Author: Julia Donaldson
Illustrator: Anna Currey
Publisher: Macmillian's Children's Books, 2005
Here's a book with a great longevity; enjoyed from the age of 2 years to 7 years in our house. At 2 years, children enjoy the onomatopoeia in this book, with capitalised noisy words used to express the story; 'PATTER, PATTER! SQUEAK, SQUEAK!' At 3-5 year children start to understand that the hat in the story, is instrumental to all the characters, somewhere to hide for a mouse, used to build sandcastles for some boys, becoming a nest for some birds. From 5-7 years children enjoy the cyclical journey the hat makes, eventually being returned to its rightful owner, Rosie. From about four years children come to understand that Rosie ages and becomes the firefighter, and it's a lovely moment to talk about, this understanding of generation, moving on, growing up, but loved items from childhood, and memories, still being there. Julia Donaldson revisits this theme latterly with her beautifully sensitive book, Paper Dolls.
Anna Currey's watercolour and pen illustrations in Rosie's Hat are very soft and flowing; they capture the ebb of the wind and waves nicely, supporting the theme of 'coming and going'. I also like that Currey plays with the 'in/consequential', so for example, the seagulls eating the fisherman's lunch, Rosie and her parents in the background of the beach scenes searching for her hat and leaving the beach. The illustrations also use character consistency, the fisherman, for examaple, later returning to the beach with his grandchildren, taking the photo of Rosie and her hat, and her loaning her firefighter hat to a child, to again stimulate this pattern of coming and going.
This book reads aloud well, and its quiet in nature, soft and lilting, so very calming and gentle at bedtime. The story is also soothing; Rosie looses her hat accidentally, on a sudden fateful breeze, but is reunited fortuitously with her hat, though by this point she has grown and found her path in life, having her own firefighters hat. This, like in Paper Dolls, is a nice metaphor for many possible themes and opening for discussion with children, about bereavement, memories, loss, and simply moving forward after painful moments.
Author: Miriam B Schiffer
Illusrations: Holly Clifton-Brown
Published: 2015
'Stella Brings the Family' is a celebration of diversity in families. It captures the conversation of diversity in modern classrooms, wherein pupil Stella is pondering who she might invite to her class celebration for Mother's Day when she has no mum and two dads. The theme of difference or feeling different is approached so astutely in this book, with no homogeneity in sight; Stella's class is a multicultural milieu inter-spliced with single parents, extended families, same sex parents, and even a reference to working parents ( who can't make the celebration) thrown in there too.
This book feels very fresh; it's a proud celebration of all families and is mightly inclusive. Sadly, during the litmus test that are my children, my five year old boy informed me that 'the pictures say the book is for girls' (which makes me realise how important it is to read books about diversity!) but I believe he's basing this observation on familiarity with gendered conventions in children's literature, in that 'books for girls' (eek!) tend to illustrate attractive people, and 'boy books' (argh!) generally play more on illustrating boogies, gore and the grotesque. Yes, admittedly, while the families are all diverse in some respects, they're all still beautiful and easy on the eye, smiling away and with great hair and fashion sense. Maybe 'Stella brings the family' is a a tiny bit too sickly sweet in parts then, ironic given that the overall message of the book strives to undercut gender norms, in that, when Stella is questioned by the other children as to who performs the roles 'of a mum' in her family, it's self explanatory for her that those roles are undertaken by a dad.
The book does make a very important contribution though- it's really warming to see a children's book suitable for the preschool age represent a range of families, both in terms of ethnicity and dynamics. The narrative is very understated; there could have been a lot of unnecessary dialogue about how Stella and her friends came to be in their families but it's all implied and ripe for discussion with parents. It's a useful book for biological, foster, adoptive and blended families in that sense, and I especially like that the book closes on light quip, in that now the child with two mums is having to think who she might take to Father's Day. Stella of course, decided to invite everyone.
Author: Gillian Cross
Publisher: Oxford University Press, first published 1982, this edition 2009
So after we finished 'All at Sea' from the The Worst Witch Series last week (The Worst Witch Series Review) I started to think what other CBBC series from my childhood I'd love to see remade and re-run. Now the 1997 version of The Demon Headmaster, that was scary! BBC Demon Headmaster. As a child I was fortunate enough to have read the books before seeing the series, and if there's any literary gift that you can bequeath upon your child, I'm telling you, it's exposing them to this concept of 'The Demon Headmaster' in print form first, only that way do you really feel and build up the full force of the eerie, controlling
headmaster.
Alf (7) is usually slow to fully absorb in a new chapter book, and this edition of 'The Demon Headmaster' (a tatty library copy) has no illustrations other than the cover page. We're now six chapters in and he's fully sold, in fact he's coming to some interesting conclusions about teachers at his own school. I've been surprised as to how well he understands and follows this; he guessed that lead character Dinah Glass was being hynoptised by the swirling green eyes of her new headteacher. He was also able to speculate what the pin prick on Dinah's finger at the close of chapter three might be (a blood test to see if she's immune to the Demon Headmaster's control, we thought). I had forgotten the subplot about Dinah being fostered by Mrs Hunter, which when you read as an adult, or older child I imagine, adds a whole new level to this book. In fact it offers a whole new layer of extra relevance and emotional depth as you start to release Dinah's fears, anxieties, behaviours are tied into
her attachment issues and transition as a foster child, and are somewhat ironically the saviour of her from the clutches of The Demon Headmaster (a parallel to her chaotic birth home perhaps).
This is a really exciting, challenging book to be sharing with Alf. It's opening up a lot of
dialogue for us about how he finds school, about conformity, authority, not questioning the
status quo. (This might be taken further when he's older as a way of introducing ideologies such as individualism and communism). We're also talking a lot about how Dinah feels and why she acts a certain way in this book. Gillian Cross is very deliberate in opening up this invitation to psychology, and I hadn't appreciated until this revisit how useful this book might be, both in the classroom and at home, in terms of opening up this discussion about how people might think and act differently owed to varied reasons and influences.
This only leaves me to say #BringBackTheDemonHeadmaster!
