Finding a Friend: Swim! Swim! and a PG Giveaway!

I love it when a book makes my eldest daughter shriek and squirm with anticipation, clamping her hand over her mouth. And when my youngest giggles uncontrollably. Those were the reactions in which the book Swim! Swim! By Lerch resulted when we read it the other day. A couple pages in and I knew it would make a great book to review here. But now that I want to review it do you think I can find the silly thing? I've looked high and low but the book seems to have disappeared so I'm going to have to recall the story as best I can, without the book.


Swim! Swim! By Lerch, written and illustrated by James Proimos (Scholastic Press, 2010) is a story about Lerch, an animated yet lonely goldfish, who is in search of a companion. Lerch makes several unsuccessful attempts at befriending inanimate objects until he meets a rather hungry looking cat. At this point in the story my eldest daughter was practically screaming at Lerch, trying to warn him about hobnobbing with the cat. But much to her surprise, and delight, the cat turns out to be a matchmaker, looking to set Lerch up with Dinah, another lonely fish who is also looking for love. Proimos's great animation skills paired with his witty plays on words make for one funny and thrilling love story.

Completely unrelated to children's books but fun, nonetheless, check out my friend Kat's blog, Penguin's Gift. She is celebrating the first anniversary of her blog so she's giving away a pair of Molly Newborn on Etsy chandelier earrings to one lucky reader. Head on over there and enter!

From Jolly Old: A Bit More Bert

We've all been sick with the flu so that explains the lack of posts here lately. Fortunately we had a good selection of new library books to keep us occupied and we came across some really fun ones.

If you have a true English sense of humour you'll enjoy this quirky storybook from Allan Ahlberg and Raymond Briggs, two of Britain's more influential children's authors of recent times. Ahlberg is well known for Each Peach Pear Plum, among many others, while Briggs is perhaps best known for his Christmastime favourites, The Snowman and Father Christmas (and I know it's super early but can I just say how excited I am to share these last two with the girls in a couple of short months?).

We came across A Bit More Bert (Penguin Books Ltd, September 2002) at the library recently. I chose it simply because of the author and illustrator. Sometimes I do that. I don't even bother looking inside if I recognise the author and know that we've enjoyed his or her books in the past. This one is charming in its unconventional qualities. In each short chapter of the book we meet and learn about Bert and his family, including his dog who is also named "Bert." I think one of the things my daughters like most about this book (beyond the humour) is how the author invites the reader to participate in the story. My youngest, especially, enjoyed helping give Bert a haircut and searching for his lost dog.

Now we're off to find the book that precedes this one, The Adventures of Bert. How often do you read a sequel before you read the first book?? That's the nice thing about children's books...most often it doesn't really matter. :)

When Opposites Attract: Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend

School started here last week. Often one of the hardest parts about beginning a new school year or starting at a new school is meeting new people and making friends. Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend (Kids Can Press, March 1 2007) is author and illustrator Mélanie Watt's first in her series of three Scaredy Squirrel books and it's our favourite.

Scaredy Squirrel is frightened by many things and making new friends can be a dangerous business. Scaredy decides to take the safe route and attempt to make friends with a goldfish since goldfish are risk-free: they don't have germs and they don't have teeth so they won't bite. So Scaredy creates the "Perfect Plan" in order to make this new friendship happen. Things, however, don't quite go as Scaredy intends and he soon finds himself being chased by a dog! Making a new friend is much harder and more dangerous than Scaredy could ever have thought.

Mélanie Watt injects her great sense of humour into all her books, making them funny for both kids and adult readers. In this one, for instance, Scaredy's wardrobe accessories, including a pine scent air freshener belt and sweaty-paw-hiding mittens, along with his obsessive-compulsive teeth brushing habits may have been lost a little on my girls but I laughed out loud. This book will definitely make a "Perfect First Impression".

Back to School: The Kissing Hand

My best friend and I always lament late summer when we're reminded of 'back to school.' As kids (and now, too, of course!) we both loved summer so much and it was always a bit sad when ads would come on TV reminding us of the impending doom...just kidding, it really wasn't that bad. Although I still switch the radio station when that horrible Staples ad played to the tune of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" comes on. So while school hasn't quite started back here yet I thought it might be a good opportunity to look at a book that suits this time of year.

The Kissing Hand (Tanglewood Press, June 2006), written by Audrey Penn and illustrated by Ruth E. Harper and Nancy M. Leak, is a great book for kids just starting kindergarten or even those first days of playschool. Chester Raccoon is about to start school for the first time and he's having a tough time dealing with leaving his mum, his home and his friends. His mum tells him about the exciting new things he'll get to do at school. Then she tells him a secret: the Kissing Hand. She shows him how to open his left palm out so she can kiss it. Chester immediately feels the love radiate from his hand. Mrs. Raccoon then explains that whenever Chester feels lonely all he has to do is press his palm to his cheek and remember that she loves him. Chester knows that wherever he goes his mother's love will always be with him.

With sweetly drawn illustrations, this book is bound to have you teary eyed...especially if you have a little one just starting school or about to encounter some other new experience away from Mummy or Daddy.

Food for Thought: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Eric Carle has written and illustrated many great books for young children. He uses a lot of repetition in his stories and this is especially appealing for the very young ones. His simple but colourful animal drawings pair perfectly with the text.

Our favourite Carle book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. We've had our copy so long I can't even recall where we got it. And it looks old, too. The pages are barely attached at the spine...hanging on by a thread! But I fondly remember lying with our youngest in bed reading the book when she was only a few months old. Something about the book caught her attention, either the bold colours or the repetition of the story or maybe it was just the inflection in our voices as we read the words.

This is a tale of the metamorphosis of a caterpillar. An egg lays on a leaf just waiting to break open so its occupant can discover life. Soon the caterpillar emerges and begins looking for food. He is so hungry he munches on every bit of food he encounters, a different fruit for every day of the week and a whole plethora of foods on Saturday, including an ice cream cone and a sausage! Unfortunately the caterpillar soon learns the perils of binge eating: a tummy ache. Satisfied that he's had enough to eat the caterpillar builds a cocoon and after a couple of weeks emerges as a lovely, colourful butterfly.

In addition to the easy-to-remember text and the colourful pictures, this book is unique in that each page of food features small holes that follow through to the next pages. You can just imagine the tiny caterpillar burrowing his way through each of the foods on his way to the next one. Cute as can be!

Kismet: How to Catch a Star

Oliver Jeffers is an Irish painter and writer whose books have won several awards. How to Catch a Star (Harper Collins UK, May 2010) is one that gets frequently pulled off the bookshelf at bedtime here. I find there is equal pull in the charming writing and in the sweet illustrations. Sometimes I'll find that a book's pictures are really great but the story just isn't there or the opposite. How to Catch a Star offers both. The writing reflects the innocence of youth while the paintings have an ethereal quality to them.

A boy wishes to catch a star and make it his friend. He spends an entire day trying to figure out how to make his wish a reality. When the stars finally appear in the evening sky he climbs to the top of the highest tree in attempt to reach out and grab a star. When that doesn't work he tries to lasso a star with a lifesaver off his dad's boat. No matter what the boy tries to do to catch a star it seems it is always just out of reach.

One of the things I really like about this book is that it is completely in synch with how a child would think, imagine and struggle to solve a problem. As an adult I found myself marveling at this story's ending. I won't say any more about the ending as I don't want to spoil it. I will say, though, I wondered whether or not I should explain it to my 3 year old or simply follow her lead and answer her questions if she had any. In the end, I left it. She'll figure it out when she's ready.

What's in a Name? Chrysanthemum

Lately my daughters and I have been having a lot of conversations about teasing and bullying. There are a lot of great books out there that deal with this topic. One my girls really like is Chrysanthemum (HarperCollins Publishers, Sept 1996), written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes.


Chrysanthemum loves her name until she starts school and a group of her female classmates start teasing her about it. What is it about some girls?? The girls laugh at Chrysanthemum, making fun of her because she's named after a flower and, besides, it's a name that's much too long. This leads Chrysanthemum to start having nightmares and she soon dreads going to school. While her parents try to console her, it isn't until she meets her new music teacher that Chrysanthemum really starts to feel confident about herself once more. Mrs. Twinkle is loved by all the students. When they learn she is also named after a flower, she has an equally long name and she happens to think Chrysanthemum's name is perfect Chrysanthemum realises it doesn't matter what the other girls think.

This book is great for teaching girls about self confidence as well as feelings (both in ourselves and in empathy for others). If you like this one, Henkes has written several other books we've also enjoyed reading. Many of his books, like this one, feature mice as the main characters and all deal with important issues in childhood, such as learning to be brave and having a new sibling.