What’s new in picture books?

What’s new in picture books?

by | Oct 30, 2017 | Books and Children

Breaking the rules

Everyone who is a blogger advises you need to ‘blog’ at least twice a week. I haven’t managed anything like that and there has been an especially long gap since I last wrote. But now I really want to tell you about my new book, so here I am again.

When the Cat’s Away, a picture book for young children, illustrated by Lionel King, was launched on September 25th, 2017.

The launch, which some of you attended, was held at Stanton Library, North Sydney. John McCallum was our impressive MC and Ursula Dubosarsky graciously agreed to send our book out into the world. You can read her speech at the launch here. (Ursula’s kind words will long be cherished by me)

 

My just-turned one year old grandson, Noah, to whom I dedicated the book (Lionel dedicated it to Judy King, his wife) managed to upstage me as I delivered my speech. You can see him demonstrating his new skills of walking and clapping for the audience.

After the speeches, we had the trumpeter, Mark Strykowski, play the Marseillaise to get people in the mood for the storytelling. I was able to read the story from the online version projected onto the wall in the Conference Room at the library.

The process of creating this book was pure delight from my perspective. Once the text was written it was a matter of waiting for a new illustration to appear in my inbox, usually on a Sunday evening. Lionel is a scientist at RESMED and the weekends are when he does most of his sketching and painting. Numerous conversations followed as we adjusted both text and image until at last our book was ready to go into production.

It is such a pleasure for us to hear about children’s responses to the book. Already we’ve had quite a few comments such as “My daughter (3) woke this morning talking about mice in the house!🐭“. We have also had some wonderful reviews – you can see them on Amazon and at Good Reads (you can ask questions about the book on this site as well) or look at them here. We are keen for more reviewers (only honest reviews) and if you, or someone you know, would like a review copy, please let me know.

So… if you would like to put the book in someone’s christmas stocking, it is available as a print book from places such as the Book Depository in the U.K, Amazon  and the Moshshop. Or you can contact me on my website (donnagibbsbooks.com), or by email (gibbs.donna@gmail.com) and I can post it to you. It is also available as an ebook from Amazon and Smashwords for around $3.00.

In my next blog I’d like to talk about some books that are thought to send the wrong message to children. I’ll be interested to hear what you think.

 

 

Choosing a book for young children

Choosing a book for young children

by | Feb 25, 2016 | Books and Children

I was asked this week if I could recommend a book for a two and a half year old Canadian boy with a Dutch mum and Afrikaans dad.

I decided to ask my little friend, Quinn, who is about the right age, which are his favourite books. With the help of his mum, Quinn listed his top four.

1 Where is the green sheep, Judy Horacek and Mem Fox. (These authors have a new book out too that looks appealing– This and That. )

2 The Tiger who came to tea, Judith Kerr.

3 We are going on a bear hunt, Michael Rosen.

4 Dig Dig digging, Margaret Mayo and Alex Ayliffe.

I think the children in my Kindy group, where I read as a volunteer, would agree with Quinn’s choices. They also like:

5 The Terrible Plop, Ursula Dubosarsky and illos by Andrew Joyner

6 The very hungry caterpillar, Eric Carle

7 The Grufallo, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, and

8 Guess how much I love you, Sam McBratney

9 The cat in the hat Dr Seuss, and

10 The Hairy Mclary books, Lynley Dodd?

Do you have any suggestions?

A few observations

The books children most enjoy are not necessarily the books adults would choose for them. For example, I disliked Where is the green sheep when I first read it. Yet, like Quinn, children just love this book. It is probably better to choose books that are popular with children rather than to follow our own tastes (well, sometimes anyway).

  • The books children most enjoy are not necessarily the books adults would choose for them. For example, I disliked Where is the green sheep when I first read it. Yet, like Quinn, children just love this book. It is probably better to choose books that are popular with children rather than to follow our own tastes (well, sometimes anyway).
  • Repetition, rhyme, refrains and a catchy rhythm (evident in most of these choices) are a sure fire success. This age group loves to join in a refrain, anticipate words, make noises and generally be rowdy and involved. Books with these elements have strong links with the nursery rhymes that many children know and love from a very young age.
  • An element of fear (along as the danger is overcome) is another favourite ingredient. Children love a story that reveals increasing danger –you see it in their body language and the expressions on their faces!
  • No single illustration style is a winner. Big and brightly coloured works well but so do many other styles. It is more to do with how the illustration works with the story.

I noticed that there are YouTube and other electronic readings of most of these books available online such as Michael Rosen’s telling of his We are going on a bear hunt (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gyI6ykDwds). But, generally speaking, the online versions offer an inferior experience to that of reading the book. Have you come across any worth knowing about? Or do you avoid them?

So – I haven’t really answered the question I was asked. But I have tried to suggest what to look out for when you are in a library or a bookshop trying to choose a book for a two and a half year old. And that’s half the fun, of course!