Monthly Archives: March 2013

A Lion in the Meadow by Margaret Mahy

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Freya is a big fan of roaring like a lion so was pleased when I came across the book ‘A Lion in the Meadow’ by Magaret Mahy.

This is such a joyful story, where make believe comes true. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of stories & as the Lion says ‘some stories are true and some aren’t’.

The pictures are charming and natural, depicting a very cosy home & beautiful countryside for the boy to run around making the picture of the roaring lion & big dragon more fierce in contrast. Both Bryn & Freya really enjoy listening to this story while Freya also likes spotting the characters in the beginning & end papers.

Ancient Egypt: Tales of Gods and Pharaohs

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This is sumptuous book with its large format, some double page spreads and nine fantastic stories of Egyptian Pharos & gods. The stories are retold in comic strip format which I thought worked really well and echoed the feeling of hieroglyphics.

I wasn’t familiar with these Egyptian stories so I’m not sure whether the retellings do them justice, but the comic strip format certainly made the action & adventure of the tales more accessible for Bryn. While I found some of the tales a little gruesome, Bryn was very keen to hear more and happy to explore all the detail within the panels. His favourite page was the double page spread of the ‘red hippopotamus’ in the tale of Horus the Avenger. This break from the comic strip panel to one large picture created impact & added to the drama of the story.

Underneath the stories runs a single comic strip providing an historic commentary from a cat. This includes details on mummification and an alphabet of hieroglyphics. We enjoyed using the latter to write out our names.

A really enjoyable book providing an engaging introduction to Egyptian mythology and history.

King of Space by Jonny Duddle

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A little boy with big plans, space ships, dung blasters, floating space cows, robots & tasty sounding ‘Choco-goo’ , this book has it all.

The King of Space tells the tale of Rex, ‘Rex might look little, but he has big plans that will take him to the furthest reaches of space.’ With his army of ‘warbots’ Rex is on a mission to become King of Space.

I love the cinematic nature of this book with its rich illustrations & a stunning four page spread. I also loved the character of Rex, his aspiration, determination & his awkwardness around Princess Kooki. The highlight however for me was Rex’s mum saving the day, as my boy is quickly growing up (starting to read & write by himself) it’s nice to have a reminder that Mum’s still here to help.

Bryn tells me he loves this book especially the pictures & his favourite page is when Rex has been given lines as a punishment at school, as usual Rex is not doing as he’s told. After only a few readings he has pretty much memorised the story & is enjoying retelling it to us with his sister taking on the role of a Moog. Now we just need to find some wall space for the glossy ‘warbot’ poster that comes with the book.

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Disclosure: We received our copy of ‘King of Space’ from the publisher for review. Our opinions are our own.

World Book Day 2013

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It’s World Book Day, a great excuse to celebrate all things bookish & raise funds for great charities such as Book Aid International.

For the kids it was a chance for dressing up, Freya went as the witch from Room on the Broom – they celebrated a day early at nursery.

There’s plenty of fun going on at Bryn’s school today with fancy dress (he decided he wanted to be dressed as a book), a book exchange & hopefully a chance to see ‘the biggest book show on earth’

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One of my favourite picture books is the classic ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ by the uber talented Michael Rosen & Helen Oxenbury. I read it to Freya last night & it was like she was hearing it for the first time (it wasn’t) but now that she’s talking she was able to join in doing the noises & shouting Bear. It won’t be long till like her brother she’ll be acting it out & asking why the bear look so sad on the last page. This is such a wonderful book in so many ways.

There was a great article in the Guardian last year about how Helen Oxenbury & Michael Rosen made ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’

There’s also this fab video of Michael Rosen reading the story aloud

Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

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This is a book review Bryn and I wrote for the Guardian Family Reviews

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‘It all began when Floyd got his kite stuck in a tree…’ and the story tells the funny, and at times surreal, steps Floyd takes to rescue that kite.

We giggled and laughed throughout reading this book especially at the moments where we were wrong footed. When Floyd gets a ladder to resolve the situation Bryn was expecting him to use it to catapult everything out of the tree, but no Floyd continues on his single-minded path to rescuing his kite.

I found the book a visual treat with surrealism and sophistication making it a quality picture book. The pictures of Floyd holding up ridiculously large things like ships, houses and whales remind me of conversations I’ve had with Bryn about whether he can put a house on his head.

An epic story packed with humour and ending with a reference to The Italian Job, this is a big hit in our household.