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…

Pop over to the My Poppet blog to see Katie’s review of this gorgeous book and to find out more about the author and illustrator Johnna Wright.

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.

A penguin, according to Oliver, is easy to draw because they are just made up of three parts – ‘Head, Body and USELESS WINGS‘.

The Guardian continues to delight me with their devotion to reviews on children’s books and other children’s culture. They present their book section online so it is extremely appealing and engaging which is so important. The children’s reviews are insightful and they always pick great books, not high brow and not mass market just nice books.

They publish reviews by readers and have a great interactive program for children to subscribe too – a great innovation in a country where reading amongst children is on the decrease. `

This tutorial by Oliver Jeffers is part of a series they are presenting on illustration which has so far included; Nick Sharratt, Rob Steen (illustrator of the Flanimals by Ricky Gervais) and Alex Milway (author of an intermediate series called The Mythical 9th Division).

Children have been invited to send in their creations from the series and the Guardian are also featuring them online. What a fantastic concept.

We are so glad that you have found these opportunities Dallas because we have seen your incredible books bring so much joy to children and adults alike!

Dallas has created the Awesome World Foundation to promote children’s literacy across the USA and the world. For every copy of his books sold the foundation donates a copy to a child in need.

You can read all about Clayton and his books and foundation on his website – Very Awesome World

We ♥ books is proud to stock The Awesome Book and The Awesome Book of Thanks

I really love it when Ned gets totally enamored with a book. It has been the case recently with an extraordinary picture book called Whatever by British author/illustrator William Bee.

We saw this book read on a great BBC/ABC  TV show called Bookaboo. There have been many tries at creating TV shows to promote reading, mostly all of them have been daggy or the stories lame but Bookaboo is different and Ned loves it.

Bookaboo is the name of the character, a puppet dog who is a drummer in a heavy metal band and his tag line is ‘a story a day or I just can’t play‘. A UK celebrity features in each episode, turning up with the book bag to read a story to Bookaboo so that he can later play his drums in the band.

Looking past the fact that when I say celebrity I didn’t know who many of them were (although I did see Meatloaf on one episode) the stories they read are fantastic and thoughtfully chosen. The pictures are animated slightly which makes for great television and Bookaboo, the puppet, asks questions throughout so there is plenty of interaction with the story.

Ned loved it and laughed and laughed and then made me promise to get him the book. Ned’s dad and I have now read this fantastic book sooo many times between us.

Everything about the book is funny and clever. The text is great fun to read aloud and the pictures are a psychedelic, retro delight.

Billy the central character in the book is a little boy who is difficult to please – a theme that is recurrent at our place.

Billy’s father tries everything to get him excited, showing him something really tall or very small, the speediest spaceship and the smokiest train but Billy’s answer is always a very off hand ‘whatever’. Ned loves yelling out the ‘whatever’!

That is until Billy’s dad gives Billy this just deserts. Billy is swallowed by a tiger and what does Billy’s dad say? Whatever!!

Although so simple the concept and the humour really grabs Ned and it is delightful to see him grasp the funny side of the story that as adults we can appreciate as well.

Here is a clip from the Bookaboo website explaining why they chose to use Whatever on the show…

Find more videos like this on Bookaboo Grown-Ups

The reviews on Amazon are mostly all absolutely glowing about this book but there are a couple that are critical of the fact that a child gets eaten and dad says ‘whatever’. What do you think? Is this type of humour damaging in a picture book? Do you have favourites at your house that are a bit crazy?

The ‘Pixie Series’ was printed in Great Britain by Collins – “Publishers For The Children”. There is a sweet little bit of text on the inside jacket that reads – “The Pixie Book Series. Ask your bookseller to show them to you, and build up your own Pixie Library”.

Some of the other titles in the series sound interesting, for example Kittie-Poosies?

The illustrator is simply listed as Eulalie and with a bit of searching I have found that it is Eulalie Banks a prolific and beautiful UK artist. She published her first book when she was 18 and worked extensively from the 1920′s through to the 1970′s. She was highly respected in the publishing world it seems, and was highly sought after for pieces of her art including painting a nursery mural for Charlie Chaplin’s house.

And the thing that thrilled me the most is that she did the original illustrations for Helen Bannerman’s Little Black Sambo.

In Happy Days the story is very sweet and simple. The characters are Jack and Jill and their dog Jippy. The story, in rhyme, follows their day from waking up to going to bed.

‘The Bluebirds sing “Wake up and play.

Tweet tweet it is a lovely day.”

“Good morning Bluebirds we are ready,”

Say Jack and Jill and sleepy Teddy.’

Jack and Jill are positively cherubic, their little cheeks glow pink and their hair falls in little waves around their faces. The colours are incredible and it constantly amazes me how these gorgeous old books are seemingly still as vibrant today and they were when first published.

Eulalie Banks died in 1999 but has left behind a legacy of beautiful children’s books. There is a great bio of her here and also some beautiful flickr albums with more examples of  Eulalie’s work here and more examples from the Pixie Book Series here.

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

The beauty of the original picture book really shines through and teamed with the narration of the gorgeous Helena Bonham Carter it looks like they have done a perfect job.

I think it would take a very special picture book to translate well into an app and the only way to view it would be on an iPad or similar – you’d need a big, clear screen to get the full potential. The beauty of Oliver Jeffers illustrations is that they already have a beautiful movement on the page which allows the transformation into animation seamless and his poetic text is just made for a classic actress to narrate.

I think that it is because I have seen the physical book and love it that I am so excited about the app and I think that would be the same reaction of children – do you? I don’t think that the effect would be as great just owning the app without knowing what the original picture book was like.

Do you have an iPad? Do you have this app? What is it like? If you don’t have an iPad do you share my excitement after seeing this preview and would you like me, still buy the physical book as well as the app?