I bought The School of Art last December for Anya as she is interested in creating. She recently picked it up which is what reminded me of what a great book this is. Since she’s picked it up, she hasn’t been able to put it down. If you’re interested in a tool for teaching art to children or you just have kids who love art, I haven’t come across anything better than this book.
Are your kids in to myths and facts? My seven year old is obsessed with them so we have recently made up a dinner table game called ‘myth or fact?’. We each take a turn to come up with a statement and the others have to guess whether it’s a myth or a fact. The statement can be about anything, any subject, any topic – the challenge lies in coming up with facts that sound like myths and vice versa. It’s really fun seeing what Anya will say as she sometimes comes up with things that neither Richard or I are sure whether it’s a myth or a fact. And other times her statements are so random, they are hilarious! She gets some of her info from one of her current favourite books – The Amazing Human Body Detectives – that I wrote about last year.
That book was such a hit in our home and yours (so many readers emailed me to say they had bought it and their kids loved it too) that when I discovered the other book in this series I had to get it for Anya and of course share it with you. Called Bug Detective: Amazing facts, myths and quirks of nature – this Bug Detective book is packed with interesting facts and myths about bugs, insects and minibeasts. Did you know that worms don’t have lungs or that ladybirds have poisonous knees? Or if you weighed all the ants in the world, they would weigh more than humans (wow, that I did not know!). All the info is presented in a fun and engaging way with great illustrations. There is a lot of info on each page but it’s broken up in to bite sized chunks making it easy for kids to read and understand.
The Bug Detective book also comes with a magnifying glass so kids can search for the extra, often tiny, details on some of the pages – making it even more fun to read. I highly recommend it especially for inquisitive kids who will devour this book and spend hours buried in it! If you’re in the US, you can find the book here and in the UK find it here
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We love colouring in this house. Anya of course loves it but she often asks me to colour with her and I find it quite therapeutic. Recently, while on holiday during half-term, Anya even got Richard involved and the three of us spent a rainy afternoon colouring (who said we don’t know how to live!). As with story books, I try and look out for fun, unusual and unique colouring books and this one called Evolution: A Colouring Book is exactly that. It’s Anya’s current favourite (and mine!).
Evolution is a colouring book as well as a book on evolution. As a colouring book it’s interactive with flaps, die-cuts, stencils and mix and match pages and then you have the text on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. The facts are presented simply so it’s ideal for kids especially 6-8 year olds. Anya has been asking a lot of questions on evolution lately and this book is a great introduction to the concept. But the fact that it’s an interactive colouring book too makes it even more engaging for a child. It’s unusual to find a colouring book that teaches and is interactive and that’s why I love Evolution as it is so much more than just a coloring book. This book would make a great gift too especially with Christmas coming up.
One of the best things about living in London has to be the diversity of the people and cultures. London is full of immigrants from all over the world living alongside native British people too. I too am not from here – I’m from India but now London is my home. In London you can experience culture, food, art and language from almost anywhere in the world and that is just special. Not that many cities can boast such a diverse range of people but there is one other that immediately comes to mind and that is New York City. Maybe it’s even more diverse than London if that’s possible and it’s another city I love for this reason. So I was absolutely delighted to receive a kids book last week called Larry and Friends that celebrates exactly this aspect of city life.
Larry and Friends by Nat Jasper and Carla Torres is a children’s book on immigration and all that is great about it. It is set in New York but it could be London or any other big, multi-cultural city. The book is about Larry the dog who is born and bred in NYC but his group of friends are from all over the world. Larry is celebrating his birthday and one by one his animal friends arrive at his party. As each friend arrives we get a little insight in to their lives – where they are from, what they do and how they ended up making NYC their home away from their native countries. His friends come from Peru, India, Korea, Iran, Tibet, Puerto Rico and lots more places but are all now living in NYC. There isn’t a typical story as such but each character has a little back story of their own. And the illustrations are colourful and so detailed and all done in a beautiful painting like style.
Anya really enjoyed this book and picked it up to read by herself too. She didn’t immediately get the significance of the animal friends from all over the world but we ended up chatting about how some people leave their native countries to settle somewhere else. It was an interesting conversation and we talked about how London is one of those kind’s of cities. She has friends from Pakistan, Lebanon and China so this made the book even more relevant. While this children’s book celebrates immigration, diversity and friendship, it also subtly puts across little life messages like it’s always important to be yourself, you can overcome adversity, knowledge is to be shared and more. Larry and Friends is a lovely, happy and uplifting book on a topic that I think we need to see more of in kids books. Unfortunately it’s not that easily available outside the US but you can order from there although shipping is expensive.
P.S. If you are looking for more kids book recommendations you might enjoy these:
Maps
What do you do with an Idea?
Once upon an Alphabet
What do you do with an idea? How many times have you let an idea slip by just because people told you it wouldn’t work? I know that I have pushed aside ideas many times because people have laughed at it or because I didn’t believe enough in myself to pursue it. We all have ideas, big and small, but often we are scared of them and don’t know what to do with them. Will people laugh at our idea, will they think it’s weird or worse will they think we’re weird? Do we have the determination and confidence to develop it? This kids book called What Do You Do with an Idea? is all about an idea and what can happen when you have one. It’s written in a very simple, easy to understand way for kids with beautifully simple drawings to match.
What Do You Do With An Idea is a kids book that is just as much for adults. It’s a great reminder for any age that ideas are to be treasured, nurtured and believed in but more than the idea, it’s also about believing in yourself and having the confidence to look beyond the meanies who try and put you and your idea down.
I bought this book a couple of weeks ago and read it to Anya expecting her to love it just as much as I did. She didn’t. She didn’t dislike the book but I think she didn’t fully get it. This book is recommended for three years and over but I think for younger kids it’s a cute picture book but not much more beyond that. Even for Anya who is six, I think we need to talk about the book a bit more for her to fully appreciate it. But don’t let that put you off as this book as it’s a keeper. What Do You Do with an Idea? is a book to pull out whenever you or your kids are struggling with an idea and self-belief. I am so glad I bought the book and will be keeping it and bringing it out every so often to read to Anya and I know she will appreciate it more in time, especially as she gets older and maybe starts having more doubts about things.
If you’ve read this blog for a while, you’ll know how much I love kids books. And every time I come across a great book, I love sharing it here. While I love many of the better known kids books, I also love searching for lesser known gems and today I have one such gem for you. The The Wolf’s Whistle is a book I am so glad I came across. At it’s simplest form it is a twisted tale of the Three Little Pigs and the big bad wolf. But this book is so much more. It could be the story of how the wolf came to be so bad or even how superheroes are made. It features a lone wolf called Albert who is a bit of a misfit. He and his group of three friends, none of whom really fit in, are tormented by the ‘honeyroast brothers’ – three enormous pigs! Albert has a dream of becoming a comic book artist and his story continues from childhood in to his adulthood where tragedy befalls him and yes the ‘honeyroast brothers’ are involved.
The Wolf’s Whistle is not only a great read but also the illustrations are beautiful. The drawings are created in a retro style which works so well with the story. The book is aimed at 5 to 8 year old kids but I think the upper end of this age group will appreciate it better. Anya enjoyed the story and loved looking at the pictures but couldn’t fully understand the subtleties in the book. For her it is a simple story of a good wolf and bad pigs but that is what is so appealing about this book – it will grow with her and I see her reading it several times over the years. I love this book for it’s originality and the beautiful illustrations.
Have you come across any lesser know kids books that are unmissable? Do let me know in the comments.
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