Books for Fun

There has been considerably more focus, or so it seems, recently on books that make us laugh. Children, and adults are spoilt in the modern world for there are so many options providing entertainment from the television and films to PlayStation's and other computer platforms it is not surprising in some ways that books are often considered as the last choice for entertainment. Yet books are the perfect option, they don't take up too much room - unless you have lots and lots (and in my case even more than that!), they are instantly accessible, can be accessed and will and demand only your attention!

Books that make us laugh make us happy and it is scientifically proven that being happy and laughing is good for us, so its reading, so why not combine the two?

Perhaps we need to coin a new phrase of encouragement - a book a day.... what can we say? Suggestions are very welcome!

Laughing when we read, even smirking or giggling to ourselves is on of the great pleasures in life. Books do not need to be worth and hard work they just need to be fun and entertaining, taking us into other places with other people, sharing hopes and dreams as well as sadness and sorrow. Humour can actually help children understand some difficult and challenging topics so its power should not be underestimated. Funny books lift the heart mind and spirit and give us plenty to be occupied with. Reading is an innocent past time that can be shared or kept to oneself and taken almost anywhere. A book is for enjoyment so why not make it a funny book.

If you are stuck for ideas then why not try the Roald Dahl Funny Prize winners or perhaps have a look at the recommendations from the Blue Peter Book Awards. There are always plenty of suggestions in this very Blog and at the Armadillo website too - just to get you started!

I would love to hear your comments on this and any suggestions on a new phrase may even be featured and win a prize! Get those thinking caps on and get giggling!

Hans Christan Andersen Award Winners

Well I have been absent for a couple of weeks and so much has happened it is difficult to know where to start. However the thrilling news that David Almond has won the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Author Award must surely be the best place!

This award is probably the most prestigious of the international children's literature awards that can be given to an author. It is presented bi-annually and although the announcement has been made in Bologna at the annual book fair it will be in Spain that David will receive his medal.

The medal and award are given by IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People, to an author and also an illustrator - that category was won by Jutta Bauer, a German illustrator - whose work is considered to have made a considerable and lasting contribution to children's literature.

David Almond is an author who has been contributing to children's literature for many years with his special combination of magic and realism and one of his best known books and his very first, Skellig, which won the Carnegie medal is an influential and much loved story. What is particularly special about his writing is the way in which he can capture the hearts and minds of his intended audience - children - yet also adults too. David has written a number of other titles, all of which continue to challenge and inspire his readers.

I am sure readers of Armadillo and this blog will join with me in extending congratulations to both David and Jutta on their achievements.

Relaunch Takes Off In Style!

I may not have the best mathematical mind words rather than numbers mean alot more to me but when I heard that Steve Cole has written 45 books in 5 years and that over 2 million copies of the Astrosaurs series have now been sold even I was stunned by such numbers!

Such is the success of the series that Steve Cole created just a few years ago that last night, despite the rain, a group of adult fans and friends joined Steve and his RHCB cadet team to celebrate his achievement, see the Astorsaurs books with bright new covers and get a sneaky preview of a brand new series.

It seems that Steve Cole is unstoppable for this year he will launch Slime Busters a new series whose tag line is Fighting Crime with Slime! There will be the second book in the Z-Rex series for older readers and his very first picture book too. This is an author whose imagination knows no bounds and who throws himself with great enthusiasm into all aspects of his work. Steve was as stunned by the numbers as the rest of us, was enjoying a great party and was particularly pleased to have met Woody Fox, the talented illustrator of his books who had come up all the way from Devon.

Thanks go to Steve for a brilliant series of books and yet more to look forward to and also the team at RHCB for finding him, keeping him and letting us all in for a sneak preview of some exciting new stories to come this year.

Retro Book Fun

Today I took myself and my somewhat reluctant husband to a second hand book fair. Whilst the draw for me was the books it was also the records, I love my old fashioned vinyl and in the same way I love my old books. New books to are quite a draw so I has a very happily occupied browsing, picking up lots of books for a good look and it was great to see lots of families and children there too – also picking up and enjoying the touch and feel of the books as well as the stories and information that they were finding in them.

This brings me very nicely to the topic of today’s Blog which is touch and feel books. Once again I have been relearning the pleasure of books that provide the opportunity to interact and learn at the same time. Inparticular this week I have been looking at two titles in anew series from Lornea Siminovich. The series is Petitcollage and the two books are ‘I Like Fruit’ and ‘I Like Bugs’. They are specifically designed for sharing with babies, the first introduces not only fruit but also colours. Red, Green, Yellow, Orange and Blue are the fruits, each double page spread divides its first page into four squares, one with the colour and three with the fruit whilst its facing page features a collage picture of the fruit of which one section has been cut away to reveal a touch and feel patch. In the Bugs title children are encouraged to count as well as learn about bugs. They can count up to five, discover some fascinating looking bugs from a dragonfly to a beetle and some very fluffy bees. There are beautiful pictures made up of many colours and patterns to look at and certainly a lot to learn! The collage nature of the pictures provide different patterns and designs to look at in the Fruit titles whilst the Bugs titles does this and also gives children simple images of gardens and plants to pour over. The bright, vibrant and interactive feel of these books will be certain to charm and entertain little eyes, minds and hands for many hours!

Once children have learnt how much fun it is to have some interactive fun with books then why not think about introducing them to ‘Funny Felt Animals Faces’. I had great fun making up silly faces for Lion, Giraffe, Elephant, Monkey and Parrot! It felt very retro too for I remember having hours of fun playing with Fuzzy Felt as a child! You can follow the instructions built into the text of the simple story and make the faces fit or have fun and play around making up your own pictures. This book assures children that they can play with their books as well as read and learn from the text. It provides a wonderful opportunity to have fun and learn without perhaps realising it!

Now I must go and have some more fun, listening to audio books but I will leave you with the suggestion that you go out and find some fun books to interact with or share with some little ones, rekindle a love of books for fun as well as learning and then perhaps share with us all at Armadillo anything you have particularly enjoyed.

Books of Love and Flowers for Valentines'

Valentine’s Day is a time to celebrate love; it is usual to find gifts of flowers and chocolate from a loved one on such a day. How often are any of us given books – would we even consider a book on a day of love? Well if the answer is no then I would urge you to rethink after all we have all fallen in love with a book and often declare how much we love to read so why not consider giving a book as an expression of love? Rather than the usual gifts from husband to wife, boyfriend to girlfriend and so on, why not think about giving a child a gift on Valentine’s Day, after all we love them too.

I have found two books perfect for sharing on Valentine’s Day, books that will be loved by children and adults alike. The first is Love-A Duck written by Alan James Brown with illustrations by Francesca Chessa and published by Meadowside. It is an adorable story of one little yellow duck, Love-a-Duck, and his bath-time companion Jane. Love-a-Duck has lost his squeak and when he inadvertently falls out of the bathroom window he sets out on an exciting adventure to find it again and to discover just how special he really is. A simple and charming story to share with bright, vibrant, solid and simple illustration to charm the youngest reader at bath and bedtime this is a warm, witty and loving story with delightful illustration.

For older readers, young listeners and I would certainly say adults too I suggest Flower Heaven by Else Wenz-Vietor, published by Floris Books. With its solid hardback, red spine binding and flower-fairy-esq front cover illustration this book has a wide appeal before the pages have even been turned. It tells the story mistreated flowers who have found their way to Flower Heaven where they are tended, nurtured and kept safe by the gentle flower angels. Taking place over just one evening there are snipped roses, de-petaled daisies and thirsty garlands. Over the course of the evening the flowers tell their tale and the angels tend to their patients. This charming, simple and slightly old-fashioned story presents the flower’s point of view and gently explains to the young listener how they might perhaps better care for the beauty and bounty of the nature around them. As I say a book for children and adults alike.

Both titles would make charming gifts of love on a Valentine’s Day and charming reading all year round. Share the gift of love as often as you can with a book.

Interactive Book Fun!

This week has been great fun because I have been playing with novelty children’s books. Often I am asked why I have these books and what use they are – the answer is that I think it is very important for interactive books aimed at babies (and their parents) as well as toddlers are given reviews. Anyone with young children will know how difficult it is when entering any bookshop to decide between the sheer mass of books that have been created for this group of children, but being able to find out what even a small selection of them are like is very important.

This brings me to ‘Bouncy Books’. There are four books in this charming series, Jungle, Garden, Pets and Farm. Each book introduces children to four associated animals. Collect the series and children will have an understanding of 16 animals, they will learn what they are called and where they live, they will also get the opportunity to play with the books for the animals in these books bounce! It is great to be able to interact with a book, look at the pictures, play with them and have a learning experience at the same time. Fun, entertaining and educational these are a great set of books.

As well as this I have been testing my skills of dexterity with Splashy Sea and Busy Bugs, two books in the new ‘Lacing Card Books’ series. These books come with press out pieces that need lacing. They are certainly for the older toddler; perhaps those starting school needing to learn co-ordination skills. They are however great for any children (or adults) who want to practise their manual dexterity skills! Wonderfully vibrant pictures combined with interesting facts that have been written with the young reader’s education in mind combine to create another set of must-have fun books.

Revitalise your own and your child’s relationship with books by testing out some of these fun, lively and refreshingly different interactive, educational offerings.

Back to Books

Those of you who have been following the Blog may have noticed that I have been absent for a few weeks. I decided to take a break over Christmas and then with a problematic start to the new year owing to snow problems it has taken me a little while to get properly back on track. So my apologies but I am now back and have lots of exciting plans for Armadillo and the Blog this year, thanks of course to all those who contribute their time and effort and of course all the wonderful writers and illustrators of children's books!

I have of course been busy in my absence, primarily in my day job as Librarian in a primary school where I have just run a fabulous Book Week for the children who are aged 6-13. This involved in the region of 15 authors and illustrators visiting the school and we had the pleasure of authors such as Jeremy Strong, Gwyneth Rees, Patrick Ness, Michelle Lovric, illustrators included Chris Wormell, Adam Stower and Karin Littlewood, we even had the motivational 'worm poo lady' telling us more about how to care for the world around us. the buzz amongst the children was brilliant but the joy it has inspired in them to read, create stories and even draw has been fantastic. I am now planning Book Week 2011, if anyone would like to make any suggestions for visitor ideas then please do get in touch.

All this has meant that I have been squeezed for reading time but I have still managed to curl up with some wonderful picture books from Lizzie Finlay's 'Little Croc's Purse' a tale of honesty and its consequences to Emily Gravett's 'Blue Chamelon' teaching the reader that to fit in it is important just to be oneself I have also enjoyed the debut 'Magic Glass' by Jocelyn Dolamore.

The variety of children's books set to be published this year is thrilling and I look forward to continuing an exploration with as many of them as possible through the blog, the magazine and of course my work in school.

For now however some quiet reading time and a little bit of creativity call....

From Cowboys & Pirates to Princesses!

Whilst the snow falls here in Leatherhead I am trying to keep warm and what better way of doing that than curling up in front of a lovely warm fire and dreaming of hot places - well perhaps less of the dreaming and more of the reading about in my case. I have just had the pleasure of reading three fabulous picture books, two of which are due for publication in the new year and which I am quite certain will find legions of adoring fans very quickly!

The first book I delved into and which really did take me away from the snow was 'Desert Rose' by Alison Jackson with illustrations by Keith Graves, a wonderfully bright, new and funny picture book. This is the story of a pig farmer and her very lazy hog. Rose, for that is the farmer's name believes that she has found, with the help of a little bit of gold, a prize winning hog to take to the state fair but the hog is stubborn and lazy, refusing to cross a creek. Rose tries in vain to enlist the help of a host of animals all of whom have their own excuses. When she rather nicely approaches her final animal and asks politely for some help a hilarious chain of events begins. This book not only introduces children to a dialect, in rhyme, a new country and some new animals but also to the importance of politeness and manners. Children will love listening to this story read out loud in a Texan drawl if you can manage it and the bright pictures are certain to keep them entertained too.

From this I turned to 'Captain Finn and the Pirate Dinosaurs: The Magic Cutlass' by Giles Andrae and illustrated by Russell Ayto. As usual Captain Finn and his pirates find themselves in a brilliant adventure featuring their favourite enemies the Dinosaur Pirates. In this title they find themselves teaching the Dinosaurs an important lesson about not bullying and playing fairly. Any young readers already fans of this series will love this latest adventure, and adore the chaotic, fabulous illustrations that deserve having plenty of time spent pouring over them for they are detailed and completely crazy as well as being great fun!

Finally after so much adventure and excitement I turned to Kate Lum and Sue Hellard's 'Princesses are Not Perfect' - a surprising title because of course we all believe that they are! In this story there are three princesses each of whom excels in their own area - gardening, woodwork and baking. When they declare themselves to be bored of this excellence and determined to switch roles the results are quite hilarious, yet also touching and the end result is well...surprising. With beautifully intricate and detailed illustration this is a book for the girls. It is a fun story to read and share whilst at the same time imparting to children an important message about using your talents and skills wisely. Are Princesses Perfect? Read on to find out for yourself.

All Shapes and Sizes

Books come in a variety of shapes and sizes, some have only pictures others only words and others still a combination. Yet it is not only the formats which differ but also the style in which they are written, sometimes depending on the audience at other times dependent on the type of story they want to tell.

So it is that I have been reading two very different books, Eoin Colfer's 'And Another Thing' and Toon Tellegen's 'Letters to Anyone and Everyone' with illustration by Jessica Ahlberg.

Eoin Colfer's book is necessarily madcap, action packed and quite honestly full of such a variety of eclecticism that it is quite difficult to describe! Following on in the footsteps of Douglas Adams was never going to be easy but Colfer has done it with a passion and reverence. His style is to narrate the story with interjections from the Hitchhikers Guide, hence the relevance to different styles of writing. Anyone unfamiliar with this series would do well to start with book 1 if only to meet all the characters, from then on, in many ways it does not matter which book you read. Colfer has helped me finally gain a clearer understanding of the whole story, our favourite characters are all here - Ford, Trillian, Arthur, Zaphod and others, there is, of course a very large slab of cheese and also a pantheon of unemployed gods. I loved this book for its madness, sense of fun and adventure and variety of story as well as styles of writing.

Tellegen's book of letters is another rather extraordinary book. This one is aimed quite firmly at young readers and features a series of interlinked letters between animal friends and from creatures of the earth to the sun! A series of short stories in a letter format this is a charming little book to be dipped into at leisure and it is in fact all the more charming for this reason, it can be picked up and read at the fancy of its reader. The stories are quite whimsical and utterly charming, I love the idea of writing a letter to a letter, of birds communica

ting by letter and of the squirrel and the bear exchanging birthday cake ideas. With exquisite and delicate illustration from the highly skilled Jessica Ahlberg this is a book to be treasured by chidlren and adored by adults. Yes, it may have been written with children in mind but I very much doubt any adult could resist its charm!

Two books with very different styles of writing yet both engaging and exciting in their own way, without this variet

y we would perhaps be much less inclined to read so I for one am very glad of it and urge you all to try something new and surprise yourselves!

From Monsters come Fairies

I am not usually a fan of horror books - certainly not those written for adults but horror and gothic lit for children whilst it is chilling remains refreshingly appealing and innocent - to a degree. So this week having read three books of horror and terror I redress the balance with three books of fairies and magic! Perhaps there is something here for the boys as well as the girls and I am not going to say which is which!

To begin with then the horror - well one could find themselves planning to dip into Grisly Tales from Tumblewater by Bruno Vincent - a series of interlinked short stories

clevery woven together to make the reader feel they have achieved the level of reading a whole whilst quietly luring them into the next and then before they know it the whole book! Brilliantly macabre, compelling and yet strangely amusing! Then there is the second Raven Mysteries title Ghosts and Gadgets from Marcus Sedgwick, an easy read and very funny, perfect for Junior readers who are not quite ready for

Debi Gliori's Pure Dead books, have perhaps tired of Lemony Snicket but want something along the same lines. Brilliant writing, wonderful description and a keen sense of fun horror. Finally for the horror at least there come Tales of Terror From The Tunnels Mouth by the fabulous Chris Priestly. A collection of short stories that do not quite interlink in the same way as Vincent's book yet are equally compelling and easy to become lost in. With lots of terrible twists and turns these are not bedtime reading but they are clearly quality stories of dark deeds wonderfully illustrated David Roberts, in pen and ink to convey the feeling of darkness.

If a little light relief is needed after all this darkness then what better way to find it than by turning to the charming Merlina and the Magic Spell by Daniela Drescher. Merlina the little sorceress and her dragon Igor are busily gathering fruit when Igor hurts his foot. Can Merlina find a spell to make him better? A charmingly sweet story with so much detail in the exquisite drawing that readers will be coming back for more. Eva Montanari is another talented author and illustrator whose work it is possible to see on display at the Illustration Cupboard in London until 20th January 2010. If you are in London this is well worth popping in for, her work is charming and exquisite, painstakingly detailed yet simple enough for the youngest eyes whilst her writing is full of sparkling magic and humour befitting of the titles. Princess Matilda has a wonderful imagination and can be many things but what she really is provides a wonderful surprise for the reader every time! Her Witches and Fairies on the other hand is a story with a strong moral about identity, yet at the same time a wonderfully funny tale of one dark night in the woods when the witches and fairies meet...

Have fun with some or all of these books and remember they are just stories and in stories monsters can become fairies so have sweet dreams!