We have some exciting new arrivals in the store this week – some of these books are hard to find in local bookshops, so they are a bit special to us.
More stock is being added all the time – and we can’t wait to review some of these books for you shortly…
We also have a special offer in the store running until May 20. While stocks last, orders of $50 or more (exc postage) will receive a FREE Eric Carle softie valued at $14.95. Simply enter the code ERICCARLE on checkout.
When people – especially non-book people – visit my house for the first time, they invariably say, ‘Wow, so many books!’ And then if they make it to our playroom or Rowan’s room, they say, ‘Gosh, more books!’
I love buying new books. There’s something special about selecting a new book, making it yours and finding a spot for it on your shelf.
But I also love borrowing books from our library, and over the last few years I have increasingly had lots of fun buying thrifted or secondhand books. To help give a framework for sharing our favourite ‘non-new’ finds, Lou and I have decided to start a new semi-regular themed post, ‘Borrowed and Thrifted’. We hope you like it.
A couple of years ago I discovered a GREAT thing about our library, which is the online process of putting books on reserve. Often when I’m on the internet, trundling around all the gorgeous blogs, I find a book that sounds like one I need to read. I just hop straight across to our online library catalogue without leaving my chair. Our library has several branches, and if a book is on loan or at a different branch, the system allows you to put the book on reserve through the online catalogue. When the book comes in to my branch, I get an email, and then all I have to do is go to the reserve shelf, and grab the book(s) with my name on them. It’s so efficient, I can be in and out of the library in about 2 minutes. I do love browsing the shelves of the library too, but when I’m short of time, this (free!) system is much appreciated.
I found this treasure at the library recently: What the Sky Knows by Nina Bourke and illustrated by Stella Danalis.
I want to know what the sky knows
How to be blue
Or grey
Or pink
How to make clouds …
Sparse text and abstract collage illustrations characterise this picture book by Australians Nina Bourke and Stella Danalis. I love how the narrative gets you to think about what it means to be the sky with all the responsibilities it entails. But I especially love the mixed media artwork because I always try to expose Rowan to different styles of illustration in the books we read.
The illustrations themselves ask as many questions as the text: fish with legs and wings, flying carpets and ladders to the moon. The concise text does not mean that this is a book purely for younger readers; there is lots of room for discussion in this book and older children would be able to engage with questions about the illustrator’s interpretation of the author’s words, and would be able to use the illustrative style as inspiration for their own artwork.
In the next post in this series I’m planning to list some ways I go about tracking down secondhand books online… Stay tuned!
I found these in a lovely indie bookshop near me. A collection of 12 of Eric Carle’s most famous and popular images in full colour posters. These would look gorgeous in a classroom or framed in a nursery. Published by Chronicle Books I think they were up around $50 but well worth it for 12 prints.
If they are too big we also think the Eric Carle Flash Cards also published by Chronicle would make a lovely frieze or wall art in a nursery.
Also very much looking forward to seeing the pop-up version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar due be released next month in Aus. You can see some lovely pictures on Eric Carle’s blog. Also see the book used on this great blog as the centre of a Hungry Caterpillar party theme.
The idea of living and surviving in a world without adults has always been popular with children. Imagining doing your own things, eating whatever you want to, going to bed whenever you want; it’s all so appealing to children when they feel that their lives are dominated by rules and adults. The theme has hence has been used many times in children’s literature and film and television.
My favorite story of a self-sustainable child was always Pippi Longstocking, first published in 1945; the gorgeous red headed Swedish nine year old.
‘She had no mother or father, which was actually quite nice, because it meant that no one could tell her that she had to go to bed just when she was having most fun. And no one could make her take cod liver oil when she would rather eat sweets.’
Pippi is fun, warm, loyal and unusual. She is financially independent because she owns a suitcase of gold pieces. She can shoot a revolver and sail on the seven seas. She can carry a horse, outsmart burglars, she owns a monkey and she can outlift the strongest man in the world. Her house is Villa Villekulla and her friends are her neighbours; brother and sister Tommy and Annika.
Apart from being an outrageously fun character Pippi also has always represented to me a strong female role model. Although it has been noted that author Astrid Lindgren did not intend Pippi to have a feminist agenda, I do have to attribute to Pippi my love of strong female characters in my reading. Pippi is not pretty, she’s tough and acts on impulse, some may call her a tomboy and as a somewhat shy child I relished and admired all her qualities.
‘The light from inside the house fell all around her. There she stood with her red plaits sticking straight out. She was wearing her pappa’s nightshirt, which dragged around her feet. In one hand she held the pistol and in the other the sword. She used the sword to present arms.’
Pippi has been translated into 91 languages and in 2007 was published with illustrations by the beautiful Lauren Child. In that edition Lauren had this to say about Pippi…
‘I suppose the real key to Pippi is that she is an entirely free spirit; she is a girl who is both exciting and funny, refreshing to encounter even after all these years.’
There is also a really lovely illustrated collection of the three Pippi books illustrated by Michael Chesworth.
You can stay at Astrid Lindgren world and there is an online shop where I thought this little skirt was pretty cute …
The largest prize for services to children’s literature in the world has been named in Astrid Lindgren’s memory (Lindgren died in 2002). It is awarded to a body of work by authors, illustrators, storytellers or promoters of reading. Australia’s Sonya Hartnett received the award in 2008.
While writing this post I have been thinking about the other strong female characters that shaped my world. Here are some I came up with but I’d love to hear about the female characters in others’ lives.
The Paper Bag Princess – Robert N. Munsch – Princess Elizabeth is the ultimate in strong characters. I couldn’t resist the fact that she tells the prince where to go. Who needs an ungrateful Prince who only wants you when you look pretty?
Judy Woolcot – Seven Little Australians - This novel first published in 1894 absolutely devastated me and I have never ever forgotten it. Judy and her six brothers and sisters have a violent and distant father and a step mother who has no idea what to do with them. Although Judy often inspires mischief in her siblings she is also incredibly strong willed and protective.
Matilda – Roland Dahl - I have already mentioned that I loved the Matilda movie version. Matilda is smart and incredibly patient, especially with her horrible parents. In classic Dahl style he gives Matilda, the child, all the power in this book.
This is definitely my favorite picture book so far in 2009!
The Terrible Plop is a clever take on the formula of Henny Penny or Chicken Licken. Ursula Dubosarsky’s official website says that the story is actually based on a myth from Tibet. I found this cute quote from Ursula in the Adelaide Advertiser…
“Plop” in Asian cultures is quite poetic – the sound of a pebble plopping in a stream, that kind of thing.”
“It’s a more elegant kind of word in the original Tibetan. Whereas when you translate it into English, it just sounds funny: How can a plop be terrible?”
The cute little rabbits are sitting by the lake eating chocolate cake when ‘Suddenly comes A terrible PLOP”.
The rabbits terrified take off, hopping so very fast and gathering an increasingly panicked group of animals along the way. All of them terrified of the ensuing terrible Plop. The audience of course can see exactly what the PLOP actually is, an apple falling from the tree into the lake.
However it is the big brown bear, sunning himself in a deck chair with a cocktail who halts the stampede, grabbing the littlest rabbit by the ear.
‘Now little rabbit,
You show me where
Is the place of the PLOP,’
Snarls the big brown bear.
‘Oh please big bear,
Don’t make me go.
I’m very afraid
Of the PLOP, you know’
So the brave little rabbit leads the bear to where it believes the PLOP to be. While the rabbit realises the mistake they have all made in being afraid, the bear hears a PLOP and runs leaving the one brave little rabbit to once again enjoy his chocolate cake.
The Terrible Plop is so much fun to read aloud and the mixed media illustrations are equally as fun. The expressions that Andrew Joyner has given the animals are priceless and I really love that bear in the deckchair with his drink complete with little cocktail umbrella.
What you can’t see in the jacket image above is actually how beautiful this production is. The spine is bound in a beautiful yellow and orange stripe and the book is a deliciously long oblong shape making the page spreads magnificent and giving absolute justice to Andrew Joyner’s illustrations.
Meanwhile the fabulous South Australian theatre company Windmill are doing The Terrible Plop on stage from the 15th to the 30th of May 2009. I subscribe to the company and when they send their booklet of upcoming plays for the year it’s like getting a present. The program is incredibly presented so I can only imagine what their productions are like and their website is also just amazing.
See The Terrible Plop also featured on Misrule and Tsk Tsk
||The Terrible Plop is available in the We Heart Books store||
Happy Earth Day!
Illustration by Marc Simont from A Tree Is Nice 1956.
Helen of Orange You Lucky talks about how her children love Charlie and Lola – Look After Your Planet and how proud she is of their recycling skills.
Thanks to Fuse #8 today I found this new book illustrated by the amazing Parisian Marc Boutavant that will be released later this year. Absolutely can’t wait for this one. These pics are from the Chronicle Books Blog.
Marc is the author and illustrator of one of the most popular books in our store Around the World With Mouk. His books are the most incredible explosions of colour and character, vibrant, cute, slightly trippy and very, very cool.
Then to my absolute excitement I came across this incredibly delicious blog while searching for the new Boutavant title. It is full of the most gorgeous photo’s of retro and vintage picture books as well as information about the best illustrators in the business. A definite bookmark.
||For Just One Day and Around the World with Mouk are available in the We Heart Books store||
Gorgeous Girl…
I attended a really beautiful and special wedding on the weekend. As part of the ceremony the bride and groom included a poem from When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne called Spring Morning. First published in the collection in 1924, this is the first two verses of the poem…
Where am I going? I don’t quite know.
Down to the stream where the king-cups grow-
Up on the hill where the pine-trees blow-
Anywhere, anywhere. I don’t know.
Where am I going? The clouds sail by,
Little ones, baby ones, over the sky.
Where am I going? The shadows pass,
Little ones, baby ones, over the grass.
The setting for the ceremony beneath towering pine trees was just perfect for the reading of this poem.
Here’s some trivia – Arnold Schwarzenegger reads his kindergarten class some of this poem in the movie Kindergarten Cop.
