300PBs

March picture book catch up.

31st March 2015 by Jax Blunt Leave a Comment

In pictures 🙂

This is the main body of it.

That’s a whole lot of books! Titles etc:

Picture a Greener future (Worcester Bosch)

Bob’s best (ever) friend. Simon Bartram

The bad tempered lady bird. Eric Carle

Love Monster. Rachel Bright

Walter and the no-need-to-worry suit. Rachel Bright

Charlie and Lola: We honestly can look after your dog.

The Goblin and the Girl.

Hocus Pocus Diplodocus

And they’re off!

Dot

Miss Dorothy Jane was ever so vain

Squishy McFluff: supermarket sweep. Pip Jones and Ella Okstad.

Molly and the Storm

Bear bird and frog

The snail and the whale

Lunchtime

No matter what

And picture no 2.

Princess Stay awake

Arion and the Dolphin

I wish I’d been born a unicorn

The Hog, The shrew and the hullabaloo. Julia Copus and Eunyoung Seo

Mr Mistoffelees

Daddy’s Sandwich Pip Jones (Author), Laura Hughes

Darkness slipped in

Sleeping beauty.

25 books. Plus 3 at the library the other day. Last time we added up we were up to 85 (let’s say 85.) So now we’re at 113! Given that we’re only 3 months into the year (90 days) we’re steaming ahead. To hit 300 by the end of the year we only need to be at 78 by now, so this is all pretty good going (even if I have manage to list some books twice, which seems likely).

Books in these pictures include books sent by review by Faber Childrens (thank you!) Squishy McFluff: Supermarket Sweep! is the second in this illustrated chapter book series about Squishy McFluff the invisible cat. They have wonderful pacing, all being in rhyme, and are quite hilarious, with simple but extremely evocative illustrations. A trip to the supermarket with a mischievious child is bad enough, but when that child would much rather have stayed home with their invisible cat, you know you’re in for a time of it. And I am laying squarely at Squishy’s (invisible) feet the fact that both my little children now have imaginary friends. Aargh! We like the way Squishy in the pictures is slightly transparent, to get across his invisibility, and I’m rather fond of the scrappiness of his human partner in crime.

The Hog, the Shrew and the Hullabaloo (A Harry & Lil Story) is the second Harry and Lil book, and again, is told in wonderfully paced rhyme. Detailed pictures bring the various animals to life throughout as the slightly spooky tale builds to a surprising ending. (Well, I didn’t quite guess it anyway, which makes it surprising.) Ideal one for children worried about strange noises at night, as it might just defuse worries a little, or at least give you a way in to discussions.

And finally, Daddy’s Sandwich. This starts out well, with the sort of ingredients you might expect. It rapidly gets rather out of hand, and anyone who has cooked with children might have an understanding of where we’re going, if we say we’re putting Daddy’s favourite things into his meal (but we haven’t narrowed it down to Daddy’s favourite foods…) Simple but lively illustrations, uncluttered, mean that there’s plenty to talk about as you’re reading. Destined to be a firm family favourite – but you might want to put a lock on the fridge 😉

300 picture books catch up

2nd March 2015 by Jax Blunt 2 Comments

The last time I did a proper 300 picture books post was, oops, weeks ago.

At that point we were well ahead of schedule, at 48 books. Since then, when we’ve read a book, I’ve stacked it by my chair – it’s getting to the point where I have to stand back and leap to be able to sit down! 😉 So, time to catch up a bit.

The Amazing alphabet that appeared in the night (This is a money can’t buy gift from
Bob and the Moontree Mystery
Bibble and the bubbles
Prince Cinders
A Kitten Called Moonlight
The Odd Egg
It’s a bear’s life
I forget to say I love you
The Fearsome Beastie
Jack and Nancy
Harold finds a voice
This is not my hat
Small Bunny’s blue blanket
The thingamabob
Mrs MacCready was ever so greedy
If your dreams take off and fly
The Nowhere Box
Ten out of bed
Melrose and Croc find a smile
We’re going on a bear hunt
Me and My cat?
Big!
Just Ducks!
Just like my mum
Jack’s Amazing Shadow
My Daddy’s going away
Cockatoos

That’s a lot of books. I’m not convinced that is all of them, but it’ll be pretty close. I make that 27 books, which takes us up to 75 (different) picture books read so far this year. Slightly more than one a day. (And many of them have been read rather more than once!)

Focusing on pictures has had a salutary effect on me. I’ve noticed that my reading has got livelier – I’m more likely to do the voices and emotions, possibly because of how many times I’ve reading each book. The children are really strongly identifying the sort of thing that gets more than one read – Stick Man has gone missing (no, it wasn’t me!) and the new favourite for Tigerboy is The Nowhere Box. (The boy has taste.)

As well as me doing a lot more drawing, the rest of the family has got into it. We had a trip out to an art shop this afternoon (which was painfully expensive) and I bought the children rather nicer crayons than they usually have. I’m still trying to source decent watercolour pencils and crayons at a price that won’t break the bank – the Derwent range of Inktense, Watercolour and Coloursoft have all been highly recommended.

All in all, I’m really enjoying our picture book journey this year. Even if I’m being very lax in keeping up with blogging it. Sorry about that. If you want to join in, I’d suggest you start with a target of 250, although of course, whatever suits you is good. And don’t forget to pop over and check out Menai’s blog too. (I think I’ve got the most recent #300PBs post there.)

300 picture books wk 3. Or thereabouts

26th January 2015 by Jax Blunt 2 Comments

Continuing our 300 picture book trek – another good week, including our first library visit. Last week we got up to 23 books, this week we’re totalling 35.

Bubble trouble
UFO diary. Satoshi Kitamura
Books always everywhere @nosycrow
The littlest dinosaur @KidsBloomsbury
Rosie’s walk
Rex wrecks it
Grandad Pot
Goodnight Tiptoe Polly Dunbar
The Hueys in the new jumper
The disgusting sandwich.
Edward goes exploring
The whales’ song.

Lots of fabulous books in there. Meta book about books in Books always everywhere from nosycrow, while Goodnight Tiptoe from Polly Dunbar is rapidly becoming a new family favourite. Edward goes exploring will I suspect inspire some educational wildlife walks as the weather improves.

Bubble trouble isn’t one to read when you’re too tired – it’s tongue tying twisters that were challenging at bedtime. Pictures are gorgeous though, and it is a lovely story.

UFO Diary (Amazon link) is very gentle, perfectly illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura, who is one of my favourites I think. I did a feature on his work during 300 Picture books last year.

I’m thinking of doing features on different author/illustrators again this year. I have a couple of Eric Carle books from the library this week, so I might see if I can find a few others and focus on him. Bound to be a few art activities out there as well we can do, and make it a focus of our week.

Or, just discovered The Book People have 10 Julia Donaldson/Alex Scheffler books for £12. Very tempting. I could buy two sets and do a giveaway on the second one….maybe for another week!

I have to say that making sure that pretty much every day we read at least one new book is a really good habit. Alongside the picture books we’re also reading Songbirds phonic readers, and some longer excerpts – last night was a section from a Moomin book, featured in A Little, Aloud, for Children which is a great selection. I also picked up another read aloud longer book from a charity shop, but it’s disappeared. Never mind. Will show up at some point.

So, what have you been reading? Are you following along with #300PBs and if so, where? Do let me know.

A selection of favourites – 300 picture books week 1.

12th January 2015 by Jax Blunt 3 Comments

I’m really enjoying focussing on reading different picture books every day, although there are obviously quite a lot of rereads too, in order to hit the 300 Picture book target. I’ve fallen slightly behind in the daily review over at Shingle Street, sigh, but I’m keeping up with instagrams of the covers, which when I remember I also share to tumblr.

So this year so far, we’ve read:

Do not enter the monster zoo.
Dinosaur roar.
Peely Wally.
How to catch a star. Oliver Jeffers.
The elephant tree. Penny Dale
Worm, slug, maggot and leech
Puss in boots
My big shouting day by Rebecca Patterson
Pirate ship ahoy! Charles E Reasoner
Yeti and the bird by Nadia Shireen
Bats at the Beach. Brian Lies
The Moon Flower Fairies by Oakley Graham and Patricia Yuste
The best book in the world. Rilla
Monty’s Magnificent Mane

I’ve seen a couple of other people using the #300PBs tag – if you fancy joining in the challenge please feel free. You can set your target at whatever number suits you – maybe knock off 5 or 6 books for every week we are into the year. And if people want it I’ll set up a linky, but I’m not hustling for it. Let me know what you think. I’d love to follow your lists if you are taking part, so let me know where you’re doing it – goodreads, blog, instagram, wherever.

I’m still hoping to be able to hold some giveaways, so if you’re interested in supporting one, do let me know.

300 Picture books!

5th January 2015 by Jax Blunt 5 Comments

Last year I took part in Child led chaos 300 picture book challenge. I made it to 150 I think, and then lost track, heart, the plot and so on.

(There were some really difficult bits towards the middle of last year.)

Anyway, as Anne-Marie’s children are moving on to chapter books, she’s decided against hosting the challenge again this year, and I’m going to host it and give it another crack. I’m determined to keep up with it this year, and I hope that a few of you will decide to take part with me.

But 300 picture books – that’s so many!

No, it’s only 5 or 6 a week. And you probably easily read books that many times – the challenge is for it to be 300 different books. (It doesn’t have to be 300 completely new books to you, just 300 discrete books read this year.)

I’m contemplating whether the linky should be weekly or monthly – any thoughts? You don’t have to sign up, and you don’t have to join the linky every time, but you will need a way of tracking your books to meet the challenge. You can choose to track your picture book reading in whatever way you like e.g. blog post, Pinterest board, Goodreads shelf, Shelfari, Library Thing, GoogleDocs, Instagram, Twitter, notebook, paper…

If you want to tweet, the official tag is #300PBs, which I’ll selectively retweet. I’ll also comment on every blog post linked up and follow on whatever I’m already a member of (e.g. Pinterest, Goodreads, Twitter etc etc). Tweet or mail me if I miss you 😉

So, who’s up for a challenge? Our books are being reviewed over on Shinglestreet, and shared via instagram at the time of reading in the hope that will help me keep track. I’ll try to set up some giveaways as well *smiles winsomely at picture book publishers*. I will do regular round up posts here as well though along with the linky, and I’ll come up with a new badge sometime this week.

Any questions?