Faces

Right- children back to being entertained by their teachers and I have leisure to pillage their bookcases uninterrupted once more.
Phew.
But continuing on the theme from our day of furious crafting of Goof City I have a couple of lovely books about Art to waft temptingly under your noses today and tomorrow.

The first of these is the simply titled 'Faces' by the inspirational Zoe Miller and David Goodman. To be accurate with the truth I should say this is actually newly pillaged from the husband's bookcase, as it formed part of his birthday present yesterday.
He has been enjoying constructing plenty of faces and characters of his own from the pricey but thoroughly wonderful 'play shapes' made by Miller and Goodman; a previous 'wooden' anniversary present from me.This book seemed like an interesting complement.

'Faces' could be a coffee table book for adult contemplation, or a book to engage the smallest baby with their programmed hypnotic gravitation towards features. It's a series of photographs of faces constructed out of a huge variety of artfully arranged household objects including colanders, pebbles, dish brushes, gloves, vacuum bags, sports kit and more. Accompanied by a simple rhyming text it encourages you to playfully re-engage with the world about you. The art that has been created is sometimes as simple as the suggestion of a smile from the hanging handle of a bag or sometimes a much more complex and purposeful arrangement. All are joyful- a book to smile at and with.

And definitely inspiring. Bill pored over this book with great appreciation yesterday- you could almost see the possibilities being opened up to him. I found myself unable to go round a corner of my house without finding some newly transparent face of light fittings and windowsills say winking at me. I think inspiring without being either overwhelmingly didactic or off-puttingly complex is a pretty rare trick for an art book to successfully pull off and this manages it.
For Eddie, who presently HATES anyone putting a pen in his hand and expecting him to produce anything with it, the idea of making a picture just by manipulating fruit and crockery was also immediately liberating. He made himself a new friend which then accompanied him throughout the day:

'Faces' by Zoe Miller and David Goodman, pub. Tate isbn 978-1-85437-992-4

Puffin Peter

A new book  by Petr Horacek is always going to catch my eye. He's a beautiful illustrator and his board books for babies rank amongst the best. Not least because they're actually designed as board books for babies and not simply scaled down, thickened up books for older children repackaged for pushy parents.

'Puffin Peter' is not a board book but it does feature puffins, penguins, and toucans which are respectively Bill, my, and Eddie's favourite birds. And it has the happiest shade of yellow cover. I leapt upon it in the library and brought it home for us all to enjoy a little sunshine yellow in a weekend of constant rain.

It's a simple story and frankly probably an overly familiar one told better by Julia Donaldson in 'Monkey Puzzle'. Best puffin friends Peter and Paul become separated during a storm. Peter is helped by a passing friendly whale who takes him on a journey across the seas to try and reunite him with his pal. But Peter's description of Paul leaves room for misinterpretation and a few wrong turns along the way before their reunion can be effected. (note- take a Proper History first before taking your passenger all the way to the Antarctic coastline and then the Tropics. tsk tsk, eyes cast to the sky...)

I forgive completely the too well trammeled path of the prose however because it's just. so. pretty to look at. He does that trick I remember from primary school of painting over paper that's been rubbed with a wax crayon. Really effective for conveying the oily, glossy sheen of a seabird's plumage.

A very smiley book to put into the hands of any two/three year old you know, (or older if they just happen to be a toucan fetishist too.) And don't miss his board books if compiling a baby's first library.

Orange Pear Apple Bear

I'm avoiding putting age recommendations on my posts as I think they're of limited value. My kids can still derive a lot of pleasure from some of their simplest 'baby' books, and will also enjoy hearing quite complex texts read aloud too. Books is books I reckon and too much classification can inhibit discovery in both directions.

But this week, as promised, I am going to introduce a little more focus to my reviews by starting with something to be enjoyed by the youngest and working upwards day by day (although Friday will be a day for off piste discoveries perhaps...)

This weekend, the husband and I took ourselves off to the cinema to see 'The Artist'. If you've seen it yourself you may agree that it is a thing of great charm and exquisite construction. It certainly led us to idly pass our time in wondering how many other movies could be perfectly well told or even improved by the absence of dialogue. Anything with Jason Statham in it for instance.

It also brought to mind today's book 'Orange Pear Apple Bear' by Emily Gravett, which is similarly a thing of great charm and exquisite construction. A few years old, it has already achieved classic status as well as a cluster of its own bookish 'Oscars'. Hooray for minimalism we say today.

The book uses the words of its title to set up a series of playful juxtapositions, all beautifully demonstrated by Emily Gravett's elegant watercolours. The four items  are shown separately and then in combinations that highlight how words' meanings can change depending on placement. Thus 'Orange Bear' shows the bear coloured orange but 'Bear, Orange' shows the bear eating the orange. So very, very subtle but very lovely. And a first primer in punctuation too.

Eddie received this book as a parting gift from the mysterious Alex, a young man who 'observed' Eddie for an hour a week for the first two years of his life as part of a Masters in Psychology I think. To make his observations as unobtrusive and uncorrupting to 'real' family life as possible he was not allowed to speak or interact with us. During his hour he sat perfectly still and silent and just watched. I can't tell you how much both boys loved his visits and really looked forward to him coming; despite the fact that he never played or spoke to them. Minimalism it seems can be just as attractive in relationships. It was a very suitable present for Eddie; who continues to enjoy it. Well observed Alex.

I'm pilfering other people's pictures today as I can't find our copy. Even though we read it last week. grrrr. Could be an indication of a need to do a bookcase tidy. Other people's pictures are better of course so that's an advantage.

'Orange Pear Apple Bear', Emily Gravett, pub macmillan, isbn 1405090227

Hooray For Fish

There are few articles more irritating to read than those ones (usually at the back of Sunday colour supplements) where a Supermodel angsts about how difficult it is being beautiful and how she'd rather be much fatter but she just can't put the weight on no matter how much cream she eats. Or a millionaire socialite, never out of the papers, muses how much happier he would be living in a bothy with no sanitation and raising goats.

I worry I may be about to write a post like that. Feel free to throw things at the screen.

Eddie reads too much. It's basically all he does. Well, sometimes he goes for a little run around the kitchen, he sings a bit and he does love to bake and eat biscuits. Other than that he's reading. At nursery they used to sometimes have to close the (hinged) 'book corner' to get Eddie to do something else (being a Montessori nursery the something else was usually polishing silver or window washing- so I can't say I blamed him there). When I go to bed at night, it's not that uncommon to find him still peering through the gloom at one of his favourites, a full 3 hours after I last left him there; enthusiastically 'performing' it with all the voices.

I realise those of you who struggle to persuade your children to open a book may now be feeling the irritation build. 'Sheesh! To have her problems!'. you roll your eyes. 'This is actually just an excuse for Proud Mummy Boasting veiled as a moan. We see your subterfuge.'

I am proud of him. Of course I am- I am his Mum and that's my job. I also worry about him (of course I do- I'm his Mum and that's my job). His reading has come at a cost to certain other skills. He can't/won't draw or write. He can't/won't ride a bike or kick a ball. He's not terribly interested in interacting with his peers. He lives with us very happily, but slightly apart, on Planet Eddie; a planet constructed out of an inordinate number of books.

This is a rather long winded way of getting to today's review I realise- but if I'm going to the core of Planet Eddie- then I want to go back to the book where it all began for him. This was 'Hooray for Fish' by Lucy Cousins (of Maisy Mouse fame).

'Hooray for Fish' immerses you in a jolly underwater adventure through Lucy Cousin's glorious, rich-coloured paintings. It's a book to have big- don't mess around with the board book here. Little Fish swims through the sea greeting all the other fish he meets until he gets to his Mum. The text rhymes and through the variety of fish introduced, various different concepts of opposites or adjectives are taught and visually reinforced.

'Curly whirly, twisty twirly, upside down, round and round.
So many friends, so many fish, splosh, splash, splish!'

Most pages just have two fish on them but there are a few spreads with many more and lots of other funny fish to find including a strawberry fish and a bumble bee fish. I love Lucy Cousin's style. I want to take a spoon and eat it like an ice cream.

This book entered the house probably when Eddie was about 10 months old and had just learned to crawl. And thereafter that was what he would crawl to. He brought to be read umpteen times a day. He turned the pages and poured over it peacefully himself whilst his neglectful mother ran after toddler big bro. He brought it to the dinner table, the bathroom, and to bed. For about a year it was his companion until he'd sucked all the marrow he could from it and moved on to 'The Gruffalo'.

I have since given this book as a first birthday present on several occasions and the feedback I have always received is that it has become a favourite. I'm not sure why, as frankly there are many similar books for toddlers, but there's something almost visceral about this one. It channels into the 1 yr old brain so perfectly, I'd put it on my 'essential' baby reading list.

'Hooray for Fish' by Lucy Cousins, pub. Walker isbn 1-4063-0156-6

Incidently for those who would like to chew further on the thought that there is such a thing as too much reading for kids I recommend Frances Spufford's 'The Child that Books Built'; a very grown up book, part memoir, part lit. crit that analyses his own childhood retreat into literature.

Peepo

I realise that in moving seamlessly from Roald Dahl to the Ahlbergs I'm not exactly in the territory of hidden gems or New Worlds but a glass or two of red wine with a friend in the pub last night reinvigorated a debate about the back story of 'Peepo'. This dominated my sleep deprived, raddled brain in the early days of parenthood to such an extent I thought it worth visiting. Plus, you know, they're the Ahlbergs, they've got to to get an early starring part.

Board book 'Peepo' was given to Bill when he was about 3 months old and as we were just embarking on the crazed idea that we might get him into some sort of bedtime routine, it was the book I picked to read to him nightly to introduce the concept of a full stop to the day. To be frank, advanced and genius-like though he obviously was, he wasn't going to get much more out of it at that stage than listening to the rather nice lullaby lilt of the rhyming text. It reads aloud well (of course it does, it's the Ahlbergs). It was our 'Go the f*** to sleep' book.

The book tells the story of  a day-in-the-life of a family during the second world war from the perspective of a baby. Each spread contains a cutout peephole which when turned reveals a lovingly rendered vignette of family life, rich in detail and tiny new things to spot. This is a great book for going through with an 18 month old or so, who's going through a language spurt and wants to point at tiny ladybirds, bricks, or teacups etc. on pages (although in the case of 'Peepo' some of the language they may acquire may be of little practical use to them, 'hairnets' and 'stocking nets' anyone?)

Reading it night in and night out however the detail began to torture me in unexpected ways. There is a backstory revealed here which the casual reader might miss at first. Dad starts the day in his civvy clothes and is doing dad type jobs around the house but the book ends with him in full soldier garb kissing his baby goodnight and ...goodbye? NOOOooo! I became increasingly concerned that this was a first tragedy for the very young; 'When did you last see your father?' in picture book form. I did like the fact that in the middle page, Grandma takes the baby and his big sisters to the park- presumably to give Mum and Dad a bit of a break- nudge nudge- and in the next panel on their return Dad has changed his clothes and Mum has fallen asleep. As long as she's not pregnant again... NOOOooo!!

Sharing these worries with my husband I began to dig deeper. He entered fully into the spirit of the inquiry and reassured me with the fact that a particular silhouette of an aeroplane in the distance (we're talking miniscule here) of the park scene is clearly of a model that wasn't introduced until late 1944 so we must be nearing the end of the war. Comforting nerdery. There's also a nice picture of Mr. Churchill on the wall with Union Jack and USA flags entwined so the Yanks are in. In one picture there's a calendar on the wall that I squinted at repeatedly to get an angle...without much joy for my unravelling mind. I started trawling the internet to look for interviews about the book to reassure me but came up with nothing. I even went as far as looking through back issues of Picture Post to try and identify the cover that Mum is holding while she dozes.

At some point I suppose, Bill began to sleep better, so did I, and we all wanted a bit more variety in our reading matter. Few texts can survive  the level of scrutiny and unpicking that I subjected 'Peepo' to and remain fresh. I pore over it more happily now still appreciative of the detail. I can see it will have a second life as soon as Bill gets onto the Second World War as inevitable school topic- it's a great recreation of the home front. And, after all, as my friend remarked in the pub last night..'Maybe he's just in the home guard?'

Still, if you're planning an Ahlberg baby gift for a new parent you know...to save potential trauma you might like to go for 'The Baby Catalogue' or 'Each Peach, Pear, Plum' instead?

'Peepo', Janet and Allan Ahlberg, pub Penguin Books, isbn 0-670-87176-1

Back to the beginning

Books for babies... I'm not sure there was such a thing when I was a baby (my memory is hazy on the subject). I guess there were the fabric sort, perhaps minus the modern day excitements of crinkly patches, beepers, bells and zips, but I'm not sure the board book had been invented way back then. Babies ate their parents' newspaper and waited to grow into the proper stuff.

Now of course there is a whole section of any self respecting bookshop specifically catering for the needs of the under 2s. This is of course a Good Thing but the proliferation of texts for older children being turned into miniaturised board books for the very very young I find somewhat mystifying. I just don't think an under 2 needs a copy of 'The Snail and the Whale' yet and the 3 year old who does would prefer the illustrations BIG please, no matter that the corners get ratty with use. A board book 'Flat Stanley' is probably already in production.

Both Bill and Eddie enjoyed a good selection of chewable  interactive baby books from the beginning. We had the full set; fabric books (with ALL 21st century's finest squeaky bits and rattly bits), wipeable sponge bath books, 'feely' page books, books with just mesmerising high contrast black and white images in them, books with peekaboo flaps, books with spinning wheels, books with photos of other babies faces. All were appreciated to the point of disintegration. I can still recite the whole of Bill's particular favourite 'Baby Boo':

'wakey wakey sleepy baby, kiss kiss I love you, tickle tickle smiley baby, do you want to play? baby knows just what to do. baby baby where are you? peekaboo it's you! (obligatory mirror on last page)

We read it A Lot.

The 'That's Not My (insert whatever you like eg. pony, robot, monster, kitten etc.) series by Usborne are pretty fine examples of the genre...and must do well as I chuckled at the adult parodies this Christmas: 'OMG- That's Not My Child' and 'OMG- That's Not My Husband'.

But the first 'proper' text or story that I can remember being conscious had gripped Bill was Jez Alborough's lovely 'Hug'...which we did have in board book format as it happens.

'Hug' tells the story of a lost baby chimp Bobo who wanders through the jungle spotting other baby animals snuggling their mums (or perhaps dads) and saying the single word 'hug' as he see them. The realisation slowly dawns on him that he hasn't got anyone to cuddle him and the word hug becomes first a question and then a cry for his own parent. An elephant helps him and his mum is found who obviously has been searching anxiously for him too and the book ends with a great collective relieved hug from assembled company. 'Hug', 'Bobo' and 'Mum' are the only three words in the book but the nuances distilled from them are skillfully extracted.

I remember reading it to Bill before he could talk and not being sure whether he really 'got' it only to have him burst into tears at the moment of peril when Bobo realises he's lost, followed by spontaneous laughter when his mother reappeared. Yay. He did 'get it'. It was great to share his first proper immersion into a story. Thanks Jez.

'Hug', Jez Alborough pub.Walker books isbn 0-7636-1576-5