pint-sized blue alien who doesn't take too kindly to being captured for display in an earth zoo.
Charlotte had previously seen this book at her preschool and jumped at the chance to grab it from the library and it is an excellent book for kids obsessed with all things spacey.
Charlotte's best bit - The alien's blue bottom sticking out from behind a rock while playing hide and seek
Daddy's favourite bit - Captain Gamma's comeuppance for his greedy and avaricious ways
Rating - 4 out of 5 (shooting) stars
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Whoops! But it wasn't me!
Charlie and Lola are two of Cbeebies' best loved characters and it's easy to see why children readily identify with this brother and sister duo.
"Whoops! But it wasn't me" tells the story of Charlie's new rocket model. He's spent days making it, he's used three cereal boxes and 127 sweet wrapper. It's very fragile! But can Lola resist playing with it when Charlie's not looking?
A sweet little book and made all the better by the appearance of the legendary Soren Lorensen (who is pretty much the REAL star of Charlie and Lola - Lola's imaginary friend that only she can see).
Sometimes though, you've got to wonder how many hours she's going to spend in therapy in later life... :)
Charlotte's best bit - Little Unhappy Elephant
Daddy's favourite bit - The fact that Soren Lorenson is like the little red devil sitting on Lola's shoulder, urging her to do bad things.
Rating - 4 out of 5 stars
The Highway Rat
A new Julia Donaldson / Axel Scheffler book is pretty much a gigantic event in children's publishing. They are consistently good, pretty much an unbeatable team. The Highway Rat is no exception, using Julia Donaldson's trademark rhyming couplets to tell the story of a nasty, mean and very hungry rat. Like a miniature food-obsessed Dick Turpin, this rat has a bit of a sweet tooth but doesn't care what he steals from the hapless animal characters who make their way along the road he travels.
The rat steals clover from rabbits, nuts from squirrels, even leaves from ants. But it takes a brave and rather smart duck to outwit this yellow-toothed hooligan.
As ever, it's a seemingly simple tale turned into a cross between a morals lesson and an entertaining story, and though there's a jarring about-face at the end of the book (you'll see what I mean), it's still worthy of our book of the week.
Charlotte's best bit - Gruffalo Biscuits!
Daddy's favourite bit - Great animal characters from Axel Scheffler
Rating - 5 out of 5 stars, book of the week.
Monday, 7 November 2011
The Hill and the Rock
We've raved about David McKee on ReadItDaddy before (in fact it's still extremely difficult for Charlotte NOT to bring "Not Now Bernard" home every single week from the library). The genius behind well loved children's characters from my era (Mr Benn, King Rollo) to my daughter's (Elmer, Two Can Toucan) can usually be relied upon for excellent books filled with life lessons and moral tales.
The Hill and the Rock is no exception. It tells the story of a couple with a very desirable residence, a lovely cottage at the top of the only hill in the region. It's perfect - apart from one thing. A rather large rock that partially obscures the view from the kitchen window.
After several rather persuasive arguments with his wife (Nagging? Who mentioned nagging?) the man of the house decides to do something about the rock.
Unfortunately for the couple, it's all downhill from there. Quite literally.
It's fantastical nonsense weaved into a compelling story in David McKee's trademark "70's trip-out" style. I love his character drawings (and I love the fact that Mr Benn-type characters seem to pop up in cameo appearances in most of his books dealing with human characters), love the daft premise of this book and Charlotte might well have a new favourite to displace Not Now Bernard as her favourite McKee book of all time.
Charlotte's best bit: The house sinking
Daddy's favourite bit: That sneaky appearance by a bowler-hat-wearing pinstripe-suited businessman type. Who probably dresses as a Knight or an Astronaut at weekends
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars, Book of the Week
I Want a Friend!
The Little Princess is back in another book from Tony Ross' superb series. It's the Little Princess's first day at school, and now her little brother no longer wants to play with her, our titular hero is feeling a bit glum.
Snobby kids at school don't want to play with her either, and soon the Little Princess wonders if she'll ever find any friends at all.
Luckily she's not the only one in the same boat.
A great book, particularly if your children are off to school for the first time and are more than a little apprehensive. As ever, Tony Ross' skills are in telling a story using a familiar character dealing with unfamiliar situations, setting children instantly at ease by showing that the big bad world isn't quite as big and bad as it first appears.
Charlotte's best bit: The Princess making lots of new friends without knowing it
Daddy's favourite bit: The subtlety of TLP not actually letting on she's a princess at school. Very clever that.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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