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!
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
Authors: Lyn Wendon, Domenica de Rosa and Lisa Holt
Illustrations: Geri Livingston
( Based on characters originated by Lyn Wendon)
Publisher: Letterland International ltd, Cambridge, 2009: originally published in 1985
I bought this for Alf in his preschool year, before I knew about 'The Jolly Phonics' reading and writing scheme, that seems so widely rolled out in primary schools in the UK (disclaimer: I'm not a primary school teacher, so excuse my naivity here if this is not the case). I wanted to teach Alf 'letters' (I knew nothing of 'phonics' at this point) so recalled this book from my own preschool childhood. We read a few pages of this, from time to time, but
Alf wasn't really taken. Bert positively despised this book. He said it was 'boring' and there was 'no story'. I felt fairly ambivalent, with the exception of a few tweaks to the letter- character names (I swear 'Harry Hat Man' used to be 'Hairy Hat Man') I had remembered the book fairly well, and still found page after page of the book's rhetorical questions a bit frustrating: 'If you want to buy a hat, please ask Harry very quietly. Why? because he hates noise.' (Ah!)And then along came my daughter, Edie (3); she can't put this book down! I suppose this has taught me, children differ in their reading and learning interests and styles hugely, so alternatives to the standard or popular scheme of its day has a place.
Letterland features a letter per double page spread, with three small paragraphs of exposition. This description usually tells the reader about where the letter lives or what he/she does (so Harry Hat Man lives in a house with a hat on rather than a roof on top), any unusual features he/ she has or does when meeting another Letterland character or when
he/ she 'makes their sound', and finally the text offers explanation about the letter's capital form.
Interestingly, what Edie seems to like about the book the most, is indeed this fairly naff (sorry Letterland!) incredibly contrived ditty on each page, about how the capital letter is the lowercase version 'in disguise' or 'doing a trick'. Harry Hat Man for example, feels happy so 'does a handstand -with his hat on!' ( wince!) What Edie seems to like, and what, through my very limited exposure to Jolly Phonics, other schemes seem to lack, is letter shape and size information. The big black letters let her trace the shape of the letter with her hand (physical exploration), and she then searches for repetition of the letter both aurally (through naming the objects in the 'I spy' style page eg. 'hedgehog', 'hay' and 'horse' ) and visually, through searching the text for 'h' words. This multi-sensory package really seems to stimulate her interest, and she is now matching the letters across texts by laying out the double spread Letterland alphabet at the back of the book.
I'm not sure the letter characters are 'loveable' ( re-reading this as an adult) but they certainly are memorable. Edie especially likes the moody 'Quarrelsome Queen' and the idea of her taking 'Uppy Umberella' everywhere she goes.
The ritualistic, formulaic page layout for every letter, again really works for Edie (3), she loves the repetition: for an adult, being presented with this book over and over again this week, leaves you reading in a fairly trance like state! But like I say, returning to 'Latterland' might well still have a place.
Author: Alan Ahlberg
Illustrator: Janet Ahlberg
Publisher: First published by Viking 1981, published in Puffin Books 1983, Published in the edition featured 2004
It's National Storytelling Week and I'm all excited as I'm about to go into Edie (3) and George (1)'s nursery to read to the children. Now I know I only posted a book from The Ahlberg writing duo last week, but as 'Peepo' is one of my favourite books of all time, and will join in on my nursery reading adventure, it felt only just to feature it tonight.
I should make a disclaimer that 'Peepo' entered our house as a gift on the arrival of my second son, so it's tied up in a real personal joy for me, and despite myself I always feel teary when I read this book.
I think that beyond the personal sentiment the book brings a tear to my eye because it captures an era so beautifully, so wisely, that no other film nor book set in this wartime period does so well. This is the life of a baby, seen through the eyes of that baby (emphasised by the cut out 'vision circles' on every other page). This baby perceives itself as surrounded by family, two sisters, mum and dad and gran. This is kitchen-sink life on the homefront during the Second World War, not the more familiar depiction we associate with these times of trench warfare, battle, Blitz aftermath. For the baby it's an unremarkable time, just life, normal, everyday. The baby notices the little, incidental things like 'the hairnet his mother wears in bed', his 'sister squabbling, She wants him on her knee,' the 'tassel's on his grandma's shawl', 'his ball and his teddy'. In every illustration in this book there's a detailed
plethora, an archive of artefacts from the time. This book is a feast of nostalgia, a catalogue
of urban life in the family during the war, and strangely, as a child on the 1980s I remember
so much of the furniture, the household products, the items of that time, as my own postwar baby boom parents had inherited 'this stuff', these ways, this look. I remember my own great grandmother, the very image of this shawl clad, hat pin wearing grandma in Peepo.
Now the problem for my four, all they hear me say when I read this book is, 'look, mummy
had a bed like that when she was little', 'mummy had a coal shed and outside loo like that in
her house when she was a girl' (disclaimer: I grew up in a rural cottage so not all 1980s born parents will think like me on this one!) The children used to do well to listen to my ramblings fairly attentively, I think it was white noise to them really, they were too bewildered by the very busy detailed pictures, trying to spy the tiny 'incidental' (in the baby's eyes) image of the war planes on the 'park outing' page, but recently 7 year old Alf has started groaning, 'not this book that's all about you again !'... Fair point!
So why recommend this as a read and bring this one into a children's nursery? Because it
works on so many levels: this book is fun (our 1 year old just hear's the repetition of the word 'Peepo!' , it's moving (OK, more so for adults), it's educational (a history lesson in every sitting*), and the rhythm, cadences and rhyme in this book- sublime. It's lilting, song-like language; I find it so easy to read aloud and share with children. I think I'll always be so grateful that this book entered my life, the least I can do is pass it on.
*Bert (5) informs me that his class looked at the following page of Peepo this week to look at 'things in a kitchen', I was surprised myself by how much he identified, so how much of our lives are therefore the same and not so distant from this time.
