As you can see, we have a brand new header design – by the awesome Rebekka Seale. More on that later.

We can’t wait to get blogging again and to hear from you all again. Did you know we are also on Facebook? We post lots of fun stuff there, so please Like us, do!

Lou and I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 last night – has anyone else seen it?

It felt like the end of an era in so many senses. Lou and I have seen almost all the films together along with another dear friend. As the years have gone by and lives have got busier, I think the release of each new film has got more and more exciting for us! Coming out of the cinema last night felt like the conclusion to a long tradition.

I loved the film – powerful, touching, it hit just the right note of the drama and tragedy of the action, without labouring it. And it felt like you could sense the off-screen comeraderie of the three stars, and a definite sadness on their part that it has all come to an end. (Anyone else think those last scenes were not necessary??)

Otto fell off the couch and hit his head (above his left eye) on the coffee table a few months ago. Bit hard to see but I reckon his (temporary) scar is a bit Potter-esque, don’t you?

And yes, he is a poser. He thinks by squinting his eyes he is smiling. 95% of our photos of him are with his eyes closed.

I just received some lovely new-to-me Golden Books of eBay. ABC Rhymes I’ve seen before, but I’d never come across Play Street or The Little Golden Book of Mother Goose.

When I saw the cover of Play Street, I was immediately reminded of the illustrations of Eloise Wilkin – author and illustrator of many Little Golden Books, including A Child’s Garden of Verses, We Like Kindergarten and Prayers for Children. Jane Werner Watson, who edited and wrote hundreds of Golden Books, called Eloise Wilkin “the soul of Little Golden Books”.

But Play Street was written by Esther Wilkin and illustrated by Joan Esley. A little research into these two revealed some interesting collaboration. Esther Wilkin was the sister of Eloise, who were born Eloise and Esther Burns, and they married two brothers Wilkins. Eloise was friends with Joan Esley and they opened a studio together and later moved to New York city together. I love the thought of the shared careers of these three, working together, helping each other in an era when few women were working, let along making names for themselves as leaders in their careers.

This is a gorgeous story, if you don’t already know it – how’s this for a classic 50s opener?

It was all very quiet on on Butternut Lane. The mothers were busy with their housework and the babies were taking their mid-morning naps. Bobby was riding his tricycle.

Against a backdrop of a classic US streetscape, is a tale of make believe – each of the littlies of Butternut Lane rides his or her trike imaging they are driving a vehicle. Until the roving policeman stops them as they are starting to make so much noise!

The Little Golden Mother Goose collects 75 Mother Goose rhymes – I’m amazed that I’ve heard of most of them but lovely to read a few new ones too.

I’m a very happy e-Bayer…

We are very excited to again be supporting the Little Big Shots International Film Festival for Kids and giving away to our readers 10 double-passes to the festival!

We LOVE that there is a film festival especially for children and that some more of our favourite picture books have made their way to the big screen! This year the program includes the beloved classic The Gruffalo (we mentioned the trailer when it first screened on TV on our blog here) as well as Rob Scotton’s Splat the Cat and Mo Willem’s Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed.

One of the films I would dearly love to see is Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing, one of my favourite picture books and the film adapation recently won this year’s Academy Award for Best Animated Short.

Soooo…. we have 10 double passes to give away to Package 3 of this year’s festival (which includes The Gruffalo and Naked Mole Gets Dressed) to one of two sessions on Thursday 9 Jun 2011 at 9:50 am or Friday 10 Jun 2011 at 11:30 am.

If you would like to win, please leave a comment on this post (or on the competition post on our Facebook page) before Wednesday 1 June. In your comment, please let us know which film(s) from the Festival program you are most looking forward to seeing and which of the two sessions above you could attend. (We will draw the winners at random.) Good luck!

The skirt is comprised entirely of the illustrations from Golden Books sewn together with metallic gold thread, and the bodice is made from the books’ foil spines. Can you imagine? Having glimpsed how carefully Lou curates the Golden Books bunting she has done for We Heart Books, I can only imagine how painstaking this cut and paste would be…

Here are some shots of the garmet under construction…

Go to Boston-based fashion designer Ryan Noveline’s site for more breathtaking images…

Here we are in our local glossy! Lou and I were interviewed for this week’s Melbourne Weekly about We Heart Books, how we started and some of what’s next… Can’t argue with being called ‘young at heart’! You can read the whole article here.

Continuing our chapter reading adventures from my last post, my mum helped Rowan make a map of the Faraway Tree to accompany our reading of the story…

The post has created a visual reminder of the story, and Rowan regularly asks me to ‘read’ the story on the poster.

Our next chapter book has been Fantastic Mr Fox – we read this lovely edition with full colour illustrations by Quentin Blake. So much fun and adored by Rowan. Now we just have to draw the map of Mr Fox’s tunnels beneath the Boggis, Bunce and Bean farms…

Over our summer holidays I have started reading novels to Rowan. There are mixed feelings for me… I’m sad that we no longer have a pile of picture books to consume every night – but excited about all the possibilities of old favourites and new authors we can share together. (And I can’t wait for the day – a while away yet – when we can start Harry Potter!) We will still of course read picture books together – hopefully for a long time yet – but they no longer have such a status of centrality in Rowan’s life…

At 4 and a half, Rowan seems more than ready to sit and absorb the story. We started with a wizzbanger – The BFG of course. It was a hit, and Rowan uses lots of Roald Dahl’s wacky words in every-day speech now. We grow snozzcumbers in our vegie patch and occassionally Rowan will wake up and tell us he has had a phizzwizard. The role of reader was shared around between Rowan’s dad, his aunty and me, all of whom hold The BFG very close to our hearts…

Next up was The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton. The photo above is of Rowan’s grandmother reading this book to Rowan. She told me that when she was growing up, she read Enid Blyton’s books to her youngest sister, who loved it so much that one day she and a neighbour jumped in their pedal car and set off to find the Enchanted Wood.

We are reading my childhood copy which now has browning pages and a splitting spine. But aren’t these illustrations divine…

It was so exciting to hear today that our absolute favourite book of 2010 is the recipient of the 2011 Caledecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children! A Sick Day for Amos McGee is a first book by a young husband and wife team, Philip Stead and Erin Stead, and gee we can’t wait to see what else they come up with! Philip’s gentle words are exquisitely paced and partner perfectly with Erin’s stunning pencil and woodcut artwork in sepia tones and splashes of soft colour.

This is a book we have recommended over and over to our friends at our markets, and it’s always an absolute joy when a book like that receives the highest level of recognition.

Here are some more beautiful images from this treasure of a book. There are a few copies currently available in our store.

A complete list of the American Library Association Youth Media awards with some interviews with the authors is available here.

||A Sick Day for Amos McGee is available from the We Heart Books store||