World Of Children's Books

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Picture Book: Esme's Egg – Neil Griffiths (Author) & Christine Grove (Illustrator)

Recommended for: Babies/Toddlers/Younger Readers

Esme's expression on the front cover should give you a hint as to what this is about. A disgruntled hen, fed up with having her egg stolen every day, decides to hide it from the farmer. A battle of wits ensues, as the farmer still manages to get the egg for several days, until Esme decides to follow the farmer to where he keeps the eggs, and ends up sitting on it all the way to the supermarket. It's fair to say she ruffles a few feathers...ahem.

Now, sometimes a picture paints a thousand words, and for me the best part of this story is the grumpy expression that Esme wears on her face for most of it. For some reason, I find the idea of a grumpy hen hilarious, and in all fairness, if i'd spent all that time popping out an egg I'd be pretty grumpy if someone came along and took it off me. It's nice and brightly illustrated, and I really do like that grumpy hen. The story itself is fun, and wordier than most of the picture books that I've reviewed, so if it's one you're planning on getting your children to read it's a good way of challenging them once they've been reading for a little while.

Definitely worth checking out, especially if you're children even wonder where their boiled eggs come from.

9/10

Picture Book: Bear's Loose Tooth – Karma Wilson (Author) & Jane Chapman (Illustrator)

Recommended for: Babies/Toddlers/Younger Readers

Yep, it's another in the Bear series, and it might be my favourite yet. This time around, Bear has a loose tooth, and enlists the help of his friends to get it out. They try various methods until...it just sort of falls out, exactly how it used to happen to me. Unless there was a chocolate toffee involved. Sometimes then it came out a bit earlier than it should have.

Bear's quirky charm is on display again here, although he isn't playing quite the same dozy role as he has previously. While the story itself is one that all children will relate to (and let's face it, we were all impatient when we had a loose tooth, waiting for it to drop out so that the Tooth Fairy would visit), what made me smile most of all is Bear's expression on the last page. It breaks the fourth wall with Bear looking at the reader with a shocked expression on his face, and I couldn't help smiling at it. Also, in a lovely bit on continuity, Bear falls asleep under the same blanket that Badger gave him for Christmas in Bear Stays Up.

This really is a great series. Bring on the next one!

9/10

Picture Book - Bear Stays Up - Karma Wilson (Author) & Jane Chapman (Illustrator)

Recommended for: Babies/Toddlers/Younger Readers

This is the third book in the Bear series by Karma Wilson, and I must say it's great every time I come across one of these. There's a recognisable quirky charm to Bear now each time I read about him, and I suspect in each book he's going to struggle with an idea or task but come through in the end, just as you want from a children's book.

In this story, set at Christmas, Bear is struggling to stay awake for Christmas. Apparently he missed it last year, and his friends don't want to let that happen again. In now classic Bear fashion, although he struggles to begin with, eventually he manages to stay awake whilst all his friends turn out to be the ones who fall asleep, and he even narrowly misses Santa Claus whilst wrapping presents. It's a sweet ending, as ever, and a perfect little Christmas tale.

I'm really growing to love the illustrations in these stories, and there's something really lovable about the way Bear is drawn. You can tell he's a bit dopey, which is why his friends have to help him all the time, but that just adds to his charm. A quick glance online suggests there's at least another five books in this series, so rest assured if you're a fan of the Bear series, there's plenty more to come.

9/10

Friday, 11 January 2013

Picture Book - What's The Time, Mr Wolf?- Debi Glior (Author & Illustrator)

Recommended for: Babies/Toddlers/Younger Readers

You might be expecting a grizzly fairy tale when first picking this book up - after all, as far as I'm concerned, the title refers to a game we used to play at primary school where whoever played the wolf tried to eat everyone else (not literally. I don't think. Some children are strange). However, there's a great twist at the end of this book that marks it out as different from the norm.

Every hour, from 7am to 6pm, Mr Wolf encounters another fairy tale character (or characters) causing him problems as he tries to go about his day. Despite the early threats to eat the Three Little Pigs (mainly because he's tired and grumpy), it turns out that all the dashing around that everyone has been doing is in preparation for a party at Mr Wolf's house, and that in fact everyone is the best of friends. Children will lap up this ending, because it'll be the last thing they expect.

Adults will appreciate some of the humour (his cupboard is bare as the dish ran away with the spoon), as well as feeling sympathy at being woken early. The illustrations are great, and you end up wishing they had told it over 24 hours instead of 12, so you could have seen Mr Wolf interact with more fairy tale characters.

A great book this one. Make sure you check it out (both figuratively and from your local library).

9/10

Picture Book - Dolphin Baby - Nicola Davies (Author) & Brita Granstrom (Illustrator)

Recommended for: Toddlers/Younger Readers

Now this is a book I can really appreciate - telling the story of where dolphins come from and how they grow up, in the form of a story so young children can enjoy themselves whilst learning? That's my type of book!

Filled with facts about dolphins and how they grow, it's not just children who will learn something when reading this. There's some lovely pastel (I think it's pastel...) illustrations to go along with the text, and there's even an index at the back so you can easily learn about a specific part of dolphin life.

Better yet, there appear to be over 20 more of this style of book to get, so I'll be sure to collect some of those for review in the future.

Fantastic.

9/10

Picture Book - Bear Says Thanks - Karma Wilson (Author) & Jane Chapman (Illustrator)

Recommended for: Babies/Toddlers/Younger Readers

This is the second book featuring the character Bear by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman, and it's a lovely little tale about Bear learning how much he is valued by his friends. Even though he hasn't brought any food to the party, his stories liven it up and are what his friends love him for. It's great to have this sort of thing in a children's book, so that you can point out the valued of friendship and how everyone has a place in a group from a young age. It's an eclectic group of friends that are featured, which again is a great way of showing our differences but that we can build strong friendships anyway.

It's nicely illustrated and I love a book written in rhyming verse (there's the odd deviation, but it's a consistent deviation) - it makes them all the more playful and children love the rhythm.

Read it with Bear Snores On and encourage them to be the storyteller at parties as they grow up - they'll be by far and away the most interesting person!

8/10

Picture Book - Bear Snores On - Karma Wilson (Author) & Jane Chapman (Illustrator)

Recommended for: Babies/Toddlers/Younger Readers

The first story about Bear and his friends begins on a cold, snowy winter's night. While Bear snores on (wonder where they got the title from), lots of animals come and use his cave for shelter, and end up having fun making pop corn and stew, before some stray pepper awakens him as he sneezes. Although he looks angry, really he's just upset that he hasn't been able to join in the fun (well, I can't blame him - how would you like it if squatters broke into your home and then didn't invite you to join them for popcorn?). Luckily, his new friends (it ends well) tell him they have more supplies he can partake in, and he settles down to tell them stories, which keeps him awake for the rest of the night (although the others fall asleep - we'll presume it's from the partying, not because his stories are boring).

I love a story with rhyming text, so I took to this easily. There's the odd repeated line about bear snoring on that doesn't rhyme, but it's done throughout the book and serves to divide up the introduction of all Bear's new friends. It'll make children laugh to learn that all the other animals ended up snoring, whilst Bear ended up staying awake for the rest of the night, and they'll enjoy seeing what the animals got up to whilst Bear was asleep. Whilst I enjoyed the next book in this series more, I'd recommend reading the two together, as this is still a nice tale to tell children about friendships forming on cold, wintry night.

7/10