Review: Where's Your Smile, Crocodile?

Where's Your Smile, Crocodile?

Written by Claire Freedman

Illustrated by Sean Julian

Publication date: 2010
Publisher: Orchard Books Australia
ISBN: 978-1-40830-809-7

Summary/Back cover:
The author of Aliens Love Underpants brings you a story guaranteed to make you smile!

One morning, Kyle wakes up feeling very grumpy and nothing his jungle friends do can cheer him up. So, Kyle goes in search of his smile, but perhaps it's closer than he thinks...

Sean Julian's bright and vibrant illustrations help to make this book perfect for sharing.

Review:
The star of this gorgeous book is Kyle, the sad crocodile. On his journey to find his smile he comes across some of his jungle friends who make the effort to cheer him up. It doesn't work for Kyle, but it will work for the listener as there are many silly noises and faces which makes this as enjoyable to read aloud as it does to listen to.

The illustrations are vibrant and bright but my one complaint is that the monkey is a little frightening and odd looking. A small complaint, particularly as the positives for this story far outweigh this tiny negative.

There is a great lesson here about feelings and emotions, particularly for out older kids who need to be shown that sometimes you are down and that's ok.

My rating: 3.5 out of 5

Review written by QTCass

Review: Cheer Up Your Teddy Bear, Emily Brown!

Cheer Up Your Teddy Bear, Emily Brown!

Written by Cressida Cowell

Illustrated by Neal Layton

Publication date: 2011
Publisher: Orchard Books
ISBN: 978-1-40830-848-6

Summary/Back cover:
"Po-o-o-o-o-o-o-r-ME... po-o-o-o-o-o-o-r ME...
Poor little sad little wet little ME...
I'm a Lonely Only Bear and I'm feeling very blue..."
Once upon a time, Emily Brown and her old grey rabbit called Stanley met a very wet little teddy bear, who certainly needed a bit of cheering up.  Perhaps a trip to Australia would help?

The fourth book in this simply marvellous series by top author-illustrator pairing Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton.

Review:
This is a gorgeous wee book about a very sad little teddy bear that needs a lot of cheering up - my almost 3 year old didn't understand the rain cloud over the teddy bears' head, but otherwise understood that teddy was sad, and we had to try and make him happy - his solution was to yell "Be happy, Teddy!" at the book!

This is a relatively long book for a preschooler, but easy to read, and keeps the kids entertained (especially if you pick a tune to sing the teddy bear's song to - I sang it to a slow, minor-keyed version of "This Old Man").    The illustrations are a clever combination of photography backgrounds with drawn pictures on top, which fascinated my son no end.

A beautiful book, one that we will definitely read time and time again.  It hasn't made the top 10 favourites list from my son yet, but he has requested it a number of times, so it may make it there yet!

If you're interested in purchasing this book, you can find it here on Fishpond.

My rating: 4 out of 5.

Review written by Bronwyn

Review: Quaky Cat

Quaky Cat

Written by Diana Noonan

Illustrated by Gavin Bishop

Publication Date: 2010
Publisher: Scholastic New Zealand Limited
ISBN: 978-1-77543-029-2

Summary/back cover:
“On a cold Christchurch morning, while the city was sleeping,
before the birds roused him with twitters and cheeping,
curled up on the end of his friend Emma’s bed,
Tiger woke with a start… and a feeling of dread.”


Written in response to the Canterbury earthquake of 2010, Quaky Cat is an evocative, uplifting story that will touch the hearts of all who read it.

Review:
The earthquakes we’ve experienced, here, in Canterbury, over the past 12 months have had a profound impact on our family. My kids’ grand-dad lost his job and him and Nana moved away. My kids no longer wave Daddy ‘good-bye’ at the front door because his building was in the cordon and he now works out of our third bedroom. The kids tell us the washing machine is “noisy like ur-cake (earthquake)”, and they are often subjected to the sight of crumbled remains of demolished buildings around the city.

It’s difficult to fully understand the emotions of children who were only a year old when the first earthquake struck last September, but my best deduction is that they’ve found the earthquakes and associated events both scary and intriguing. Those seem to be their emotions about Quaky Cat, too.

Quaky Cat is a regularly requested story in our house. The illustrations are quite unique, often depicted through paint-splattered silhouettes. I wasn’t sure what the kids would make of them, but my boys love the illustrations. I think they love the character of Tiger, the cat, too. I get the impression they feel they can relate to his fears and confusion over what’s happening around him. I think this book has given the kids a way to understand what’s happened to their city and to give them a way to discuss what happened through the careful use of images and language that bring the impact of this natural disaster within the scope of a child’s limited vocabulary and comprehension.

The flip-side is that the book appears to remind the kids of the earthquakes and sometimes seems to upset them by reliving the trauma.

Despite that, I still think this story is important and would recommend it to all families in New Zealand as a sweet story of what’s really valuable in life, and a way to approach the discussion of earthquakes with the littlies.

My rating: 4.8 out of 5

Review written by team_s



Side note from Bronwyn:
If you're interested in purchasing a copy of this book, you can find it here at Fishpond.

Review: Love You Forever

Love You Forever

Written by Robert Munsch

Illustrated by Anthony Lewis

Publication Date: 2000

Publisher: Random House

ISBN: 0-09-176813-6

Summary/back cover:

A mother cradles her newborn child and sings a gentle lullaby:

‘I’ll love you forever.

I’ll like you for always.

As long as I’m living

My baby you’ll be.’

With a simple text and rich, luminous illustrations, Love You Forever is a book to be shared… a tender affirmation of enduring love that children will carry with them throughout their lives.

I first heard about this book on FRIENDS when Joey gives a dramatic reading of it for Emma’s first birthday. Unfortunately, he only read the first page and I had no idea that I needed to read this book armed with a packet of tissues. This story is guaranteed to make you cry.

It follows a mother and her son from soon after his birth until he grows into a man. At each passage of time his mother expresses her love by singing the ‘I’ll love you forever’ lullaby as her son sleeps.

It is an endearing story of everlasting love between parent and child. If you want a book to gift to your child when they leave home, this would be it. In the meantime, read it to your children while they’re young and try to get to the end without crying.

My rating:  4.5 out of 5

Review written by team_s

Review: I Like Myself

I Like Myself

Written by Karen Beaumont

Illustrated by David Catrow

Publication date: 2005

Publisher: Koala Books

ISBN: 0-86461-611-2

Summary:

I like myself--inside and out! Why? Just because I'm ME! At once silly and serious, this exuberant ode to self-esteem is sassy, soulful--and straight from the heart.

Review:

As the title says, this book is about liking yourself.  The opening page states "I like myself! I'm glad I'm me" and the book closes with "I like myself because I'm ME!"

It is full of imaginative eye-catching illustrations and while the text may be a bit repetitive (it finds a number of different ways of saying the same thing; I like myself!) it is a positive affirmation that any parent would want their child to pick up on and start believing for themselves.  The rhyming will hold younger listeners attention and is simple enough for early readers.

4/5

Review written by QTCass

Review: Colour Me Happy!

Colour Me Happy!

Written by Shen Roddie

Illustrated by Ben Cort

Publication date: 2007

Publisher: MacMillan
ISBN: 978-1-40500-909-6

Summary/Back cover:

"When I'm brave, colour me orange."

A sparkly celebration of feelings with a fabulous rainbow finale!"

I have to confess to being a fan of the very short and simple children's book; when flicking through books to buy, anything more than 2, maybe 3, sentences per page sees me putting it down and moving on.  In my defence, our little dude is book OBSESSED and will bring out book after book to be read.  So, in keeping with my book-purchasing habits, this book is a one-sentence-per-page story about the range of emotions and the colours that can are associated with them - blue for sad, green for jealousy, pink for funny etc.

What really makes this book stand out are the absolutely gorgeous illustrations.  Hands down my absolute favourite of all the kids books, they are the most adorable pictures and have the added interest of glitter on parts of the drawings which always see my little one run his fingers over.  I don't know if it's because he has picked up on how much the adults in the house love this book, but our 17 month old will choose this one above all others to read.  He has been known to move on immediately to the next person to read it to him as soon as he has finished it with someone else.

A resounding 5/5.

Review written by QTCass