Created as books for children that were to be low cost and high quality so as to make literature accessible to children of poorer parts of the US. Random House US have a great website devoted to Little Golden Books where you can find some great printables and activities as well as more history of the series.

SO you all know how much Katie and I LOVE Golden Books! We have written about our love on the blog numerous times – you can find the collection of our Golden Book posts here.

Now the wonderful Jackie from My Little Bookcase has issued a challenge to the blog world. She wants ideas on how to up cycle Golden Books that have seen better days and she invited us to take part.

We have been collecting very old and bedraggled Golden Books for a while now so we have a fair collection…

This is just a little pile!

Most of them have pages like this….

Scribble!

Or look like this….

Very grotty!

So we have been having fun using them as bunting. The first lot of bunting I made was for Ned’s 3rd birthday in his favourite colour – yellow.

Then I started to make some that we sold and also used as display at Magnolia Square...

I think I have a soft spot for the  Christmas bunting because it just looks so Christmasy!! There’s nothing better than displaying your love of books around the house – they are my favourite accessory.

We have also been using our collection to make gift tags for our online store orders. This has been really fun, because even in the tattiest book you can find the most divine illustrations to use on a parcel…

Although not the best photo’s, I just had to capture this moment. When Ned saw that his little sister was on my bed he made a dash for his bookshelf to choose some stories to read to her. He realised that he had a captive audience in Tess but boy did she love it.

Around the same time I took these photo’s I had also read an incredible article on The Guardian website by Sarah Franklin about reading aloud to her blind grandfather. The article is emotional and really made me think again about the joy that reading aloud can bring to both children and adults. Often reading aloud to children can become just part of a routine, just a way to get them to bed at night.  But when you are really in the moment there is nothing nicer than sharing a story with the ones you love and that was what Ned was doing when he went to find some of his favourite books to read to his new little sister.

It was delightful to see Tess at just three months watching her brother adoringly as just listening to his voice reading the Max and Ruby story was bliss to her. I was so proud to hear him reading to her as his dad or I would, using tone and expression, playing up the entertaining storyline. He has found the joy in reading aloud and also appreciates that listening to a story read aloud is enjoyable and comforting.

There are two amazing books written about reading aloud – Reading Magic by Mem Fox and The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease. Both these books are excellent resources for encouraging children to read themselves as well as how to get the most joy out of reading aloud to them.

On reading to adults, there is a gorgeous collection that was released last year called A Little, Aloud, compiled by Angela Macmillan. The book has a blog here , it truly is very special.

I adore Alfie, actually all of Shirley Hughes’ work really. Dogger, which I have written about before on the blog, is one of those books that I can remember vividly from my childhood.

I was thrilled a year or so ago when I picked up a copy of The Alfie Treasury in an op shop in amazing condition for a couple of dollars. Ned has treasured it.

The reason that Alfie is endearing is because he is so like every pre school child. Children can relate to him as his stories are normal everyday occurrences in their lives. He gets new shoes, gets locked in the house, he gets babysat, goes to a birthday party and plays with his little sister, Annie Rose.

Shirley’s illustrations are comforting and homely. Her detail is delightful, there is always so much going on in each picture that you can pour over for hours and still see something new.

Each story has connections from another story. For example when Alfie is being babysat by Mrs MacNally’s Maureen his new yellow boots from the previous story Alfie’s Feet are sitting in the hall next to the stroller.

Our favourite Alfie story has to be Alfie Gets In First. Alfie and mum and Annie Rose are coming home from the shops. Annie Rose is tired, mum is flustered and Alfie runs through the front door banging it behind him leaving mum and Annie Rose on the front steps.

Alfie can’t reach the handle to open the door and soon the whole neighborhood is involved in trying the get the door open.

I love this story because I know how mum feels and how easily this could happen to us and Ned loves it for the same reason. He totally relates to Alfie’s predicament and we often talk about what it would be like if it did happen to us.

Last month children’s book museum, The Illustration Cupboard in London, had an exhibition to celebrate 30 years of Alfie.

Watch this clip of Shirley Hughes explaining some of the illustrations displayed in the exhibition – one of which is one of the illustrations from Alfie Get’s In First.

Happy birthday Alfie! We love you.

If you’d like some more Alfie then pop over to the website that publisher Random House UK have set up for the 30th anniversary. The website has some great colour and activity printables that are perfect for the school holidays.

Copyright 1990 by Tomie dePaola. From the book My First Easter

Katie and I would like to wish you all a very happy and safe Easter and ANZAC day.

We apologise for that our blog posts have been a little quiet over the last couple of weeks but we promise we will be back bigger than ever after the Easter break. There are exciting things going on in We Heart Books land, including some new projects and for me a new addition to the family – little Tess pictured here with her, very excited, big brother Ned….

Our boutique little book store is still going strong and you can have a look at the gorgeous stock here or why not follow us on Facebook, where we share some cool links to other blogs and also have some special offers for the We Heart Books store.

]]> http://weheartbooks.com/2011/04/20/happy-easter-2/feed/ 3 http://weheartbooks.com/2011/02/07/getting-comfortable/ http://weheartbooks.com/2011/02/07/getting-comfortable/#comments Mon, 07 Feb 2011 10:30:39 +0000 Lou http://weheartbooks.com/?p=5415 We will find anywhere to get comfortable and have a read in this house. This photo is Ned sitting in his new car seat, in the middle of the lounge room, reading!

He is always trying to find new little spaces to curl up with his books. Do your little ones do this too?

I couldn’t help but giggle, I love his play acting and I love that he thinks he should share his love of books with his toys – even if they are a rather mottley bunch.

I still have a fair way to go in terms of party organisation but I did manage to make some cute bunting for decoration out of some old Golden Books….

We have recently moved house and I found a great local OP shop that has a large collection of Golden Books all shelved together. They were in varing degrees of quality, some with sticky pages and others with scribble, so I didn’t feel to bad cutting them up for flags. As Golden Books are all pretty much the same size and format they are very easy to cut from one template and then I glued them onto some yellow ric rac.

We also had Ned’s favourite food – popcorn in these gorgeous bags I ordered from Etsy seller HeyYoYo 

and cute little tiger and panda decorations ordered online from My Poppet… 

And of course he did get some fabulous books which I will tell all about soon.

My favourite book of 2008 is still a favourite.

On the weekend we took a trip into town to see the Myer windows. This year they are themed around the gorgeous picture book Olivia Helps With Christmas by Ian Falconer. Olivia is one of my all time favourite picture book characters; she has spunk and a huge personality.

Ned loved the windows and kept repeating “Owivia” at the top of his voice. Although I was a little disappointed with the translation of the book to the window -but maybe I was expecting to much. The main thing is Ned had a good time.

My all time favourite Myer Christmas windows are still Wombat Divine in 2006. Does anyone else have a favourite?

Isn’t this little guy gorgeous? It’s an image from the picture book Harry and Horsie due in Australia in November.

I’m going to get it for Ned for Christmas. You can have a little peek inside on the Harper Collins US website and it is one of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever seen. The illustrations are so funky, I’m thinking I’d like to frame them up for Ned’s walls.

Harry is a little boy who undertakes a deep space adventure with his trusty toy Horsie, who he never goes anywhere without.

Ned is so keen on Space and stars and also has his pal ‘Hutchy’ who goes everywhere with him so this book sounds quite appropriate.

The Harry and Horsie story started out as a homemade gift from a nanny, Katie Van Camp for a little boy called Harry who is actually the son of David Letterman. Have a look at the gorgeous website for the book here.

If you know a 2 to 5 year old Harry, this just has to be the perfect gift!