
Posts Tagged ‘Children’

Old Friends

Friday, 21 January 2011

NaBloPoMo Jan2011It’s nearly a year since I said I wanted to listen to this, but it finally became available on Librivox, and I decided not to relisten to the three What Katy Did books first, since I do know those quite well.

10. Clover by Susan Coolidge

The story didn’t really come back to me from the one previous time I’d read it, but the ending was reasonably predictable (the invalid recovering and an engagement). What was fun, beside learning more of the lives of characters I’d known all my life, was the less predictable middle, with new characters like the irrepressible Mrs Watson. I wouldn’t have minded a bit more depth and detail on the adult topics, but that’s partly because we’re now discussing adults (the youngest character we see more than once is Phil, now well into his teens), whereas this is the continuation of a series for children.

I’m listening to In the High Valley still, so will talk more about this with that one, since I’m low on time right now.

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A couple of kids’ classics

Wednesday, 19 January 2011

NaBloPoMo Jan2011These may not be their absolutely best-known works, but for young children these are authors I just don’t think you can go wrong with! I’ll be scouring Bookmooch for more by them for my little girl. Hopefully by the time she’s really ready to enjoy books we’ll have a selection. (These were the only ones available in country for the moment.)

Cover of Richard Scarry's Things to Love

Cover of Richard Scarry's Things to Love

7. Richard Scarry’s Things to Love

I actually don’t think I’d come across this particular title before, but it didn’t disappoint. Like the other Scarry books I’ve seen (admittedly hardly any in the last couple of decades since my brother got past them) this isn’t a story or even a collection of stories. Instead there’s a theme to the book with a sub-theme on each page or spread, with highly anthropomorphised animals displaying the action or behaviours described or implied in the sentences and short paragraphs on each page. The pictures are bright and cheerful, in Scarry’s distinctive style.

This particular book, as the title suggests, is about people, things and activities young children might love or enjoy, and in the case of the ‘people’ who  should love them back. It’s perhaps slightly ‘old-fashioned’ (the children play croquet, not computer games), but hopefully without sounding too much like an old curmudgeon I don’t mind that – I’m sure we’ll end up with some newer books for DD too!

Cover of "Dr. Seuss's ABC (I Can Read It ...

Cover via Amazon

8. Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book

We certainly couldn’t do without Dr Seuss! DH hadn’t heard of Richard Scarry, but I’m pretty sure he’d agree on this one. We’ve actually got the board book version of this, which should mean DD can handle it herself earlier, so that’s good. I have no intention of pushing her, but I’ve heard a few people say this one got their kids recognising letters well under the age of two years. If that happens well enough; if it doesn’t that’s fine too.

Storyless board books

Sunday, 9 January 2011

NaBloPoMo Jan2011So, the next set of board books to discuss (and we don’t actually currently own any more to discuss, although with the new year and booklist, I could talk about them again whenever I feel like it). Unlike the others, none of these contains stories; these are anthologies of pictures on a stated theme, with descriptive captions.

Cover of Happy Baby Day

Cover of Happy Baby Day

64. Happy Baby Day by Roger Priddy

All of these books are realistically aimed at rather older babies and toddlers, since that’s the age to be paying better attention to books, but it’s more noticeable in this one, that actually includes pictures for the child to identify with, of young children playing, eating, bathing and going to bed, and of some of the actions and objects that would commonly be involved in these activities. To be honest, all of the children photographed here look like boys, in as much as such young kids are distinguishable, which makes me wonder was there an equivalent girls’ version (we got all of these via Bookmooch), although I really don’t see why such a distinction is relevant, especially at such a young age.

Cover of Les couleurs65. Les Couleurs by Pierre-Marie Valat

As could be guessed from the title, this one is highlighting the colours, in French. It’s very nicely designed and engineered, using cut-outs to show how the colours featured primarily on one page can also be part of the object that is mostly relevant to another. The French is decidedly easy and obvious, even if one didn’t know the language and/or wanted to translate it on the fly.

Cover of First Mighty Movers66. First Mighty Movers

Each double-page-spread has subtitled pictures of a related group of vehicles, from Cars to Trucks, via Trains, Ships, Emergency Vehicles and more. The pictures are clear and bright, with pretty precise labels on each one, apart from the ship they have marked as a yacht, which is actually a three-masted frigate or full rigged ship, or more generically these days a tall ship! (That’s the only one that’s not (primarily) a motorised vehicle in the book – no bicycles here!)

Are there wild things here?

Monday, 6 September 2010
Cover of "Where the Wild Things Are"

Cover of Where the Wild Things Are

32. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

My DH and I were out shopping a few weeks ago, and came across two classic kids’ books we felt we had to have. (He’s reading me the Winnie the Pooh books chapter by chapter, so we haven’t got to the end of those yet.) He actually wasn’t familiar with WtWTA, so we had to read that together as soon as we got home. I think he liked it, but was expecting a bit more depth than a short picture book could provide.

Neither of us has seen the new film, which I believe  does expand the story.
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