Don’t miss checking out this trailer from UK outfit, aka Studios.

It’s a film adaptation of Oliver Jeffer’s picture book, Lost and Found. Lucky UK residents will have the chance to see the complete 25-minute film on Christmas Eve at 2:30pm and on Boxing Day at 4:30pm on Channel 4.

The colours, movement of the animated figures and music evoke the themes of the book so beautifully. An independent crafter, Karine (whose blog can be found here), was commissioned to knit the main character’s outfit - how cool is that?!

Studio aka has done some amazing stuff. I have previously blogged about Helen Ward and Marc Craste’s book, Varmints, which Studio aka made into a film, directed by Marc. If you haven’t seen it already, Jo Jo in the Stars, their multi-award-winning production is also must-viewing.

(Via Babyccino.)

||Lou’s previous post on Oliver Jeffers||

||Lost and Found available from Amazon||

As soon as I began reading independently I loved to explore the books that my mum had kept from her childhood. These included the Silver Brumby series by Elyne Mitchell, The Billabong series by Mary Grant Bruce and my favorite Bush Christmas by Ralph Smart and M. Cathcart Borer.

This novel was written from the screenplay of the 1947 movie of the same name. The story is classic adventure, five outback children take off after horse thieves days before Christmas hoping to rescue their father’s prized mare. With the help of Nezza, their aboriginal friend, they track the thieves through the mountains, hampering their efforts to get away with the stolen horses.

I loved dreaming about living with these children, riding horses to school, swimming in water holes and best of all chasing horse thieves. Although I had already devoured all the very English Famous Five books, Bush Christmas gave me a taste of a part of Australia that I hadn’t experienced and it was fascinating. The children were so clever and ingenious, they could handle horses and knew all about the bush.
The original movie starred popular Australian star Chips Rafferty and was excellently acted by its young cast. I especially adore the little boy who plays Snow. The film was remade rather badly in 1983 with a very young Nicole Kidman.
You can see a clip of the original film on YouTube.

Once upon a time… from Capucha on Vimeo.

Gorgeous storytelling Capucine and her mum are using the popularity of this video to raise money for Edurelief, a development organization based in Mongolia, who helps provide school books to Mongolian kids. There are more videos of the beautiful Capucine here . Ned has been entranced tonight with this one

Found via Simply Lovely (via Oh, hello friend)

Apart from being busy with our store, there is the usual Christmas busy-ness going on around here.

Our uncharacteristically chilly weather this year in Melbourne has meant I seem to have had more time to do stuff at home than usual, which has been really nice.

I’ve decorated!

I’ve baked! (Icing yet to come…)

It’s so refreshing to experience Christmas with a 2-year-old, like it’s the very first time. When Rowan saw a Santa-shaped decoration on our tree, he thought it was his grandpa. When he sees a decorated tree, he exclaims ‘Christmas Tree - I touch it?’ When asked what would be put in his stocking, he replied, ‘Nothing.’ Oh, the purity of an uncorrupted mind, as yet oblivious to the commercialism of Christmas!

Much of what Rowan knows about the festive season at this stage he has gleaned from the books we’ve been reading together. Brad reviewed some of them last Sunday. But Rowan’s favourite of all is Happy Christmas Maisy.

I love this one too - no matter how many Maisy books I read, I’m always impressed by the cleverness of the lift-the-flaps in the productions. This one is no exception. It’s a miniature hardback, and the tiny lift-the-flaps are very cute. The selected concepts it introduces make it perfect for under 3s. The closing page with Christmas tree and lights that really look like they flash, driven simply by a tab - no battery needed! - are a highlight.

||Happy Christmas Maisy available at Amazon||

I have had many favorites this year as I do every year. In 2008 I have really loved Cheeky Monkey, all of Anna Walker’s books and Lauren Child’s Goldilocks is just divine, but Why Is The Sky Blue? is my favorite for 2008.

Why Is The Sky Blue? is a non-fiction book for the toddler to age 6 age group. It is published by Ladybird Books in Australia and is a real surprise package. It is gorgeously presented on 100% recycled paper, a fantastic initiative by Ladybird for the future and answers all those curly nature questions that fascinate children and adults alike.

Amy Schimler’s illustrations make this book really, really beautiful and interesting. Amy, a talented artist writes a lovely blog called Red Fish Circle on which she shares her illustrative work as well as fabric’s she designs and creative photography.

In Why Is The Sky Blue?, Amy’s illustrations are punctuated with flaps to lift, tabs to pull, and wheels to turn that reveal the answers to the BIG questions. The best question I think is ‘How do penguins keep warm?’ but others include ‘Why do flowers smell?’, ‘What do bird’s say when they sing?’ and ‘Do fish drink?’.

Quirky, fun and educational, this has all the elements of a great book. All these fantastic questions and answers can keep little ones entertained for hours and are sure to lead to bigger questions and queries.

||Why Is The Sky Blue? is available online from the we heart books store||

A guest post by Brad, dad to Rowan, 2 years

Recently Katie found a collection of children’s Christmas books from my childhood. It is a ‘long’ time ago but I think my favourite was The Santa Claus Book. It has a big smiling happy Santa face on the front and back covers and tells the familiar tale of Santa going about his business of delivering presents to all the children on his long list.

Santa’s list is pictured in the book and my Mum made sure we weren’t left out by writing my name and my brother’s name amongst the others. (You can see our names in this photo if you look carefully.)

Part way through his journey, Santa discovers a lost puppy chewing on his list. Santa tucks the puppy into his sack and does the rounds to find a home for him. Santa finds a stocking with a note about a lost puppy belonging to a little boy called Mike. Just when he is ready to return the puppy, Santa discovers that he is no longer in his sack. Santa looks and looks and finds the puppy, asleep in a dolls’ house. Santa tucks the puppy into Mike’s stocking and puts him next to Mike as he sleeps. When he wakes, he has his puppy back for Christmas.

The story brings back some great memories for me of happy family times in the weeks leading up to Christmas. We have shared this story with Rowan and reading it to him also reminds me of the how important it is to feel loved, safe and secure as a child (and beyond), just like Mike’s puppy.

Hansel and Gretel has to be one of the spookiest fairy tales ever written! Brother and sister are abandoned in the woods by their father and evil stepmother and if that’s not bad enough they then stubble upon a mesmerisingly beautiful gingerbread house only to find a witch living inside who captures them and intends to fatten them up before eating them. Rather grim?

The really beautiful thing about this new retelling by Newbery medal winning author Cynthia Rylant is that she has instilled in Hansel and Gretel a real cleverness and resilience.

‘It has been said that guardian spirits watch over and protect small children, and that may be so. But there are also stories of children who find the courage to protect themselves. Such is the story of Hansel and Gretel’

She gives us characters to admire and to barrack for, not just to revel in the horror of the situation. For centuries children have adored gruesome fairy tales and fables. They seem to really enjoy the scariness as well as the empowerment they get from reading about brave children overcoming the scariness.

There is no one more perfect to have illustrated this retelling than the amazingly talented artist Jen Corace. Corace has created the lushest illustrations, using greens and browns as the main tones but adding splashes of the richest red, mustard yellow and teal. Gretel’s duffle coat is a glorious teal blue and really to die for.

Her use of light and shadow gives a deliciously creepy depth to the woods that surround the children, she makes the children seem small in an immense situation. Her illustrations have a funky edge to them as well as keeping an old fashioned feel that suits the retelling so well.

Jen Corace also illustrated the gorgeous Little Hoot and Little Pea. She writes a blog and you can buy her prints from Mahar Drygoods and Tinyshowcase.

||Hansel and Gretel available online from the we heart books store||

FOUND - another lovely children’s book post. Orange You Lucky is a funky blog that is one of my favs and this week she mentioned her excitement at finding Lauren Child’s illustrated Pippi Longstocking.

I don’t think there is anyone I would have rather seen illustrate Pippi than Lauren Child. Her penchant for strong girls in her own books really shines through in her interpretation of Pippi. I wrote about my adoration here.

Helen who writes Orange You Lucky also mentions another favorite of mine J. Otto Seibold’s pop up version of Alice in Wonderland. In Ned’s nursery this book has been sitting on display, face out because I just think it’s too gorgeous to put away spine out.

Although the original story has been rather heavily abridged to fit this picture book, the pop ups and fold outs of Seibold’s art are more than enough to make up for it being shortened.

Seibold is also the author/illustrator of Olive the Other Reideer, our favorite Christmas book this year which has it’s own equally impressive pop up. Olive is also on Youtube…

Seibold also has the most awesome website that is definitely worth a visit.

||J. Otto Seibold’s website||

||Pippi Longstocking written by Astrid Lingren and Illustrated by Lauren Child available online from Readings||

||Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and J. Otto Seibold available online from Amazon||

||Olive the Other Reideer available online from the we heart books store||

Tea for Ruby is available in bookshops in Australia this month. Written by the Duchess of York (yes, The Duchess of York) Tea For Ruby is pleasantly surprising. Its illustrations are gorgeous, very pink, but gorgeous, and of course they are because they are by Fancy Nancy illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser.

Wherever Ruby goes, chaos seems to follow. She is loud and scruffy, she interrupts and she finds it hard to take turns. When she is invited to tea with the Queen everybody gives Ruby advice about how to act:

I’ve been invited to have tea with the Queen!

Ruby, I hope you will say ‘please’ and ‘thankyou’ when you have tea with the Queen.

The text is simple but charmingly repetitive so that the reader can really have fun with dialogue. Published in a large format hardcover with a glossy dust jacket, Tea For Ruby is a really gorgeous production that would make a lovely gift.

Robin Preiss Glasser’s magnificently detailed illustrations show the crazy, chaotic Ruby on one page and then alternate with an imagined version of how Ruby pictures herself refined and polite visiting the Queen. Ruby is fun and wild and has ‘SPUNK’, she is a strong little female character who can still be a ‘Princess’. The surprise at the end of the book is actually who she is having tea with - Granny’s will love this ending.

Tea For Ruby would be perfect for the three to four year old “Miss Independent” in any family.

||Tea For Ruby available online on Amazon||

||Fancy Nancy Website||

There is a very beautiful post, and photo, on the gorgeous blog Tutus and Turtles this week about Holly’s lovely December tradition. Her family wraps all their Christmas books and then they unwrap one each night before Christmas to read. So gorgeous!

She may be going to share her families favorites later this week - Yay!