Going Wild

We're not a sporting family. The gene pool for physical co-ordination that I could provide for my children was always going to be pretty murky. I can't get a mug of tea to my lips without spillages and my instinct is to  flinch and run if anyone tries to kick, throw or bat a ball towards me. When Bill was about 3 I took him to the physiotherapist because he couldn't jump. Where all his friends were bounding off walls and sofas and flying high on trampolines, Bill would just crouch low and then stand up again with arms stretched up.
 "I jump" he would pronounce proudly with soles of feet still planted firmly on the ground.
 I'm not sure what I thought the physio would do- provide special insoles or a course of exercises or something. In the end she just looked at me pityingly and said, "There's nothing wrong. He's just slow to jump." My eyes were opened. 'Slow to Jump'. Of course he was; he was my child. It was a powerful early lesson in the futility of Tiger parenting and lucky for Bill that I learned it.

In the absence of much (capital letter) Sport, alternative activities must be embraced. We're good at vigorous cake mix stirring, Bill-Fu and Kitchen Gangnam Style but they're probably not enough for health and fitness. The sun has started shining properly again this week so it's time to embrace the Out-Of-Doors again and shift our bottoms from their respective comfy cushions. To nerve us up for that transition I did what I always do- I bought some books and then sat back down to read them.

'Go Wild' and 'Make it Wild' by Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield and 'Cook Wild' by Suzanne Fischer-Rizzi are the kind of books to inspire even the most committed comfy cushion lover to want to rush straight outside, build an open fire pit, coppice and lash their own sturdy sapling tripod and cook their own loaf of bread outside in a dutch oven. I say this with experience. That is exactly what the boys (particularly the grown up one) spent last weekend doing. There's also been some pretty furious whittling and frying up of nettles for crisps going on (all activity is better when accompanied by salty snack food after all). Treehouses are being modified and the lawn is suddenly covered with weaponry. Bill spent a proportion of Sunday rubbing ash over exposed areas and gaffa-taping together sticks and stones for caveman axes. He then only spoke in grunts for a few hours; preparing me for his teenage future.

The books are beautiful- full of inspiring photography of slightly feral kids doing slightly feral things. Some of the ideas are obvious but plenty are not: I'm looking forward to a session digging, making and wood firing our own river clay pots this summer for instance.

Of course, there's a limit to the amount of adventure you can have in your own back garden- if you are fortunate enough to have one at all. We are very fortunate to have space here and also to live in one of the leafiest, woodiest, greenest patches of London but it is still London. There's always people. So this weekend we're packing the dutch oven and the axes and heading out camping for a bit more Wild to Go Wild in.
I will still be packing some comfy cushions and plenty of books to read though...

Cooked Wild (ish) Dinner

FERAL! (the tomato soup adds a nice touch I think)

'Cook Wild; year round cooking on an open fire' by Suzanne Fischer-Rizzi , 'Make it Wild! 101 things to make and do outdoors' and 'Go wild! 101 things to do outdoors before you grow up by Jo Schofield and Fiona Danks are all published by Frances Lincoln isbn 978-0-7112-2939-6 for the latter.

Because we are going camping we are missing out on this Saturday's amazing looking Oxford Children's Comic Festival hosted by the incomparable Phoenix Comic. Don't YOU be so stupid. Find out more here.

And in other exciting Phoenix-y news. They have a brand new beautiful website being unveiled tonight at 6pm. It promises lots of shiny new features and (dangerously) a shop. Click on this after 6 tonight to enjoy.

Final other booky news. The Federation of Children's Book Groups are hosting a festival of their own in Birmingham in November and they have launched a competition to find an illustrator for a logo for the event. It looks like an amazing opportunity for someone to get their work seen by the Right People. If that might be you- have a look here to find out all you need to enter.

Happy Birthday Dirty Bertie!

The 'Dirty Bertie' books by Alan MacDonald and David Roberts are celebrating their 10th birthday this week and we're delighted to be joining the blog tour party.

 I'll admit that my children's obsession with all things scatological is not my favourite part of being their parent. Don't even get me started on the stomach churning horror that is playing Bill at 'Plop Trumps'. But there is no doubt that they are obsessed and in this interest they Are Not Alone. Dirty Bertie is hardly the only literary boy with repulsive habits bidding for a place on mine or yours obsessed one's bookshelves, but as one of the first and one of the best, his is a birthday definitely worth celebrating.

I hadn't appreciated that DB (as we'll call him) started life as David Roberts' picture book creation before starring in his ever increasing range of early chapter book titles, now written by Alan MacDonald and still illustrated by David Roberts. The chapter books, with their punchy titles eg., 'Pants!' 'Germs!' 'Loo!' and new volume 'Toothy!' were among the first books Bill learn't to devour whole in one sitting as his reading took off. They were probably some of the first that he was moved to reserve at the library too; cue small figure appearing at desk and whispering "Excuse me, have you got 'Bogeys' please?" much to librarian's discomfort.

These books are actually rather gentler and less bodily function dominated affairs than their shouty covers might suggest. They follow the 'Horrid Henry' style format of having three stories per volume but parents and children who find Henry too horrid might well warm to the more diffident, accident prone Bertie. In 'Toothy' DB manages to confuse a dentist with a murderer, cause a major alarm on board an aeroplane and confront the difficulties of ice cream smuggling in school. But David Roberts' illustrations reveal Bertie as endearing round eyed, rosy cheeked ingenue rather than practised schemer and plotter and the trouble he invariably ends up in is not consequence free.

The two original picture books, 'Dirty Bertie' and 'Pooh, is that you Bertie?' are more straightforwardly gross-out and as such have been going down a storm with the Beanstalk kids I do reading help with this week. Who can resist a book that promises a different fart sound button on every page? Plus it turns out that many of the sounds associated with wind provide excellent phonic practice. Anyone entering the library where we read has been treated to the painstaking sounding out of essential vocabulary; t-r-u-m-p, p-oo-t and b-o-ff and (tricky word) ph-u-tt...

In honour of Dirty Bertie's birthday it seemed only fair to prepare a Dirty Bertie-style feast. The fellow reviewers weren't entirely convinced by the delights of my tenderly prepared Bogey Fondue with breadstick Finger dippers...

However, Pudding!(now there's a Dirty Bertie title I'm looking for) of Worms and Soil was a storming success.

"Any more worms Mum?"

Dirty Bertie books are written by Alan MacDonald and illustrated by David Roberts, published by Stripes and Little Tiger Press. Happy Birthday Bertie!

Disclosure: We were sent a few titles for the benefit of this post by kindness of the publishers. Our opinions are our own.

Royal Fleas and Vincent the Vampire

I am a small potato in the giant Blog allotment. Whilst I am theoretically interested in receiving review copies of books (FREE STUFF!- come on you like it too dontcha....dontcha??) when I have been sent them they sometimes engender a certain panic: I'm not interested in bashing anything- there's enough of that on the internet, and I want to write about what I want to write about. But it's hard not to feel a sense of obligation when someone's sent you something, and obligation and objectivity are not friends. This is all perfectly manageable when you're being sent something by a big publisher or distributor but rather less so when you are holding someone's self-published dreams. And so I have tended to head off the self published who approach me periodically for that reason.

Against form I didn't however pass up the offer to be sent Jules Marriner's books; and, reasonably objectively I hope- I'm glad I didn't. In a world where getting a picture book publishing deal is apparently Quite Hard she seems to be doing a very professional job going it alone. These are funny and enjoyable books definitely worthy of a readership outside her immediate family and friends I think.

'Vincent the Vampire' tells the story of a controversial blackberry-loving bat who finds unlikely sanctuary in a vampire's castle with surprisingly good catering for vegetarians.

'Royal Fleas' deals inventively with the tricky problem of What To Do when you spot the Queen's corgi scratching.

Both have plenty of humour in both text and illustration. There's some good spotting to be done. I liked the sharp-toothed dentures and the changing face of Munch's Scream in the background of 'Vincent the Vampire'. In 'Royal Fleas', the incongruous pink fluffy slippers of the Queen's snooty secretary, Mr Horatio Flowers-Simkinson made Bill giggle.

They're not perfect. Personally I find the watercolour palatte of the illustrations could take stronger tones and  I'm not sure about the cut out collage lines. Inevitably the 'feel' of them in terms of paper and binding is not quite the same quality you'd get from the budget of a conventional publisher. They have charm though.

Both books bear stickers on the cover saying 'Written and illustrated on the Isle of Wight'. I think this is a pretty canny move on Jules Marriner's part and emblematic of one of the most interesting parts of the brave new world of self- publishing. I love the fact that increasingly a visit to a fair or craft market leads to an encounter with an author next door to the miniature teddy maker and knitted egg cosy lady. And I'd much rather bring back a bookish souvenir to remember a place or holiday than anything else. I like the idea of a community rallying around its authors and supporting their stories.

Visit Jules Marriner's website here to find out more. Her books are available through the dread-but-useful Amazon. I received my copies through kindness of the author, my opinions are my own.

'Vincent and the Vampires' and 'Royal Fleas' both written and illustrated by Jules Marriner, pub. Scarlett Inc isbn 9781470145774 and 9781475212174

Martha and the Bunny Brothers: I heart Bedtime!

How excited are we to be part of the new Martha and the Bunny brothers book blog tour?Answer- REALLY excited!
Of course we are-Eddie became a Superfan of Martha within hours of Clara Vulliamy's first book about her happy bunny family entering the house. You may remember this post where it was only Martha's tight security that presented her being mobbed on stage by her small blonde stalker.
Last month, me and the boy attended Clara's  'make a Martha' workshop at the Imagine Festival; where we also got a sneak listen to this second volume. Advance copies were unexpectedly available to buy there. When Eddie saw the pile, it was a similar reaction to a One Direction fan chance meeting Harry Styles in the supermarket; he RAN to them, hugged a copy to him and carried on hugging it for the next three hours. He has good taste:

'I heart Bedtime' proves as toasty warm and cheering as its predecessor; 'I heart School'. Clara Vulliamy shows her usual skill in making these everyday milestones both safe and celebratory. They're packed full of delicious detail and, perhaps counter-intuitively, it's precisely all that lovely detail that gives them universal appeal. Nobody's bedtime routine and house and babysitter will be exactly like Martha, Monty and Pip's- but everyone's bedtime rituals will find some point of contact with theirs. And there seems to be nothing that children like more than identifying things that are the same as them and things that are different to them in a book. You would not believe the complexity of the conversations Eddie and I have had about toothpaste flavours since this book entered our house. She's a clever bunny that Clara Vulliamy.

So- Same but Different- a Comparison of Bedtimes between the Little Wooden Horse Brothers and The Bunny Brothers:

They both have Special Collections:

 Martha likes owls, cats and shells,

LWH Bro's favour action figures and medals

They both have Cuddlies:

Giant Bob, Tigey, Hulk, Koala, Berry 3 and Berry 2 and The Babies (the latter are regular bathtime chatshow hosts)

They both have fun at bathtime, despite the LWH bro's inadequate ear length for styling:











And most of all- they are CERTAINLY great fans of Best Gym- or Bill Fu as some household members prefer to call it.

But of course the biggest difference between Bill and Eddie, and Monty and Pip is that the former have no Martha to show them the right way to go to sleep. Her patented method is to sing the Bedtime Bunny Song. To help impoverished Martha-less households like ours, I'm glad to say Clara Vulliamy has provided her own version for them to listen to here.  It's a rather lovely thing.
We can't achieve the same perfection but Eddie is learning...

Sweet Dreams.
'Martha and The Bunny Brothers, I heart Bedtime' by Clara Vulliamy, pub. Harper Collins isbn 978-0007419197

Monster and Chips

So today the great baking and book jamboree that was Playing By the Book's Edible Book Festival draws to a close. If you haven't been to gawp at the entries do stop by; there's some crackers. At the time of writing the winners remain unannounced, however it seems unlikely that our scruffy butter iced renderings of severed heads and putrifying flesh will emerge triumphant.

Yes, we EXCLUSIVELY reveal ourselves today as the creators of Hilaire Belloc and Mini Grey's dismembered Jim and lion in cake form. This will not come as any surprise to regular readers who know that it is a bit of a fave for performance in the house.

We particularly enjoyed rendering spinal cord out of strawberry bootlace. I am immodestly proud of the guilty expression of the lion as he hoovers it up. Bill enjoyed eating decapitated Jim with worrying relish.

Our second entry related to a much newer book; 'Monster and Chips' by David O'Connell. Bill is drawing like a fury these days. What he draws is almost exclusively crazy featured people who are either in the middle of or about to commit acts of violence on other crazy featured people. I am very partial to them. He's not quite ready to draw his own comics yet (he tends to wander off after the first panel) but it's probably only a matter of time.
To encourage this enthusiasm (and to allow Eddie and me to enjoy the gentler pleasures of bunny brothers- more of which next post) I signed him up for David O'Connell's comic workshop at the Imagine Festival in half term. We also picked up a copy of the book there and Bill read it on the tube all the way home, letting out gratifying throaty chortles at regular intervals.

It's a simple tale of the pleasures and dangers of embarking on a career in monster catering. Joe; an ordinary boy, finds a portal through to Fuzzby's Diner in a parallel monster universe. The genial Fuzzby, who is very large and very green and furry, takes on Joe as washer upper and sous chef where he learns to create dishes such as 'Mixed arthropod grill in phlegm coulis' or (my favourite) 'Battered Unmentionables'. Most importantly, however disgusting sounding the dish, all are served with their famous (and conventional) chips. Joe must learn to cook without being eaten himself and help unmask dastardly goings on at the Monsterchef contest.

It's enjoyable stuff, but what makes it most enjoyable are the illustrations throughout. I'd say it would be an excellent choice for the seasoned comic lover who needs confidence building to also enjoy books. I really liked the little footnote bottom panels where the cute potato-shaped Guzzelins give their perspective on the action.

So Edible books then. We could have tackled 'Fungal Infection Fritters and chips' or similar of course but on balance we went for the zombie cup cakes. Joe inadvertently creates these in the story and then is forced on the run only escaping through clever use of a vat of frog custard.

"The zombie-cakes had jumped down from the counter and were slowly advancing towards them, chanting BRAAIINNSS! all the time"

We tackled ours more easily with our mouths. They were pretty good- but their super-sour jawbreaker eyeballs definitely fought back.

'Monster and Chips' by David O'Connell pub. Harper Collins isbn 978-0-00-749713-3

Where Bill's head is at currently. I think this is normal.

The Interactive Art Book

'The Interactive Art Book' by Ron Van Der Meer and Frank Whitford is an updated reissue of an art pop-up book that first appeared in 1998. Although that is some years before I became a parent I can remember playing with a well-used 'tester' of that first incarnation of the book in the National Gallery bookshop and feeling a bit sad that I had no excuse to buy it. I am very glad to have a proper turn with it now.

It's a kind of hop around the history and processes of making art in seven crammed spreads of fun. It includes pop-up explanations of perspective, construct your own abstract sculptures, plenty of flaps to lift and optical illusions to explore. This may sound pretty gimmicky and superficial but there's surprisingly complex information, and lots of it crammed in between the fun. I really enjoyed the 'Stories and Puzzles' page for instance with its 3D peephole version of Velazquez's 'Las Meninas'. You get to view the picture both as audience and as painter and then read the story round the outside about the sub text of its composition.

Of course Bill and Eddie are really only about the fun at this stage; fighting over the 3D glasses and spinning the phenakistoscope. But I can see this is a book that we'll return to and get different things out of as they get older. At the back of the book is a whole other paperback activity book with suggestions for do-it-yourself art. Bill was completely taken with the cartoons of Gustav Verbeek reproduced in this section; which must be read one way and then turned upside down to continue the story back again. He also really liked the idea of pictures as detective stories with hidden clues that can be interpreted. A more informed trip to the National Gallery may be called for.

My own first introduction to art masterpieces as a child was through repeated playings of an obscure board game called 'Masterpiece' where you had to auction reproductions of National Gallery favourites without knowing what worth they had been assigned. An early, apparently respectable and intellectually nourishing version of 'Deal or no Deal'; it featured a good variety of Great Works including Da Vinci, Manet and Vermeer. You can tell it was from a more innocent time because as I recall (Austin Powers like) the absolute, most amount of money a painting could be worth was £1,000,000.

I'd like to say playing Masterpiece nurtured a precocious artistic appreciation in me but all I can remember is staring at the picture cards and wondering why on earth would ANYONE pay money for a boring old Turner or Rembrandt.
You grow into some things.

Hopefully 'The Interactive Art Book' will help the boys see the point rather more quickly. In the meantime they're definitely enjoying practising their upside-down cartoon skills.

'The Interactive Art Book' by Ron Van Der Meer and Frank Whitford, pub. Tangopaper isbn 978-1-909142-02-2

Disclosure: We were sent a copy of the book by kindness of the publisher. Our opinions are our own.

Happy World Book Day 2013

It's come round AGAIN!

I love it so much: We shared the bus trip to school today with Hermione and Voldemort, Batman and Tintin. Then in the playground, we had to dodge an Enormous Crocodile, got chased by Funnybones and rescued by Rapunzel.

The teachers threw open the doors dressed as Captain Underpants (brave), Wally, The Cat in the Hat, Winnie the Witch and others..

But I think the kids I love most of all are the ones where you have absolutely NO IDEA who they are because they've picked some obscure character from some obscure book and are faithfully living the part for the day. They're playing for themselves not for the crowd. Hurray for a day for Book Nerds!

So the Fellow Reviewers?

Here they are- I present one Dinkin Dings ready to be frightened of everything EXCEPT his Frightening things.

And here is the one, the only Mr. Willy Wonka- faithful to Quentin Blake down to the last detail- "...and I must have pearly grey gloves Mum, and a small black goatee, and Totally Orange socks not the ones with blue heels and bottle green trousers and..."

Thank God for the miracle that is polyester dye. I just hope he doesn't sit next to any naked flames or severely asthmatic children today.

Have a Great Book-Fun-Filled Day