Friday, June 6, 2008

Celebrating Children's Book week Pt 4


Handa's Surprise By Eileen Browne I like this story because it's set in Africa but it's not really about that. It' s really just about a little girl, her friend some fruit and some animals. It's really nice to see kids books that have other cultures in them just. It's just a nice little story and fun because most kids love animals and interesting because of all of the different fruits... it would be cool to try and try as many of them as possible one day... you could make a Handa Salad. :-) Hmmmmm share it with your1+ year old right up into school age and have some fun with it.




Miss Spider's Tea Party By David Kirk Miss Spider is darn cool. That's it simple as. Cool. In this story she tries to have a tea party but the other insects are too scared to come (unsurprisingly). The pictures are AWESOME and the rhyming couplets are a lot of language fun... and it has a happy ending... there's lot's more Miss Spider books including some as board books and an ABC check them all out with your 18 month and up year olds and up and up and up...



Meg and Mog By Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski All the Meg and Mog books are very cool. In fact any books by Helen and Jan are very cool. Fantastic for babies because of the stunning colours. Simple fun stories which are best read aloud.... lets face it "Boom!" and "Splash Down!" don't sound the same in your head. And who wouldn't love a story with a funky witch and a cool cat! Just read them, ok?



Hairy Maclary from Donaldsons Dairy
By Lynley Dodd If you are a New Zealander with a child reading this blog and you need Hairy Maclary explained to you then you need to go to some sort of penance at your library or local book store... I don't know what maybe say a few Slinky Malinky's and a couple of Schnitzel Von Crumb's. Dogs, noise rhyming and great illustrations.... if it by Lynley Dodd get it... it's good. Read it to your baby on up (and up and up and up).



The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord This is a bit harder to find that the other books but I think it's well worth it. It's all about the folk of Itching Down on the day the wasps flew into town. Lots of rhyming, funky pictures especially the Helitractor (or is it a tractorcopter?). I remember reading this as a kid and imagining all the stuff going on... it's silly but it kind of would be possible... it's not totally improbable and I really like that. And I still find myself saying "Good question, but nobody had a good suggestion"... it's weird what you do and what you remember. Anyway if you can track it down or if you come across it in a second hand store or fair somewhere buy it and enjoy it with your 2.5+ year old.


Mummy Do Monsters Clean their Teeth By Jan Farr and Pamela Allen Ok if the last one was hard to find then this will be nigh impossible. The link leads you to the text... here's my suggestion... print it out and have your small person do their own illustrations. Then wait with baited breath for my book week pt 7 post. Silly, fun, great for boys!


Over On the Farm By Gwenda Turner I couldn't find a picture of this book on the net what's with that?? Gwenda Turner is a fabulous New Zealand author. And all of her illustrations feel just like home- or maybe like home when we were kids... which is a feeling and a place I'd like to create for my own kids (that's a whole other post though). Over on the Farm has amazing pictures that are almost life-like, each page shows the mother, father and baby form of each animal it names them and states the noise they make. Really cool if you want to reinforce a recent trip to a farm or if you are about to go visit one. Read this to your baby and up. Also recommended from Gwenda Turner; Pat-a-cake (look for the recipe in the back and try it) and Penny and Pocket (based a a true story, the newspaper article is in the book which makes a great discussion point/learning opportunity).





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