Bears who Share

Bears on Chairs by Shirley Parenteau, illustrated by David Walker.

Four small chairs
just right for bears.
Where is the bear
for each small chair?

Can five bears find a fair way to share four chairs?

The very simple rhyming couplet scheme can become monotonous, unless read with enthusiasm and expression. This is one of those stories which really relies on the story-teller to put it across effectively.

However, the story itself is immensely attractive to its intended audience of one to three-year-olds; children who are just learning problem-recognition and counting skills, and who are intimately familiar with the challenge of 'sharing' so it's fair for everyone. The themes of compassion and sharing are dealt with lightly and the ending provides a deeply satisfactory resolution for preschoolers - a sharing solution that accommodates all the bears.

The watercolour illustrations are charming, each bear has it's own colour, so they are clearly identifiable; and by choosing to draw only the barest minimum (bears and chairs), they are clearly visible against the white background.

You need to be an expressive reader to put this one across effectively, but it works well as a read-aloud for a reasonably large group of children. Most effective in it's target group of one to three-year-olds. But older children in the group can be engaged in the counting aspects, and offered the chance to problem-solve as the story goes along? 'What could the bears do next?'

This was a surprise success with Mitchell - and was one of his favourite books for several months. At three, he's recently rediscovered it, and is enjoying it again. It's worked particularly well for girls. Boys (apart from Mitchell) have enjoyed the story, but not asked for it again.

Wombats

Wombat Walkabout by Carol Diggory Shields, illustrated by Sophie Blackall

We seem to be going through a bit of an Aussie theme at the moment; but there's something just so darned cute about marsupials (wombats, koalas, even kangaroos), NZ wildlife is interesting, but you wouldn't call it cuddly.

But this one stands head and shoulders above the rest.

The rhyming text follows the adventures of six wombats as they go on an outing -- tracked by a hungry dingo "I've a hunch my lunch just walked on by". One by one, the friends get captured, until the last two wombats turn the tables on their foe. A predictable story line, with the last in line disappearing, but half the fun is waiting to see how the wombats will strike back.

Carol Diggory Shields rhyme and rhythm is natural, unforced and easy to read, with lots of Australian colloquialisms (walkabout, swagbag) to provoke interest and discussion - there's a helpful glossary at the front to assist with 'translation'. The downwards progression of wombats, from six to two, encourages children to count along with the story, and introduces the earliest concepts of subtraction.

Sophie Blackall's illustrations are delightful, with charming, chubby wombats, each with their own distinctive item of clothing, to help you identify them; and a sly and slinking dingo (smoking a pipe) to provide contrast. The pictorial influence of the Australian outback is very evident (though it is sketched in rather than realistic imagery) and provides great visual contrast to the dense and lush bush illustrations from New Zealand picture books.
Hiding the dingo on each page, offers children the chance to find the hunter, as the wombats numbers diminish. And, a lovely in-joke for parents, Jack's paper hat has a picture of the dingo - clearly a 'wanted poster' - on it.

This has been a stand-out success with big and small groups of children. It has plenty of extension concepts for the older kids, while the story and rhyme scheme work well for the younger crowd (2+); while the retribution visited on the dingo is popular with everyone.
It's very easy to read, and I've happily put it in the hands of people who aren't confident reading to big groups of children, and watched them succeed.

A real winner. I'll be looking out for other books by this duo.

It was surprisingly hard to come by in New Zealand, despite the publication information listing Penguin NZ as one of the publishers, they couldn't supply a copy to my favourite bookstore, so I had to buy it directly overseas (Amazon wins again)

Nackle, Mama, Nackle

The Nickle Nackle Tree by Lynley Dodd

OK, I'll admit it; I bought this book for Mitchell because I loved it as a child.

Lynley Dodd is now much more famous for her Hairy Maclary series, but I think that this is one of her best books ever. The language has great rhythm, and the words are simply delightful -- bound to appeal to anyone brought up on Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll.

In the Manglemunching forest, there's a Nickle Nackle Tree,
Growing Nickle Nackle berries, as red as red can be.

Disguised amidst the verbiage, is a simple counting book helping children to learn the sequence of numbers - and the consequences of over-crowding!

Big bold illustrations, with beautiful use of intense saturated colours, make this a very attractive book for kids.

As an aside, you can see the influence of the NZ birds on Lynley Dodd's illustrations -- just look at the bashful blush birds (kiwi) or the haughty huffpuff birds (NZ native pigeon) - it's a nice 'in joke' for the NZ reader.

Mitchell loves it as well, and it was one of the first he asked for, once be began to enjoy being read to - "Nackle, Mama, Nackle" he'd say. I think that I remember reading it 14 times in one day!

He's moved on from listening to the story; to 'reading' it to me; to counting the birds on each page; and is now tracking down the nickle nackle berries on each page & coming up with a reason for their presence or absence! (whatever floats your boat, I guess)

I've had medium success with this as a read aloud to groups. You (the reader) have to be pretty confident with the weird names (not a problem for me, but a bit of a challenge if you're not a confident reader, or English is not your first language). And a big group of children of different ages, may want very different things from the book. I've found it works best with up to 6 kids of similar ages - and is an absolute hit with one or two snuggled on your lap.

It's great to see such a very early work (1976) by a popular and prolific author - indeed the first book that she both wrote and illustrated - not only remain in print, but stand up very favorably indeed against her later stories. It won the 2006 Gaelyn Gordon Award for a much loved picture book - so I'm not alone in my enjoyment! Go Nackle!