Nine picture books both my children love

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My husband and I have enjoyed reading picture books to our children since they were very little. My daughter took to the idea quickly, whilst it took my son a little longer to get the idea. However, I realised recently that both my children have always been quite particular about which books they liked. I didn’t initially notice this about my daughter, as her favourite books as a young child were the kind of stories that have plenty more to explore as you get older. With my son we learnt early on that there is a ‘right time’ for some stories, when Wendel and the Robot’s by Chris Riddell sat ignored on his bookshelf for over a year and then became his favourite book for the next 2 years! My kids are now aged 6 and 9 years. I take particular note of any picture books that fully engage both of them, as it takes a special kind of book to do that. Here are 9 of our favourites, All are great for reading aloud to children of different ages.

  I Took the Moon for a Walk Carolyn Curtis Illustrator Alison Jay

The rhyming text, and the story of a child taking the moon for a walk make this a real winner. Put, that together with Alison Jay’s picture which are both bold and detailed and you have a story which is truly special. It is a story that flows beautifully, but where there is also lot’s to spot and look at in the pictures. It is one of our favourite of all time picture books, and has probably helped foster my children’s love of the outdoors.

Great for children aged 1 to 6 years

     Creaturepedia by Adrienne Barman

This is a beautifully illustrated animal encyclopaedia for younger children. What set’s it apart from other encyclopaedia’s is the innovative way it organises the Animal Kingdom, and the way it uses both pictures and words in it’s content pages. This means the very young can select which animals they want to learn about by looking at the pictures. The stunning illustrations, clear and concise text and fun way of organising the animals also make this appeal to older children too. My children love taking it turns to choose which group of animals they would like to find out about.

   No-Bot by Sue Hendra

This is a simple story. It is about a Robot that looses his bottom and spends the rest of the story trying to find it. There is something endearing about a main character loosing his bottom on a park swing, and it is really amusing when he keeps thinking he has found it!  Sue Hendra beautifully captures the emotions of the Robot and his friends that are trying to help him find his bottom.

       

The Day the Crayons Came Home, author Drew Daywalt, illustrator Oliver Jeffers

We love the Day the Crayons quit, but we love the sequel even more! It is great to have the story of the crayons continued and developed in book 2. I think this is one of the things my eldest really relates too. The stories are based on the great idea of a set of crayons which write letters or postcards to their owner Duncan. The story cleverly captures the emotions of the crayons and there are also different levels on which to relate to the story, which make it a great read aloud for children of different ages. On the last page there is a cardboard fort which Duncan has built for his crayons. My kids love identifying the different crayons and working out why they are shown like that and/or if their needs have been met. On one occasion it even inspired my children to make their own crayon forts!

     

Mr Postman’s Rounds by Marianne Dubuc

I only discovered this book because of the research I was doing into picture books as an indepedent seller of children’s books. I am so glad I did, as it’s such a unique book. The journey narrative is really important in keeping the listeners interested. We have had fun trying to remember which animal the postman is visiting next. The illustrations are great and provide plenty of detail to look at, talk about and things to count. We especially like that the animals homes are drawn as cross sections, and that you can make connections within the picture, whether it’s how the    bear get’s to feed himself honey, how the crocodile heats his eggs or that the Magpie is a wanted bird for something that he is has hoarded in his nest. This is the additional story that only the pictures tell.

 

Edgar and the Sausage Inspector by Jan Fearnley

This is one of our new favourites which was published earlier this year, and which both my children love. Jan Fearnley is both author and illustrator. The story is about a cat called Edgar who every time he goes shopping bumps into the Inspector, who takes Edgar’s food claiming it has gone bad. Finally Edgar has had enough and it is great when he stands up to the Inspector. With a modern day freshness the illustrations capture the same magic as my daughters favourite stories as a young child by Clare Beaton and Alison Jay, but in a story that is aimed at older children. Jan Fearnley creates pictures that are bold and eye catching and which capture the journey and narrative well, and that have lots of detail to explore too. Including lot’s of food you want to pick right off the page!

 

 

Superworm by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler

This is a wonderful catchy, rhyming story, which is the kind of story Julia Donaldson is popular for. It is about a worm who helps all his fellow insects, but one day he is captured by an evil wizard and his friends come up with a plan to rescue him. Axel Scheffler’s illustrations are spot on and brilliantly capture the worm and his relationship with the other insects. We especially like the cross-section picture of the worm underground trying to find treasure for the wizard. The way Superworm is rescued by his friends is pretty cool too! My son has been crazy about all things recycling since he was 3 years old, So for him the fact that the wizard is thrown in a rubbish dump is a great addition to the story and he loves identifying the different things you can find in the tip.

  

Mr Bunny’s Chocolate Factory by Elys Dolan

Another new favourite which was published this year, is by talented debut author and illustrator Elys Dolan. This story is based on such a great idea of a factory run by Mr Bunny, which produces chocolate egg’s that are laid by chickens. The detailed pictures of how the factory actually works really grabbed my kids attention.They love working out how the different parts are interconnected and what is about to go wrong. In the story Mr Bunny get’s greedy and makes some not so wise changes to produce even more eggs. This provides a great double layer to the story, of before and after, where my kids love comparing the two. It also prompted them to suggest some solutions of their own of what the chickens could do to deal with the increasing stock pile of eggs. I have a feeling we will be enjoying this book for many more years to come.

  Strega Nona by Tomie de Paola

This beautifully illustrated story is an Italian twist on the traditional story of the Magic Porridge Pot, which is also one of my son’s favourite stories. Strega Nona, translates as “Grandma Witch’. The story is about an old woman who has a magic touch in healing people. One day she decides to go over the mountain to visit her friend and leaves her helper a young lad called Big Anthony in charge. He can not resist using Strega Nona’s magic pot, which magically produces something. Can you guess (what are the Italians famous for?) Spaghetti of course! However Anthony fails to overhear what Strega Nona does to stops the magic pot. Both my kids love it when the spaghetti starts to spread out of the pot and down the road of the village! Strega Nona arrives back in the nick of time. Some of the pages have beautifully illustrated sequences that help tell the story. As we have Italian relatives we also like that this tale sneeks in a few Italian words.

 

Making connections: the importance of live author events in keeping that spark alive and in ‘opening doors’.

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In May 2016 we discovered almost be accident how great live author events can be in keeping the enthusiasm for stories alive and in ‘opening the door’ to future books a child might like to read. Last Summer, my daughter had read the four Hetty Feather stories and the follow on Little Stars (which could be read as a stand alone) by Jacqueline Wilson. For the second time in a year she caught me by surprise when she said:

“I don’t know what to read next and I don’t think I will ever find another author who I like as much as Jacqueline Wilson’s Hetty Feather stories”.

Even for adults moving on from a book or series you have loved is hard. So imagine how much harder that is for children near the beginning of their independent reading journeys. As I have chatted to parents over the following year I was surprised how many mentioned difficulties their children had in moving on from an author or series they loved to another author or book. This was both girls and boys and wasn’t just restricted to younger children. This included 10 and 11 year olds too. For some, difficulties in finding the next read, seemed to coincide with a period of ‘transition’ in their lives, where they were looking for something different to what they had read before. One important thing I have learnt is that it is not automatic that just because a child finds one author or series they love that they will find their next read. So how can we help bridge that gap? We discovered that one very effective way to do this is through live author events.

In May 2016 we went to the Linton Book Festival, a bi-annual Children’s Book Festival, kindly hosted by Linton Village College, near Cambridge. We saw S F Said, Jame Mayhew and James Campbell. They were all inspiring and meeting ‘real’ authors was exciting. Their enthusiasm and that of others attending the event was infectious. This is an important point, as I think we sometimes forget how socially embedded literacy is. My daughter was fascinated to learn how authors got inspiration for their stories and how this often involved an emotional spark from something which happened in their own lives. Hearing their stories about how they got into writing inspired her to start her own diary, which she is still writing a year on.

I chose S F Said’s talk because I wanted to see him, as I knew his books were interesting and I knew from following him on twitter, and friends that had heard him speak that he was an inspiring speaker. As it turned out taking my daughter along to a talk she probably would not have chosen herself turned out to be a good idea. S F Said talked about his books Varjak Paw and Phoenix. It was the later that really got her attention. She was drawn in by Dave Mckean’s wonderful illustrations. Afterwards she said it was a book she would like to read when she is older. Having a list of books to read later, seemed a new and useful idea. I also realised later, that it had opened her eyes to the science fiction genre and re-opened them to fantasy, which in turn helped to ‘open the door’ to some books she chose to read in 2017.

The final event of the Festival was a family performance by James Campbell, a comedian and children’s author. He certainly knows how to put on a show which was funny for both children and their parents. So of course my daughter wanted to buy his story: Boyface and the Quantum Chromatic Disruption Machine and get it signed too! Reading Boyface she re-discovered she liked funny stories. She loved Roald Dahl stories but, she hadn’t had much success with finding other humorous stories she liked. In some the plot was in her words “confusing”, or “there wasn’t really a plot “. She had rejected David Williams, who was popular with some of her friends after she was scared by the Demon Dentist. So, discovering the story Boyface opened up a world of new possibilities of books she might like. As the year progressed I read more children’s stories for myself. I began to realise there are different sorts of ‘funny stories’ and only some contain key elements like those found in Roald Dahl’s book’s. Boyface is on the more ‘funny’ end of the spectrum, but with some quirky characteristics which make it a little bit different and I think more likely to appeal to older readers.

In September 2016 we attended a book launch in Mid-Wales. At this point my daughter was experiencing a ‘dip’ in her reading. Having had an active summer, including travelling on a train to Italy, she had not done much reading in the holidays. Another factor was she again did not know what to read next. So how you might you ask did we end up going all the way to Wales for a book launch? Earlier that year I discovered the small but growing Welsh publisher Firefly Press and had been so impressed by their stories, especially the ones aimed at 7 to 10 year olds that I had decided to stock them as part of my selection of chapter books in my business Readers that Care. I had read aloud Dottie Blanket and the Hill top by Wendy Meddour to my then 5 and 7 year old. And they and I loved it. They both enjoyed the humour and my daughter loved the ‘subtle depths’, which transformed it into a thoughtful story that readers of different ages can enjoy.

So we were delighted to learn about a soon to be published Firefly Press book: Grace Ella Spells for Beginners by Sharon Marie Jones. We often go away for a weekend in September where there are hills and mountains, so when we heard Grace Ella was being launched in a bookshop in Aberystwyth we decide to go and meet the author. At the launch Sharon Marie Jones read some of the story aloud, which we all loved and the kids loved getting free cake too! As a parent I found it useful to hear an author telling the story and the different voices she used for the characters, which helped me to read the story aloud to my kids when we were back home. It was a really welcoming event, which was great to be able to join. We loved reading Grace Ella together, the characterisation was spot on, my son loved that it featured a cat(he is cat crazy) my daughter loved the magic and that Grace Ella found an inventive way to deal with a girl that was bullying her. We had discovered another read aloud, which was great to read to children of different ages. My daughter enjoyed it so much she said: “Is there another Grace Ella story?” The enthusiasm we got from attending this event lasted long into the Autumn term.

Something else really important happened with these events and that was that we discovered we enjoyed going to live author events as a family. There have been more since, but, I shall not mention them here. Because those first two events we attended will always have a special place in our hearts for being the events that got us started. As attending live author events as a family is something we will do as a family at least several times a year, this year, next year and every year there after. And I think it highly likely we will still be doing this when my kids are teenagers!

Just Call me Spaghetti Hoop Boy by Lara Williamson

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I discovered Lara Williamson thanks to the wonderful praise of her by my twitter friend Jo. When I looked into Lara Williamson’s books a bit more I discovered she had a reputation for delivering ‘heart felt’ family stories, which I have discovered this year is one kind of children’s story I love to read. I used ‘heart felt’ to describe a story where the main character or characters go on an emotional journey through the story and where they learn something about themselves and others and what is important to them. It takes talent to tell this kind of story well and Lara Williamson has plenty of it. What is great about this story is it is also really funny.

A book with a superhero on the front would not have normally been my first choice of read. I chose this particular story of Lara Williamson’s as it was @kidlitreaders book of the month. The superhero on the front will encourage some children to pick this book up. For some it may also introduce them to a story which is different from what they have read before, and it’s always great when that happens. I tested out some book covers for 8 to 14 years fiction on my daughter (who is nearly 9) I showed her a sheet with 30 book covers and asked her to pick on the basis of the cover which books she would most like to read. She chose 6, one of which was ‘Just Call me Spaghetti Hoop Boy’. Yet this is the same child that has never been the slightest bit interested in superhero’s! So I think the Usbourne books have done very well with the cover design to make it appealing to a variety of children.

The story is about a boy called Adam who was adopted as a baby and is living happily with his family until one day they are asked to do a family tree project at school and he starts to wonder what his birth mum is like, and realised he wants to know who she is. As the story starts to unfold he is also worried about his adopted (‘real’ mum) because she keeps crying and he doesn’t know why. Then Adam thinks that if only he can become a Superhero everything will be alright his ‘real’ mum will stop being sad and his birth mum will be proud of him (if he can find her first). Lara Williamson cleverly manages to put you inside Adam’s head, so you can understand why he acts as he does.

My favourite character is Tiny Eric, a Polish boy in Adam’s class, and his best friend. I loved how Eric tried to get Adam to believe by drawing a picture of a four leaf clover. Eric has his own family problems, but these were only hinted at, because you only got to meet him when he was with Adam. For the readers to see Tiny Eric mainly from Adam’s perspective is a very clever idea.

Another great character is ‘sausage roll’ the imaginary dog of Adam’s 6 year old sister Velvet. Early in the story we are introduced to Velvet’s imaginary friend, whilst she is chatting to her brother:

“ Because Mum tells me he likes to make people happy.

He’s a special dog. He’s staying here for a while to make us all smile and then he’s going to leave us” p77

I loved how when towards the end everything in Adam’s life hit crisis point, ‘sausage roll’ comes to the rescue, and then helps the reader to understand the journey that Adam has been on.

Aside from the heartwarming central narrative of Adam’s journey of self-discovery, supported by his friend Tiny Eric, there is so much more to like about this book. There is plenty to laugh out loud at too. Some examples are: The time when Adam tries to be a superhero by deciding to rescue a cat (that doesn’t need rescuing) and then gets stuck in a tree himself! When Adam and Eric whizz down a hill in Wheelie bin (my son is going to love that bit one day). Lara Williamson’s distinctive writing style brings to life places/locations and whilst also conveying the emotions the character are feeling. Some examples:

At home:
“The Monday morning after half-term runs like a sneaky villain you’re trying to avoid – bleak and grey and full of misery” p32

At the Swimming pool:
“A soft drizzle begins to fall and covers me in a damp cobweb. The windows are steamy and a few people come out, there hair in wet ribbons, and they’re laughing as if they don’t have a care in the world.” p162

“The reception is the colour of mint chocolate-chip ice cream” p175

Just Call me Spaghetti Hoop Boy is a heartwarming story of personal discovery, friendship, family and discovering what ‘being home’ truly means. I would highly recommend for reading alone from age 9 years and above. It could also make a great read aloud for slightly younger children.

Reading for pleasure: becoming a reader for pleasure is a dynamic process with ups and downs

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One of the wonderful things about being a parent is seeing your children grow in confidence, you don’t always notice the small changes, but when all those small changes add up to a bigger change you do. One of the things my nearly 9 year old has grown in confidence in is her reading. This includes her confidence that she will find another book she likes and her increasing ability to accurately choose books she does like. Both are essential skills in reading for pleasure: a belief that there are stories out there you will love and, the ability to find them. It has been a two year journey to get to where she is now. It is only as she moves into a new phase in her reading that I realise just how far we have come. I say we, because in parallel to her journey I have re-discovered a love of fiction, after reading mainly non-fiction for 10 years. I have discovered I much prefer reading children’s fiction, to adult fiction, and that I especially like middle grade fiction!

My daughter and I have, over the last two years, both become readers. We have discovered authors we had never heard of two years ago, and that there is so much more variety in children’s chapter book fiction than we could have possibly imagined. Yet, what is interesting is that until a month ago, there weren’t any books I had read or suggested to her that she had picked up and read. We have read different middle grade stories.

As an indepedent bookseller I was initially interested in reading children’s books, so I could tell my customers about them. But, then I quickly realised I was picking stories out of my selections that I really wanted to read. Through becoming a reader myself I have a new understanding of what it takes to become a child  who wants to read. Most importantly I realise that becoming a person who wants to read is not a linear journey. It is instead a dynamic process with up and downs. I have also discovered that there a multiple routes to becoming a reader, and for many children (adults) this is something that has to be worked at.

It was about two years ago this month, that my daughter discovered the first book she loved reading for herself. That story was Hetty Feather by Jacqueline Wilson, and was very important in getting her reading. You can read about it in my blog post. However, as we were to discover that was just the start of her journey towards reading for pleasure. Along the way there are many things and people that have helped. My decision last May to book us into our first live author events at the Linton Book Festival was one of them, and I will be talking about this in my next blog post. We hope that by sharing some of the things that helped us, that more people will realise there are many ways to becoming a reader and that you may find out something that will help a child you know, in their journey to becoming a reader.

Ammuchi Puchi by Shranaya Manivannan and illustrated by Nerina Canzi

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The subject of grief in a picture book can be a tricky one, as there is an assumption amongst some parents that a picture book should have a ‘happy story’. However, a children’s story about grief and loss told well is a valuable resource for all. In this story told by Sharanya Manivannan you get both an insight into Indian culture and beliefs and a well balanced story about two children coming to terms with the loss of their grandmother. The stunning illustrations by Nerina Canzi are vibrant and detailed and bring to life the richness of India as well as helping to effectively convey feeling and emotions, such as sadness, loss and hope which are universal to people of many culture and backgrounds.

I love that the story begins with the children playing with their grandmother, and then it talks about how this changes as they grow up. For some when dealing with grief it can be important to remember the good times with a loved one, but adults are sometimes afraid to talk about them for the fear of upsetting someone. The feelings and emotions of playing with Ammuchi are beautifully captured in the illustrations. The page pictured below left is my 6 year old son’s favourite page in the story, he especially likes the Mangos (he loves fruit).

   

The day that their grandma dies, is the only grey picture in the book, and contrasts with the vibrant colours of the other pages. This is really effective in conveying feeling. I really like how, as the story unfolds, it acknowledges that both parents and children can be sad, and it is possible to be both happy and sad at the same time.

After their grandmother died the children find a butterfly. It is like the one on a brooch that Anjali was given for her seventh birthday. Her older broth Aditya explains to his class:

“Ammuchi is our grandmother, puchi is an insect. Ammuchi Puchi is an insect who is our grandmother.”

This butterfly then follows them around wherever they go. There are several ways that this can be interpreted and children will understand it in different ways. This is one of the clever things about the story, there are many levels to it, so children (and adults) will take different things from it.

As the children get used to life without Ammuchi the story sensitively portrays their feelings of sadness and loss. Whilst also offering hope through it’s belief that if given space and support children can find their own way through. It also ends with hope, when one rainy day the children are stuck in doors, the butterfly leads them to what was once their grandmother’s room, which is now full of her possessions. Then they find a very special object which helps the children and adults share their grief and offers hope for the future.

One note of caution; there is a lot going on in this book in both the writing and pictures. In some ways the grief and loss of the two children is the easiest part to grasp. But, for the observant child there is a lot more to get their head’s around. This may lead to mixed emotions for some children. I see this as a good thing as in life it’s not always easy to separate one emotion from the other. The many cultural layers of the book give the opportunity to be culturally specific if you choose. Some children may need further explanation of parts of the story, this will depend on the age of the child, their experiences and cultural background. For example both my children were uncomfortable about the picture of the grandmother in the garden on the second page, where she has her lips stained with betelnut juice. I feel this story would be best read one to one or in a small group. I would recommend it for children aged 6/7+. Although it may be more suited to slightly older children.

This book was kindly donated by the Lantana Publishing, a company committed to producing diverse and multicultural picture books. The pictures in the story give a very strong sense of India. The story sensitively portrays the children’s journey of sadness and loss and effectively conveys the idea of a person (or their spirit) coming back as another living thing, which many may find useful

You can find some fabulous teacher resources by Lantana Publishing on their website

The book is available to buy from me at Readers that Care for £7.99 including postage  ( mainland United Kingdom only)

 

 

Exploring immigrant children’s experiences in Britain through comparing two fictional stories.

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The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan 12+ years
Nadine Dreams of Home by Bernard Ashley 8+ years (reading age 7)

 

This is the fourth and final post of my global empathy posts focusing on stories that could help to build an understanding of immigrants, immigration and our global connections. I consider two stories of children’s experiences shortly after they arrived in Britain. Kasienka is a 13 year old from Poland. Nadine (primary school age) has fled from Goma. It struck me that the setting in Britain may make it easier for children to identify with them.

The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan is a story written as a set of poems. I found this very powerful, particularly at communicating feelings and emotion. Nadine Dreams of Home by Bernard Ashley is one of Barrington Stokes shorter reads for 8 to 12 year olds. I love Barrington Stokes commitment to producing ‘super readable’ books with tinted page, clear readable fonts, and text levels set to certain reading ages. But, stories like Nadine Dreams of Home are so great that they should be shared. Both, stories deserve a place in every library (including in the adult section!). I nearly compared another book with Sarah Cossan’s story. But, when I read Bernard Ashley’s story I realized that the two books would be great together. It fascinated me how I immediately started looking for similarities between the two girls lives and how by doing so I felt I understood each one better. Each girl’s story enhanced the other. I will now highlight some of the similarities.

Firstly, both girls arrive in Britain, with their mum, but without their fathers, which as they express in their own words meant ‘their families were incomplete’. Kasienka came to England with her mum from Poland, looking for her missing father. Nadine, her mum and brother left war torn Goma (in the Congo) leaving her father behind in the hands of the rebels. Both authors have managed to convey  well the emotions and feelings of each child as they grapple with a new school, new life and new country.

Secondly, both children struggle at first with understanding their new language of English. I love how this is captured in the poem of Kasienka’s First Day:

“So what’s your name dear? Mrs Warren asks,

And I’m glad because I was afraid she had mistaken

Me for someone called Dear,

And that I would have to

Respond to that name

For ever. “

p10 The Weight of Water Sarah Crossan

Thirdly, it is interesting how technology is brought into each story, and used to resolve some of their issues. Kasienka’s mum uses a computer to search for her missing husband. Nadine’s classmate helps her to find a picture of her beloved Goma on a computer in the library. Then memories come flooding back of what she has left and her concerns for her father’s safety.

“In front of Nadine was a page of unreadable writing, but what grabbed her eye was a picture. A picture she knew.

A picture of Goma! There was no mistaking it – a scene of banana trees by Lake Kiviu and, in the background, the great Cow Herd mountain. “

p17-18 Nadine Dreams of Home: Bernard Ashley

Fourthly, both girls find ways to deal with their unfamiliar worlds and the emotions and uncertainties in their lives. For Nadine it is the safe haven of the weekly trip to the library, where she can view a picture of Goma, which helps her to feel connected to what she has lost. For Kasienka through swimming, she’s connected to her past (her daddy taught her to Swim) and it also gives her hope. Through swimming she makes a new friend, who becomes her boyfriend, and it’s also a way for her to release her emotions.

It is really powerful how many of Kaienka’s and Nadine’s experiences are similar to other children. In fact some British children will identify much in common. Themes include: finding your way around a new school, being misunderstood, bullies and bullying, absent or distracted parents, and that realisation that no matter how bad things get there are ways forward and people to help.

There is plenty for discussion in looking at what is the same and what is different. A key difference is Kasienka and her family are immigrants and Nadine is a refugee. In Brexit Britain, where children are receiving a lot of mixed messages both stories could be really valuable in building empathy and understanding.

Whilst writing this I noticed a blog post  by That Boy Can Teach @thatboycanteach  In which he and the book he referred to Reading Reconsidered (1) talked about the value of paired text’s. In this context they were talking about the concept of ‘embedding non-fiction’ by paring a non fiction book with a fiction book (2) Benefits of doing this include: helping to provide context and build understanding, and that what you absorb from both texts goes up. In conclusion to his post he points out:

“Pairing two fiction texts can be powerful in many ways as mentioned above, particularly if both stories are based on true events.” (2)

Which I found was very much the case in reading these two stories, which are fictional but based on real children’s experiences.

* (1)  Reading Reconsidered: A practical guide to rigorous reading instruction by Lemov, Driggs, Woolway: 2016.

*(2) ‘Teaching Reading: Pairing Non-Fiction with Fiction’ on the http://thatboycanteach.blogspot.co.uk

Please note: Sarah Crossan’s book is a young adult title and therefore may not be appropriate to use in a primary classroom. However, I think children aged 10 year and above would really appreciate much of the story and the language too. One way round this would be to use some of the poems, which could work provided they were kept in sequential order.

The 3 books, that got me an adult reading children’s fiction

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The books:
The MockingJay (The Hunger Games Book 3) by Susan Collins
The Boy with the Bronze Axe by Kathleen Fidler
The Book of Learning (Nine Lives Trilogy Book1) by ER Murray

When I picked up the Hunger Games trilogy 18months ago I didn’t know it would be the beginning of a fantastic reading journey. In my twenties I read some children’s fiction and especially loved Philip Pullman’s Dark Materials. In the next decade I read a small number of adult novels, but mainly I read non-fiction some for professional qualifications and training and some of my own choosing. I especially enjoyed books that linked different ideas together. Yet, with a few exceptions when it came to adult fiction I struggled to find anything I wanted to read, most were too long and when I looked on the back they seemed to be the predictable: family saga, cheating or double dealing, and a bit too dark. There are some parallels with my daughters experience of starting to read independently, where in her words the books she picked up were “boring or had no plot”. Then she found Hetty Feather, by Jacqueline Wilson. The first book she had chosen that she actually wanted to read. You can read about her journey in another post. These experiences along with conversations with my customers as an indepedent bookseller have led me to wonder:
“Do we take it for granted that once an adult or child has found a few stories they love they we will automatically find another book they want to read?”
For some, including those that would consider themselves ‘readers’, this is not the case. How often as adults do we stop to think about what it was that kept us reading a book? In this blog I explore 3 fantastic stories, which really got my attention, changed my understanding of what I like to read, got me reading again and opened the door to more books.

I chose these books because I wanted to read them as an adult reader, not because I wanted to find out if they would interest my children or other people’s children. When reflecting on what made me pick up each book it struck me how accidental my discovery of them was! I bought the Hunger Games trilogy by Susan Collins when buying some books for my children as it caught my eye. I discovered the Boy with the Bronze Axe by Kathleen Fidler, whilst exploring the publishers websites for books I could potentially stock. I have always been interested in history and we were about to go on a family holiday to another ancient settlement in Scotland. I first learnt about E R Murray on Twitter because of her proactive contribution’s to the #CoverKidsBooks campaign. When I saw the front cover the name intrigued me, and so did the fact that Ebony had a rat. But it was the picture of the girl with long flowing hair on a motor bike that did it! So it was a series of coincidences that led me to pick up each of the books, which I am extremely glad I did! This poses some interesting questions about whether children (and adults) are being exposed to enough variety on a regular basis, so that they can discover their next read.

The main character in The MockingJay is Katniss Everdeen. We join her in book three of the trilogy. Where she has survived not one, but two Hunger Games. At the opening chapter her District 12 companion of two games is missing, presumed dead. This book in one sense is how Katniss Everdeen makes sense of all the awful things that have happened to her and find a way forward, along with the other characters who have been on that journey with her. Her journey to get to this point has been horrific and brutal and there are some pretty horrid things that happen in this book too. Yet as an adult friend of mine that has also read the trilogy said “ it manages to stay on just the right side of Ok.”

The Boy with the Bronze Axe, is set more than 2,000 year ago in the Stone Age Village of Skara Brae, on what is the modern day Orkney. It is about a girl called Kali and a boy called Tenko ‘from across the sea.’. The introduction of a stranger is a beautiful way for the reader to understand what life was like many thousands of years ago. With the added tension that from the beginning you know that the village is going to submerged by a storm toward the end but you do not know who if anybody will survive. Of the three books, on the surface this is a much simpler story, with fewer characters and a more local scale, yet at the same time it has some very powerful messages.

The Book of Learning, is about a girl called Ebony and her pet rat. She looses her grandfather at the start of the story and then moves from the countryside to the city of Dublin. Here she discovers an Aunt she didn’t know existed and that Ebony is part of a Secret Order of the Nine Lives, which amongst other things believe their souls are reincarnated. She is the reluctant heroine who at first doesn’t want to know but then curiosity get’s the better off her. E R Murray aptly describes it as “Urban fantasy”. One of several highly talented authors bringing a ‘realism’ to fantasy which I believe is highly relevant to the twenty first century.

The 3 book in many respects are very different from each other. Despite this they do have some things in common in the way they are written and their wider messages. Which I shall explore next, along with some of the things that make the stories unique.

For all 3 books the characterisation was great and the descriptive language was superb. For me both of these are pretty crucial in getting me interested in a story. When it comes to detailed descriptive language that makes you feel like you are actually there Kathleen Fidler accomplishes this brilliantly, and for me has set a bench mark by which others are measured! Another magic quality of the boy withe the Bronze Axe is the strong connection with the land and how central this is to the story too. When I stopped to think about it that later is something that both Susan Cooper and E R Murray do in a different way too. For them it is about the contrast between worlds. In the Book of Learning it is how different the city is to Ebony’s grandpa’s costal cottage by the sea where she grew up. In MockingJay there is the hunting in the forest, and a reminder of the ‘natural world’ emerging from the ruins of the Districts. What the 3 main characters from each book share is they are female, adventurous, strong-minded and love spending time outdoors. That is beginning to sound a lot like me, no wonder I love these stories!

Despite the extraordinary imaginary worlds created its is striking how well all there authors tell the ordinary. From the canteen many floors below the earth’s surface in District 13, to the mad going’s on in the kitchen at 23 Mercury Lane, to sitting round the fire eating in the stone age village of Skara Brae. All 3 authors conjure up very well what their characters are eating and drinking and use all our sense to do this. This brings a realism to the the stories which adds to the feeling that you are actually there. In describing what their characters wear and eat, what they touch, or smell they convey emotions which also turn these ordinary events into something else.

Susan Collins and Kathleen Fidler’s stories are fast paced throughout, usually important to keeping me interested in a story. That was until I read the Book of Learning . This is an intriguing mixture of the other two books but with it’s own uniqueness too. I immediately warmed to Ebony Smart and with the excellent scene setting, descriptive language and shorter chapters I was taken straight into the story. But, then in the middle of the story the pace slows down, before speeding up with lots of exciting twists and turns. There were many magical things about this story that kept me reading. It wasn’t until after I had watched Andrew Marr’s programme on fantasy stories that I understood what some of them are. What is intriguing is when I first started reading the Book of Learning I did not at first think of it as fantasy fiction. I have since discovered E R Murray is one of several talented authors, who are blurring traditional genres, and bringing an ‘earthly’ ‘realism’ to fantasy.

Watching Andrew Marr’s programme about fantasy reminded me how important J R Tolkien’s book was in my own childhood. Whilst Tolkien has created a whole imaginary world on a much grander scale I did have to chuckle to myself when I realised there were some surprising similarities with The Book of Learning, especially in the early part’s of the stories. Both, Ebony and Bilbo are reluctant hero’s who are taken out of a place that they love. Andrew Marr’s rule number 6 for fantasy stories is: “The reader owns the fantasy world”. This is very strong in both stories, the fact that both are not initially at all sure they want to be part of what they have ‘been chosen’ for or ‘indeed what that is!’ means you are kind of learning along with the characters which really did help me the reader own the story.

In Susan Collins, Kathleen Fidler and E R Murray stories there is a seamlessness which links everything together which for me elevates these to 3 exceptional stories. What excited me is that they were fantastic reads, but they all had important messages about what it means to be human and about wider society, which seem highly relevant 21st century Britain. The powerful messages of these stories are tricky to talk about without giving away what happens. So, I will simply say that in the MockingJay and the Book of Learning there are important messages about the ability of power to corrupt. One of the key messages of the Boy with the Bonze Axe is easier to talk about as it appears early on in the book. When Tenko is telling the Kalis family about where his Bronze Axe came from, you get that wonderful sense of the way that knowledge is passed through time and place from one generation to the next, a timely reminder of how many of us are connected to others. For the other messages you will have to read the stories.

Having Fun with Autumn Leaves

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What I love most about Autumn are the leaves, all their wonderful colours: yellow, orange, red, and even golden. There is something that can’t quite beat walking in a pile of leaves,  the sound of them crunching under one’s feet, and the playfulness and delight of throwing them up in the air. Me and my children love going out to collect them. A few years ago we discovered you could preserve the colour and shape of a leaf by laminating it.  This year I decided it might help in those cold dark winter days to have a collection of lot’s of different leaves, to bring a bit of colour into mid-winter. Here are some we’ve collected so far:

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It’s become a family project. My kids love spending time outdoors, but sometimes they are reluctant to walk very far! So this year we started a leaf collection walk, my kids love having something to search for when out and about. We’ve had great fun looking for leaves of different colours and shapes, and choosing the ones we like best. Inspired by a new picture book called  “Leafy the Pet Leaf” written by Phillip Ardagh and illustrated by Elissa Elwick, we have even turned some of them into very our own pet leaves.

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Fir for Luck Blog Tour: A conversation with Barbara Henderson on nature and outdoors in the Scottish Highlands

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What role does nature play in the story?

Nature is such a big player in my children’s novel Fir for Luck that I even argued it should be on the cover of the book! The land is part of Janet’s identity. It was a challenge, when writing Fir for Luck, to get across how tightly wound up Janet’s and her village’s identities are with the land.

But maybe the land didn’t need to be on the cover after all. Maybe the connection could be shown more subtly than that.*(1) I thought about all the ways that Janet’s environment featured in her everyday life. In the jobs she had to do: checking on the fields, grinding grain to flour, taking cows up the hill to better pasture, mucking out the byre. In her home: hearing mice rustle in the thatch above as she sleeps on a straw mattress beside the hearth. Being made to drink nettle brew when ill (one of my more fun research facts). And finally, the title sprig of fir as a symbol for luck, wound into a new hearth chain. The area around Durness where all this took place is barren and almost tree-less. A sprig of fir was not easy to come by. Again, it felt that nature itself played a part in Janet’s fate: the sprig is a motif which features throughout the book.

Spending family time in the Scottish Highlands…

I am a would-be-outdoorsy person. My husband and I are not one of nature’s innate sporty couples, but we do take our children*(2) on holidays to Skye, to Harris, to the wildernesses of Western Ross and Sutherland. There, our young people can enjoy searching for crabs under rocks, exploring empty beaches, building driftwood beach dens – and being dragged up a few too many hills! The stuff our children’s childhood memories are going to be made of: bonfire kindling, a blackened frying pan and the thinnest sausages you can buy (so that they cook before they char) – that is an essential part of kit for a fab day out. Of course it was on one of those ‘back to nature’ holidays that I came across the ruins of Ceannabeinne, a little known clearance village.

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Is Ceannabeinne a real place?

Ceannabeinne really existed as a thriving township. All that is left now is rubble and ruins of course, but the burn still trickles through. It’s just east of Durness, the nearest village to Cape Wrath, the most northwesterly point of the UK mainland. Durness is a village now, but at the time it was made up of townships such as Durine, Sangomore, Balnakeil and of course Ceannabeinne. No place in the whole story is invented, and the key events all really took place there.

And a final word…   I know; not every reader of Fir for Luck will visit the amazing place where my character made her home, although they should if they can.So instead, let any outdoor bonfire take you to the ceilidh in chapter three. Listen to the sound and scent of the sea and hear and sense Ceannabeinne. Let every dark night take you there. That way, you can peek into Janet’s world.

Find out more on the authors website                      You can buy Fire for Luck here. 

*(1) There are hints of nature on the cover of the book with the fire in Janet’s eyes and the pine cones on the back. Publishers Cranachan decided against landscape in the end, and Barbara agrees as: “Young readers are most likely to care about the central character, and about the worst thing that can happen”.

•(2) Barbara has 3 children, who are now 11, 14, and 16 and they are in some of the pictures.

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Fir for Luck by Barbara Henderson

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On holiday in Scotland, last summer I enjoyed finding out about the Scottish clearances, which sparked my curiosity in this period of history. So I jumped at the chance to review a copy of Fir for Luck. The historical context and the face on the front cover, a girl with a fire in her eye, looked like a winning combination, and it is!

Fir for Luck tells, through the eyes of a 12 year old, called Janet, a Scottish hamlet’s struggle to survive at time of upheaval in Scottish history. You find yourself rooting for Janet and wanting her to save her village. There are surprises and last minute twists. It is a cracking read, at times it is ‘brutal’, but there is gentleness too. I left with a real sense having been on a journey through both the landscape and a period of history.

I love that you get a sense of the wild landscape from: remote sparse heathlands to windswept coastal shores. You also get a sense of a community closely connected to the landscape. This is cleverly portrayed through descriptions, which refer to the shape of the land, passing light and the seasons. For example:

“The surf pounds the rocks down at the Cove, and the limited light from the tiny windows takes on a golden tint.” p4

“Ceannabeinne is bathed in a lovely autumn glow that simply doesn’t allow misery” p67

Read my guest post to find out more about the central importance of the landscape to the story and Barbara Henderson’s love of the Highlands.

In chapter five a gentleman of the law arrives at Janet’s hamlet with the intention of serving a ‘Writ’. If it is served Janet, her family and her community will be forced from their homes. Here the story really gets going. Janet (as we are discovering) is a girl who is not afraid to speak out or stand up for what she believes in. What can she do to protect her village? Added depth is given through flashbacks to 1814, when Janet’s grandma was brutally forced off the land. This helps the reader to understand what Janet and others might be feeling when they face a threat to their homes, 30 years later. However, it does make it a little more difficult to read. The flashbacks could be used creatively in a classroom context and would be great to read aloud.

The first four chapters beautifully introduce the setting, but it isn’t until chapter 5 that things start to fall into place, and the tension builds.  This may make it harder for some younger or less confident children to get into the story. However, there are several solutions to this possible problem. The first is as a parent or educator is to read the story to yourself first. You will then get a sense of the history and your enthusiasm for the story will show. Secondly, there is much potential to explore this story in a classroom, and for role play. The publishers Cranachan have produced a free education pack which will be available to download free on their website. There is a handy Glossary (p194) of the traditional Scottish words used in the story.

The name title: Fir for Luck, features in the story. It was a traditional Scottish practice to put a fir in the hearth chain above the fire for good luck. It is a beautiful and touching addition, which is also used very effectively towards the end. For any child or adult curious about the Scottish clearances and/or love of the Scottish highlands this would make a great read.

Fir for Luck is available to buy from the 21st September.