George and The Dragon

George and The Dragon

Author and Illustrator: Chris Wormell

Publisher: Red Fox, Random House Children's Books, 2003

Here's a picture book that stylistically throws testimony to the adage 'less is more'. Generous double page spreads throughout, very little written text, illustrations cast in a simple reddish, brown, purple hue; it feels unusual, it's preserve, endearing.

It's high time I took this book back to the library, but the children are stuck between the binary of frightened and enchanted by this one, so it's remained a stalwart of the bedtime read this week. Fans of fantasy will love this for their children; the rich red illustrations of the immense elongated hulk of the 'mighty' fire breathing dragon remind me of David Day's illustrations of Tolkien's bestiary. With two thirds of the spread devoted on each page to the picture (always in landscape profile), the story takes a comfortable slow, pace feeling nicely controlled. What's also nice about the illustrations is the room dedicated to 'scenery', so the epic mountainous skyline on one spread, the craggy rocks and backdrop of the cave in another. This sets the scene so nicely, and also supports the message of the narrative, in that everything is relative in size- 'small can be big'.  

In terms of the plot, we meet a terrifying dragon who can 'fly higher than clouds and faster than birds'. He's shown battling an army of knights, burning down a village and carrying off a princess. The depiction of the dragon's thin, worm-like body, smoking nostrils and huge claws really contrast the contemporary (tame) rotund bodies of modern children's dragon illustrations (such as Zog by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, and The Trouble with Dragons by Debi Gilori).  There's something truly original and in so, frightening about this dragon.  

The story is initially set up as dark and scary, with the dragon appearing unbeatable and huge against the mini-scale hopeless figures of the knights (whom he could 'brush away' 'with 'a sweep of his monstrous wing'), and the protesting captured princess. the text then alludes to the dragon harbouring a secret fear, his Achilles heel, which humorously turns out to be a fear of mice. The way this plot turn is introduced, in terms of children's literature, is interesting, very dry in humour here, with the cave entrance littered in a macabre way with skulls and bones and then a mouse, turned away, reading a property sign reading ' sold' at the mouth of the neighbouring cave.  At this point the written text doesn't quite flow as well, introducing the idea that George the mouse seeks sugar for his cup of tea (how British. or should that be 'English' given the context- George and the Dragon').        

At this bizarre turn the narrative unfolds and ends speedily; the dragon, petrified, now flees, and the mouse, a hero, is treated to a feast by the princess. The story then closes with the mouse in residence in a 'cosy little hole in the castle wall' underneath a 'beware of the mouse' warning sign; the dragon, alarmed, cowers behind a mountain. In few words and vast illustrations then, Wormell easily conveys the message not to judge or anticipate on appearance alone.

This is a really delightful, moral, and learned children's picture book then. It's a masterclass in captivating a very young audience; this book being well received by ages 1, 3, 5 and 7 in my house.    

Tales of Robin Hood: Robin and the Silver Arrow

Author: Damian Harvey
Illustrator: Martin Remphry
Publisher: Franklin Watts, Hachette Children's Books, 2006, The Hopscotch Series

I've recently put a polite request in with our local library to please consider buying more of these Hopscotch Series of books as my boys (5  and 7, and increasingly so my 3 year old girl) absolutely love this collection. Over the past couple of years, we've borrowed and read the Tales of Robin Hood, the Stories of Sinbad the Sailor through this range, and some about legends or historical figures such as BloodAxe Eric, Blackbeard the Pirate, Sir Gwain and the Green Knight (Tales of King Arthur), Mary Seacole, Guy Fawkes to name a few. I imagine the true series range is huge, sadly our library and all the local libraries from which I also requested, have incomplete books in the series ( and we live in a big city for the UK). What a shame for all that the number of books obtainable from the Hopscotch series free in our libraries is sadly limited. Moreover, they don't seem to carry this series at my children's school either, which again, is a real travesty. Seems such a pity as this series makes reading rock! 

From an educational point of view, Hopscotch states it is 'specially designed to fit the requirements of the National Literacy Strategy, aiming to develop children's reading skills' and carries the 'series advisor Dr Barrie Wade, Professor of English in Education, University of Birmingham' . As I've stated before on my blog, I can't officially comment on the educational value of children's books I review, as I have no training at this age range, but whenever I finish reading a Hopscotch book, I always personally feel I've learnt something (mainly about a historical figure). 

In this title, Tales of Robin Hood: Robin and the Silver Arrow, there's a good mix of dialogue and narrative, enabling early readers to try out expression. The illustrations are a little fussy perhaps, but they are laid out pragmatically, allowing roughly three or four sentences  maximum per picture. The use of thought bubbles helps emerging readers follower the storyline, and place themselves in a authorative and knowledgeable position as storyteller. All the books I've read in this series follow the same very useful and purposeful logic. Themes and vocabulary coming out of this title, as an example, are: disguise, competition ( in relation to a tournament), the den and merry men (working together as a team and having friends). This pitch is again typical across the series. 

Using a very familiar folk legend, Robin Hood, children come to the text with some existing expectations. As an adventure story, they seek action-filled, but in way of critiquing this particular title, I would suggest that there are maybe too many characters introduced all at once: Robin, Will Scarlet, little John, Much the Miller's Son, and the Sherriff all in just 31 very short pages. Saying this, as the story is already familiar, this isn't too much of a problem; my two sons, early independent readers, get a real sense of statisfaction from being 'in the know' and feel confident and interested in reading this series themeselves as a consequence. Thumbs up to Hopscotch for #gettingboysreading! 

The Story of Titanic For Children

Author/ Editor: Joe Fullman and Alexandra Koken
Publisher: Carlton Books Ltd, 2015

It's always a joy to see a child with their arms around a book, having not been told to choose or find a book...though bedtime, with The Titanic (again!) When will Alf's obsession with this book end?
We've had 'The Story of Titanic For Children' for a good 18 months now, and I can safely say it's the boys' ( 7 years and 5 years) favourite non- fiction. The book is a sort of scrapbook encyclopaedia of The Titanic, from the building of, to the legacy of 'the unsinkable ship.' Each page is a colourful double page spread under a differing theme, such as 'loading', 'manning' , 'powering' et.al. Particularly interesting are the overviews on passenger social class and where this placed passengers in relation to the ship's quarters (and their likelihood of survival). 
It seems the secret to the success of this book ( with my children), besides this being a captivating, horrifying and real-life tragedy that simply fascinates, is the personalisation of the stor/ies and themes. Each page offers a photo or two and short paragraph on how individuals were associated with the Titanic and what fate had in store for them, so for example, in 'First Class' we read how The Countess of Rothes steered lifeboat 8 to safety, and became friends with Able Seaman Thomas Jones ever after. Alf's current favourite snippet of story is that of Eva Hart, who was a seven year old on board The Titanic, as he can relate to her, being seven himself. 

As you can see, the pages are laid out like a pin board with pin images in some of the pictures, this makes the arrangement of the page very inviting and novel, with photo excerpts interspliced with poster images and artefacts of that time. There's also little clues and suggestions as to who or what is to 'blame' for the sinking of The Titanic;  lookout boy Fredrich Fleet, whose binoculars were locked in a cupboard thanks to Second Officer David Blair being transferred to The Olympic? First Officer William Murdoch for taking evasive action and giving the order to turn the ship away from the iceberg, leaving it to hit side on rather than dead centre? Alf and Bert revel in this guessing game and opportunity to exercise their own opinion, they have even recreated the 'side on' 'straight on' impact using bubble icebergs and toy boats in the bath. 

Now don't get me wrong, this is a great book, but inevitably it's a morbid story of a tragic disaster. The page 'A Ship Destroyed' has a graphic image of dead men in the water, so maybe not suited to the more faint hearted. This sort of macabre and gruesome drama does seem though, to really appeal to children of 5years and upwards. So much so that Alf persistently bought this book into class for  'silent reading' for a lot of last year. After a good few months his teacher stopped me in the playground and politely requested I send Alf in with 'something less diaster based.' He agreed and scooted off upstairs to find a new 'independent reading book.' He came down a few minutes with 'Pompeii' !! 

I will leave you with a fantastic clip from a National Geographic documentry, that Alf and Bert have watched over and over again, helping them to support their theories and foundation knowledge obtained from this hugely recommended book: The Stroy of Titanic for Children. 

Titanic Sinking CGI Video: National Geographic

The Tale of the Tooth Fairy

Author: Helen East
Illustrator: Katinka Kew
Publisher: Macdonald Children's Books, 1989

Well it came to pass tonight, finally, that 5 year old Bert lost his front tooth. Off I skedaddled to the bookshelf to find this mainstay of our household tooth loosing experience - a fiction book about the origins of the tooth fairy. 
Yes indeed, the cover illustrations look a bit menacing, and the idea of a 'tooth gang master' called Justice Fang, who recruits trolls and ogres, goblins, witches and hard-up highwaymen to collect teeth in all manner of ways, is a tad on the fearsome side for bedtime, but giving substance to the tooth fairies actions and motivations is so worth it. 

The book tells the story of an average fairy with no remarkable attributes, so her fairy visitors name her 'Nothing'. However, Nothing amounts to so very much as she discovers her first pearly white tooth to take to Justice Fang, and gifts the sleeping child before her, with a bright new shiny coin. Nothing then revisits the child to find a note requesting she returns for the next tooth, and could she please visit and leave coins for the child's gappy-mouthed friends? Meanwhile the story-in-the-story tells of sceptical Jack, a boy who, like my son Bert, awaits the tooth fairy with many questions, such as, 'how can one fairy visit all the children in one night?' 
This is a magical read helping to 'inform' and so fuel the excitement of a tooth-loss evening. It's an old book, and possibly out of issue (I found it in a charity shop a few years ago) so it might be difficult to acquire. I would also suggest it is suitable for the over fives and not preschoolers, as the illustrations are just a bit too creepy to share with children any younger. The head-shot pictures in particular, show shallow, sunken faces, and they're very ghoulish and haunting. The 'baddies' in the book are depicted as plentiful, thriving and sinister. The story captures a sense of foreboding for poor doomed fairy Nothing, but there's an underdog-victor outcome, a message of hope. Children who like books about legends and myths will enjoy this; it's very macabre and in all, one of those books that lodges in the memory well, balancing on that fear/pleasure binary.  

The Little Mermaid

                                        

Illustrator: Alan Marks 
Retelling:  Katie Daynes
Publisher: Usborne, 2010


This is most certainly not a great version of the Hans Christian Andersen classic. Insipid watercolour illustrations, particularly the illustration of the witch ( really scary for younger readers), and it definitely doesn't have the Disney ending either. The mermaid in this version never regains her voice and disappears into the murky waves forever. There's much rosier versions of this tale, and although I'm usually up for honest and slightly dark children's literary reworkings, for the under sevens age range, expecting Disney, I don't recommend this version of the retelling. 

Usborne Young Readers: Stories of Dragons

Author: Christopher Rawson
Publisher: Usborne 

I remember having a version of this book with these same cartoony illustrations by Stephen Cartwright, as a child.  The series is designed 'for readers who have just started reading alone' but these are really interesting stories to be read out aloud to children too. Chapter 3 is especially engaging as it seems to be based on the story of the Lambton Worm. We 
happened to be in the vicinity of Penshaw Monument in Sunderland today, so reread the children chapter three 'The Wicked Worm' and then completed The National Trust Lambton Worm Walk https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/penshaw-monument/trails/penshaw-monument-easy-walk-4-lambton-worm.
 The well where Tom ( the boy) throws the worm away, it then grows into a huge teeth bearing wicked worm which attacks the villagers, is known locally as 'Ella's Well'. The children enjoyed bringing the story to life following the trail and seeing the real well and spot where 'Tom' went fishing. 
The book also contains short stories about Stan, a man who outwits dragons with brains rather than brawn, and Victor, a man who falls into a dragon's den and persuades them not to eat him. 
The book is the perfect read for 4-6 year olds, at which point it's an easy read from them to be tackling on their own. These are stories that really stay in the memory and spark the imagination and can be supported with an active walk - brilliant!