Why you shouldn't do THIS at our house

Our friend Elliot, who comes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, has a groovy school bag.
So groovy....

It makes Elly happy dance.

Until....

He realises we are filming him....

Slap'n it up

As I sit here freezin' my butt off with most of the windows in the house open it may not be the best of days to talk about the adventures with the painters, but I'm gonna anyway.

Looking over the pictures this could be the world's most boring blog post but I am writing it for me to remember when I get around to scrapping it later on and also because the kids read the blog and I thought it may interest them.

So here's the house just after they started scraping the windows. You can see from this picture that the base boards needs a coat or two but in general the house looked fine. Murphy's Baby Law's also apply to painters in that where ever you have a baby that is going to sleep or actually asleep then you will also have a painter making a fairly decent amount of noise. That said if I could employ a water blaster full time then I would. It would be a terrible waste of the worlds water resources but the window would sure as heck be clean and Will slept a LONG time when he was here doing his thing!


Just for reference sake here's the back. We did have a big stack of firewood under those 2 little windows but they had to move it. (Glad it wasn't me)


This is 'little english' he has said five words to me; baby, half (as in half a year), yes (as in I was right about the babies age), two (as in two coats of paint) and toilet (as in can I please use yours).



And this is 'no english' who swings between cheerful and scared. I don't like referring to them using these names at all... but I haven't got much to go on as far as personality to differentiate them.

This is when they started wrapping the house. Sam is down the bottom doing some filling.



Merenia's windows one wrapped and the other getting wrapped.


Cool plant art... or at least how you keep the plants away from the house. We were a little worried about Ruby trying to come in the cat door over the step that they were painting dark grey... she has the furriest toes of any cat you have ever met and she's quite temperamental... it would not have been fun trying to trim her painty paw fur!


Back door all masked out....


And Sam starts to spray the first wall... Les is not impressed by house spraying... that's not the way they did it back in his day!


And here's Sam about 5 minutes later almost finished the first coat... and that is also not the way Les did it back in his day either. :-)


This is a very poor picture but I can tell you that would have been the best light to take family photos in- full sunlight brilliantly diffused!! Alas alak... who knew they'd work weekends?


Here's the hole in the front door masking that I just came through. Sam told me around 1pm that they'd have to mask both doors and that once they did there would be no coming or going for 2 hours. And I told Sam that I needed to pick the kids up at 3pm and he said fine we'll do the front door after that. So I was more than a little taken aback at 2:20pm when I went to leave to get milk and vege etc on my way to school to find out I was masked in. I made a little hole in the masking stuff and meekly called out hello. They came and made a bigger hole and I passed Will in his car seat through it. Then I popped through as well.

And then the kids went in through the hole when we got home. Kieran...

Merenia...

And Merenia's friend Courtney...

They started scrapping the windows on Thursday afternoon and by about 5:30pm Friday they had painted both coats over the whole house....


Saturday they worked on steps, base boards and filling holes that appeared after paint dried. Sunday they had a day off which was good because if they had have been working like the neighbours painter then I wouldn't have been happy. Yesterday was raining. And today like I say we have practically every window in the house open. When he's awake Will and I are holed up in our bedroom with the oil heater on. I think maybe they will finish today or perhaps have a little more to do before they move on down the road. Yay! Nice shiny new 'Spanish White' house looks great on the outside... fairly bloody crap on the inside thanks to the logic of the NZ Defence Force! I'll post a picture when it's all done and dusted. I bet you'll be waiting with baited breath for that one! Now I'm off down to the scrapbooking room as I didn't open those windows either.

Merenia World View

It's funny what we come across when we download the camera's at this place here's the latest little tidbit courtesy of Merenia...

He was wearing blue

The photo I wasn't quick enough to take today was of a boy. I saw the boy seconds after I would have liked to snap the shot. When I saw him the boy, a blonde with very short hair, was doubled over and laughing as he desperately tried to undress. A few moments earlier that boy had gone to the washing basket to locate his school hockey uniform... white shirt and blue shorts. Having found them he returned to the lounge and got changed ready for the game. At which point his sister said;

"Your wearing my netball skirt"

And so he was. Nice one Kieran.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming

Well it's officially another week and a rainy one at that. That is a bonus as it means we start our week without our recent constant companions- the painters. .... We have three painters I think of them as 'No english', 'little english', and Sam. Despite the obvious language barriers they all seem really nice! They sure are hard working as witnessed before 8am on Saturday and after five pm that same day. Little English is also very good... (I haven't watched No English he seems a bit nervous when I am around so I try not to stress him out). I will actually do a whole post on the painting (goodness knows I have enough pictures) but for now I'll just tell you about my major excitement followed by major disappointment. Because they spray painted the house they wrapped all the doors and windows, in the lounge on sunny Friday afternoon that made for the most awesome diffused light. So I asked them to leave the lounge window covered for the weekend so we could take some family photos. So I had big plans to finally colour my hair, get Les to shave, dress up the kids and breakout the tripod. Then we got home from netball and shopping to find the window uncovered.... bugger!

Anyway today I have a head cold with a sore throat kicker courtesy of Will (thanks baby I knew you were wiping those bogeys on my shoulder for a reason!). I am sorting through 515 files as I write this post mostly photos but some movies as well and I find there's so much I wanted to share in the past couple of weeks so this may have to be a bit of a clip show post here goes....

As I said the cold comes from Will I think it was caused by the cool evening air last Monday at Hockey he was well rugged up...



Seriously bummed about the photos I lost in the last couple of weeks. It seems we got some sort of virus I think. I lost the photos of Will first night in his 'big babies bed'. This one is taken the next day...


The cold made him one sad little baby and so there was a lot of sleeping on his mama and also on the couch... lost most of those photos too 'cept this one.


That was K's second game for the season he was Goalie in the first...


It took about 20 minutes to get him all suited up and he walked out in front of the goal and his 'box' fell out, with the gloves and all it wasn't an option for him to put it back in... it was quite funny... but not as funny as when he had to change ends at half time... best I can say to describe it is that he looked like a robot which desperately needed to go to the loo. :-)

As you know Will turned 5 months... so of course I took Monkey photos gotta love this one...


And as you certainly haven't had much of the pleasure of Will's company lately on the blog here's a little number we call Yummy Funny Toes...




And then there's Funny Feet...




We had 3 empty house around us for quite a while but now have 2 sets of new neighbours which maybe cool... I haven't figured that out yet. I have only seen the guy front neighbour but it is a 4 bedroom house and there's a little pedal car in their back yard so I am thinking there must be at least some kids somewhere...? The back neighbours I have only met one of but he's quite cute...


Funny though Will wasn't all that impressed or interested... I thought he would be but maybe the puppy moves too fast?

Last week Kieran came home with the makings of his marionette which needed finishing for school the next day. He had a bit of fun on the sewing machine but didn't get him finished before bed time so I got to finish him off. 3 hours later introducing Malili Muliaina, a Chiefs player of course....


Kieran then promptly forgot to take him to school of course and I had to go back home and pick him up.

A quick run down of the rest...

• the netball is not going so well lucky it's the grading games.
• The Hockey is much the same although with a new player this may improve.
• Les spent the week at 360 so added a fair chunk to his saving for Turkey.
• I am so over Les working at 360 and will be glad when Turkey is done and dusted.
• My toe which had minor surgery is still not 100% I need to go back for more anti-bugs but haven't got around to it.
• I still haven't finished the spare room, but I did reclaim my scrapping table on Sunday.
  
• I managed to get rid of some stuff including a few sales on trade me which is cool... I'll post more on that later.

I should also say thank-you for the concerned emails after my post on the airforce... I guess the letter came across as I intended it, while it's true that the situation is crap I am not. I guess to a certain extent we are used to the situation but it's also a matter of not letting those particular bartards 'get us down'. So that'll have to do for now Will is awake, suprise surprise, I'm sure there's more but it'll have to wait till later.

Merroowwww Aaaaahhhgggghhhhhhh

The photos I didn't take on Thursday were of our cat Ruby who had some small and tender part of her soft furry body squashed quite harshly as Merenia stepped back from the pantry cupboard with a pouch of cat food for the expectant and apparently starving puss. The noise that Will, Kieran and I heard emanating from the kitchen was a caterwaul I have never before heard from our darling fluffy girl and stopped us all still in our tracks. Merenia, not particularly quick to pick up what was going on received one very swift and sharp swipe to the back of her ankle. And then produced a very sharp and high pitched scream which blended seamlessly with Ruby's own piercing miaou. The swipe jolted the girl and freed the cat who despite her hunger departed the house at a speed that rendered her practically invisible as she flew by. The girl much slower whose scream had subsided to loud wailing sobs, came in for cuddles while her smaller brother looked quite bemused and apparently thinking..."What the?"

Murphy's Law of Baby Sleep #15546

If you put a baby,
who doesn't sleep more than an hour during the day,
down for a nap at 7:30am
on a school morning,
he will sleep for approx
2 hours.

On the plus side that means you can....

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

.....do a whole bunch of stuff that I DID have photos of but our DSLR Camera compact flash is playing up and left me only one photo from yesterday when Will was all sad and sweet sleeping on the couch in the lounge because he's not very well. At least I have one or else that'd be my 366 project messed up for lack of a photo and not even my own fault!!

I wouldn't have let continue to sleep through the start of school except with the yukky cold and all I figured he needed it and the kids didn't mind being half an hour late.

Anyway there is still more to do and I bet this sleep won't be half as long! So I'll talk more later.

Thanks for the supportive emails re my last 2 posts... we're ok just angry.... of course the out side of house is about to be painted now... it doesn't need it... but hey why spend money on something sensible... at least I got to 'choose' the colour.

Time for me to Focus.

Catch-up

So if you've read the letter that I posted yesterday then you'll know how I am feeling. It's been growing over time but came to a head on Sunday when I attended the Neighbourhood Support Meeting for the new group that has been started for the Whenuapai and Hobsonville Married Quarter patch. For a lot of reasons crime is growing in our area and we are a small community who I think falsely believed that we were quite safe. We are not behind the 'protective' gates of the bases but we have nice big signs saying "no entry except on defence business". And back in the day when Whenuapai had more than two military police men and a shoddy security company we used to have regular security patrols around our streets. In a community where our parters can be gone for months at a time this provided a sense of added security. And lets face it we needed it... if you really wanted to you could get into my house in a matter of seconds. We haven't got much that's worth stealing but that's not really the point is it. It turns out as I learned at the meeting that things are a lot worse than I thought. The meeting advertised that 'Base Representatives' would be there, and I feel mightily sorry for the poor RNZAF Policeman that drew the short straw on that job. Although I must say he seems like the sort of guy that would have come anyway because he obviously actually still gives a damn despite being on call 24/7 every second week! It seems obvious though by their absence though that neither the Base Commander nor the Base Welfare Facilitator care enough about our welfare to give up an hour or so on their Sunday afternoon.

So I posted the post and then I emailed it off to a few people. Ms Clarke's minions have already emailed back with their standard reply...
"Thank you for your e-mail message. It is difficult to respond to the many e-mail messages received. We do however read everything that is sent and if a unique issue has been raised or new information presented we will respond as soon as possible."

I guess they are least efficient.

We'll see what happens from here. And if Les freaks out big time over it all... some how I expect not I do believe he's been feeling very 'over' the RNZAF, his trade in particular, for quite a while now. And you know when that happens things must be pretty damn bad because he's a very loyal hard working RNZAF to the core sort of guy.

As far as life in General at Stockley HQ goes. While I have finished the finer points of Operation Fit Will In I still have to get rid of the side effects like the stack of magazines in the back of the car and the piles of stuff in the hallway that need to be rehomed. Will is NOT helping in this process at all. In fact he's been a rather grumpy and serious child of late meaning that 'spare' time is at a premium especially as he leaves me too tired at the end of the day to really do much more than curl up in a ball. (Hence the abrupt end to the Children's book week posts... don't worry they'll be back sometime) All I managed to do yesterday was to write those blog posts and read a couple of emails before it was time to pick up the kids and take Kieran to Hockey from which it's straight onto the bedtime routine. Which is why I am about to regurgitate an email I wrote over a week ago to give you the low down....

Yes it's funny how your perspective changes when you are not teaching... the end of the holidays was something I dreaded when I was teaching and now I found I was so looking forward to it. I don't enjoy the school run and sports etc but it's a lot easier than 24 hour parenting 3 children. The holidays were crazy... and Will really suffered the short end of the sleeping stick! My grandma provided a whole new sort of challenge as well, which I am trying to get around to bloging about.

I know what you mean about not getting much done around the place I'm pretty good at not feeling too guilty what drives me the most crazy is not getting time to create... it's my thing it keeps me sane and if I go to long with out it makes me real tetchy! Of course the scrapbooking table will be the last of the things to be sorted as part of 'Operation Fit Will In'.

What was Harry's due date? I ask because it seems like you will tell me about what you are up to and then Will will follow suit a week or so later... he was due on 1/1/08 (so almost 2 weeks early). So I was just interested to see if they are following a similar time line. Merenia was an early girl too and I didn't notice any difference but I find with Will... smiling and all sorts of other milestones seem to be 'late' or at least later than I remembered with the other two. Aren't they getting so big though... how did it happen? When did it happen?... he's just not a 'little baby' anymore... the new Will is really lovely too... but I was making a point of enjoying every second every little bit and some how I didn't notice that he was REALLY growing... I think the week when my grandma was here didn't help instead of doing a lot of his daytime sleeping in my arms he was in hers and my goodness I missed him!

So we have taken a few mighty steps back including adding in a midnight and a 6am drink as well as the usual 4am. (He could be hungry... he eats fast or at least takes short drinks compared to K and M who were generally at least 20 minutes if not more... Will is a 5 minutes and I'm outta here boy. I have queries about my supply as well... I think it's ok... but it is somewhat of a novelty for me to have to change the breast pads for hygiene reasons as opposed to full to over flowing in less than a day. With Kieran I was sleeping with a cloth nappy in my bra still at 12 months... I could have happily fed quads... so the feeling of having just enough is kind of strange to me. Day time we are still cranking out a number of short sleeps and I think that for now at least I may just have to deal with that rather than pushing for a couple of longer ones... 'resettling' is not in his vocabulary ... just because it doesn't suit my style of existing doesn't mean it doesn't suit Will.

We're holding off on food... I really believe in waiting till the 6 month mark. But I can see that it's not going to be hard to start between the pear that he eats with his reflux medicine and the doleful gazes at our mealtimes... I can see some desire there... he's gonna be sorely disappointed when he doesn't get the roasts, enchiladas, and Chicken Tikka that we've been having though... pureed pumpkin, pear and apple just doesn't stack up next to that all.

Les has been working nights as well as days this week as he is saving money to go to the worlds in Turkey next month and it has been good to see that I can actually manage Will and make dinner and have the kids ready for bed well before the allotted time. It's nice when we have stuff all sorted well before bedtime so I can do homework with Merenia in a relaxed manner and we can just hang together even if it is just watching telly... (before they go through the feeding and bedtime routine Kieran is usually off outside kicking a ball around and Merenia will be off creating some kind of mess somewhere- or prioritising TV over everything else- curse The Simpsons!) So it's nice to get them in and together before too late or else the evening just seems like a process... an assembly line to bed.... rather than time together.

So I'm sure there's a truckload more to tell you but I don't know what it is in my current addled brain state, so I'll finish up for now and leave you with this little dude in a rare "Awake, on my tummy AND Happy" moment. If anyone has some sanity send it my way. PLEASE.

Sad: An Open Letter

To:
The Base Commander, RNZAF Whenuapai
The Chief of Air Force, RNZAF
The Chief of Defence
The Prime Minister of New Zealand
...and anyone else who will listen.

Dear Sirs and Madam, (I use these terms not as a mark of respect but simply for ease)

I spent hours last night laying awake, worried.

As I lay I wondered; Who else in my neighbourhood was laying awake worrying?

And then I wondered how much sleep they would get and after their broken night what would they go to work on today. Perhaps they were going to fly a plane? Maybe they had to fix a crucial part on a Helicopter engine? Maybe they were going to pack a parachute?

As they do their job today are they able to fully concentrate on the task at hand or has lack of sleep affected their work?

Or perhaps their mind has wandered as they worked. Wandered back to the coughing that racked the small body in the next room last night. The cough that is a result of a permanent winter cold attributed to the environmental asthma their daughter had developed since moving back to New Zealand to this house. Perhaps their mind wandered to their small baby boy who at only 5 months old is already chesty and full of mucous, who knows what rubbish he will have inhaled into those tiny lungs in this mould ridden home. Or perhaps his mind wandered to his wife home alone that day with only the baby for company. Knowning that sometime, someone would call to paint the house. But not knowing when. And not knowing who. Perhaps the guy that came to their door would be the very same painter that the hard working Airforce Police officer (one of two for the whole base) had identified as a known criminal, a career burglar.

........................................

Each week I watch 'Homesick' and as I watch I see houses, which could easily be my own, determined by experts to be unsafe, due to environmental risks like mould and pests. Due to a lack a insulation and the resulting cold and damp. I am told by the housing officer that there is nothing to be done. And yet if you work in that office, or if you go through the 'right' people you can get things get done. I don't know the right people. I can't get anything done.

Explain to me;

Why they are putting Heat Pumps in our home. I have a fire in my lounge to heat my home already what will the heat pump do? Cool my lounge in the summer and heat in in the winter. But we will still all have to go to bed in damp uninsulated rooms where mould is growing rampant.

Why they are replacing my friends lino when hers is less than 5 years old and mine is original?

Why did that same friend just get a new bath, when her neighbours is 50 time worse? It has practically none of it's original surface for goodness sake.

Why the houses in Ohakea got their privet hedges taken out and decent fences put in and I can't even take a leak in my backyard if I get locked out without 1 of my 9 closest neighbours having a full and uninterrupted view? Why do I not have a right to privacy?

..................................

We were posted to Australia. We spent 2.5 years in Nowra hosted by the Australian Defence Force. Over there Servicemen and women are afforded respect.

As a part of that respect we had a house that had a spare room so that you could have family visit or just have a little space to live and be. We had two living room type areas, outside we had shade and a place to enjoy the yard. The deadlocks and the door chains were a given. Our homes were carpeted and curtained as a matter of course. Our home was dry, clean and warm. There were no mice and insect pests were uncommon. If you had a problem that needed fixing you phoned and they fixed it. You didn't have to use coercion or undue influence, things were fair. It all happened as a matter of course... it wasn't a case of 'who you know' as it is here in Auckland.

In fact the Australian Defence force were in the process of getting rid of all their 1970/80's homes and building brand new homes all four bedrooms, or more, with attached double garages.

.............................

Do you know what?

I honestly believe that someone else is going to die. I really think that our partners are so overworked, under-appreciated, and stressed because of their working and living conditions that at some point probably not too far in the future someone will die.

It has happened before and it seems to me none of the lessons have been learned. In that case; the airforce lost one of it's best men, his people lost a leader and a friend, a family lost a son and brother, a wife lost a husband, and the children lost a father. The consequences of that loss are still keenly felt now 6+ years down the track.

There was a near miss just a few weeks ago and the blame will come down on an overworked CPL. But it's not that Corporal's fault it's the fault of the whole system that has that person working in an undermanned area with no end in sight. It's possible to stop this situation but the chain of command just passes the buck up and up until the impact is lost. Until those whose lives are at risks become service numbers and job slots on a computer page, not someone's husband, son, father or friend.

I have been able to see the problems for year's. We joke that it is just the 'Defence Force way' the worst or slowest way possible... but the joke is not funny anymore. We're tired and sick and we've had enough, our family is looking at joining the push to Australia and I'm sure we're not alone. The Airforce, at least, is already at crisis point, where does it go from here?

As always it comes down to two things; money and courage. The courage for those that have voices to stand up and say enough is enough you need to do something and you have to do it NOW! Because if you don't;

• we won't patrol your waters.
• we won't send our men and women to help those in need overseas.
  
• we won't help you with New Zealand's profile with overseas governments.
• we won't save your butt in Australia Ms Clarke.
• we won't be available for search and rescue.
• the scientists will have to stay on the ice.
• we won't send our men and women to help in a civil emergency.
• we won't send our men and women to fill in when the prison officers strike.
  
• and we won't be on 24hr stand-by to defend New Zealand.

We just won't do it. We refuse. Because if it gets any worse we won't be able to... it won't be a choice anymore there simply won't be anyone here to get the planes in the air. They will have taken their families to a place where their health is not at risk, to a place where their safety and security is not threatened, to a place where their lives are not at risk. To a place where they feel valued and appreciated by actions not mere words.

The money of course needs to come from the government. It needs to be a government that says we have respect for these people, for our citizens and their families. A government sitting on a big fat surplus for years. You know I and many other New Zealanders would happily forgo tax cuts if only you would spend some money where it's needed. On our children in their schools, on the poorest of families living in state owned homes. And on the bravest of men and woman who are working hard so that they can be ready and waiting to defend our country in a myriad of ways. Ways that half of our population have no idea about, because our Government has no pride to boast of the goodness of these people and the job they do.

What is it they say on the advertisements?

Step Up!

Well I wonder why anyone would if you won't.

Yours sincerely

Mrs Stockley

The look on her face

• 
  

The photo I didn't take on Saturday happened not long after I gave Merenia a new pack of beads. I brought them for her because I loved that they looked like good lollies. And so of course she pretended they were lollies and offered that sweet red and white one to her Dad. He popped it in his mouth and she looked absolutely delighted at the trick she had played. But that's not the photo I didn't take. The photo I didn't take was seconds later when Les started making choking noises the transition from delight to pure horror and absolute worry when she thought that she had caused her Dad to choke was absolutely priceless. It's lucky Les didn't fully carry out his trick as the next part was to drop to the ground... I'm not sure her little heart could have taken that!

Five

• 
  

• 
  

Celebrating Children's book week Pt 2

I read at school recently on some staff meeting notes "Book Week is it still relevant?"... I'm horrified that these words could be uttered by a teacher. In this internet age books and school book weeks have never been more important. The first port of call for most children on embarking on homework or research is the internet... and it's scary. These kids are not checking the accuracy of their information and they aren't really reading much at all. And when they aren't doing research they are still on the computer playing games where once they were reading stories and exercising their imagination. Book Week is more important than ever before and why on earth would you want to move away from a wonderful excuse to take the time to really read, enjoy and involve yourself in books... the curriculum is so packed now it's really hard for teachers to fit in just sharing stories let alone really exploring them...

Off my soapbox here's some more books to share and enjoy...

"But excuse me that is my book" by Lauren Child. Any book by Lauren Child is a winner. This story is one of a whole series of books about Charlie and his little sister Lola. Neat language, funny characters and AWESOME pictures!!!!!! You absolutely have to put on all your best funny voices when you read this. I got told off at the library for reading one of Lauren's books to some kids in the kids section... we were being too hilariously loud... some people should know better especially librarians, oh well such is life!! By the way go click on the Lauren link up there way cool site!! Read Charlie and Lola to your 4/5 year old and up. Read Clarice Bean and others by Lauren to your 7 year old and up. And have fun with it!


'Winnie The Witch' by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul. We have been reading Winnie Books since before Kieran was born as my sister Caity was a Winnie fan. There are a whole series of Winnie book and I haven't got all of them but so far the first is my fave. Winnie loves BLACK so everything in her house is black including her cat which is cool when he is awake but not so when he goes to sleep on her chair. So she magic's him different colours. That's him up the top of this post... Way COOL! I can't imagine the book with anyone but Korky Paul's pictures they are seriously cool!



STOP THE PRESS: Way cool site alert http://www.myhomelibrary.org/home.html this site has the coolest ever book plates illustrated by children's book illustrators. What's a book plate you ask? A book plate is a cool label that you use in inside cover of your book to write your name on. The ones on this website come in colour and black and white and are just the best-est ever! And you are free to print them off and use them in your own books or in books you are giving as gifts! I can see the purchase of some big size sticky labels in my future! I tried to choose just a few to share, too hard!!! Imagine letting your kids colour them in and add their own name before they stick them in their very own books... could there be much else so delicious as that?!









Back to our regularly scheduled programme...

'The Waterhole' By Graeme Base. Illustrations, illustrations, illustrations. This book is multipurpose book for littlies it serves simply as a counting book. Then it matures with age... it's about ecology and conservation and there are cool hidden things in the pictures... and the pictures are AWESOME. It's so good you could almost eat it.




'The Church Mice at Bay' by Graham Oakley. From one Graeme to another there is a whole series of Church Mice books and I'm not sure how easy they would be to obtain but they are well worth a look if you can, make sure to try the library. We have had them since NZ had 6 digit phone numbers... I guess I would have been about 8 when we started getting them. Last year I read them all to Kieran and Merenia. I think maybe I'll need to repeat the experience for Mira's in another 6 months or so for her to get full appreciation. But they are just great fun. Lots of detail in the pictures makes them good to read alone. This is my fave, a lot of fun!




'The Viewer' by Gary Crew and Shaun Tan. This is maybe not my first choice of book by these two and I talked about Shaun Tan in another post here. But I also have to tell you about Gary Crew. He writes stories that make you THINK... mostly to think about people and their impact on the world and the people around them. The stories often involves science or history. His stories can be rather spooky and macabre definitely for the older more sophisticated reader. I'd let my kids read them from 9 or maybe a little older for less mature readers.


'For Every Child' produced by Unicef. A bit of a departure from the others in my list. Here's the blurb from one of the websites I just visited."In November 1989, the United Nations formally adopted 54 principles which make up the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. From the right to a name and a nationality to the right to education and play and special protection for disabled children, the fourteen rights most pertinent to young children have been carefully chosen and interpreted here in simple language." And then what it doesn't say is that they got a bunch of really cool illustrators to do the illustrations like Babette Cole, John Burningham and Shirley Hughes. And good book for teaching values and thinking about how we all need to treat each other. Read it to hmmm a tough one... I wouldn't have a problem reading it to a 4 year old... but it'll span a lot of years as the more you know the more you understand. And for bigger kids you could look and think a bit deeper and find out about Unicef and things like that.


'Eats, Shoots & Leaves', Why, commas really do make a difference! By Lynne Truss illustrated by Bonnie Timmons. A picture book for older readers I guess but lots of fun to look at what exactly it is saying. For teachers this would be a good language extender for seniors- get them to make their own up. It really is all about commas here's a couple of example....

"Look at that huge hot dog!" or "Look at that huge, hot dog!"
and
"The student, said the teacher, is crazy." or "The student said the teacher is crazy."

NB; You'll see that where possible I have linked to the books mentioned on www.goodbooksnz.co.nz all books ordered from here have free postage and 100% of their retail profits go to Oxfam! Yay!!! The added bonus is that they are often the cheapest online!

In general I am more of an immediate gratification type girl so if I can I will go to Wheelers. If not then Paper Plus has to make do. But I am absolutely 100% a HUGE fan of supporting independent bookstores especially specialty children's ones. And I so miss MY Dymocks in Nowra... it's always good to have a bookstore where they know your name!!