The very brave bear by Nick Bland

The plot here is not new but Nick Bland has produced such irresistible characters in his book The Very Brave Bear.

This is a simple story of "one-upmanship".  Who is the bravest?  Is it Bear or Boris Buffalo?  We follow the antics of each animal through the forest told in a rhyme that almost asks to be a song.

 "In the Jingle Jangle Jungle on the edge of Slimy Bog, Bear was picking berries from a very wobbly log. 'Ahoy!' said Boris Buffalo, from underneath the mud, and Bear fell off his wobbly log and landed with a ... THUD!"

Things get wilder and wilder until the pair reach a cave - a scary cave and they hear a ROAAAAAR!

This is the fourth book about Bear.  The series began with The Very Cranky Bear and continued with The Very Itchy Bear and The Very Hungry Bear.  If you enjoy The Very Brave Bear you might also look for books by Julia Donaldson - especially The Gruffalo.

Omar the strongman by Gregory Rogers

In anticipation of the announcement in April of the Children's Book Council of Australia short listed titles I have been reading all the 2013 Australian picture books added to our library over the last 12 months.  In this post and the next I will talk about two I did enjoy. I hope both might be short listed.

Omar the Strongman opens with a page of suitcases topped by a small fez hat.  On the title page we see a young female elephant who seems to have just tapped a happy, bald, rotund man on the shoulder.  The pair are looking at one another and smiling and the man is carrying the suitcase in one hand while holding his fez in the other. On the next page we see the man striding towards some circus tents.  On his arrival he sees a sign.  "Wanted odd jobs man apply at office." Omar meets the ringmaster - a tiny lady with a friendly smile and big hair -  and she shows him around.

Omar lands the job and we turn to a page I really loved.  We see Omar standing beside a huge pile of cleaning equipment - buckets, an iron, paint and brushes, a wheelbarrow, a hammer, lots of cloths and a spade.  This is certainly a page where the picture "speaks louder than the words."

Omar seems to enjoy all his tasks around the circus but the one he likes best is looking after Mavis - the elephant. Everything is going well until the day the Mayor comes to visit.  Mavis is performing without her beautiful pink bow.  Omar rushes into the main arena holding the ribbon high.  Mavis does not see Omar and she lands right on top of him.  Can you guess what happens next - here is a hint - take another look at the title.

As I thought about this book I listed some of the values that are explored.  Having a cheerful attitude to your work no matter how boring or meanial, the importance of supporting a friend and the idea that  if you allow your heart to be open you might find your true destiny perhaps in a very unexpected way.

Sadly Gregory Rogers died in 2013.  You can read about his life and work here. You might also like to read my review of The Hero of Little Street also by Gregory Rogers.

Lulu walks the dogs by Judith Viorst illustrated by Lane Smith

Writing book reviews it such a subjective thing.  This really struck me when I finished reading Lulu Walks the dogs.  I absolutely loved loved loved this funny and warm hearted little book. I liked it even more than the first Lulu installment which I also reviewed called Lulu and the Brontosaurus. And I am now excited to discover book three is coming soon.

When I finished reading Lulu walks the dogs I immediately clicked open the Kirkus review.  Read it yourself if you like but I was so disappointed the Kirkus reviewer did not really like Lulu walks the dogs.  He or she found "Viorst’s numerous authorial asides—in which the narrator insists on control of the storyline and stops for brief question-and-answer sessions with readers—come across as more confusing than clever because the voice and personality of the narrator are almost indistinguishable from Lulu’s."  I utterly disagree.  I loved all the little asides.  I always enjoy comments from an off stage narrator and in this book they work really well adding to the humour and also sustaining the mystery of why Lulu needs all this money.  The comments come as a repeated refrain.  "I really don't feel like discussing that right now."

Lulu needs money.  She won't say why but to get money she will need a job.

"Well may be you already know and maybe you don't.  Because Lulu first decided her jobs - or job - should be baking cookies, or spying, or reading to old people, and these jobs did not turn out too well. And maybe instead of writing a chapter about how those jobs did not turn out too well, I'm moving right along to Chapter Four."

What about the dogs?  Well they are hilarious too.  There is Brutus "an enormous, bigheaded, bad-breathed brute", Pookie (rhymes with DUKE and not BOOK) a teeny-tiny white fuzzball who must be carried until she needs to be placed gently under a tree to do what she needs to do and finally there is Cordelia, a German speaking Dachshund.  How will Lulu ever manage to walk these three very different dogs every morning before school?  Well the short answer is she won't - not without help and that help will come from Fleishman - her sworn enemy.

If I gave book stars Lulu walks the dog would be a five out of five or a ten out of ten or a one hundred out of one hundred book - I am sure you are getting the message here.  Rush rush into your library and read this book today.  I am sure you will love it too.

Present from the past by Jennifer Beck illustrated by Lindy Fisher

I was showing my school art teacher the beautiful collage illustrations in Stefania's dancing slippers and she asked the obvious question which had not occurred to me!  Did we have other books illustrated by Lindy Fisher?  The answer is yes - Present from the past.

The timing for finding this book is perfect as we are preparing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I.  I will add this book to my growing pile of excellent picture books we will share with students over April.

Emily is excited to meet her Aunt Mary who is coming to visit from England.  Aunt Mary has never visited the family before.  On Christmas day she gives Emily a battered tin and then she shares the story of how little tins like this were given as gifts from Princess Mary during World War I.  This actual box was a gift to Mary's mother and it contained chocolate but it also saved her life when a stray bullet hit the box and not the young nurse tending a wounded soldier.  At first Emily is disappointed with this gift but as the story unfolds she recognizes this little object is a very special family heirloom and something to treasure and pass on.

Here is a detailed review with further links.

Present from the past relates the story of these little tins that were presented to soldiers and sailors in 1914.

The idea was the initiative of Princess Mary, the 17-year-old daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. Princess Mary organised a public appeal which raised the funds to ensure that 'every Sailor afloat and every Soldier at the front' received a Christmas present.   Due to the strong public support for the gift, which saw £162,591 12s 5d raised, the eligibility for the gift was widened to include every person 'wearing the King's uniform on Christmas Day 1914', about 2,620,019 servicemen and women. 

Someday by Eileen Spinelli illustrated by Rosie Winstead

I picked this book up in our library the other day because the cover had fallen off.  I bought Someday home to read and I am very glad I did.  This lovely book could be used as a writing stimulus for our students.  It follows a simple structure.  The narrator shares her plans and hopes using alternating words "Someday", "Today", "Someday", "Right now", "Someday", "Today", "Someday", "In the meantime" and so on.

"Someday I will be invited
to the White House
to have lunch
with the president.
He will want my ideas
on world peace.
I will wear white gloves
and a hat with a rose
pinned to it.
I will bring the present
a box of golf balls.
The White House waiter
will pour tea.
I will eat my salad carefully.
No spills on the rug."

The dreams of the little girl are so ambitious and unfailingly positive.  She wants to be an artist, swim with dolphins, try her hand at archaeology, dine with the president, travel to Antarctica and Egypt and win an Olympic gold medal.   This book would also make a perfect read-a-loud to a young child.  The illustrations are filled with joy and movement.  I especially liked her little buck teeth that poke through every smile.

Click here to see all the books by Eileen Spinelli and I also recommend taking a few minutes to click through the work of the illustrator Rosie Winstead.

Another book that uses this idea of real life and imagination is Kirsty Knows best illustrated by the wonderful Anthony Browne and Imagine by Alison Lester.  You might also enjoy Daydream Dan by Sarah Garson.

Bird by Crystal Chan

Some books arrive in our library as part of a subscription. Bird was an entirely new book to me. I had not heard of it.  The back cover said this was a YA novel so I bought Bird home to check that this book is suitable for our Primary school library.  It is!

This is a very sad book and yet Bird is really about healing.  Bird (his real name is John) has died aged five.  He jumped off a cliff wanting to fly. Blame still lies thickly over this family even now twelve years later. Grandpa named John, Bird.  Nigel, her father was not watching the young boy when he wandered off. On the day Bird died Jewel was born.  Jewel was born early - so is she to blame?  She has spent her whole life trying to please her mum, dad and reclusive grandfather.

"You'll all we got, Jewel.  I want you to make us proud.'  A small tremor ran through me, like my heart was splitting, a deep crack in the earth, and all kinds of dark fears rose up. I swallowed.  'I want to make you proud, too,' I whispered.  And nothing could have been truer than that."

Jewel makes a new friend but she knows "If you give up too much of yourself, too fast, then someone can just up and take it away."  Jewel loves rocks, she wants to be a geologist. She is also drawn to the cliff edge where her brother died.  This place has become sacred. In his grief her Grandfather no longer speaks. Over the course of the story Jewel and her Grandfather find they have a special relationship.  This is even more important when her parents destroy the sanctuary she has created at the cliff with her twelve birthday stones one for each year of her life.

"We sat like that for a long time in that warm and comforting room, our hearts hanging wide open.  I learned then that hearts don't speak with words like how we think they do in movies or in songs; I think they need a lot more space than that.  Anyway, all I really knew was that my heart had an awful raging fever that day, and in the silence, Grandpa bought with him the cooling rain."

You can hear from the author, listen to the first ten minutes and  more at the author web site.  You can read more of the plot here.

If you enjoy Bird I recommend looking for Savvy, Because of Winn Dixie or Pictures of Hollis Woods which have a very similar tone.  I read Bird in one sitting.  This means I enjoyed it.  The ending almost made me cry but not quite. I think a mature reader in Year 6 would enjoy spending time with Jewel as she and her family finally find a way to move on from their grief.

Jewel’s observant reflections on her rural-Iowa world give this debut its considerable charm. 

Stefania's dancing slippers by Jennifer Beck illustrated by Lindy Fisher

When I read this book aloud later this year to our senior students I am going to add one word to the final page.

Stefania's dancing slippers is set during the Second World War. Stefania and her mother are forced to flee their home as war threatens their home in Poland.  The Russian soldiers arrive and the pair have only a few minutes to pack their bags with food and blankets.  Stefania can only take one treasure.  She quickly tucks a pair of precious dancing slippers, made by her mother when she was just five years old, into her coat pocket.  Their journey takes them to Siberia and then later Stefania travels on alone to Persia.  This land also becomes unsafe and so the children travel by ship first to India and then onto New Zealand.

The story ends with her arrival in New Zealand.  An author note at the end of the book explains in 1944 over 700 Polish refugee children and their caregivers were welcomed to New Zealand.  Stefania arrives alone but eventually hears her father is coming.  He carries with him the lost dancing slipper.  "Your mother sent it for you. She wrote that she hopes to join us some day."  I thought this sounded so sad.  I want the ending to be more hopeful.  Surely Stefania's mother will come so I am planning to add the word soon to this final quote.

The illustrations in this book are almost tactile.  Lindy Fisher uses lace, music scores, confetti and ribbons in her exquisite collages.  You might also like to read My Dog by John Heffernan or The Angel with the mouth Organ by Cristobel Mattingley.