No Matter What

Author and Illustrator: Debi Gliori

Publisher: First published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1999, featured board book edition, 2005

No Matter What is the perfect reassuring read after a big blow out tantrum. It's a simple story; Small, an angry fox cub, is upset (bucket over the head, sat in a room in which the furniture is lopsided, in which Small took part in 'break and snap and bash and batter'. Small's parent / carer, Large, intervenes saying 'good grief, what is the matter?' Note that both Small and Large are non gender specified, so this isn't a 'mother and son' as sometimes billed in reviews, but might equally apply to dad and daughter, grandson and grandparent, foster carer and child, so applicable and useful to many contexts here. 

As the story unfolds, Small worries that nobody loves him/ her as she's/ he's 'grim and grumpy' and Large reassures him/ her persistently 'grumpy or not, I'll always love you no matter what.' Small then suggests a series of scenarios in which he / she might not be loved anymore, so for example, 'turning into a bug' and Large's reaction is always unfathomably a declaration of unconditional love and an act of physical love, so for example, she / he says 'I'll hug you close and tight, and tuck you up in bed each night.' As this dialogue of worry and doubt met by love and reassure goes on, the illustrations show Large calmly readying Small for bed, and fixing all the fall-out from the earlier tantrum. 

This is then, an truly ideal book for building attachment and trust with a child. It is a very useful, appropriate book to give adopters, and in turn for adopters and foster careers to read anxious children in early placement. As an adopter and birth parent myself, I use the book with all my children at times when they're showing signs of needing some reassurance, at times when they've had tantrums, broken something, upset the status quo in some way, to hammer home the message that these things happen, and unconditional love stands. For traumatised children, vulnerable children, of which adoptees often are, this book has such an important message, and says it clearly, repeatively, and frankly. At one point Small questions whether love can be broken and bent, and 'can you fix it, stick it, does it mend?' Large replies with honesty, 'oh help, I'm not that clever, I just know I'll love you forever.' Again, such sincerity, admitting to not knowing as the 'responsible adult' makes much sense in terms of approaching the past experiences of looked-after-children. A board book this may be, and I'm obviously approaching this book from a certain perspective, but No Matter What packs a huge punch; it fills a big void in preschool literature that speaks to and speaks out for looked after children.  

In terms of age range, there's a nice rhyme, a little clumsy in parts maybe, but being short, bright picture filled, it increasingly holds my toddler's attention. In terms of the message, I'm still reading this after a wobble and need of a hug with my seven year old, so No Matter What has a big span. This is a really delightful book that opens emotional dialogue like none other. Highly recommended! 

If you like books that promote discussion, you might also like: Harry and The Snow King

The Great Big Book of Families

Written by; Mary Hoffman

Illustrated by: Ros Asquith 

Publisher: Frances Lincoln Children's Books, 2010

This book offers a sound contribution to promoting representations of diversity in children's literature, particularly around the topic of families. The Great Big Book of Families depicts, for example, how different families live, what they wear, the pets they have, how they educate their children, the festivals they celebrate, and the holidays they take (including staying at home, which sums up nicely how very inclusive representations in this book are). It's an empathetic book, with the author, Mary Hoffman, clearly being keen not to make assumptions about life in families in contemporary Britian. I like the fact that the book doesn't try to make the saccharine conclusion of 'we're all different, but deep down all the same', like many of its contemporary titles. this book is out and proud in celebrating difference.     

                                             

The pen and watercolour cartoon-like illustrations (reminiscent of those by Laurence Anholt) offer depictions of people across a variety of  ages, ethnicity, abilities, having different religious affiliations, and being both many and few in number (those with lots of siblings, and extended family members, those being so called 'only children'). For our 'blended family' (I'm borrowing this term to describe our part birth and part adopted children loveliness!), this book is useful, helping us frame a dialogue with our kids about what we look like, how we're composed as a family. The book includes a representations of families with two mums, two dads, adoptive and foster families. There are also lots of representations throughout the book of interracial families / multi ethnic families, so again, The Great Big Book of Families could be incredibly helpful in opening many dialogues. 

The book hasn't had the greatest reception with my children though. It seems its useful, but overwhelming. The illustrations and layout of the pages are 'busy'; as with the page above, some nice depictions of 4-3 person families are distracted by additional stick-men border pictures. There's too much to see and too many ideas. Five pages in, my daughter, who will sit through very long children's books normally, get quite bored and frustrated with this book. Ironically, given it celebrates difference, she finds the catalogue/ categorising style narrative a little 'samey' saying latterly, 'it just about a lot of people all doing the same thing -standing about together.'  On other pages there's a lot of 'items' or themed artifices in the boarder, and again I think she finds this 'clutter of the page' a little over stimulating. 

A very positive aspect of the book are the many emotions the book explores, not only in the facial expressions of the pictures, but more explicitly in the last few pages of the book there's a nod to family members feeling differently from each other, disagreeing and even fighting, which again, might be very helpful to explore with little ones.
The gimmicky 'spot the cat' picture request on the book title page is again, distracting, and I think the opening page, which attempts to show children how representations of families have changed, goes beyond the point, and feels a bit self congratulating (in that the book attempts to redress this). On an aesthetic level, the type-font looks a bit cheap and spiky, and there are quantitatively  a lot of pictures in the book that include written labels within the illustration (see the family tree page for example). At first I thought the book might therefore me better aimed at my seven year old able reader, who could get more out of the pictures, but he complains that in this book, 'there really is no story.' I have seen non-fiction -fiction hybrids on blended families, captivate much better: Eddie's Tent and How to Go Camping by Sarah Garland for example, and a non fiction such as Kids by Catherine and Laurence Anholt, captivate on the basis of using rhyme. this book is on the whole then, a bit busy in look and a bit bland in address (ironic really?!), but as said above, does make a very welcome and timely response to representing contemporary family life in the UK.   

Stella Brings the Family

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. 

The Demon Headmaster

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!