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Clean up!

 

Nathan Bryon, illus. Dapo Adeola
Puffin Books
Age 5-7

Rocket is really excited; she is going to visit Grammy and Grampy who live in Jamaica. They run whale watching tours, own a wildlife sanctuary AND Grammy is brilliant at surfing! While there, Rocket is shocked by the amount of rubbish on the beach and how it is affecting the wildlife. She decides to do something about it.

This is a delightfully illustrated story with a determined main character who sets out to make a difference. This is a story to raise awareness of the threat of plastic pollution on our oceans and ocean creatures and encourage small scale activism.

 

 

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Share the story

Read aloud
Before reading the story, you might like to look at the cover together and talk about what the story might be about. If children already know ‘Look Up!’ by the same team they might remember Rocket and her family.

Read the story aloud pausing to talk about what is happening in the story or pictures when your child wants to.

Join in
When they are familiar with the story children could join in for example with all the things Rocket is looking forward to doing in Jamaica, conversation with Grampy and the ‘Did you know’ page.

Talk about the story

  • Rocket is very excited – talk together about times when you have been excited about going on holiday or on a trip. What would you pack if you were going away on holiday?

  • Look at the page where Rocket imagines what she would do in Jamaica – share thoughts on which things you would like to do – eg surf the waves or dance with a dolphin? Fist bump a turtle or high five an octopus?

  • Have you been to the seaside? What do you remember? What do you like best about being near the ocean?

  • If you child has grandparents talk about where they live, are they near or far away? Do you know anyone who lives in Jamaica? What do you know about it?

  • Did anything surprise you about the story and is there anything you want to find out more about?

  • Which is your favourite page?

    Clean up

    This book grabbed our attention straight away with the bright colourful front cover and snappy title. It was also a great starting point for discussion wondering why the girl was surfing through the rubbish, what danger the turtle was in and what we thought the book might be about.

    Straight away we were hooked, we have a grandparent abroad near the beach and love being outdoors at the beach or on the water. We started reading the book at the start of a summer of water adventures and each time we looked for rubbish and had really good chats about how rubbish gets in the water. We visited various beaches in Dorset, Worthing and went paddle boarding locally. None of the beaches had any rubbish and we knew Rocket from the book would be very proud. We did however see rubbish when we went to Bristol near a jetty for a water taxi and at Southampton dock where we managed to get it out much to the children’s joy. The children were really careful about making sure their rubbish went in bins and really conscious about waste over the holiday which was lovely to do it in a fun way.

     

    We had a look at some of our food packaging and waste, Lizzie often helps with the recycling, so she helped sort through. We had a chat about what she personally could do to reduce her waste and what food we ate with packaging we could avoid. She now has her school snack in a reusable bag which again we think would make Rocket proud.

    We had a look at the hard plastic packaging recycling for one week and made a mermaid sculpture out of it to see exactly how much we had and link back to rubbish in the oceans. We had good discussions about what we could do to reduce it as a household and talked about what we were doing well and what we needed to improve on.

    Next, we did the science experiment, we chose 5 different items to bury in soil and then check back each week to see what had rotted away and what hadn’t. We made predictions and recorded our results and the children were really keen each week to see what had happened.

    Such a great fun book for having some really good discussions and making some really good changes. The story is written in a fun way and the illustrations are lively and really add to the story with brilliant facial expressions, and an insight into Jamaican culture. We loved the variety of activities and the mix of art, writing, science and geography and learning about a really important subject  in a fun way.

    We didn’t get to make such a big contribution as Rocket but we are doing some small things differently and have made a start.

     

     

Things to make and do

Make a ‘Did you know’ book
Find out more about plastic pollution in the ocean using the information in the book and other information you find (see links below). Make a zig zag book and start each page with ‘Did you know … then write your fact with an illustration.

Make a sculpture
In the story an artist makes a sculpture from plastic waste found on the beach. Children could save some plastic containers and make a sculpture from it perhaps shaped like a sea creature like the one in the story. This link might give you some ideas.

Make a poster
Make a poster to go in the park or at the beach to encourage people to take their rubbish home and keep the beach or park clean. you need paper A4 or larger thick pens or crayons. A ‘slogan’ a clear message – practice on scrap paper and an image.

Be a plastic detective
Looking at the shopping as it is unpacked and the products in your cupboards, to see how much plastic is used. Is it all necessary? Could your family buy shopping with less plastic packaging? Let your child help you sort your rubbish for recycling, maybe setting up different bins for different material.

Do a science experiment

Experiment to find out how long different materials take to decompose. In a container, such as an old fish tank, or washing up bowl place a layer of soil. Choose items together to see if they decompose eg a banana skin, newspaper, cardboard box and a plastic container. Cover with another layer of soil and dampen with a drop of water. Churn over every 4 or 5 days with a metal spoon. Check after two weeks to see if any of the objects have started to decompose by raking through the soil or tipping onto newspaper. You may prefer to wear protective gloves for this. Talk about what you find with your child and what this means to the environment. Find out about how long it takes for plastic to break down – see links below.

Find out more

Watch the book’s creators, Nathan Bryon and Dapo Adeola, introduce  the book and talk about their own top tips for reducing plastic and saving the oceans here  

Read another book about plastic pollution ‘A Planet full of Plastic’ by Neal Layton.

Find out more about pollution in the oceans here and here on Newsround 2015

Find out about whales and whale conservation here

Find out about Jamaica here

Look at a globe or atlas and try to find Jamaica on it.

Imani Wilmot is a famous Jamaican surfer who is mentioned in the story. She describes herself as a ‘wave dancer.’ Watch a video to see why

Read Look Up another book by the writing and illustrating team about Rocket and her family. See our activity ideas here  

Little Badman and the Invasion of the Killer Aunties

Humza Arshad and Henry White,  Illus. Aleksei Bitskoff
Penguin Random House
Age 8-11

Humza Khan aka Little Badman wants to be a famous ninja rapper, it is his destiny. When strange things start happening at his primary school – staff mysteriously disappearing and being replaced by an army of food obsessed aunties he and his friends Wendy and Omar decide to find out why.

This is a funny and page turning story in which Humza not only solves the mystery and saves the world from an alien invasion but also comes to appreciate his family, learns to be brave and finds out that there is more to aim for in life than just becoming famous.

Watch a trailer

 

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Talk about the story

  • Talk about the clues early in the story to show that something is wrong.

  • Think about the characters, did anyone surprise you? For example, the aunties being scary, grandpa being much more interesting than he seems or Wendy becoming a good friend.

  • Talk about the parts of the story you found funniest or scariest.

Things to make and do

Draw a scene from the story
Draw a favourite scene from story, eg maybe from the end of the book when Little Badman performs his rap or the aliens disappear in their spaceship.

Perform Little Badman’s rap and write one of your own
In chapter 15 Little Badman performs his rap. Have a go at performing his rap yourself! Watch the videos here and here first. The second one is a good background beat for your performance. This can be fun to perform with someone else. You could try writing and performing your own rap poem too.

Learn a magic trick
Look at the pages at the back of the book and learn Grandpa’s disappearing coin trick. See if you can amaze your family with it. Learn more magic tricks here 

Talent show
Now you can rap and perform magic tricks why not organise your own talent show? Maybe your friends and family can join in with different skills. You could write a programme and organise a performance.

 

See our print-off activity book with some of these ideas and other activities


Find out more

Read another story about Little Badman by the same writing and illustrating team

Little Badman and the Time-travelling Teacher of Doom 

Watch illustrator Alexsei Bitskoff demonstrate how to draw Little Badman 

Learn more about becoming a rapper

Learn about rap beats 

Listen to poet Grace Nichols read her poem Cat Rap 

Listen to poet John Foster read his poem School Kids Rap 

 

 

 

The Explorer

 

 

The Explorer
Katherine Rundell, Hannah Horn (illus.)
Bloomsbury
Age 8-11

Fred, Con, Lila and Max find themselves alone in the rainforest after their plane crashes. Facing incredible danger they gradually learn to trust each other and find ways to survive including eating grubs and even tarantulas. After finding a map they set off for the city of Manaus on a homemade raft and find a mysterious man living in a hidden city. Is this one of the lost explorers Fred is fascinated with? Will he help them find their way back to civilisation? In time the children discover a little about this enigmatic man, his sad past and the reason he wants to keep the hidden city secret.

The Explorer is an exciting and beautifully written adventure story which describes the wonder, beauty and danger of the rainforest. This is a story about being brave despite your fears, paying attention to the world just as explorers do and why it might sometimes be ok to keep a secret.

The book itself is really beautiful with many wonderful pen and ink line drawings of the setting and wild life framing the text.

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Share the story

Talk about the story

  • Which character do children find most interesting and why?

  • Did the children do the right thing in keeping the explorer’s secret? Is it sometimes ok to keep secrets?

  • Which is your favourite scene in the story?

  • Could you survive in the rainforest – what would be the hardest part?

Sharing books with older children, reading them aloud or discussing what children are reading really helps them become thoughtful and enthusiastic readers. Frances told us about the experience of sharing books with her ten year old daughter Zoe, including our book of the month, The Explorer.

 My mum has always shared her favourite books with me and similarly Zoe and I enjoy sharing books; this now includes discussing books we’ve both read rather than me reading whole books aloud to her. Sometimes the sharing is as simple as me ‘clocking’ where she’s got to in the book and making some sort of evaluative or predictive comment about that part; at other times she asks me to read the first few chapters of a book aloud which seems to help her become quickly immersed in it. At other times she’ll share puzzles with me:- in The Explorer she asked why Con lived with her aunt which led us to look back through the book together because it was clear that she missed the part where Con confided to the other children that she was an orphan. Because we’ve built up quite a ‘bank’ of shared reads over the years, Zoe will also volunteer connections between books or characters. For example, she drew parallels between ‘The Explorer’ and ‘The Wolf -Wilder’ (by the same author) because in both books children had to set out on expeditions without adults.
I tend to let her lead book discussions because I want her to view them as enjoyable and interesting rather than ‘chore-like’. Generally she initiates conversations about why characters are behaving in particular ways and makes connections to our own life experiences.
 
Zoe’s favourite part of The Explorer was where ‘the children made their own food out of natural sources’ because she loves cooking and liked imagining how to cook in the jungle. She made her own version of the ‘chocolate pancakes’. She also said that the loved the part about the children swimming with dolphins because, like the children, she had a  pleasant surprise to discover the dolphins were not sharks after all.
Lila is her favourite character because she likes animals and is funny. Zoe said she dislikes Con but then immediately corrected herself by saying that she’d liked all the characters but hadn’t liked Con when she was grumpy or Max when he was annoying. She reflected that Con became nicer over the course of the book; she’d made friends with the other children and Max sometimes wanted Con to look after him. It did seem that talking about the book encouraged a more nuanced response.’

Things to make and do

  • Make a setting from the story in a shoe box opened down two sides using paint, collage twigs and foliage to decorate it.

  • Make a zig zag book about the characters in the story with drawings and labels

  • Write a letter Fred, Con, Lila or Max would have liked to write to the Explorer after returning home

  • Using a scrap book make an information book about the Amazon. Research information using library books or the links below on the Amazon River, the rainforest, its wildlife, stories of lost cities or explorers who have disappeared.


    See our print-off activity book with some of these ideas and other activities

Find out more

Read more books by Katherine Rundell. Titles include Rooftoppers and The Wolf Wilder

Find out more about the inspiration for The Explorer here

And here

For another adventure story set in the Amazon see The Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson.

Find out more about the rainforest

For information on surviving in the rainforest see here

Find out more about Percy Fawcett and other explorers who disappeared in the Amazonian rainforest.

 

Buy here

 

Burglar Bill

burglar billJanet and Allan Ahlberg
Puffin
Age 5-7

Burglar Bill is a modern classic with a likeable villain who can’t resist stealing. But one day he takes a box containing a big surprise – a baby! When Bill himself is burgled he meets Burglar Betty, the woman of his dreams who happens to be the mother of the baby. There’s a happy ending when they decide to live an honest life – together!

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Share the story

Read aloud
Read the story aloud and leave space for your child to join in with the repeated phrases, such as “I’ll have that!” Stop now and again to talk about it together, commenting on the pictures or what is happening in the story.

Talk about the story
Ask children to choose their favourite page and tell you what they like about it. Is there anything they don’t like?

Tell the story
Children can tell the story as Bill, with a torch, a swag-bag over their shoulders and a cardboard box with a toy baby inside.

Watch the story

From DOB 31 CHILDREN’S STORIES & FUN 

Things to make and do

Make a wanted poster
Using paper, pens and crayons, children can make a wanted poster for Burglar Bill. What does he look like? They can draw him, write a description of him and maybe offer a reward for his capture.

Write a letter to say sorry
Burglar Bill decides to lead an honest life and wants to write to apologise to all the people he has stolen from. Children can write a letter, as Bill, to say sorry and suggest what he can do to make amends, or you can scribe it for them.

Play a memory game
On a tray, put five small objects from around the house ‘stolen’ by Burglar Bill.

Give children a few minutes to look at them and remember them. Then hide the tray and ask them to recall the stolen objects for the ‘police report’. Add another object and let them try again. Alternatively, remove one object and see if children can identify the missing article. You can repeat this, removing a different object each time.

 

Find out more

See an animated extract of Burglar Bill:

mjcmodels

Read more books by Janet and Allan Ahlberg:

The Boyhood of Burglar Bill (for age 8+)

Cops and Robbers

Peepo

The Baby’s Catalogue

Each Peach Pear Plum

The Jolly Postman

The Jolly Christmas Postman

 

Buy online

 

 

 

 

The Lion Inside

 

Rachel Bright, illus. Jim Field
Orchard Books
Age 3-7 years

A little mouse is fed up of feeling overlooked, he envies lion on top of his rock, he is so imposing and so confident. Mouse thinks that if he could roar like lion instead of squeak then maybe the other animals would notice him, and he would make friends. He realises the best way to learn to roar is to ask lion himself. Very bravely he climbs up to lion on his rock. Imagine his surprise when he finds out that lion is more frightened of him than he is of lion.

This is a story that acknowledges we are all scared sometimes but if we dare to be brave we can find our inner lion. It also shows there is no need to shout to make your self heard. Written in rhyme with some lovely words such as ‘tinyful’ and ‘toothsome’ this story is a delight to read aloud and fun return to. The bold illustrations are wonderful with some amazing close ups which emphasise the animals’ feelings.

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Share the story

Read aloud
Before you start reading the book aloud look at the pictures on the cover and the title page and think together about what might happen in this story.

Read the story aloud taking time to pause to look closely at the wonderful illustrations or talk about what is happening when your child wants to.

Join in
When you return to the book children will love joining in with the roars, squeaks and other sound effects.

 

Talk about the story

  • Can you spot the lion on top of the rocks on the title pages and the first page of the story?

  • Talk about how the mouse and the lion feel at different points in the story – look back at the pictures to remind you.

  • Share favourite pictures, parts of the story and words. Give your ideas first eg ‘I like it when the lion is described as ‘toothsome’ – he sounds very scary.’

Ellie and Miles aged 2 and 8 months

‘Miles has been very impressed with the book and has been showing it to everyone who visits, it's very sweet. He liked seeing and naming all the different animals in the story and seeing what sizes they all are. We talked about the mouse feeling frightened and the lion being very loud. At the moment he has a couple of other books with naughty mice in so this was a nice change!

We had a lion afternoon this week and did some lion paintings, he wore his lion t-shirt, and we read the book and then did the building activity making the little mouse house and the lion's tower. It’s a lovely book.’

 

Things to make and do

Make the story world

  • Your child could make a little house for mouse out of construction bricks

  • Collect together boxes or cushions and stack them on top of each other to make lion’s rock if you have a model lion your child could put this on top

  • If you have other small animal toys you could arrange those too like the animals in the story

Play the story

  • Walk or pose like a proud lion.

  • Give your child a mirror so they practice growling like mouse does. They could roar like lion too and try looking scared.

  • Have an imaginary conversation between mouse and lion with one of you pretending to be lion and the other mouse.

Paint a picture

Give your child a large sheet of paper and some paints so that they can paint a big close-up picture of mouse and lion together. Talk with them about what they have painted afterwards.

Find out more

Read more books by author Rachel Bright here

Titles include:

My Sister is an alien

Love Monster

Also,  with the same illustrator Jim Field 

The Squirrels who squabbled

The Koala who could

Jim Field also illustrated the highly popular Oi Frog series of books with Kes Gray

Find out about another story about a lion and a mouse
Here is an animated version of Aesop’s fable of the lion and the mouse

 

 

I was Made for You        

David Lucas
Andersen Press  
Age 3-5

Mummy finishes knitting Cat and wraps him up a surprise gift for Daisy. But Cat is confused, why was he made? He decides to try and find out wriggling free of the wrapping paper, leaving the house and setting out on an adventure, asking the darkness, the stars and the trees why he was made. They all have their own sense of purpose; the snow was made for dancing and the stars to shine. None of this helps Cat until Sun tells him he was made to give himself. Suddenly Cat realises why he was wrapped up with a ribbon. However, throughout his adventure Cat has been unravelling, will he be able to get back to his house? Fortunately he is rescued, Mummy gathers up the wool and remakes Cat who discovers the pleasure of being made especially for Daisy.

A story about seeking a sense of purpose, love and how special a homemade gift can be.

 

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Share the story

Read aloud
When you read the story aloud to your child try changing your voice – whispering for the darkness and sounding deep and strong for rock.

Join in
When you re read the book children could join in with Cat’s repeated question or the answers he was given. You could point out the words in bold print and children could join in with the sound effects ‘whoosh’ and ‘splash.’

Talk about the story

Retell the story
Your child could retell the story in their own words using the pictures to help them.

 

Things to make and do

Watch someone knitting
If you can knit, or know someone who can, your child could watch how the knitting grows and what happens if the wool is unravelled.

Find out what your toys are made from
Make a collection of toys made from different materials, are any of them made from wool? Talk about the difference between them and how they feel.

Make something for someone you know
Make a picture, a card or a model for someone in the family.

Follow a trail
Use wool or string tie one end around a table leg and make a trail around the furniture for your child to follow. Perhaps a favourite toy could be at the other end of the trail to discover.

Find out more

Find out about David Lucas here

 

Read other books by David Lucas, titles include:

Lost in the Toy Museum

The Robot and the Bluebird

This is my Rock

A letter for Bear

How to knit
If you are interested in teaching your child to knit this video is a useful introduction  nb recommended for older children, 6/7+

Incey Winceys Preschool

Incey Winceys Preschool sets a reading challenge for families

Mick Kingswell, preschool manager at Incey Winceys Preschool in North East London is working hard to encourage parents to share books at home and it is great to hear they are making really good use of the resources on www.lovemybooks.co.uk.

Mick told us about a 10,000 hour fund raising reading challenge they held in July. At the launch meeting they told parents about Lovemybooks, put up posters, gave out postcards and encouraged parents to spend time looking at the website.

We asked Mick how the challenge went:

‘We successfully reached our 10,000 minute reading goal we finally managed 10,211 minutes in total. Our charity target was £300 but to my surprise we made £545 for our local children’s centre and Salvation Army and will enable us to give out 100 or so high quality books to disadvantaged children in the local community.’

He said some parents found the reading challenge tough and not everyone got involved, some gave up after day one. The experience of sharing books on a daily basis was new to a number of parents some of whom admitted giving their child time on an iPad in lieu of a quality story time. However there were some big successes:

‘One or two parents said that they felt closer to their children. One dad mentioned how good it was for him to bond with his child. We see this as a huge success.’

‘The children responded well and were excited to read every day and were keen to tell me how many books they read the day before! One child said “my mummy forgot” and then this mum read twice as many stories that night! We could see obvious improvements in communication, concentration and vocabulary.’

A few parents made comments about Lovemybooks:

“I found the Lovemybooks website to be full of fun activities. We almost forgot to read sometimes because we got caught doing other things and had so much fun. We will check back for new books”.

“We used the website you gave us to look at what books to buy. Some of Jack’s books were too long, which put us off reading”.

 

Incey Winceys are finding the website useful in their setting as well. Mick told us:

‘We tend to look on Lovemybooks for ideas for activities or games. When we were looking at emotions we read Grumpy Frog , We used the ideas on the website to make frog puppets and used them in emotion role play.  With Elmer  where you suggested creating colourful elephants we went a bit mad and made a giant elephant together!’

‘We have bookmarked the site on the children’s iPads. We use the video links to watch a story at nap time. This has a calming effect and helps children especially those with SEN with their routine.

‘We also use the site for looking at books we don’t have, or for finding age appropriate books and use the ideas on the site to convince the finance people to buy the books we would like.’

Teachers and school leaders – Are you sharing www.lovemybooks.co.uk with parents in your school or setting too? Do let us know if so, we’d love to hear and share your experiences in our newsletters too. Email info@lovemybooks.co.uk.

 

Michael Rosen on rhyme

Rhyme is a way of playing with words
Michael Rosen

When we make two words sound the same, there’s a tiny moment when instead of listening for the meaning, we’re listening to the sounds of the words: less about ‘sense’, more about ‘sound’. This makes rhyme ideal for non-sense – nonsense. It’s also good for jokes. Rhyme does this through setting up expectations. A good deal of humour works from setting something up, and then knocking it down with a surprise.

Think of the most famous joke of all, person walks along the road and falls over. The expectation is that the person will go on walking down the road – but they don’t. Rhyme often does something similar: it sets up an expectation, we start to predict what kind of word is coming, and then it doesn’t. We laugh. Or maybe rhyme will set up an expectation and when the rhyming word comes along, it feels like completing, or ‘closure’ as they said. ‘Closure’ is satisfying to the ear and mind, rather like music when we’re on the major scale and the tune finishes on the ‘tonic’ note, or the ‘doh’ of the scale.

So, rhyme can do all these kinds of jobs for us, and we end up with a sense of pleasure from it. For young children there is the added possibility that it connects them with the ‘physical’ side of language. Sound is ‘physical’ because we make it by exciting atoms and molecules in our throats and ears. Meaning is about our mental apparatus: thought, consciousness, awareness, mind…

Quite a lot of the time, very young children can hear the physical side of language: sound, volume, pitch, speed of talking without fully ‘getting’ the meaning. It’s quite often puzzling. What do all these people on the TV and radio mean? What do parents and grandparents mean when they’re talking to each other.

When we create language that focusses on the physical, I think it connects children to this state of mind they are in where they perceive language as more to do with the physical than the mental, more to do with sound than meaning.

It must be a relief for them to hear ‘vooby, vooby, vooby’ instead of this constant atmosphere of stuff you don’t quite understand. If, for a moment, as with rhyme, it can seen that language is mocking real words, with its echo and chiming effect, then my view is that that’s a relief too. It’s like saying to children, ‘Listen to this and just enjoy the fun of sound and the meaning may or may not come along later.’

 

 

The Grotlyn

The Grotlyn
Benji Davies
Age 5-7

Since hearing an organ tune Rubi has a strange rhyme in her head about a Grotlyn visiting houses at night. Soon she and others in the town report hearing strange noises, sightings, objects disappearing. Rumours about a Grotlyn are spreading. But in the words of the story ‘..don’t be afraid to sleep – to dream! For things are not quite what they seem.’ A mysterious rhyming picture book to cuddle up and share, with just the right amount of spookiness, wonderfully rich illustrations and a surprise ending.

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Share the story

Before starting to read the story:

Spend time talking together about the double page spread at the beginning of the book. What can you see in the picture?

Think together about the title and the possible meaning of introductory line ‘I know when the Grotlyn’s been slipping through your house unseen’

Read aloud
Read the story aloud, making sure you are cuddled up close!  Pause to talk about the pictures and what is happening. When you finish reading, look back at the illustrations for clues about what the Grotlyn really is.  It might be fun to read the story in a whisper or read it in the dark using a torch to shine on the pages.

Talk about the story

Talk about the line ‘But what at first we think to be the eye does blindly make us see’

Look at the page of things the Grotlyn stole, were these random or stolen for a reason?

Talk about the final pictures – how are the organ grinder and the monkey feeling?

Watch a trailer


Harper Collins Children’s Book

Elena tells us about sharing The Grotlyn with her daughter Leila. She said the detailed illustrations in led to lots of talk, speculation and interest in finding out more.

‘Leila spent time looking at the pictures in the book even before we read the story together.

We watched the clip of the organ grinder on the activity page. This raised lots of questions and comments.

Leila noticed the organ grinder in the clip did not have a monkey. ‘Maybe it’s not kind? The monkey must miss his family because he should be in the jungle’ 

Looking at other pictures of organ grinders online, she noticed that all the monkeys wore ‘funny’ hats. She then looked back at the illustration in the book and noticed the monkey was holding his hat and guessed this must be to collect money from people. She noticed the monkey was chained to the old man and thought about why he wanted to escape.

Leila was super keen to write a postcard from the monkey to the organ grinder (who she named Benji Davies!). We looked at some postcards together and thought about where the monkey might have gone; ‘I think he has gone back to the jungle and the organ grinder is sad but also angry because who will help him now?’ 

We then spent some time looking at all the things the grotlyn had stolen and how the monkey had used them to escape. Leila looked really hard and spotted the bike wheel in the hot air balloon. This led to a conversation about hot air balloons and how they work. When we go to the library, we will try to find some information about them. There were so many things to notice in the book and it really encouraged us to look closer at the images, make connections, look things up that we didn't fully understand. 

All in all Leila really enjoyed this book and I often found her reading it on her own and then she would often comment on something we had not noticed before.’

Things to make and do

Play the story
Together you could pretend to be some of the people who saw the Grotlyn talking about what they saw or heard using words from the story or making up some of your own.

Children could pretend to be a Grotlyn ( or monkey!) creeping through a house and stealing things for their escape plan.

Create a dark den, for example with a blanket covering a table children can create a camp inside and play with a torch.

Draw an escape plan
Children could imagine they are the monkey and plot their escape, what will they need? What will they build? Draw a diagram like the monkey’s picture and add notes to it.

Be a news reporter
Take turns role playing interviews between a reporter and people in the town about what they saw or heard.

Write a news report
Write a news report about the mysterious Grotlyn.

Write a postcard
Write a postcard from the monkey to the organ grinder explaining why he wanted to escape.

Find out more

Read more books by Benji Davies

Titles include

The Storm Whale

The Storm Whale in Winter

Grandad’s Island

On Sudden Hill with Linda Sarah

Goodnight Already with Jory John

Find out about organ grinders and their monkeys, watch a video:


freddydalby

Our top 10 new picture books 2017

It is often hard to know how to choose new picture books from the thousands published every year.
Here is a selection of some of our current favourites from 2017. You and your child will meet a range of appealing characters in these beautifully illustrated picture books and discover amusing, intriguing and thought provoking stories. We hope you enjoy them.

The Bad Bunnies’ Magic Show    Mini Grey        
Simon and Schuster
Age 5-7

The audience is waiting for the Great Hypno to perform his amazing magic show. But just before the show is about to start an announcement is made; Messrs Abra and Cadabra, two bunnies, will replace Hyno. Abra and Cadabra thrill the audience with incredible transformations and daring feats but what are they up to when they hypnotise the audience and where is The Great Hypno? A funny and intriguing book with a retro feel, the dastardly scheming rabbit duo make great villains. There is lots to spot in the fabulous illustrations and the paper engineering includes several flaps which are fun to open.

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The Cave  Rob Hodgson
Frances Lincoln
Age 3-5

In a cave there is a mysterious little creature apparently hiding. Outside the cave there is a wolf who is desperate for the little creature to come out and play. Or so he says, perhaps he has other plans? The rather hungry wolf hatches a series of clever plans to lure the creature out of the hole. He finally succeeds with a tempting donut with sprinkles on top. However the creature which emerges is not little at all, a lot bigger than the wolf in fact and in the end it’s the wolf who wants to hide away in case he gets eaten.

A beautifully illustrated, well-constructed story with a hint of mystery and touches of humour. A clever ending too as the wolf is thwarted in his cunning plans.

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Diggersaurs  Michael Whaite
Penguin Random House
Age 0-5

Have you ever looked at diggers and cranes and imagined they look like dinosaurs? Well this book does just that, tapping into two popular themes with young children and blending them together to create an amazing set of creatures – DIGGERSAURS! Bold illustrations, a rhyming text and an imaginative idea make this a great story for sharing again and again.

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Grandad’s Secret Giant  David Litchfield
Frances Lincoln
Age 5-7

Grandad is always telling Billy about the secret giant that only he sees. A giant that keeps watch to make sure everyone is safe and helps out when they are in trouble. He keeps out of sight as he expects people to be scared when they see him. Billy doesn’t believe Grandad. But then one day when he needs someone very tall to help him out he finds out that grandad was telling the truth. Will Billy just run away or will he be brave and thank Grandad’s Secret Giant?  A beautifully illustrated story about the importance of friendship and not being scared about people who are different

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The Grotlyn  Benji Davies

Age 5-7

Since hearing an organ tune Rubi has a strange rhyme in her head about a Grotlyn visiting houses at night. Soon she and others in the town report hearing strange noises, sightings, objects disappearing. Rumours about a Grotlyn are spreading. But in the words of the story ‘Don’t be afraid to sleep – to dream! For things are not quite what they seem.’ A mysterious rhyming picture book to cuddle up and share, with just the right amount of spookiness, wonderfully rich illustrations and a surprise ending.

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Grumpy frog  Ed Vere
Puffin
Age 3-5+

In this striking picturebook we meet a very grumpy frog with so many issues – he only likes green things, won’t go swimming because the water is blue or bouncing because the trampoline is yellow and he absolutely hates pink. He does enjoy hopping and racing, just as long as he wins of course. However when he ends up with no friends, grumpy frog feels pretty sorry for himself. How will he react when pink rabbit offers to play with him?

A funny story about feeling grumpy, compromising and making friends.

Its creator, Ed Vere speaks about the story and reads it aloud here

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I am Actually a Penguin  Sean Taylor, illus Kasia Matyjaszek
Templar Publishing
Age 3-7

This is a story about a little girl who loves dressing up. She is delighted to receive a penguin suit from her uncle and wants to wear it all the time. Not only that, she tries to BECOME a penguin as much as she can from how she gets downstairs (not recommended) to what she eats; though trying to catch fish fingers in her mouth proves a bit of a challenge. She is allowed to wear her penguin suit to her auntie’s wedding,  but when it comes to going to school her parents put their foot down, no penguin suit, anyway it needs washing, so she takes it off and decides to become…. an alligator instead!

An amusing story about the fun of dressing up and getting really engrossed in imaginative play.

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My name is not refugee                                                                                             
Kate Milner
Age 5-7+

A mother and her son are leaving their home in search of a safe place to live. Through the mother’s words we find out how she prepares her child for the journey they are about to make.  Through the illustrations we see some of the young boy’s experiences during the long journey, from deciding what to pack to eventually starting to settle into a new home. We see that at times the journey might be exciting, at others strange and worrying, and it will certainly be long and tiring, and even quite boring with endless walking, walking, walking.

This attractive picturebook tries to explain the refugee experience (unfortunately a very real situation for many children in the world today) in a way that is accessible to young children.  It is a book which gives lots to talk and think about. There are discussion points on every page to help with this, encouraging children to imagine what it might be like, for example ‘What would you take (with you)?’ ‘How far can you walk?’

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Play Jez Alborough
Walker
Age 0-3

Bobo the chimp is enjoying playing with his friends, tortoise and giraffe. He doesn’t listen to mummy when she says it is time to stay at home and go to bed and carries on playing with tortoise. When it starts to get dark tortoise want to sleep too, there is no one to play with and Bobo is feeling worried. Luckily pelican rescues him and takes him safely home.

A simply gorgeous bedtime story for the very young. Bobo is irresistible. Lovely art work, the illustrations tell the story with just a handful of words.


Jez Alborough talks about creating the book here  

If you and your child fall in love with this one there are more Bobo stories to enjoy Hug, Tall and Yes

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Superbat  Matt Carr
Scholastic
Age 5-7

Pat dreamt of being a bat with amazing powers, just like the superheroes in his favourite comics. He made himself a special outfit, now all he needed to do was convince everyone he was.. SUPERBAT! The trouble was the superpowers he claimed to have (super hearing, flying, finding his way in the dark) all the other bats had too. His eyes didn’t shoot laser beams and he wasn’t extra strong like the superheroes in his favourite comics. Maybe he wasn’t destined to be a ‘superbat’, maybe he just looked… silly. Then one day something happened, help was needed and Pat didn’t hesitate, he was a true SUPERBAT and bravery was his superpower.

An appealing, attractively illustrated story with interesting facts about bats to discover along the way.

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