Winners – The Red Piano

13 October 2009 by · Leave a Comment

The Red Piano

Thanks to all who entered our giveaway of The Red Piano by selecting their favourite Wilkins Farago title. We have two winners, thanks to the Random Number Generator…

Naga Chokkanathan with the comment:
I Like Chocolate … I mean, I like the book “I Like Chocolate”

and Rebecca with the comment:
‘Wating for Mummy’ looks very sweet however for this family it would have to be ‘I Like Chocolate’!

Naga and Rebecca, please email us your contact details and we will send you out your books.

For those who missed out, we will have copies of The Red Piano in our store later this week. To pre-order your copy, please email us.

Filed Under: Picture books, We Heart Books Store

Giveaway – The Red Piano

24 September 2009 by · 41 Comments
The Red Piano

We did a post recently about the beautiful picture book The Red Piano published by Wilkins Farago. The Red Piano is in stores now and we have been lucky enough to have received two copies from Wilkins Farago to give away to readers.

To win a copy of this stunning book all you have to do is visit the Wilkins Farago website and then leave a comment on this post telling us of another Wikins Farago book that you think looks beautiful – there are lots.

Entries close Thursday 1 October.

Filed Under: Age 5+, Picture books

When We Were Little…

21 September 2009 by · 4 Comments

A guest post by one of our favourite bloggers, Scribbler, founder and writer extraordinaire of the utterly fabulous blog called Vintage Kids’ Books My Kid Loves. She is mum to a 4-year-old aficianado of vintage kids’ books.

Molly Brett Goodnight Time Tales

I’ve loved books my whole life. Children’s picture books in particular, and if you read my blog, you know I sort of went nuts after I had my son… obsessively collecting books for him that I’d had as a child and ones I wished I’d had. I don’t remember exactly which Molly Brett title was my first… I just remember an American childhood filled with her books and illustrations. Wonderful little worlds inhabited by cuddly animals and fairies. Adorable wooded scenes with teddy bears and squirrel babies. A moss-covered wonderland where salamanders lead pet snails around on leashes. Owls wear top hats. Where children’s toys are in cahoots with sparrows. And frogs shop for sausage links. All the sorts of things little girls imagine to be happening right outside their bedroom windows when they are just out of ear shot.

Molly Brett beach illustration

A native of Surrey, England, Molly’s mother was a painter of animals, so although Molly had no training, she was a natural at creating the stories so many children around the world came to love. Under her publisher, The Medici Society of London, she produced 21 books and countless illustrations for greeting cards and prints before her death at 88 years old in 1990.

Molly Brett tea party

I spent hours and hours of my youth, poring over these intriguing tales, then would close my eyes at night and wish and pray they were real. Oh, what I would have given to be invited to an animal tea party! One of my favorite stories from this book in particular is called “The New Policeman” and involves a mess of sweet forest animals driving around in toy cars:

Fuzzy Hedgehog felt rather lonely as he scuttled through the wood, for the other animals found him too prickly to play with, although he longed for friends and to join in all that went on around him. Just then he saw a notice on an oak tree which said—‘Nest Builders and Hole Holders are asked to a Meeting to discuss the Dangers of Traffic on Winding Way.’

Well, one thing leads to another, and one can only imagine how proud Fuzzy must’ve felt when he received his policeman’s helmet and set to work making the traffic right. Delightful! If I remember correctly, most of her books were made up of a series of stories, each with one illustration in color and then sketches on the type-page in black and white.

Molly Brett Fuzzy Hedgehog

There is lots of Beatrix Potter on these pages, and one has to assume Molly grew up studying her books. There’s just something about the English countryside that breeds this sort of enchantment. Brett… Potter… Milne. The landscapes and gardens are ripe for one’s imagination to pick. A medley of trickling brooks and sparkling skies. Shadows and toadstools and beds of leaves hidden beneath shady branches. Really, I could wax poetic for a lifetime about these amazing people who brought the magic of England all the way across the pond to my own little bewitching corner of the globe. South Carolina might be a world away from Surrey, but to my childish heart, we were all living in the same hundred-acre wood.

Molly Brett illustration


Filed Under: Age 3+, Animals, Picture books, When we were little...

When We Were Little Sunday

23 August 2009 by · 1 Comment

A guest post by Sue, Mum to Katie, and Nanou to Rowan.

excitement-on-elf-island1

Some of the books I particularly remember from my childhood were the special ones that my paternal grandmother, known affectionately as Marty, kept in a wardrobe for visiting grandchildren. I visited quite frequently, often staying during school holidays and I have vivid memories of these times and being snugly curled up in a very comfortable bed with a selection of books for reading ‘in the morning’ before Marty got up. Books were important to her and an obvious presence in her home. She valued them greatly and indulged in purchasing them from the Folio Society, a luxury she couldn’t really afford. Although we didn’t get many presents from her, when we did they were often books.

All the children’s books in Marty’s wardrobe were produced in the late 1940s or early 1950s and so all now suffer from yellowed paper which is quite embrittled; most have been read so many times that they have been mended in the past with Sellotape, and so are quite stained along the spine edges.

excitement-41

My favourites were the titles from Peg Matby’s Ben and Bella series and Marty had a number of them. However, there were also four books which now are of interest looking back as an adult and with my ‘social historian’s hat’ on. They are the Adventure series produced by Barker & Company and printed in Australia “by the New ‘FANTASCOPIC’ Method.” (I haven’t been able to find out exactly what this method was, but it supposedly produced more realistic colour.) Two of the four titles have been passed down to me: The Zoo Garden Mystery by John Tombs and Excitement on Elf Island by Elsie Sheppard; both are held in the National Library of Australia and listed as printed in 1948. Other titles are The Story of Thought Castle and Fairy Grandmother’s Story. There is no mention of illustrators and as the style differs, I imagine that Tombs and Sheppard were both author and illustrator. A number of internet sites list the titles as rare and have them for sale, for widely varying prices, but most do not seem to have stood the test of time any better than mine.

excitement-3

A re-reading of the stories is somewhat disappointing. I did like these books as a child, although now I cannot imagine why! Both have the text pre-eminent in a central box on each page with illustrations awkwardly placed surrounding them. Both are text heavy and John Tombs particularly tends to over-write. The language is very dated and at times overly moralistic, but what does interest me now is seeing the resurgence of an Australian orientation, post-World War 2. This is obvious in the case of the The Zoo Garden Mystery. My copy has koalas in a gum tree on the cover and indigenous fauna mixed with exotic zoo creatures central to the story. This focus is less obvious in Excitement on Elf Island, but the gum trees are there and are something that the publisher feels the need to explain.

excitement-2

Time and perspective change. The importance of these books was not intrinsic. What was important was the love of books that they helped develop.

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

When We Were Little

9 August 2009 by · 6 Comments

A guest post by Sarah, mum to Neve, Cissy and Jemima

There is a lot of talk amongst parents about learning to read and reading dutifully to the kids every night – so much so you would think it had all become just another chore! Many experts agree that children need to hear a lot of stories before they can learn to read. But there are other much better reasons to read to the children every day… because it is fun, because you get special time together and because these moments are the stuff of wonderful memories. I think that When we were little Sunday is all about the specialness of these moments – even more than being about the books, it is about those shared times that make me remember being little and the important people in my life who read to me.

And with that in mind I want to talk about a book which I have never seen in a bookshop – have never been able to source secondhand and have never seen in a books in print list. (I know because I have tried to obtain a copy numerous times.)

horace

It is The Story of Horace, retold and illustrated by Alice M Coats. My Grandma bought this book at the Presbyterian Bookroom in Collins St, Melbourne, sometime in the 70s (there is a sticker in the front).

The Story of Horace is about a family:

horace-spread-1

There was -
Great-Grandpa,
Great-Grandma,
Grandpa,
Grandma,
Pa,
Ma,
Paul
and little Lulu.
And with them lived Horace.

Horace was a bear!

One day Pa went out hunting.

And on the way back, he was met by – Great Grandma, Grandpa, Grandma, Ma, Paul and little Lulu.

And they all said, “What do you think has happened?”
And Pa said,
“What HAS happened?”
And they said;- “Horace has eaten GREAT-GRANDPA!”

And Pa was just WILD,
and he said,
“I will KILL Horace!”

But they all took on so,
he hadn’t the heart to do it.

And you can all guess what happens next….

Horace eats his way through Great Grandma, Grandpa, Grandma, Ma, Paul and Little Lulu until it is Pa’s turn. Believe it or not when it is only Pa and Horace left…

horace-spread-2

And Pa was just WILD,
and he said,
“I will kill you Horace!”
But HORACE took on so –

he hadn’t the heart to do it.

And the next day HORACE went out hunting.

Really it is a terrible story which to begin with just plain terrified me. But it inevitably became a favourite amongst all of my cousins, my brother and I. Sleepovers at grandma’s had to be accompanied by the bloodthirsty Horace. I think this had a lot to do with the way Grandma would read it. The fantastic repetition of the story, no matter how gruesome, made it truly entertaining. Every time Pa came back from his various hunting exploits, he was greeted by one less family member, and every time they would say “What do you think has happened?” I just love the fact that he never could guess!

We all loved it so that on her 90th birthday Grandma read it for us, whilst my uncle videoed it for posterity (sorry didn’t have time to convert it so I could post it here – but it was a legendary performance!) This book brings with it so many memories of my lovely Grandma, it will always be super special. As you can see from the pictures, I am the lucky custodian of the family copy of this book.

Filed Under: When we were little...

When We Were Little Sunday

27 July 2009 by · 3 Comments

A guest post by Nicci D, mum to Nuwan aged 2.

badjelly-the-witch

Whenever I asked my dad to read me a bedtime story, he often chose Badjelly the Witch by Spike Milligan. I remember feeling delighted and anxious, both at once, at his choice: delighted because I knew Daddy would soon be chuckling once again at Milligan’s dark humour, and anxious because I found the story quite frightening – enough to give me nightmares.
badjelly-page-spread-1

Badjelly is a fairy story about Tim and Rose, who lived with their Mummy and Daddy in a big log cabin made from wood trees. When Lucy their cow went missing, Tim and Rose went looking for her, even though this meant heading into the dark forest, braving the trouser robbers and, ultimately, being captured by Badjelly the baddest witch in the world. In the end, they all lived happily ever after (except Badjelly, of course), but I was always relieved to hear this, no matter how many times I heard the story.

Milligan includes all the details that were important to the six-year-old me: what colour Rose’s hair was; how thick the trees were in the forest (as thick as Tim and Rose’s teacher’s legs at school); and what sort of wallpaper was in the bedrooms of Binkle-bonk the goblin’s house. At the same time, his pen-and-ink illustrations leave enough space for a child’s imagination to run wild – which mine did for several days and nights after each reading.
badjelly-page-spread-2

Milligan wrote Badjelly in 1973 (my lovely hardback copy still carries its price-tag of $3.20!) for his own children. Although quite long for a picture book, it is handwritten by the author, and I was as fascinated by the quirky lettering as by the illustrations. When the tin lion says ‘Roar! Roar!’ (then ‘Squeak!’ because he’s rusty from sleeping in the rain), Milligan’s lettering really seems to Rooarr. And when Dingle the mouse warns Tim and Rose to run away if they see Badjelly, even the word ‘her’, underlined and annotated, still sends chills down my spine.

Badjelly’s significance in my world seemed to be heightened by the fact that it mentioned God (‘just then God came along’). This occurred in such a different context to most ‘God’ references that I wasn’t sure what to think, but it provided the opportunity for some wide-ranging discussions with my dad! (When an audio version of Badjelly was made in 1975, the BBC removed God from the story because God appeared to have been placed on the same level as goblins.)

My childhood wouldn’t have been quite the same without Badjelly, and I’m planning on introducing it to my son once he’s at school. Perhaps we’ll read it first in the afternoon, before it gets ‘very dark-and-night-time’.

(By the way, for dedicated Playschool watchers like me, Spike Milligan also wrote the poem ‘On the Ning Nang Nong’…)

||Badjelly is still available from Amazon||

Filed Under: Age 3+, When we were little...

Clementine

22 July 2009 by · 2 Comments

clementine

We haven’t often reviewed books for the over-8s at We Heart Books, but over the next few months we will be including a few more, and adding some new books for over-8s in our store too. This time we are very lucky to have had Georgia (aged 11) write this review for us of Sara Pennypacker’s Clementine. Georgia was given a copy of by her aunt Lisa who also contributes to this guest post …

Georgia writes:

I had a great time reading this book. As soon as I got home I started reading it, and finished it really quickly. The trouble Clementine got into reminded me of Judy Moody. It says something about her on the back of Clementine. My favourite chapters were 4, 5 and 9, besides the first chapter. My favourite part I can’t say because it will spoil the story for you but some really funny ones I can tell you, like Clementine has a war with a flock of pigeons and she thinks she’s growing a beard like her Dad. When her Mum scrubs her head Clementine says to herself, “No more cartwheels, just in case my brains fall out ‘cause of the big hole she made.”
I really want to read the second book Talented Clementine, it sounds good too.

Aunt Lisa (also mum to Finn and Daisy) writes:

I loved reading this series, and had to send them to my niece Georgia to read.
They’re beautifully realised, humorous tales, in the best tradition of feisty, funny and unique characters like Pippi Longstocking and Judy Moody. There are some important and wonderful messages about being your unique self, but it’s not heavy handed. Clementine’s parents sometimes despair of the results, but always encourage Clementine’s problem solving and creative thinking skills. Marla Frazee’s fabulous illustrations add weight to the reader’s impression of Clementine’s restless energy and quirkiness.

Sara Pennypacker has beautifully captured the voice and motivations of an unusual pre-teen in all three of the Clementine books. I laughed out loud more than once, especially at Clementine’s well-intentioned hairdressing escapades, her vocal duels with a harassed school principal and her creative refusals to use her baby brother’s real name. When was the last time an adult book made you laugh out loud on the tram ‘til people looked at you?

Boys will love how she gets into trouble, girls will admire her ability to get out it! Highly recommended for readers from Year 3 to Year 5.


Interview with Sara Pennypacker

||Also in the series Clementine’s Letter and The Talented Clementine||

Filed Under: Age 8+
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