When packing for our trip I knew I had to pack children’s books — we couldn’t go a whole three months without them, no matter how heavy they made our suitcases! So I decided to pack books that were relevant to our travels — books about nature, animals, sea creatures, etc.
Over the years we’ve collected many of the books from the award-winning Read and Wonder series of nature storybooks, including One Tiny Turtle, Surprising Sharks, and Bat Loves the Night. The Read and Wonder storybooks are great because they merge stories with interesting facts, making them entertaining as well as educational.
These books have turned out to be perfect for our trip — we’ve seen so many of the featured animals (sharks, turtles, bats, frogs…) and so it’s fun for the kids to read about them. Plus the books are all paperback — making them much easier to lug around with us.
Another fabulous interactive colouring book just begging to be illustrated! They seem to be popping up everywhere these days and with good reason too. Created by talented Melbournian Nicole Mandile, in the first of her My Picture Storybooks series, The Magical Milky Way’s Super Galactic Zoo kept my rambunctious 4-year-old son in check on a long-haul airplane flight recently. So naturally I am a big fan. He was totally engrossed in creating, drawing and pasting away, each page providing the perfect canvas for his masterpiece. It helps that he has a complete fascination with all things galaxy-related.
The book is created using uncoated paper, a great surface to sketch on and is staple bound so the pages open flat. It is printed in Australia on 100% recycled paper. It isn’t too long or too short — just perfect to capture their little attention spans.
Available through weheartbooks for local and international shipment.
Before we left for our sabbatical, I sat down with the teachers at my son’s school and asked them if they had any suggestions or activities they recommended for my son while we’re away. They told me that kids often forget basic lessons if they take a long break from school — apparently kids can forget how to use scissors, forget how to count, even forget how to read if they go a while without doing it! So they suggested that I try to keep up on these sorts of activities. They also suggested that I take the time to teach my 4-year-old the basics of reading.
I’m not the most patient parent and I’m certainly not cut out for ‘real’ home-schooling, but I must admit I’m actually having some success thanks to these Key Words Flash Cards — containing the 100 key words that make up 50% of those we read, write and speak every day. The concept of flash cards is easy: they gradually introduce the words and, because of repetition, teach kids to recognize and memorize the words on first sight.
I’m also teaching my 2-year-old his letters. I’m using the Early Learning ABC Flashcards which are really good because they include both the capital letters and the lowercase ones. (Apparently different countries do it differently — I’ve been teaching my kids the capital letters, but in the UK they teach kids the lowercase letters first!)
In both cases the flashcards are working really well. My boys actually look forward to our ‘letters and words’ lesson every morning!
As Courtney mentioned I’m a bit of a nut when it comes to children’s books, and Sparkle and Spin is my latest aquistition. The book is about words and is SO SO SO beautifully illustrated. I really love it. Without even knowing it, it appears I have stumbled upon a pretty powerful author/illustrator team with Paul and Ann Rand.
Paul Rand is known as one of America’s greatest graphic designers having designed logos for IBM, UPS and ABC. He teamed up with his wife, Ann, in the 1950s and ’60s to produce some children’s books. Rather then stories, their books explain things like how words are used (as in Sparkle and Spin) or what ‘knowing’ is (in ‘I Know a Lot of Things‘, which I have on order) or being alone in ‘Little 1‘ (also on order!).
I’m just hoping that the final of the 4 books they collaborated on ‘Listen, Listen’ is put back into print soon (as it is out of my price range in the used-book stores!).
Both books are about finding things in the pictures — ‘Who’s Hiding?’ is a bit like playing that memory game with a tray of objects, but in this book we have a line-up of animals and we have to find which one is hiding or crying or asleep. I was so surprised that my son could do it when we bought the book about a year ago as I found it quite difficult.
‘Spot It!’ is much harder but so beautiful you don’t mind staring hard at the pages to ’spot it’ — creatures hide within graphic patterns and we often have to stare for a few minutes before finding them. I love how we both start to panic when we can’t find them immediately (he obviously takes after me with his impatience)!
Both books are available from the Babyccino Bookshop (both US and UK).
I do love new designs/books/characters that appeal to grown-ups and kids alike. My girls are going crazy for the Noodoll characters I brought home recently, and so am I.
Noodoll lives in Noodle town where everyone and everything is made out of noodles. His main arch enemy is Rice Head, who is constantly trying to stop the Noodles. The illustrations are great, very simple and funky.
The world of Noodoll and Ricehead spans from books to accessorizes and toys. And, if you have a spare second do check out the website — the noodle and rice recipes are some of the best I have ever found!
It is the 17th book in the ‘This is…’ series and Sasek is visiting down under! This is Australia is a wonderful book to add to the classic travel series, first published in the ’70s, which Courtney posted about here!
In line with the later books in the series, the colours are slightly vintage and the images are retro and whimsical. And Sasek’s mode of travel to the land down under? Not in chains like the first British colonists, but on a Qantas big bird!! (which incidentally, ‘flies very well’, unlike the Australian penguin and emu!) I absolutely love these books — they introduce children to the people, customs and places of interest in cities around the world, captivating young readers with gorgeous illustrations and a witty narrative. I also think it’s fascinating to see each city from a 1960’s perspective. And…needless to say, in my family we just love the Aussie edition!
We have a few different versions of this Christmas poem, but Gyo Fujikawa’s The Night Before Christmas is our favourite! Her illustrations are so beautiful and in a way that appeals to adults and kids alike. Fujikawa, also known for her version of Mother Goose, creates the most lovely, vintage-like illustrations. We especially love the cheery little Santa… and the sugar-plums!
We’ve been reading the story every night before bed and my kids now know the entire poem by heart. We are so excited for Santa to come!
The book is available from our Bookshop (UK and US) along with many other great holiday books.
I love Christmas! But my problem is I start getting that Bing Crosby feeling around mid-October and it is no good for my kids’ excitement levels. So, as of last year, there is now a self-imposed rule: no Christmassiness (that includes Gingerbread Lattes, Mince Pies and said Bing) until 1st December. Well Bah Humbug!
As with most rules I have been finding ways to get around it, and one way is with this Advent Calendar I have been preparing (since about mid-June) for my children.
As I was clearing out their bookshelves to make room for a particularly large Amazon delivery I decided to put the Christmas themed books away until December — we had 8, so that made some space. It occurred to me that it would be a nice idea to have a Christmas story every night of Advent… and so the Christmas Story Book Calendar was born. Of course my husband thinks I am madly excessive buying a further 16 Christmas books over the last months but this is a calendar that will come out year after year.
I’ve wrapped each book up in super cheap red wrapping from Ikea (is there no end to their brilliance?) and numbered them for the 24 days until Christmas. I am so excited to see my children unwrapping one parcel each night before bed and for me to re-read the stories. Some of my choices are German Christmas books for my husband to read and I’ve wrapped those for the days when we visit Berlin so Oma, Opa and other family can also get involved.
This is how our calendar looks this year:
1. Mr Snow – Roger Hargreaves
2. Little Elephant’s Christmas – Heluiz Washburne & Jean McConnell
3. Madeline’s Christmas – Ludwig Bemelmans
4. Petunia’s Christmas – Roger Duvoisin
5. A Star So Bright – M Christina Butler & Caroline Peder
6. Mog’s Christmas – Judith Kerr
7. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey – Susan Wojciechowski
8. One Snowy Night – Nick Butterworth
9. Lyle at Christmas – Bernard Waber
10. Letters from father Christmas – J.R.R. Tolkien
11. Die Weihnachtsengelein – Else Wenz-Vietor
12. Weihnachten im Stall – Astrid Lindgren
13. Wie Weihnachtelt Man? – Kathrin Schaerer & Lorenz Pauli
14. Weihnachten im Bullerbue – Astrid Lindgren
15. Little Rabbit’s Christmas – Harry Horse
16. Albert le Blanc – Nick Butterworth
17. Bear Stays Up For Christmas – Karma Wilson & Jane Chapman
18. Paddington and the Christmas Surprise – Michael Bond
19. Mr Willowby’s Christmas Tree – Robert Barry
20. The Little Fir Tree – Margaret Wise Brown
21. One Thousand Christmas Beards – Roger Duvoisin (out of print)
22. Christmas Day in the Morning – Pearl S. Buck
23. The First Christmas – Jan Pienkowski
24. ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas – Clement C. Moore (Illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith)
You can find some of these and other favourite Festive Season Books in the Babyccino Bookshop.
The books by Iela and Enzo Mari are so perfect for our little international audience of readers — I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to write about them! Not only are the iconic illustrations so beautiful and the stories so sweet, but they are completely wordless so there’s no language barrier for non-English speaking kids.
The books, including La Mela e la Farfalla (’Apple and the Butterfly’, pictured left) all depict natural cycles and playful transformations. Iela Mari beautifully conveys the cycle of caterpillar to butterfly, or, in another book, a chicken laying an egg.
What is also so nice about a story without words is that it allows the reader to interpret the story on a personal level and really soak up the details of the images. Your kids will love them too because they can ‘read’ them on their own!
Do you know any budding fashionistas aged 8 and up, who also love to draw and create? Then this is your book! My Wonderful World of Fashion by illustrator Nina Chakrabarti is an interactive coloring book full of the most gorgeous and sophisticated ‘fashion’ illustrations to colour in and also intricate designs to finish off. It offers great ideas for making and doing too (like how to make a sari, turn a napkin into a headscarf, dye a T-shirt and so on).
To say I spent hours with my daughter today totally captivated by this book is an understatement! I think we were at it a good part of yesterday too. (It is school holidays here in Oz after all so we are on a bit of a craft frenzy!) What I love is that the illustrations span both vintage fashions — drawing on beautiful and interesting objects through the ages — and contemporary invented designs from the illustrator’s own imagination. ‘Did you know…?’ features give brief historical notes to encourage children to be inspired by history and by the fashions of other cultures.
Really, it is a wonderful celebration of fashion and so, so unique. Available at Amazon, or from Melbourne-based bookshop, Berkelouw Books, in High Street Armadale.
I made a wonderful discovery not long ago that has kept my family entertained for evenings and evenings since: Barefoot Books.
Barefoot Books is a publishing company that was started in 1992 (centuries ago!) by two young mums in London — one with a passion for art and story and one with the entrepreneurial know-how. Their aim was to publish books for children that celebrate diversity and imagination…
Over fifteen years later, it is safe to say that they’ve succeeded. Every book of Barefoot Books I have seen so far has been truly wonderful!
The books are above all imaginative, and educative. But they don’t just teach the usual! Of course mathematics, letters, history, colours, etc. (the usual, depending on age) are part of the ‘curriculum’, and so in a very nice and tasteful way. But Barefoot Books goes a step further than that: they also teach children a thing or two about the world around them, about different cultures and traditions; and about themselves. Their aim is to sparkle their imagination, inspire creativity and ‘instill a respect for the diversity of the planet and for the earth itself’.
Barefoot Books works together with some of the finest artists (Clare Beaton and Alison Jay amongst them), so they all have a special quality to them, some of them are truly magical.
If you want to take a look at their selection, check out the Barefoot Books webshop…
Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal is a darling children’s book about childhood insecurities. It features a little spoon who wishes he was handy like a fork or sharp like a knife or exotic like chopsticks. Little spoon’s mother explains all the things that only spoons get to do (like diving head first into a bowl of ice cream!), which makes him feel special and happy once again. It’s a simple story with a big message: liking yourself for what you are and learning not to make comparisons with others.
The sweet illustrations, by Scott Magoon, are simple and funny — captivating both child and adult. (Note the misfit ’spork’ in spoon’s family portrait). And the story ends with the spoon family ’spooning’ in bed, which is our favorite bit!
Available from our bookshop, both in the UK and the US.
I found this book in a small bookstore in London and thought it was the most adorable cookbook for kids that I have seen in a long time. I love that it has an excellent collection of old-school, comfort food recipes – everything from chicken noodle soup, meatloaf and chocolate birthday cake to simple things like cinnamon toast and grilled cheese sandwiches. Each recipe has step by step instructions that are easy for kids to make and it has wonderful illustrations that describe all the tools and utensils found in the kitchen. There is even a little illustrated lesson on how to set the table for a meal. If you are looking for a practical and fun birthday gift that is great for the whole family — I can’t recommend Look and Cook more highly.
I have never been a fan of battery-operated toys. Most of my friends think I’m crazy and tease me about it, but I reckon that battery-operated toys are just not necessary!
I did give in and get my toddler a lovely little book called La Ferme, illustrated by my friend Marion Billet — one of France’s most popular children’s book illustrators. My daughter squealed with delight when she started playing with it, much like the little pig in the book. The concept of the book is simple — six lovingly illustrated farm animals each with a little button on them which make very realistic animal noises. It was perfect for a recent 5-hour car ride, as it gave hours of entertainment and she now knows exactly what a cow, a hen, and a horse sound like and takes great enjoyment imitating the sound!
I guess my rule about battery operated toys had to be broken at some point…. I have not been able to find this book on sale internationally but you can buy it via a French website or in most good children’s bookshops here in France.
I have to say I was a bit shocked when my 4-year-old pointed to herself during bathtime and asked, “What is this for?” I, slightly stunned, replied “That is where babies come out when you are a Mama. I’ll tell you more about it later.” I was proud of myself for not freezing up, but still didn’t know exactly how much information should be shared with a preschooler. So I researched a bit and found this great book– Amazing You!: Getting Smart About Your Private Parts. It discusses all the basic anatomy issues for both genders and then goes on to explain how babies are made and where they come from– not in too much detail, but just enough. Phew! It seems like something my daughter will understand better in a year or so, but I am happy to have it at the ready when need be.
I also picked up a book for parents on educating your children about sexuality (From Diapers to Dating: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy Children), which has proven to be quite useful as well. So far (I’m not finished with it yet) I’ve learned that it is not about the Big Talk, but about having answers to the questions your children bring up as they come along. As we all dread the birds & the bees lecture, I’m happy to learn about some tools to educate my children without it as the need arises.
This picture book by Charlotte Dematons is perfect. Perfect because it will ensure hours and hours of entertainment for the entire family, and perfect for Babyccino readers in all countries worldwide because there is no language problem: this book is wordless! (I recently sent it to our friends in Brussels who speak three languages. No problem whatsoever!)
The present and the past, the real and the imaginative; everything is mixed up in the wonderful drawings in this book. It provides endless opportunities for make-up stories… Find the blue car, the yellow balloon, the prisoner and the fakir on the magic carpet. The more you look , the more you see!
Charlotte Dematons was born in France but studied and lives in the Netherlands. The Yellow Balloon is available from our bookshops (UK or US).
One lesson I learned after Little C’s recent first birthday is that from now on I’m going to ask relatives to either donate money into his bank account (which is an easy solution for those who live interstate and overseas) or for them to buy him books. And after visiting the recent Magnolia Square market in Sydney, I know exactly how they can do this. There is a great little online Australian bookshop called We heart books. They have a small but well-edited selection of children’s titles, all conveniently organized by age or separated into categories like vintage classics, board books, picture books, etc.
I’ve discovered loads of new titles, and have fallen in love with everything Eric Carle has illustrated.
In honor of their little sister, my boys were recently given the book, Annie Rose is My Little Sister by Shirley Hughes. The book, about the special bond between a little boy and his sister, is the sweetest and most touching book we’ve read in a long time. I even had tears in my eyes as I read the last page.
Although I had never heard of her before, Shirley Hughes is quite a well-known British author/illustrator who has written more than fifty children’s books. She is known for her ability to capture the ‘every day’ moments of childhood in such an idyllic way. She really makes you appreciate the (seemingly) small details that your kids notice.
There’s a whole series of books about Alfie and his little sister, Annie Rose. And in fact there’s a whole Shirley Hughes Collection. I’ll certainly be picking up a few more Shirley Hughes books!
The time has come — my little guy has done his first wee-wees on the potty. It involved some persuasion (we showed him pictures of his little friend Quin, Courtney’s son, proudly using the potty), and we read to him the little book that was also read endlessly to his big sister: Alona Frankel’s Once Upon a Potty.
Ms. Frankel wrote and illustrated the first copy of the book for her son Michael in 1975, the year in which I was most probably being potty trained myself. (My mum used to say that I really potty-trained myself; I don’t remember a thing though). After writing the book, all of Ms. Frankel’s friends wanted copies for their own children. A girl’s version was written, the books were published by a local publisher who took them to a book fair, and before long ‘Once Upon a Potty’ was selling in numerous countries.
Once Upon a Potty is a very sweet book with wonderfully simple illustrations which, in a very natural way, tell the story of a little boy (or girl) whose grandma brings him a potty. The book sweetly discusses the body of the child (it’s just like everybody else’s!), the purpose of the potty (For flowers? A hat?), and the fact that the whole process may very well take a LOT of patience. But patience perseveres and before long we can wave the wee-wee and poo-poo goodbye…
I don’t think there’s a better potty training book around! Available from our Babyccino Bookshops.
When packing for our trip I knew I had to pack children’s books — we couldn’t go a whole three months without them, no matter how heavy they made our suitcases! So I decided to pack books that were relevant to our travels — books about nature, animals, sea creatures, etc.
Courtney in London
March 12th, 2010
2 comments
which are really good because they include both the capital letters and the lowercase ones. (Apparently different countries do it differently — I’ve been teaching my kids the capital letters, but in the UK they teach kids the lowercase letters first!)
is my latest aquistition. The book is about words and is SO SO SO beautifully illustrated. I really love it. Without even knowing it, it appears I have stumbled upon a pretty powerful author/illustrator team with Paul and Ann Rand.
by Satoru Onishi and 
by Delphine Chedru.
.
(’Apple and the Butterfly’, pictured left) all depict natural cycles and playful transformations. Iela Mari beautifully conveys the cycle of caterpillar to butterfly, or, in another book, a 
.
by illustrator Nina Chakrabarti is an interactive coloring book full of the most gorgeous and sophisticated ‘fashion’ illustrations to colour in and also intricate designs to finish off. It offers great ideas for making and doing too (like how to make a sari, turn a napkin into a headscarf, dye a T-shirt and so on).
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal is a darling children’s book about childhood insecurities. It features a little spoon who wishes he was handy like a fork or sharp like a knife or exotic like chopsticks. Little spoon’s mother explains all the things that only spoons get to do (like diving head first into a bowl of ice cream!), which makes him feel special and happy once again. It’s a simple story with a big message: liking yourself for what you are and learning not to make comparisons with others.
. It discusses all the basic anatomy issues for both genders and then goes on to explain how babies are made and where they come from– not in too much detail, but just enough. Phew! It seems like something my daughter will understand better in a year or so, but I am happy to have it at the ready when need be.
by Shirley Hughes. The book, about the special bond between a little boy and his sister, is the sweetest and most touching book we’ve read in a long time. I even had tears in my eyes as I read the last page.
. I’ll certainly be picking up a few more Shirley Hughes books!
The time has come — my little guy has done his first wee-wees on the potty. It involved some persuasion (we showed him pictures of his little friend Quin, Courtney’s son, proudly using the potty), and we read to him the little book that was also read endlessly to his big sister: Alona Frankel’s 
