Archive | November 15, 2013

Rainbow Kids

Nov15
Rainbow Kids

Rainbow Kids

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rainbow Kids

Petrea King

Jane Curry Publishing

pbk., $14.95

9780980475807

 

Yoshi has been sending rainbows for as long as he can remember.  Each night he sends a rainbow to his beloved great grandmother Nin Nin, who died last year.  As he lies in his bed he imagines being surrounded by a bright rainbow, breathing in all its colours and feeling them gathering in his heart.  He blesses them with love and sends the other end of the rainbow to Nin Nin, taking her peace and happiness.  He knows that life is a bit like a balloon – a beautiful, vibrant thing when filled with air, but just a piece of rubber when it is emptied. It is the air that makes it special, just as it is the spirit that makes the person special and Nin Nin’s spirit is now in all the beautiful things he can see.

But who else sends rainbows? And who first thought of the idea? Together with his friend Bernadette who told him of the idea, he asks all his friends – Matteo and Joss, Linh and Thanh, Mustafa, and Mariah, all of whom have also been sending rainbows as long as they can remember. No matter who you are, or why you want to send a message, you can send someone a rainbow and feel better for having done so.

This is a most remarkable story and one our children have needed for a very long time.

I am very familiar with the work of Petrea King – for many many months after surviving an horrific car accident, I went to bed at night plugged into my Walkman letting the imagery and sounds of her Dolphin Dreaming bring me the peace and relaxation needed to sleep.  Not long after, the events of September 11 brought the world crashing into our lounge rooms and into the lives of our children.  Since then there have been the Bali bombings, Hurricane Katrina, the China earthquake and so many more, all with their graphic images of children suffering and affecting our children in ways that we could not prepare them for. Psychologists say that when children are confronted with these sorts of events, they have a great sense of empathy but also helplessness, and things that many adults pass off as just stories on the news, remain to trouble the minds of our little ones.

But now we, as grandparents, parents and teachers, can offer them a strategy to help them manage whatever comes their way, whether on a world-scale or within their family.  Ever since the days of Noah, the rainbow has been a symbol of love and peace and the concept of sending a rainbow to give these to the holders of both ends is so simple, but so powerful.

Although the story itself is just a simple quest, it is the message that it carries that is its real strength and at the end of the book, the author has suggestions for how parents and teachers can use the ‘rainbow ritual’ to connect children to those separated from them by distance, divorce or death.  The story is but the springboard to an opportunity to open up conversations that need to be had, but are so difficult to start.  It is a must on the shelves of both the home and school library, and together with the CD Rainbow Connection an essential in your Teachers Toolbox and parent collection.

Who will you send a rainbow to, today?  (To help you, read the Rainbow Ritual )

Parachute

Nov15
Parachute

Parachute

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parachute

Danny Parker

Matt Ottley

Little Hare, 2013

hbk., 32 pp., RRP $A24.99

9781921894206

 

Every morning Toby puts on his parachute.  It’s the one thing that helps him get through his day.  It helps him get out of bed in the morning, navigating that long climb from the top bunk. It helps him get off the breakfast bar stool, and the bathroom stool after he’s brushed his teeth. When you are small, such things as ladders and steps can take you high into the world of adults and it can seem a very long way down. Wherever he goes, that parachute gives him strength and courage, like a security blanket. Until he lends it to his cat Henry when Henry gets stuck up a tree and Toby, on a rescue mission and putting his cat before his fears, finds himself way up high without it.

Accompanying the story are wonderful illustrations by Matt Ottley.  Using perspective to help the reader understand how Toby sees things, we can follow Toby’s growing confidence as they loom large in the beginning of the story and become more realistic as the story progresses.  They also show how where we stand helps us see things in a different way.  There is a big difference in seeing an elephant from the ground and then viewing it from a tree!

This is a sensitive, beautifully illustrated story of a little boy who takes the first steps from anxiety to independence. It offers reassurance for those who are straddling the chasm, wanting the security of the known on one side yet also seeking the adventure of the unknown on the other.  It would have a great place in a discussion with parents or their children about making the leap to big school, perhaps encouraging them to think in advance of strategies that will help them face a situation if it arises, as well as helping the more confident think about how they deal with such things and the sorts of encouragement they can offer if a friend is struggling.  Help them know how to fill their friend’s bucket of confidence rather than dipping into it.

This would be a perfect purchase to offer Foundation teachers as a read-aloud for that first week of Term 1, 2014.  (Make sure you take the cover off and share it with them first – great thinking-starter!)  Just magical.  

A peek inside

A peek inside

The Swap

Nov15

 

The Swap

The Swap

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Swap

Jan Ormerod

Andrew Joyner

Little Hare 2013

hbk., RRP $A24.95

9781921541414

 

Oh dear. There’s a new baby in the house and Caroline Crocodile is not happy that he is soaking up all her mother’s attention. Mama Crocodile loves that he is as green as a grub, loves to eat his fish and frogs and has an adorable snout, but to Caroline he’s smelly, he dribbles and he is no fun. And she hates that he takes up all the room on Mama’s lap and gets the big smacky-smoochy kisses that she wants. So, on a day in town when Mama asks her to mind him for a few minutes while she goes into The Hat Shop to swap a hat she has bought, Caroline sees The Baby Shop and figures if her mother can swap a hat… And so the trials begin – but is ANY baby quite right?

This is Jan Ormerod at her peak, but it is also Jan Ormerod at the end of her career as she died earlier this year. Ever since her first wordless picture book ‘Sunshine’ was released in 1982, her delightful stories have enthralled young children and she has won the hearts of many, including me, for her illustrations and her story-telling. Her ability to turn the most ordinary of family situations into an engaging tale that enables the reader and listener to empathise and put themselves in the story, is the hallmark of her work. The Swap is no exception – who hasn’t known an older sister or brother filled with the promise of a playmate being disappointed with this all-consuming baby who just sleeps, cries, smells, takes up the space of your lap and gets the big smacky-smoochy kisses?

Caroline’s predicament is one which many children in the preschool – Year 2 range face and it provides a perfect vehicle to discuss expectations about the new baby as well as asking the sibling about the things their mummy loves about them and reinforcing that they are just as loved and treasured as they always were, and there are plenty of smacky-smoochy kisses for everyone. At that age they are straddling that dependent-independent gap, not quite able to articulate their feelings and this is a great opportunity to address them. (Perhaps it might even be a subtle reminder to the new parents as well, that their big-girl-now still has little-girl needs.)

Andrew Joyner has illustrated this story, not Ormerod, and his pictures are perfect. You can tell from the title page just what the theme of the story will be, and his skill is such that even the reader agrees that a baby crocodile is gorgeous! There is such detail and humour in each spread that you could spend an hour just focusing on them – the chef with the C8K rego plates; the zebra reading texts on the zebra crossing; a mouse on a motorcycle (which could lead to reading the book by Beverly Cleary) – there is something new each time you read this, and all add to the richness of a tale well-known and well-told.

It IS a story to read again and again and when Mem Fox tells us that when we read to children, we should read three stories – a first-read, a familiar and a favourite – this will be on the favourites pile very quickly.

 

A peek inside

A peek inside

 

Python

Nov15
Python

Python

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Python

Christopher Cheng

Mark Jackson

Walker Books, 2012

Hbk., RRP $A29.95

9781921529603

 

“It is morning in the bush. Python stirs and sleeps out from her sheltered, nocturnal resting place…” She is looking for breakfast, but there are other important things to attend to, and in this beautifully illustrated book we learn so much about this magnificent creature in a way that immediately engages both the young reader and the adult reading to them, as well as those who can read for themselves. It truly meets the tag “suitable for all ages”.

Chris Cheng is the MASTER of a genre I’ve dubbed ‘faction’ – bringing real life to life through story. Even though the story only took place in the author’s imagination, it is so well-researched and accurately portrayed that it could have happened, and, as we read, we get both information and insight into these extraordinary creatures. Television news likes to show images of the bulging belly of pythons that have eaten quite large creatures, but who knew they got inside because the python can unhinge its jaws to swallow them, and then expand their bodies to digest them?

As well as the story, there are interesting facts on each page and absolutely spectacular, detailed illustrations from Mark Jackson. The whole becomes a fantastic package for learning about pythons that is perfect for the younger reader – and as teacher librarians, we all know the fascination snakes have for them. This book will not stay on the shelves. You’ll need two copies – one in the fiction section and one in 597.96. If you are recommending books for the Christmas stocking through your newsletters, this one HAS to be on it. Both parent and child will thank you.

If you are a parent with a youngster who is fascinated with snakes, this is a most charming book that will satisfy the need for a story and the need for information.

If you’re still not convinced, take a sneak peek where there are teachers’ notes and be sure to visit Chris Cheng’s site for more goodies, including a unit of work designed for the classroom.

 

Inside "Python". Mark Jackson's illustrations are superb.

Inside “Python”.Mark Jackson’s illustrations are superb.

 

Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy

Nov15
Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy

Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy

Lynley Dodd

ABC Books 2008 (25th anniversary edition)

9780733323799

Remember this … “Out of the gate and off for a walk went Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy …” and by the time you got to the end of the book he had been joined by his mates Hercules Morse (as big as a horse; Bottomley Potts (covered in spots); Muffin McLay (like a bundle of hay); Bitzer Maloney (all skinny and bony); and Schnitzel von Krumm (with a very low tum). How proud and posh they were until they met …  Almost every child born in New Zealand or Australia in the last 25 years knows what happens next! Who could bring down such a bold band of brothers?

Children love the sound of the rhythmic and rhyming language and the repetition of the characters on each page which make it a perfect read-aloud  as your listeners will be joining in and eagerly anticipating who will join this canine crew., as well as enjoying the pictures which work with the text perfectly, as they should.

There are few children’s books that can celebrate their 25th anniversary, and even though it may make some of us feel really old, we must congratulate Lynley Dodd on this incredible achievement. Hairy Maclary is a timeless character, and I know from personal experience that he is just as popular with today’s littlies as he was with their parents.

This is a beautiful golden edition, complete with a bookmark and a CD tucked in the back. The endpapers feature letters written to the author over those 25 years – letters I am sure she treasures as much as we treasure Hairy and his mates. However, there are many versions of this classic available including both paperback and digital. Hairy even has his own website for what is now his 30th birthday.  Here, there are games and activities as well as an interview with Dame Lynley Dodd about how Hairy and his mates came to be.

If your child really likes this one, look for others in the series.  There is a list here, which also includes many of her other stories. Even at a young age, children learn to love particular authors, and Lynley Dodd is one who is always a favourite and rightfully so..

How lucky our children are to still have Hairy in their lives – this is a must-have for both the school and home libraries.

 

A peek inside

A peek inside