Making It Up

as we go along

library

A Story Like The Wind by Gill Lewis, illustrated by Jo Weaver.

by Leave a Comment

I borrowed this from the library in December and couldn’t face taking it back without reading it. It’s utterly beautiful, both story and pictures. (It was the pictures that drew me in to begin with, as we’ve a picture book by Jo Weaver already, the very beautiful little bear.)

A Story like the wind by Gill Lewis and Jo Weaver

The pictures complement the lyrical text perfectly, telling the current stories of refugees in a boat and interweaving a magical tale of horses and music from long ago. It’s very shareable and thought provoking, although I confess that today I kept it all to myself. (Yes, as well as reading YA I read and enjoy picture books. I highly recommend this as an activity. I wish more books were illustrated too!)

White foal prancing on black background

Picture of people huddled in a boat under part of the story

Books like this inspire me to pick up a pencil and draw alongside the words I try to write. They’re such a gift. Enjoy the story, share the message. Pass it along.

Affiliate links below.

300 Picture books week 2.

by 6 Comments

300in2014

Continuing our attempt to meet the 300 Picture book challenge. We’re on track so far.

Our first Judith Kerr of the year. It’s not a Mog book (boo) but it does have a very Mog looking cat in it. When Willy went to the wedding. It’s not his fault, honestly.

Two ladybird books today, first being a Read it yourself, Sly Fox and Red Hen (mild peril, cartoon violence, threatening language), Forgetful little fireman – bonus points for being short, annoyance point is that the Fire Brigade doesn’t search for lost pets.

I want my hat back was in the massive pile of books I won on one day last year. Or at least, they all arrived on one day – I think I won them over several. This is a great picture book, very sardonic in tone – watch out for the rabbit.

the kiss that missedFriday – two library picture books. A lovely bedtime story from David Melling, the kiss that missed. I adore the breaking of the fourth wall picture of the knight. And My Gumpy’s outing, a classic I first read to Big a decade ago. Adore the pictures.

Saturday two more from the library. Box of tricks from Katie Cleminson which is a visual feast and Zoe’s Christmas List, which is from the Inkpen team of Mick and Chloe. It differs from the usual Mick Inkpen books, apparently Chloe is the illustrator here, and the style is very much her own.

Sunday, the last two library books. Your emotions: I feel angry is very child self help, and not very re readable. But Darkness slipped in is wonderful.

We need another library trip. I’d have gone today but our library opens Sunday and closes Monday. Might try to get there tomorrow.

Along with the reviews, we did a makeover on Shingle Street. Do let me know what you think of the new look.

So, our numeric tally. 16 picture books read 6/300 (5%)

Books bought – 0.

Books disposed of. 0

Library books borrowed – 0 ((11 cumulative)

I don’t think that Small has done any reading this week, I’ll have to poke him later.

The Hungry Caterpillar #100books

by 3 Comments

This set, as linked to, was one of Smallest’s first presents. The soft caterpillar annoys me slightly, as it’s been changed from the illustrated one to make it more educationally interesting, and I really didn’t feel that was necessary. We carted it around for a few months, and Smallest didn’t squidge the interesting sounding bits, or play with the artificial tags or indeed really notice it at all, so it’s now in a toybox somewhere.

The book, however, has just come into its own. This is a board book version, which means it can stand up to some rough handling. Just as well, as it gets a fair bit of that. Smallest loves it, something about the simple pictures which nevertheless have complex colouring to them, and the fact that she can stick her fingers through the holes! It also contains many mentions of lots of her favourite foods – apples, pears, strawberries. The caterpillar never munches through a chocolate bar which is a bit of an oversight 😉

Oddly the one page she doesn’t seem bothered by is the beautiful butterfly, so I don’t always get to read that one. Shame, as I rather like it.

Book 11 of 100..

[Read more…] about The Hungry Caterpillar #100books

Elmer #100books

by 1 Comment

Book 10. 10% of the way towards 100 books.And, pyschologically quite important, double figures, finally 🙂

Elmer is a library book. This is a shame in a way, as Smallest is extremely fond of him, and is probably not really going to want him to disappear off home. I feel that like previous favourite borrowed reads (Rattletrap car springs to mind) we’re going to need our own copy.

I like him too. He’s bright, cheerful and colourful, easy to read, and even has a page the baby can join in with. (All together now – BOOOO!) I’m sure there’s some deep underlying meaning to the patchwork elephant colouring himself grey to try to fit in better, but I can’t quite find it, and anyway, the rain washes him back to normal quite quickly.

If you’ve got a toddler, there’s a reason why Elmer is a classic. Find him and read him, you won’t be disappointed.

[Read more…] about Elmer #100books

Life of Pi #100books

by 5 Comments

I’ve seen this book around a few times, it crops up on suggested book lists as a *good thing to read* but I’d never been tempted. So I was actually quite pleased to receive it as a Christmas present and have it to stretch my boundaries a bit.

Without blowing the plot too far (given there’s a picture of a boat on the front!) odd coincidence to find myself reading two very different books both featuring ppl spending time at sea. However there’s lots of book to get through before you get to that part, and lots about religion too. Oddly I didn’t find that grated, I found it really interesting and thought provoking. And the use of language throughout is really quite glorious – I could almost feel it stretching my mind and shaking my vocabulary up, as both ideas and imagery flooded through me.

I did feel oddly let down by the ending. Which was strange. Being told that a story might have been about a story, as it were, ie that the narrator could have been not narrating his life after all, was a peculiar let down.Why would I feel like that – upset that a work of fiction was about a work of fiction? I don’t know. I guess it’s because for a while we submerge ourselves in the book, and the least that we want is for the characters to be telling a kind of truth to us. Does that make any sense? If not, I suggest you go read it for yourself, and then come back and tell me what you think 🙂

Book 9 of 100..

[Read more…] about Life of Pi #100books