Blanket bugs come in all shapes and sizes

Front cover

Bugs in a blanket is one of the many quality, Phaidon picturebooks available. Well-known for its art books, Phaidon has been working with slightly different illustrators from European markets,  Beatrice Alemagna is Italian and based in France. Bugs in a blanket is the first of several Bugs books, all illustrated using real embroidery and patchwork.  Quite something.  You can see the stitches, make out the buttons and sequins, and you'll really get the urge to touch the pages, everything is so life-likely soft and wooly. This is one of the reasons I have chosen this picturebook, to share some very unique illustrations. 

The format is landscape, with a solid hardback cover and thick pages. There are lots of pages, much more than the normal 32. I've counted 42 which is very odd, as it's not divisible by sixteen.  But not to worry! 

The front cover shows us a row of jolly bugs,  they are standing against a background of rough linen.  The back cover (which I don't have as a photo) shows us the bugs from behind.  I like it when illustrators do that, front and back, it's a great visual joke.  The blurb on the back reads: "It is Fat Bug's birthday, and he has invited all the bugs that live in the blanket to his party.  They have never met each other before and are in for a big surprise." 

Title page

The endpapers double up as the copyright and title pages.  Lots of nice wooly blobs and a bug like shape for the copyright info.  The title font, as on the front cover, is cut felt.  As you open the picturebook, you'll discover the illustration is always on the recto, and the text is always on verso.  We start with the bed, at the bottom of the garden, that's where the blanket is!

Opening 1

And that's where the bugs live! "The bugs have lived there for years and years. Each little bug, snug in his hole in the rug."  But today is one little bug's birthday ...

Opening 4

He's baked a cake (blanket dust cakes!), he's decorated his hole and he's even playing music: "Everyone knows that little bugs love to dance and hop about."  He hears the doorbell and runs to open the door, but what a  surprise ...

Opening 6

He doesn't look happy, look at that down-turned mouth! "He thought the other little bugs would all be fat and white, just like him. What a disappointment." 

Opening 7

'He looks at the little bug standing right in front of him and asks, "Why are you as skinny as a string bean?" He sounds quite cross.' Here begins an interesting visual verbal feature, where children are told what they will be seeing on the next page.  Here is our skinny (well skinnier than the fat bug) bug!  

Opening 8

'Little thin bug doesn't know what to say. So he looks at the bug next to him and asks, "Well,  how about you? Why are you as yellow as a banana?"' And so it goes, banana Yellow Bug is offended too, and compares the next bug's eyes to an owl's eyes.  He in turn is offended and asks why the Long-Legged Bug has such long legs.   Long-legged bug accuses a brightly coloured bug of looking like a parrot. 

Opening 11

'Little Speckled Bug is upset. He looks back at Little Fat bug and asks him,  "Why are you as fat as a hippopotamus?"' We have gone full circle. '"What a silly thing to ask!" says Little Fat Bug. "I was just born like this, a little bit fat."'  Well that's a sensible answer!
Each Bug then justifies their strange looks.  '"I was just born a little bit skinny." says Little Thin Bug.'

Opening 14

'"I've always been yellow all over," says Little Yellow Bug.'  '"I've got my Mama's eyes," says little Big-Eyed Bug'  ...  '"I was born brightly speckled," said Little Speckled Bug' ... Little Fat Bug realizes that no-one can help being the way they are and invites everyone in to dance and party!  Clever Bug!

Opening 20

But it's the next lot of text which brings it all home ... "Because you see, in the blanket, just as in the rest of the world, we can't chose what we look like - we are all born the way we are, and we are all different."  Deep and wise, especially for a Bug!

There's quite a lot of dense text on some spreads, and it's not too repetitive, so the book is not suitable for very small children in an ELT context.  I'd use it in a primary classroom, no problem.  There's the message that comes through fine and loud; I especially like the way the Bugs react to the insults,  and the illustrations are very expressive. They will help children see how comments can hurt and offend and hopefully help them become a little more empathetic.  You can support these pro-active thoughts by asking them what they think the Bugs are feeling. 


There's lots there to run with if you want to:

• Get children talking about the personal features they've inherited from different family members; 
• Match the hurtful comments with the justifications and then get children to make nice comments about each other, like:

Child 1 - "Your eyes are big and brown, they are very beautiful" "
Child 2 - "Thank you!  I've got my Dad's eyes."

• If you sew or knit, take some material or wool into class and make some fun Bug pictures using these different materials. Use the art work to create a host of Bugs with names and descriptions.  Play match the description to the Bug. 

I really like the idea of this wooly Bug world entering my classroom and helping us to think about diversity and taking care not to say hurtful things to classmates.   Thanks Phaidon!

Sausages, sausages, sausages!

Front cover

At the beginning of November I wrote about a book called The Cloud, which is published by Child's Play.  They were really happy about my post and wrote and told me so.  They were the first publishers to actually notice I was writing about their books, so I congratulated them!  In return, they sent me a small selection of their latest titles, which was really nice - my first experience of getting books for free and it felt wonderful!  I didn't get a buzz from all the books they sent, but I did like this one, Star Gazer's Skyscrapers and extrardinary SAUSAGES by Claudia Boldt (I'll be featuring at least one more in later posts).   I like sausages and I love dogs, so that's a great help as it's a book which features a fat, sausage-loving dog and his owner! I also knew that Claudia Boldt had been nominated a Book Trust Best Illustrator of 2011, so it was good to get a look at this new talent first hand. 

The front cover shows us one of the main characters, Frank, the fat, sausage-loving dog.  He's got a Labrador look to him, and I instantly liked his podgyness (I have a naturally podgy black Labrador of my own, her ears woggle just like Frank's do, and she also enjoys a sausage or two!). I am already making all sorts of personal connections with this front cover, that's a good sign! If we look at the back cover, it does what I like picturebooks to do: shows one continuous illustration, and it presents the other half of this dog-owner-duo, Henrietta (her name is written in the blurb).  She's swinging dangerously from something as sausages float by beneath her.  

Back and front covers

This image together with the title leaves you wondering, what are we going to find inside? 

Endpapers show us all that is a sausage, fresh and smoked ... alongside icereams and sundaes. 

Endpapers

Curioser than ever, what is this book about?

There's a lovely "This book belongs to..."page in the forematter. Henrietta teasing Frank with a sausage. Then the title page has a little illustration of a loving dog licking his owner, a cross-eyes owner! 

Title page

This illustration actually leads us into the main body of the picturebook ...

Opening 01

... for the first opening is Henrietta's reaction to an over affectioante dog, "Careful Frank!  Don't knock my ice-cream!" This is when we disocver that she likes ice-cream and wants to make ice-creams when she grows up.  And what about Frank? 

Opening 02

A sausage dog of course! It's that image from the front cover, "I want to make sausages, eat sausages, do sausages.  Sausages, sausages, sausages."  And so we have our dilemma, Frank wants sausages and nothing but sausages.  Henrietta continues with ideas of what she would like to do when she grows up.  She wants to climb "the steepest skyscrapers, up amongst the ice-cream clouds."  But Frank wants sauasges.  She wants to be a lighthouse keeper ... "I could flash the light, while you guide the ships safely out to sea!" 

Opening 05

Frank wants sausages... "Sau-sea-ges, splash!"  Lovely sausage fish all over the place, lucky Frank! Can you see Henrietta swinging from the lighthouse in the background. 

Henrietta would like to be a star gazer, on a mission to Mars.  

Opening 06

This is a wonderful spread.  We can see Henrietta and Frank in different poses.  Flaoting together in the distance and whizzing by, Henrietta on a shooting star and Frank on Space-sa-ges!  There's a constellation of stars too... the Canis Major maybe?

When Henrietta is a super dancer, so is Frank, for he dances "Sass-se-ages, siss-se-ges, sou-sa-ges, and salsa-ges."   She's a queen bee and poor Frank is a worker, no sausages in this spread.  Finally she decides she's going to be a mechanic, and Frank is her assistant. 

Opening 09

But all he can say is "Sausages!". Henrietta has had enough.  So has Frank. 

Opening 10

That's a grumpy looking dog!  He's right, they have nothing in common. So they sit and grump at opposites ends of the page: Henrietta slurps her icecream and Frank chomps his sausage.     And that's when Henrietta has an idea. Can you guess what it is?

Opening 12

WOW!  Ice-cram sausages and sausage ice-cream!  Hooray!  A spread full of yummy sausage ice-creams and ice-cream sausages.  

Crazy story!  But I really like its quirkiness, and I think children will too, (I still have to try it out in the classroom).   How many of us have tiffs with our friends, when they won't do what we want to do?  This little story demonstrates what great solutions we can all come to. And what fun primary children can have thinking what they'd like to be when they grow up, and why not have some wild ideas, just like Henrietta? 

Thanks again to Child's Play for  sending me this picturebook.  

A cautionary tale ... whatever

But

Front cover

A colleague told me about Whatever by William Bee, and when it arrived, sometime over the summer holidays, I immediately took to its clever simplicity.  I laughed outloud on the first read, then returned slowly to take in the different parts and look carefully at the illustrations.  

Anyone remember those silly tales about boys who ran away from their nurses, and were eaten by lions or girls who told lies and were burned to death? 19th century children's literature at its best and probably the most well known collection, Cautionary Tales for Children by Hilaire Belloc, is still available in ever more modern editions. Whatever has that cautionary tale feel to it, and a lovely retro look too.  

Our protangonist stands, arms outstretched, on the front cover.  He's dressed like a miniature business man, and you can just imagine the kind of child he is ... prim and proper and ever so annoying. 

Back and front covers

If you open out the book, you'll find the back cover is the mirror image of the front.  Witty!  Endpapers are nice and decorative too.  

Front endpapers

I'm wondering whether Willaim Bee has been influenced by 1950's wall paper designs for this pattern? The title page is plain and simple: contains the title, the author/illustrator's and the publisher's names. But the facing copyright page is neat.

Copyright page

One bare tree - all its leaves are lined up on the endpapers - and can you see the way some letters have been enlarged in bold?  (If you click on the image you can see better) What do they say?  "Whatever", yeah, who gives a damn about the copyright blurb?

This picturebook uses lots of white space.  It contributes to pacing the narrative, makes us pause and look as the information is given to us in bits as we turn the pages. 

Opening 1

First we are shown Billy (diminutive of William, by the way), hands down now, the half smile stuck on his face, looking bored.   Then we meet Billy's Dad.  

Opening 2

He's a bigger version of Billy, the only difference being his hat, his larger feet and his bushier eyebrows ... oh and his exuberance.  It's oozing off this page already.  

And so we begin.  Our problem is that Billy is difficult to please.  Dad is exuberantly waving puppets, while discarded soldiers are left behind and Billy looks away uninterested.  

Opening 3

Show Billy something very tall ... 

Opening 4

"And he'll say 'whatever'".  (Love the way the book has to be turned to portrait for the giraffe). 

Opening 5

Notice as you turn the pages how Billy's face shows all sorts of expressions: surprise, disgust, disinterest, annoyance - all with those simple dots for eyes, angled lines for eyebrows and a little red mouth that moves mostly downwards.  

And so we continue showing Billy "something very small" (pretty butterflies); the world's curliest trumpet (and it really is curly!); the world's bounciest castle, and he always says "Whatever".  

Opening 9

Take him on the world's steamiest train (there's even a fish leaping around!), or "fly him to outer space" ... what does he say? "Whatever". And so what happens when Dad tries to scare him with the world's hungriest tiger?  Why, Billy says "Whatever" of course!

Opening 10

Isn't he a handsome tiger? And a hungry one too ...

Opening 11

Oops!  All but Billy's shoe is swallowed.  Lots of lovely white as the tiger plods off. 

Opening 13

Can you see the tiger's bulging tummy?  And Billy decides it's time to say something ..."Dad! I'm still in here you know".  Guess who's leading the tiger away from the story, and  what do you think he says when he hears Billy?  I'll leave you to guess!

Reviews describe this as being a picturebook for all ages.  Absolutely right.  It could be used in primary, where everyone will quickly call out "Whatever!", or with teens, where they will mutter "Whatever" under their breath!  Get them to say "Whatever" in a dozen different ways, using Billy's facial expressions as clues to his mood.  With these students, you might also want to show them some of the original cautionary tales for fun.  And with adults in a teacher training context use this picturebook for them to see how cleverly words and pictures can be used to create irony and humour suitable for a wide range of ages. 

And if you really want to ensure there's a bit of formal language work, why not have some fun with superlatives, they're even highlighted in the verbal text - what more could we ask?

But most of all, it's a great little picturebook.  Great for just reading and sharing and laughing together over.  

I was prompted to feature it on my blog when I saw it had recently been published in Portuguese by one of my favourite Portuguese publishers, Planeta Tangerina.  Well done them for bringing it into Portugal.  Well done me for featuring it on my blog!

Every one has bad days

Front cover

Bad Day, written by Jeni Couzyn and illustrated by Paul Demeyer,  was a picturebook I read to my son when he was small.  It's a title I've often returned to and enjoyed.  I like Couzyn's rhythmic verbal text and Demeyer's illustrations bring the picturebook together beautifully.   It's now out of print but still available second hand on amazon. 

It follows on nicely from The Cloud, which I featured at the beginning of the month, and also depicts a child who's not happy, cross and angry with his family, and who decides to "Go away".  

The title page has a small picture of a yellow canary, and in many of the following illustrations the canary can be seen fluttery around in the illustrations. 

Opening 1

The picturebook opens on a single recto page, facing the copyright and dedication pages.  Nice little dedication up at the top! 

All the illustrations are shown in a frame, this is supposed to make us feel detached, as though we are watching the events from afar.  Each page, or occasionally a double spread, has a short sentence accompanied by a framed illustration.  The verbal text really is rhythmic and lovely to read and children pick it up very quickly.   The illustrations skillfully expand upon what the words are hinting at.  Here, on opening 1, we see a happy little family, all getting on with life, smiling, except for our protangonist - he's easy to spot with a face like thunder!

Opening 2

And so it continues, the family gets on with life, mum and dad, big brother and little brother, the little yellow bird and their energetic dog, and in each illustration we see the thunder faced child get crosser and crosser with the world.    The words continue quite matter of factly, and we gradually see the family notice that he's not having a good day - big brother does seem oblivious though!   It continues ... "Hate my big brother. Hate my little brother." The angry child covets his older brother's freedom, fiddling with his toy motorbike as the brother zooms off on his real one. Then he gets cross when his little brother takes the toy motorbike.  Then everything comes to a head, as it does on all bad days ...

Opening 4

Baby brother cries and dad gets cross.  If you click on the image above, you'll be bale to see the headlines in dad's newspaper, "Bad news", "Pretty bad news", "Worse news", More bad news"!   Then poor mum has just had enough!  Her two sons are crying, the dog is howling and dad has given up.  "Go away", she cries!  Children and teachers will empathise with this illustration, we've all experienced a day just like this!  

Our cross little boy goes up stairs, packs his favourite toys and runs out, escorted by the family dog and his pet canary. 

Opening 6

Then out in the street, he checks his wings, which we may have noticed sticking out of his case on opening 5, (and most likely children will notice them upon re-readings).  The canary has gone, but the dog is around.  The wings are yellow like the canary and  we wonder if they've been fashioned to imitate the small family pet.  And he's off, up into the sky and over the cars. The family dog has his case, maybe it's a regular thing this flying away business?

Hate is still a BIG feeling though...

Opening 7

"Hate these aeroplanes." Possibly justified - that's a lot of planes!

He flies over the Atlantic and asks, "Is this away?".  He asks a bird, who happens to be on the Statue of Liberty, "Is this away?" and of course the reply is, "No, this is New York."  Finally he pauses on a branch.  And the rhythm slows, the colours are deep bluey greens and we are gradually calming down.  "Is this away?", Owl replies, "No."...

Opening 11

Here we see owl, comforting the little boy, who's not angry any more.   So what is "Away"?

Opening 12

"Away is a feeling."  Suddenly, like one of those Hollywood movies we see a dozen little faces and heads pop up, are they about to break into song?  And Owl asks, "Love anyone?" Oh my goodness, the million dollar question.  

Opening 14

Why, "Yes!", our once-upon-a-time-angry little boy realises and off he flies.  And look at all those animals, suddenly they are in little family groups, and they are waving off our protangonist.  

Opening 15

The focus on hate in the beginning is replaced with love ...

"Love my Mum, love my Dad,

love my monkey, love my dog,

love my bird, love my big brother,

love my little brother,"

And the family is all happy, our little boy is being pampered by mum. Everyone is ready for bed, the boy's case, wings and toys are scattered on the floor.  Everything is normal again. 

Opening 16

And the final illustration shows our little boy, snuggled in bed, asleep, his wings, the dog and canary nearby and we read the words, "Love owl" ... and he's there in a framed picture above the bed.  Wise old owl, he knows. 


As we've shared this picturebook, we've felt the words through the way we say them and the images that have accompanied them.  Once again, it's an excellent support for developing  emotional intelligence.  Children will empathise with the little boy and be carried with him on his emotional roller coaster. Did he really fly away?  Was it all a dream?  How do we deal with our bad days?  Lots of possibilities for discussion, in particular with primary children.

Jeni Couzyn is a poet and the verbal text is a poem. I've copied it below so you can read it in its entirety.  Feel the emotion as it peeks then slowly dissipates, to be replaced with calm and comfort. 

Hate this day. 
Hate these toys. Hate this food.

Hate my big brother. Hate my little brother.

Hate my dad. "Go away."

Going away. Got my suitcase.  

Got my wings. Work OK.

Hate these aeroplanes.

Is this away?

No, this is the Atlantic.

Is this away?

No, this is New York.

Is this away?

No.

Away isn't a place. Away is a feeling.

Love anyone?

Yes.

Love my Mum, love my Dad,

love my monkey, love my dog,

love my bird, love my big brother,

love my little brother, 

love owl.

The cloud - a book that shows emotions

Front cover

I saw The Cloud by Hanna Cumming in a catalogue by The Story Bag for workshops that brought together art and literature.  I ordered it to satisfy my curiosity, it was the only picturebook on the list which I didn't know. 

Child's Play the publisher's give a short description of The Cloud on their web site "Everyone has bad days, and children are no exception. When a black cloud descends on a little girl at school, support from a classmate with a great deal of imagination helps to brighten up everyone’s lives. The atmospheric illustrations really tell the story in this delightful picture book from a new author/illustrator."

It is the atmospheric illustrations that I am going to focus on in my blog post.  

What mood or emotion do you associate grey with?  Most of us will go for sad, negative, angry, upset.  Grey is a depressing colour and suitably so it is the background of the front and back covers for The Cloud.  The top part of the child's face we just see under the foreboding scribbled cloud, confirms the negative, sad feeling the background grey gives us.   Those touches of colour coming in from the edges look hopeful though, I wonder why they are there?

Endpapers

I find the endpapers quite shocking in their bright red, with the coloured crayons dispersed among the black squiggles. I'm not sure why Cumming chose red, maybe because the main character has a red t-shirt?  Why do you think she chose red?  What do your children think?

Title page

Though this page appears grey in my photo, it isn't!  It's actually white, with just the oval under the title in grey!  All those arty materials look fun.  Upon rereading this picturebook children will identify with these images and understand that it was through drawing, colouring and painting with a friend that our character was helped. 

Opening 1

Opening 1 shows us the art class.  We are told it's fun, and despite the grey looking classroom (it's raining outside as well!)  it does look like everyone is enjoying themselves... "Well, almost everyone." There's our character in her red t-shirt, with scowling eyes, arms crossed and tightly closed mouth.  "There was one girl, who sat by herself and drew nothing."

Opening 3

The illustration on the verso page is the one we saw on the front cover. Look at those kids chatting and having fun in the recto, but no one talks to the girl with the cloud over her head.  I'm not surprised are you?  She looks very grumpy.  But one little girl in the class is keen to make friends, so off she goes ...

Opening 5

There's a lovely sequence in verso, showing the little girl being engulfed in black cloud ... having a chat didn't seem to work. I wonder what the reply was?  It is a particularly useful activity to ask the children in your class what they think - a way for them to have a go at reading feelings and emotions and sharing these personal readings. 

Opening 7

But this little blond-haired girl was not put off, she looked at her crayons and thought maybe there was a way.  It didn't go too well to begin with, but she kept on trying, kept on drawing and finally ...

Opening 8

Our girl with a cloud over her head was smiling, only a tiny smile, but it's a smile.   Cloud is a bit smaller too!  And look out the classroom window ... it's almost stopped raining ... and the classroom wall is not quite so grey either - everything looks brighter. 

But it doesn't stop there, the children in the classroom liked the idea of creating pictures together, so they all had a go ...

Opening 9

And here they are!  Can you see the blond-haired girl who didn't give up?  And how much smaller that black cloud is! What fun they are all having, and how much brighter that classroom is now!  Look back at opening 1, just to remind yourselves.  They end up doing a huge class drawing, which really does look fun, but best of all ...

Opening 11

"... the cloud was gone. Well sort of!"  And our classroom window is there again, and even if we can still see a tiny cloud in the sky the sun is shining, shining so brightly that the classroom is all yellow and warm.  It matches the big smile across the girl's face.  

There's a small circular illustration before the back endpapers, showing a happily integrated child playing hopscotch with kids in her class.

Opening 12

There's a solitary figure by the gate, I wonder if the children will invite her to join their game? 

The Cloud is a very simple, clear  story.  It's about accepting and not giving up on people, and the illustrations help readers see and feel emotion clearly too.  This little book is excellent for actively working with emotional intelligence, but as mediators we need to give our children pointers, ask them to look and think:  what colours are the pages and what do these colours make us feel? What are the characters feeling, how do they know this?  Can we imitate their postures and facial expressions, what do they feel like? Encourage children to empathise with the dark haired girl whose cloud eventually disappears, what could she be so upset about? By identifying emotions in others and seeing how problems can be resolved, young children can learn strategies of their own, both when they have problems, or to help others overcome their own.