Marmalade Magic

Marmaduke Duck and the Marmalade Jam by Juliette MacIver, illustrated by Sarah Davis

When Marmaduke Duck makes some marmalade, he is soon surrounded by an eager assortment of animals, all desperate for a taste of the sweet treat. Finally the llama arrives on the scene, gobbling up the whole lot, and leaving Farmer Palmer to save the day by inviting everyone to a feast.

Despite the slight story, the outstanding rhythm combined with compelling internal rhyming structure, interesting and entertaining vocabulary and strong repetition, make this a 'read again' choice for children from 3+. Although the very intensity of the rhyming can turn it into a bit of a tongue-twisting challenge for the unprepared reader.  You'll be more confident with the second or third repetition.

Then down came a llama to view the panorama.
And following the llama came a farmer in pyjamas
shouting "What's this game?"
You'll all alarm my llama, cried llama farmer Palmer.
The llama sure was calmer though, before the farmer came.

An outstanding example of the 'three Rs' in children's stories: rhyme, rhythm and repetition.
The bounding rhythm carries you through this story at breathtaking speed; the clever rhymes encourage children to begin to play with words, and the repetition encourages participation in the story.

Sarah Davis' illustrations are stunning, with bright bold colours and the expressive faces on the animals help tell the story.  I have absolutely fallen for the llama who "went WHAM! in the jam, and ate the whole lot"
The large bright coloured illustrations, make this clearly visible to the back row of the story-time group (though spotting the gnat can be a challenge!); while also offering extra detail to reward closer inspection.

This has been an outstanding read-aloud success to large groups (15 or so kids), as well as being one of Mitchell's all-time favourites.  While the story appeals to children from 3+ - who will happily join in the chant of "Marmaduke Duck eating marmalade jam!"; older children will really enjoy the clever word play: "quick, slick, lick of the jam in the pot"; and sophisticated readers will enjoy the homonyms (words spelled differently but which sound the same: llama, pyjamas, calmer).
It's definitely more suited to confident readers - and not recommended for those who find English challenging.

Shortlisted for the New Zealand Post Children's Book Picture Book Awards, for 2011 (and my personal pick for best in show).

An absolutely stunning book by a novice author. Here's hoping that we see many more.

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.

Diggers

Roadworks by Sally Sutton, illustrated by Brian Lovelock

Small boys all seem to go through similar phases of interest:
cars, diggers, trains, dinosaurs, etc., at similar ages.
It seems much better to go with the flow, staying 'on topic' while introducing books that expand their vocabulary (beyond the name of every kind of machine known to man) and spark their imagination.

The catch is, finding good books to do just that.

It's easy to find poor books using the digger theme: ones that have no integral story and are simply a grab bag of different kinds of machines; ones that start off as a digger book, and then veer into other random areas (colours, textures, shapes, etc); and even ones that use gimmicks (sounds, shapes, wheels, etc) to attract attention.
But none of these offer anything to engage a child's interest in the longer term.

Among all the dross, Sally Sutton's masterpiece stands head and shoulders above the rest, and is a firm favourite with every small boy of my acquaintance.

Using short phrases and sentences (complete with noisy exclamations - my favourite is "Squelch! Spluck! Splat!") it tells the story of the machines used to construct a road, from the first cut, to the final opening. The regular rhythm and rhyme is vibrantly poetic, and explains why so many children quickly memorize this book.

Load the dirt. Load the dirt.
Scoop and swing and drop.
Slam it down into the truck.
Bump!
Whump!
Whop!

Within the first few readings, Mitchell was already joining in to read the story along with me. I'd often start off with the first sentence, and then let him finish the page on his own.

After a few readings I've overheard him and other children playing quietly with diggers, repeating the story to themselves as they work on their own construction sites.

The large clear illustrations, prominently feature the machines doing the work - the workers are mostly small, relatively unimportant figures, set against the size and scale of the machines and their road-building project. Even when the workers break for lunch, they are dwarfed by the huge wheel of the road roller beside them. Each illustration exactly reflects the story being told on that page - a great source of satisfaction to literal-minded pre-schoolers. And the final page includes a pictorial glossary of all the machines and a short description of what they do.

Virtually all children will have seen roadworks going on around them (certainly you can't miss them in Auckland, where it seems that roads are being dug up on a continual basis), so they have lots of context to bring to the story, and will take a new appreciation of why the machines are working, away with them.

Highly recommended as an excellent read-aloud for big groups of children. The large bold text, makes it easy for adults to read, the story is attractive and memorable, and the primary colours used in the illustrations make it easy for the kids in the back row to see clearly. Be warned, it's not a quiet circle-time book, this is loud and brash, and the pre-schoolers will enthusiastically join in with the exclamations. Be prepared to re-read frequently, as it will become a firm favourite.

Roadworks was awarded Best Picture Book in the 2009 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults and translated into Maori as Mahiara.

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)

Hunt the Ladybird

What the ladybird heard by Julia Donaldson illustrated by Lydia Monks

A book by the Gruffalo author, how could you go wrong!

There's an excellent story-line, with the little ladybird "who never before had said a word" organizing the animals on the farm to foil the plot of the two bad men to steal the "fine prize cow".

As you'd expect from Julia Donaldson, the story has good rhythm and some rhyme elements, and lots of animal noises for the kids to chime in with; though not much in the way of vocabulary extension.

But it's the pictures that steal the show - from the exciting sparkly yellow cover onwards.

Lydia Monks collage-style illustrations are full of character and appeal (even the baddies have their own sneaky charm), and offer different perspectives on the story - keeping up the interest levels.

The little glittery ladybird appears on every page, except the endpapers [we've looked! - at one stage, I was tempted to get a ladybird and stick it on, so we could just shut the book]; giving lots of opportunity for playing 'hunt the ladybird'

Although Mitchell enjoyed it one-on-one, he found hunting the ladybird to be the most exciting element; so I was a bit dubious over whether it would work as a read-aloud to a group of kids (since the ladybird is too small to see at a distance).

But it was brilliant.

In a big group the animal sounds "the cow said Moo and the hen said Cluck..." worked the best, with the kids joining in with the sounds, and guessing which ones would be different during the raid "at the dead of night".

Interestingly, the use of the map by the baddies, sparked an interest with our 4 year old boys in map making to find pirate treasure - I really didn't see that one coming!

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!

Muddy Fun

This is the mud by Kathryn Apel

Mud, the muckier the better, is always likely to appeal to small boys, and this book provides lots of it.

Loosely based on This is the house that Jack built, this is a simple story about a cow getting stuck in the mud, and what happens to the farmer and friends who try to rescue her.

The great rhythm and rhyme and lovely large cartoon-like illustrations help this work well as a read-aloud for groups. And the colloquial language, "the ute spun and bogged" "don't worry old girl" is a refreshing change from Americanisms for 'down under' kids.

This was one of the earliest books (other than illustrated songs) that Mitchell asked for again and again. I've found that it works well for kids from 2 to 4 - older children will enjoy it, but not ask for it again.