The Incredible Book Eating Boy Room

13 October 2008 by · 1 Comment

The amazingly talented Jennifer who creates and writes the blog Minor Details has posted some photos of the room she created for CookieLiving.

It is ‘incredible’ just like the inspiration she used – The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers. The room is called Merle’s room and on her blog you can see more photos including one of Oliver Jeffers himself visiting the room and leaving a little mark.

I can’t think of anything better than designing a room around a beautiful picture book and it has made me think about what I could do in Ned’s room when he gets a bit older.

Thanks to Jennifer for giving us permission to use these beautiful photos.

Filed Under: book related cool stuff, Picture books

When We Were Little Sunday

12 October 2008 by · 2 Comments

Bill Peet wrote over 35 classic children’s picture books before he died in 2002 but this one was my favorite. He is considered one of the most important author/illustrators in American history and he is still very much a favorite there. (It is hard to find his picture books in Australian bookstores - although they are all still in print). What I hadn’t realised until this weekend was that Peet actually wrote and produced for Disney and worked on amazing films like Fantasia and Peter Pan. When I re-read Jennifer and Josephine (published in 1967) last night I found that his illustrations really take on a life of their own, they are very atmospheric and almost run past your eyes like the animation in those classic films. This must have been one of the things I loved about this book when I was little.

The Jennifer from the title is an old automobile built in 1933. She is worn out and sits in a junkyard, her friend is Josephine a “scrawny stray cat”. Josephine has raised kittens in Jennifer and they are great friends until one day Jennifer is bought from the junkyard by a very rude and frantic man they nickname Mr. Frenzy.

The story is all about friendship and loyalty as Jennifer and Josephine stick together and look after each other to get through their hair raising journey with Mr. Frenzy.

Another thing that I now recognise I must have loved is actually what an adult storyline this book has. Peet dosen’t tell a soppy story, Jennifer and Josephine travels at a fast pace with some spooky bits “Billowing black clouds rolled over the countryside, and a streak of lightning shot through the sky followed by a great rumble of thunder.” And lots of adventure: “the road was hilly as a camel’s back and all mud” .

From the Houghton Mifflan site I found this quote from Peet: “Most of my animal characters have human personalities, and some are much like the people I know.”  Jennifer and Josephine is dedicated “To three stray kittens the Peet family discovered on the Malibu Road” – I love that.

When I pulled this off the shelf a couple of weeks ago to read and write about, Ned adopted it and has been devoted to it ever since. It has a lot of text but Ned loves to lie back with daddy and have Jennifer and Josephine read aloud to him.

Filed Under: Age 4+, Classics, Illustrators, Picture books, When we were little...

Outdoor Reading

10 October 2008 by · Leave a Comment

It is a beautiful sunny day in Melbourne and Ned and I are getting ready to go and spend some time outdoors.

Last week Ohdeedoh featured a post on a lovely combination of the outdoors and reading. Have a look at the post here; it came to them via blog Sweet Fine Day. Bryant Park in New York has a dedicated space for tables and chairs and bookcases – in the middle of the park. They have even catered for kids, with little versions of the tables and chairs available, as well as a children’s book selection.

There are more pictures and information on the Bryant Park website and you should pop over to Sweet Fine Day for some great photos and a lovely description of time in the park. Actually Sweet Fine Day is a really gorgeous blog to visit especially if you want to daydream of New York and see some really spectacular photography and amazing food.

I think Ned and I will definately pack some books for our morning out in this glorious weather.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

When We Were Little Sunday…

5 October 2008 by · 3 Comments

When I was little, my grandparents’ house had several copies of the Pookie books by Ivy Wallace. I remember rifling through the soft creamy pages, taking in all the details from the pastel illustrations.

Pookie is a rabbit with wings, and he comes to live with a woodcutter’s daughter named Belinda. He sleeps in Belinda’s work basket, with red satin lining, and wears flounced blue overalls. A total of ten books were published in the series, between 1946 and 1966. In the early 90s Ivy and her daughters initiated a re-release of four of the titles through their own publishing venture, Pookie Productions.

I think my favourite title would have to be Pookie Puts the World Right – the ambition of the title alone makes me love it. In this story, there is a terrible storm in the wood, and Pookie and Belinda take in the homeless animals – Pookie makes tiny beds for them in cardboard boxes with miniature sheets and pillows. While out checking for more animals in need of shelter, Pookie encounters Winter, who with its icy voice, speaks to Pookie. Pookie loses his temper and shouts at Winter, telling it to go away for it has come too early. And, to Pookie’s amazement, Winter listens! The animals call Pookie a hero! But little by little the woodland animals realise that that they can’t manage without a Winter – they need it for resting-time, for their winter coats, and for their winter stores of food. So it’s up to Pookie to put the world right again. In the era of climate change, there is a message here that’s more poignant than ever.

The detail of the illustrations of these books is exquisite – the animals, flowers and woodland scenes are so very English, and the interiors of the woodland cottage perfectly of the 1950s era. The muted blues, greens and oranges of Wallace’s pallate are beautiful. The pages are quite heavy with text, but the dialogue-rich text make these books lovely read-alouds. As I flick through their pages, I can almost smell my Nana’s flannelette sheets, feel her hot water bottle on my feet and fluffy eiderdown up to my chin…

Filed Under: Age 4+, Animals, When we were little...

Making your own books with (and for) kids

1 October 2008 by · 3 Comments

There is some gorgeous inspiration around the blogs at the moment on ways for little people to make their own personal books…

Relevant to our recent Top 5 post on museum books, the lovely Books Together Blog shares the idea of making a child’s personal art book. The idea is that your child collects a postcard or two of favourite works of art at the end of an art gallery visit. They can be staple-bound (or even put in a small ‘brag-book’ photo album) so that kids can enjoy an ‘I Spy’ in the style of Lucy Mickelthwait with their own collection of art. A gorgeous idea for encouraging a love of art – and bridging the gap between art in museums and art at home. And it creates a lasting souvenir…

A similar idea was suggested by Susan Benford, of Masterpiece Cards. In a comment on our museum’s post, she suggested starting a visit to a museum/gallery at the gift shop. By buying a few postcards of artwork at the start, you can make the gallery visit into a treasure hunt. What a great idea – and one that formed the basis of her business, creating beautiful flashcards of art masterpieces.

The stunningly popular (and deservedly so) Soulemama showed an idea for creating a blank board book (pictured above) so you can write and illustrate your own stories. She found an old board book, used sandpaper to roughen the glossy pages and then painted on Gesso to provide a clear, blank surface. Personally, I would find it difficult to complete step 1 of this process (selecting the old board book to sacrifice) but maybe it would be possible if I found a despised board book secondhand somewhere…! Soulemama also has an older post here on some inspiring books about making books.

Soulemama drew my attention to a great US site, Bare Books which sells blank books of all kinds. They don’t ship outside the US, unfortunately, but scrapbooking sites may be able to help elsewhere…

I’ve been coveting the books made by Blurb for ages now. Blurb allows you to self-publish a ‘bookstore-quality’ book in hard- or softcover, and is ideal for photographic books. Some friends of ours created a beautiful hardcover book of their wedding photos. These would make a very special gift and it costs less than you’d think, with small square-format softcovers starting from just $12.95.

Lisa at the Red Thread wrote about the gorgeous Once-A-Year books, handmade by Kasia Jacquot of Laikonik. These Polish folk-art-inspired concertina books provide room for a photo and notes for each year of your child’s life up to the age of 18. Laikonik also has a lovely post on keeping children’s artwork. She has started creating books of the artwork of her children and the images in this post are stunning.

And while on the topic of making heirloom gifts for a child, Kasia pointed me in the direction of the amazing Elsa Mora, an artist and mum. Elsa created what she named ‘The Blank Book Experience‘ a sort of time capsule recorded over 15 days. Using a blank Moleskine book, she, her mum and her daughter Natalie collaborated with words and pictures to create a book for 5-year-old Natalie to re-open in ten years time. Some of the artwork and words of advice that were recorded for Natalie were very special – it’s an inspiring project. You can read it from end to beginning here.

Thanks to Amanda Soule and Kasia Jacquot for permission to use their photos.

Filed Under: Age 0+, book related cool stuff
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