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.

I’m a little ashamed to say this, but we didn’t have a copy of Goodnight Moon on our shelves until I bought a copy for Rowan this week. First published in 1947, I’m actually not sure whether this title was very prominent in Australia when I was growing up. It isn’t one I remember from my childhood, or even from my early bookselling days. Don’t know if I was under a rock – maybe other Aussies can shed some light…

I’m confident the same couldn’t be said of US readers, as the book seems to be have been a hugely popular classic there. It is of course very popular here now too. Numerous ‘celebrity mom’ citings of Goodnight Moon verge on the off-putting (especially if you have a perverse streak like me). Anyone from Hilary Clinton to Tori Spelling seems keen to mention Goodnight Moon. Even ‘our’ Cate and Naomi are fans.

At first reading, the text of Goodnight Moon may almost seem a little glib. But you soon realise its charm. The rhyming, lilting text is mesmerising and the repetition of the words and illustrations is just so comforting. It is the quintessential bedtime story.

The book got a resounding nod of approval from Rowan. He is going through a stage at the moment when he often resists new books, especially at bedtime when he refuses anything unfamiliar. But he picked up Goodnight Moon with some curiousity and happily listened to a first reading and then requested THREE further readings.

There’s a lovely post over on Collecting Children’s Books discussing the identity of the ‘quiet old lady’ who features in Goodnight Moon. Worth reading, especially if you remember the story from when you were young.

Once a series like Maisy takes off and becomes a feature in every discount and department store, it’s easy to forget what made you love her in the first place.

And while the monopolisation of series like Maisy in chain store aisles undoubtedly takes shelf space away from the huge variety of other creative and talented authors out there, it is nice to know that there is a quality children’s book available very accessibly.

I love Lucy Cousin’s bold colours in all her books and the clever use of concepts that appeal to babies and toddlers. In the pop-up and lift-the-flap editions of Maisy in particular, the illustrations are always a little bit quirky, and reveal something unexpected.

Rowan knows ‘Maisy’ as ‘Mimi’ ‘cos he has a Maisy DVD where you can select the language, and I’ve only ever played it to him in French. (One day he’ll get me back for doing things like that…) I know some mums who find the character dialogue in the Maisy animated series annoying. But what I only just discovered is that the character voices and sound effects were recorded in London by Australia’s own comedy duo, The Umbilical Brothers. That puts it in a new light!

For Melbourne Maisy lovers, Readings stores have a promotion this month, giving away a mini Maisy plush toy with every hardback Maisy book purchase. (We bought Maisy at the Farm, pictured here.)

And speaking of oldies but goodies, check out this lovely post on Media Macaroni titled Why Charlie and Lola Makes Me Want to Procreate.

One of the most classic and important children’s books ever published sung by the author…

Thanks to Youtube and www.henryholtkids.com

My dear friend, Anne-Laure, reminded me of this book in a comment she left for us during our launch competition. Her twin boys, at two-and-a-half, are loving this book, and now Rowan is too. Most nights he is calling out for ‘Truck’ even before he is in his pyjamas…

Duck in the Truck comes from the very talented Jez Alborough, author of our previously reviewed, Hug!. Duck’s truck gets stuck in the muck, so Frog, Sheep and Goat all lend a hand. With the muck and mud involved, you can imagine the mess, but somehow Duck avoids a sticky end.

The combination of a few different vehicles, some mud and expressive animal characters make it a hit for Rowan. And the rhyming text makes it fun to read aloud. There’s nothing worse than a book that tries to rhyme but doesn’t quite hit the mark, but this one is spot-on.

Here is Rowan and his dad, and Rowan’s great mate, Jake, when we babysat him the other night. By the look of Rowan’s ‘Shhhh!’, I’d say they are reading Doggies by Sandra Boynton. Reading three, four or more books is a much-anticipated part of Rowan’s bedtime routine and a lovely time for a cuddle.

Doggies is great for dog-loving babies and toddlers. It’s a counting book with a difference; a fantastic read-aloud, as the reader gets to perform a rendition of barks of all kinds… Rowan loves it.

Check out Lou’s previous post for her Top 5 Going to Bed books, including another Sandra Boynton title…

Rowan’s current favourite book is Hug! by Jez Alborough.

Hug! tells the story of a little gorilla called Bobo, who notices other animals in his jungle having hugs. He starts to feel sad because he realises he doesn’t have anyone to hug.

The story uses minimal words – on most pages, there is just one word, ‘hug’, used by different speakers and with different types of emotion. Rowan really responds to this concept and also to the illustrations. He really empathises with little Bobo, and mirrors all the emotions of Bobo on his own face. No matter how many times we read it, he always has a huge smile on his face when Bobo and Mummy are reunited!

Last week the Victorian government launched a fantastic initiative to improve literacy levels in the state. The Young Readers Program will hand out 70,000 books per year for four years to two year olds visiting their maternal health centre. The first round of books chosen for the project is the wonderful Whose? Series by Australian author/illustrator Jeanette Rowe (published by Allen & Unwin). Each book in the series is a fun guessing game with lift the flaps for finding the answers. In Whose Tail? there is part of a tail poking above the flap; guess whose tail and then reveal the answer underneath the flap.

The program hopes to encourage reading at home rather than just in the classroom. These books seem the perfect choice because they so cleverly combine fun and learning as well as facilitating warm interactions between parent and child.

Rowe’s new book in the series Whose Eggs? would make the perfect Easter present.

Ned with Goodnight Harry, a true favorite when it gets cuddles in your sleep!

This was one of Ned’s Christmas presents; a Very Hungry Caterpillar hand puppet that we bought from Borders. Many people comment on it because it is so well made, cuddly and looks exactly like the real thing. It’s not often that you can find plush that actually looks like the character and it’s so much fun using the puppet to tell the story. I thought it was quite cheap at $29.95. Borders also had a Beautiful Butterfly hand puppet and The Very Hungry Caterpillar Board Game, they are availabe on Amazon too. Amazon also has this bedding which is way too cute…