We have a friend, Meg. Our toddler, Fin, is a big fan of the Meg & Mog picture books. Whenever Meg came to visit, Fin would ask where Mog was.
Meg is nowWe have a friend, Meg. Our toddler, Fin, is a big fan of the Meg & Mog picture books. Whenever Meg came to visit, Fin would ask where Mog was.
Meg is now lodging with us for a year. She has a new boyfriend. I told Fin that her new boyfriend was called Mog, and because Meg was a witch she had turned her cat into a man. Fin accepted this and calls him Mog.
Mog is a good-natured soul and accepted that in this house, he will be known as Mog.
Mog is also a sci-fi fan, and was distressed to learn than I hadn't read much Iain M. Banks - so he's given me The Algebraist, which sounds like my favourite kind of book (big, space-opera adventure!).
Butterworth wrote the first Q Pootle 5 book, which featured the little green man visiting Earth. He then went away andThis Q Pootle 5 book baffles me.
Butterworth wrote the first Q Pootle 5 book, which featured the little green man visiting Earth. He then went away and developed the TV series (with his son, I think?) - and the TV series is great, one of my toddler's favourite shows and something I thoroughly approve of as a young child's sci-fi primer (along with Little Robots).
Now, I met the TV show before the books, so the first book disappointed me because it's not really set in the same universe as the show, it was the inspiration but it's not tied into the same location, supporting cast, type of adventure, etc.
This second book is tied into the same universe as the show - it features Q Pootle's best friend, Oopsy, and also Planet Dave from the telly. And yet.. somehow it doesn't exhibit the same charm and gosh-darn-likeability of the show. It gets a big *shrug* from me, because it would have been so easy to lift-and-drop one of the TB episodes featuring the whole gang from Planet Okidoki, which would have been much more satisfying than this lightweight little tale.
An opportunity missed, Mr Butterworth, sir. Please try again.
Anyone who doesn't have a child addicted to CBeebies (the 'early years' BBC channel) may not have heard of Q Pootle 5. I've become rather fond of him.Anyone who doesn't have a child addicted to CBeebies (the 'early years' BBC channel) may not have heard of Q Pootle 5. I've become rather fond of him. He's an affable little green alien who lives on the planet Okiedokie, and potters around having gentle adventures with his alien buddies.
Having seen the show so many times, when I spotted this book amongst the large box of kids books we were given, I was rather chuffed. I'm a sci-fi geek, and there's just not enough good sci-fi for toddlers!
Unfortunately, I'm kind of disappointed with this one - and it's not really the book's fault - but it no longer sits right with the TV series.
Nick Butterworth initially wrote two Q Pootle 5 books, and then went on to develop the TV series. The TV series is massively more fleshed out and... different to the books. It's a coherent little universe - and this book now kind of jars with that.
In this book, Pootle crash lands on Earth. One of his rocket boosters is busted, so he goes looking for a replacement. He asks a frog (because the frog is green) and some birds (but they don't need rockets to fly) - and then a cat called Colin, who lets him use his empty tin of cat food as a new rocket booster. With the spaceship repaired, Pootle flies off to his friend's party and at the end we get a nice, big, fold-out pic of the party.
The pictures are crisp and lovely and my boy, Fin, loves the big swooping words that go right across the page at the start for when the spaceship crashes - he's a fan. The story/language was OK, but a bit so-so (I prefer kids books with rhyme, or at least funny words, funny voices, etc).
As far as Fin is concerned, that's all there is to it.
But I can't help doing a compare and contrast with the TV show. In the book, Pootle has gone to Earth. On TV, Earth is never mentioned. In the book, Pootle repairs his spaceship with a tin can. On TV, the components for the ships are all sensible spare parts. In the book, Pootle is going to a party for Z Pootle 6. On TV, no such character exists.
It's not a bad book, but it lacks most of what makes the TV show good, so fans are bound to be a little dissapointed. It's easy to see how the basic concept presented here helped inspire the show, but I think it's fair to say that if Nick Butterworth were to write a Q Pootle 5 book now, it would be very different. Unfortunately, that is the book I hoped to share with my son.
OMG this book is cute! Karen already did the perfect review. Seriously. Check it out.
Sometimes I like to Curl Up in a Ball is a list of a baby wombaOMG this book is cute! Karen already did the perfect review. Seriously. Check it out.
Sometimes I like to Curl Up in a Ball is a list of a baby wombat's favourite things to do. The artwork is... sumptuous and gorgeous.
My little boy, Fin, is only eighteen months old, but he loves this one as much as me. When the wombat pulls funny faces, Fin pulls funny faces. When the wombat gets covered in mud, Fin says "Oh-no! Dirty!" When the wombat curls up in a ball with his Mum at the end, Fin strokes the book and curls up on my lap.
Break-my-heart cuteness.
For one page (sometimes I like to stand still as a tree) Fuge did a vertical picture, so you have to turn the book around to make it tall - that's a lovely touch.
It's simple, it's sweet, and there's a real joy and love of life splashed across the pages. Who doesn't love wombats? Perfect.
Another winner from Donaldson & Scheffler. First we got Room on the Broom, then A Squash and a Squeeze. Next came The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's ChilAnother winner from Donaldson & Scheffler. First we got Room on the Broom, then A Squash and a Squeeze. Next came The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo's Child. Then Charlie Cook's Favourite Book and The Smartest Giant in Town. Six books in, and Donaldson's yet to drop the ball - she's the most consistently excellent, fun, easy to read aloud, and imaginative picture book author I've found (so far).
The core thread of The Smartest Giant is a cumulative rhyme. The giant has a heart of gold, but he's very scruffy looking, so he buys some smart new clothes. As he strolls along, he meets various animals in distress and donates his new clothes, one piece at a time, to help them out which builds into a charming little poem...
My tie is a scarf for a cold giraffe, My shirt's on a boat as a sail for a goat, My shoe is a house for a little white mouse, One of my socks is a bed for a fox, My belt helped a dog who was crossing a bog
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Because it dips in and out of the repeating, cumulative poem, it lacks the momentum of some of the other books - like Room on the Broom - and as such doesn't hold my little boys attention quite as well (he's only 19 months old). So a solid three stars, not a million miles shy of four.
But why? The illustration and the rhymes are equally good between the two.
The Gruffalo's Child is self-dI like this one even more than the original :-)
But why? The illustration and the rhymes are equally good between the two.
The Gruffalo's Child is self-depreciating - the other animals are teasing the child and at the end the Mouse plays a trick on her, so she runs home to have a cuddle with her Dad. This feels a bit more like reality...
The original Gruffalo is great, but it is also a bit... smug. The Mouse easily pulls the wool over all the other animals' eyes, and then does the same to the Gruffalo too. Yes, he's a very clever little mouse, but a little humility would be nice...
Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of lif Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my BEDTIME STORIES list.
I have a little boy and love reading to him, so this reading list will cover the classic (and new) children’s stories we’re enjoying together.
My wife is the oldest of three siblings - each six years apart - so her little brother is twelve years younger than her. He's now a teenager, which means he doesn't want his kiddie-books any more - but because he's not too old they're still in good nick. My mother-in-law (she of the Samurai tea-spoons) dropped off a big box of books for my baby son, Fin a few weeks ago.
Most of them are really too old for Fin (he's currently 16 months) but nobody's told him that, so he loves to pull them off his shelf (he has his own bookshelf at ground level) and wave them at us to read for him. Amongst them there are some great additions - Dr Seuss, Meg & Mog, Q-Pootle, Gruffalo, etc - but also many that I'd never heard of before (such as this).
Fin has recently become fond of Animals Scare Me Stiff - it's running third this week behind the noisy monkey book (you press a button, it makes monkey noises) and Room on the Broom (which I really like reading to him). I'm not quite so enamoured with this one - it's not bad - but I'm a sucker for fun, rhyming read-aloud like Room on the Broom (which this is not) - but Fin really likes the pictures in this one.
It's a story about a little boy who's scared of animals and page by page more and more animals start following him - a dog, a horse, a bull, a snake, birds, spiders, and bats - until eventually our young hero takes... 'drastic action' and scares them all away. Fin likes to point at all the animals on each page - especially the horsey! (cos it's like his rocking horse, which is also called Horsey, yo)
Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of lif Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my BEDTIME STORIES list.
I have a little boy and love reading to him, so this reading list will cover the classic (and new) children’s stories we’re enjoying together.
A really good read-aloud story, with great rhythm, rhyme and repetitive elements. My son is 16 months old, and Room on the Broom is currently his second favourite book - he goes and gets it himself from his book shelf most days, which is really cute.
Admittedly his favourite book in the whole wide world is a bland little story about monkeys - but it does have a button which makes monkey noises when you press it, so I can see the appeal!
Noisy books aside, this is the best. He likes to point at the witch and the cat and the dog and the bird and the frog. He likes to mimic the dramatic, booming, Brian Blessed-esque voice I used for the 'down came the broom' line, around which each verse hinges.
And you can never get them started on fantasy too young - good witches and bad dragons - perfect! We'll get him reading Tolkien before he's ten...
Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of lif Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my BEDTIME STORIES list.
I have a little boy and love reading to him, so this reading list will cover the classic (and new) children’s stories we’re enjoying together.
A family of rabbits is getting ready for bed: the sun goes down, the birds sing, they tidy up and eat their dinner, calm down, brush their teeth, cuddle their toys, etc. It's a short poem - 12 pairs of rhyming couplets - with soft words and gently rhythm, and it's dead easy to slip into a dreamy sing-song sort of recitation. The pictures are very sweet - almost too sweet, but just about bearable, like a builder's cup of tea, with so much sugar the spoon stands up straight - that's how sweet it is. And I don't even take sugar in my coffee, I like it black and bitter.
I've never been a big fan of rabbits. I've never understood them as pets - if you're going to step away from cats and dogs, then rats and ferrets have far more personality than rabbits. And in the wild... well. The fact that fast-breeding is their primary survival tactic says a lot about them as a species. I've seen a fox walk through a field full of rabbits at twilight, and there was this gentle rippling motion as the rabbits shuffled away from the fox. "As long as I'm not the closest rabbit to the fox, he probably won't eat me..." -- all the fox had to do was break into an unexpected sprint and he had dinner in his jaws! Wind in the Willows got bonus points from me for depicting the rabbits as cowardly simpletons who are dumber than a box full of hair.
So - having demonstrated my animosity to rabbit kind - the fact that this particular picture book still gets four stars from me is testament to quite how adorable this fuzzy little rabbit-people family is.
When the World Is Ready for Bed comes highly recommended. I'm sure when my boy is more interested in hearing the story than eating the book, he'll love it as a classic.
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