BfK 5 – 8 Infant/Junior continued Rose’s Dress of Dreams HHH


Katharine Woodfine, illus. Kate Pankhurst. Little Gem series. Barrington Stoke, 96pp.,


978178127681, £6.99 pbk


A book for girls about dresses but also about following your dream, this very pretty small book is based on the life of Rose Bertin, who made dresses for ladies at the court of Marie Antoinette. Rose dreams of dresses in her poor home in Abbeville, and when a fortune teller says she will become famous for her dresses, she leaves for Paris, finds a job in a dressmaker’s and by a chance encounter with a shy princess finds her way to fortune. This is beautifully put together with illustrations by Kate Pankhurst and would delight young girls who like pretty things, but it does tell of how a woman in the 18th century set herself a path to follow and made her dream come true by hard work. So not a bad message for young eyes to read! It is 7+ and could be easily used for less able readers as it so attractive to hold. JF


Our Kid HHHH


Tony Ross, Andersen Press, 9781783445882, £6.99 pbk


Our Kid is a bit of a dreamer. Late for school again, he comes up with an


amazingly imaginative series


of excuses involving an elephant, dinopirates, a spaceship and some very vivid vocabulary. No wonder the teacher is impressed. Does familiarity breed a certain blindness? Tony Ross is so much a part of the picture book scene it is perhaps easy to overlook his work. Our Kid demonstrates his mastery of the format. Picking up the traditional tale where the narrator takes the audience on an extraordinary journey challenging their


disbelief – he


reworks it for a young contemporary audience taking images and ideas that they themselves might use – submarines, spaceships, dinosaurs; the setting a familiar one – the lost school bag. The details are exact – our kid is a goat so his hooves get wet. The language is exciting as Ross adds to the humour with onomatopoeic


vocabulary not to


be found in a dictionary but which brings the text alive. His illustrations are full of energy filling each spread his bold outlines creating the drama against the clear colour wash of the background. The text is clear and precisely placed on the page inviting and readable. This is one to share; one that should send young readers “skipping straightly home...[with] their head(s) full of adventures”. FH


If all the World were… HHHHH


Joseph Coelho, ill. Allison Colpoys, Frances Lincoln, 28pp,


978 1 78603 059 7, £12.99, hbk


A little girl takes us through the year with a memory for each season; memories of special times shared with her grandad. Long walks in the spring time, racing cars in the summer, he makes her special books to capture her dreams in the autumn and tells her stories in the winter. Each memory is followed with the refrain ‘if all the world were …...’ representing a wish to capture a treasured moment. We realise grandad’s chair is empty, they will not be sharing another year together as he has died. Helping to sort out his belongings, she finds mementoes to keep including a notebook made by her grandad. She decides to fill it with her memories of the special times they spent together. Lyrical and poignant, poet Joseph Coelho’s


sensitive writing


is complemented perfectly with Allison Colpoys delicate, whimsical yet colourful illustrations which truly create ‘a kaleidoscope of memories.’ This is a book which addresses the difficult issue of loss gently and with understanding. It may provide children experiencing this situation a way to deal with their grief, not only by realising they are not alone but also through actively collecting and expressing their most special memories of the loved one they have lost. SMc


A House That Once Was HHHH


Julia Fogliano, ill. Lane Smith, 32pp, Two Hoots, 9781509880652, £12.99 hbk


This lyrically written and beautifully illustrated picture book draws the reader gradually into the mysterious and melancholy world of an abandoned house in the woods. Two children find the empty, dilapidated house, climb through an open window, explore rooms full of discarded possessions and try to imagine who the people were who used to live there. That sounds quite simple, but this book is complex and subtle. Julia Fogliano’s rhyming text explores themes of past lives and the passing of time, the idea of ‘once’ and the concepts of nothingness and not being. It celebrates the ability of children to explore and imagine. The quiet, contemplative tone of


the text is perfectly complemented by Lane Smith’s illustrations. Bright colours


and textures evoke the


woodland world whilst the house and its contents, almost disappearing, appear blank and linear.


As the


children imagine the possible lives of previous occupants the illustrations change, colours darken, textures deepen, outlines become clearer and the illustrations no longer fade to the edges of the pages but are bordered by white page space like paintings. These imaginary scenes have a clarity that the present day ones do not, acting as visual symbols of the power


22 Books for Keeps No.231 July 2018


sections. Part one looks at the range and potential of the piano, as a solo instrument or accompanying other instruments in a duet, trio or with an orchestra. This section is structured around a number of key pieces of music, each selected to illustrate particular


versatility of the instrument


points, demonstrate the and


of the child’s imagination. This picture book is full of visual and


textual layers, the poetic text demands to be read aloud and a contemplative reader will be enticed into the book’s dream like world and find much to discover there. SR


Hansel and Gretel HHHHH


Bethan Woollvin, Two Hoots, 32pp, 978 1 5098 4269 8 £11.99 hbk


The story starts on the end papers as Hansel and Gretel set off, through the forest as might be expected, looking quite innocent and being watched by the shadowy figure of a witch. But all is not as it seems, Willow is actually a good witch who only used good magic and Hansel and Gretel turn out to be lazy, greedy and very naughty. They refuse to help Willow tidy the breadcrumbs, eat mountains of her food and then wreak havoc with her spell book. Despite this appalling behaviour Willow doesn’t get angry because, you’ve guessed it, she is a good witch. However when the children try to push Willow into the oven and carry on spell making until her gingerbread house collapses, her temper finally snaps. She turns her ungrateful guests into gingerbread biscuits, because Willow is not always a good witch. Following the success of award


winning Little Red and Rapunzel this is another brilliantly subversive and surprising re telling of a very familiar tale.


The illustrations are striking


and stylish with a limited palette; a single bold colour, this time orange offsets the otherwise black, white and grey illustrations. I love the way the children’s eyes look at each other as they lie baked into biscuits on the final spread. What are they thinking? SMc.


My First Piano Book HHHHH/ HHHH


Genevieve Helsby, ill. Jason Chapman, Naxos Books, 72pp, 978 1 78198 029 3, £7.99, hbk


My First Piano Book celebrates and introduces the range and potential of the piano and provides a very clear guidance in learning to play. The short introduction


looks


encourage musical appreciation. For example Flight of the Bumblebee illustrates how fingers can ‘buzz’ around a keyboard. With real passion the author describes how piano music can sing, dance or paint a picture as in by Clair de Lune by Debussy. ‘The keys are black and white, but the sounds are full of colour.’ The second part of the book


takes young learners through step by step lessons. Again there is a CD which accompanies this section and guidance to support learning to play 11 pieces. Each of these


Although the idea is pieces


represent one of the cast of animal characters featured in the book’s illustrations.


that children work through this with a parent or teacher, the CD includes a helpful and clear commentary from the author, which is also available online.


The book introduces vocabulary, concepts and


musical skills


including pitch and melody, rhythm and notation. There are interesting facts throughout, for example poor Fanny Mendelssohn


talented but


overlooked unlike her famous brother Felix, and how a cat inspired a piece of music by Confrey. This book follows My First Classical


Music Book by the same team. It is a labour of


perfectly love, the enthusiasm,


experience and passion of the writer leap from the page. The attractive illustrations


complement


the text. There is humour in the text and the illustrations too, I loved the monkey playing so fast he seems to have eight arms. Captions and speech bubbles add extra information. The whole book is beautifully designed, very clear and user friendly. This would be a wonderfully


enriching


book choice for a child beginning piano lessons for the first time. SMc


Rosa Draws HHHH


Jordan Wray, Words & Pictures, 32pp, 978191102277492 £11.99 hbk


Rosa has a fantastical imagination, and not


only loves drawing, but


makes up words, too, which is why this is in the 5-8 category: “Rosa draws her friendly fuzzy black cat. The cat is wearing a RIDONKOLOUS hat! Rosa draws the hat being eaten by a bear. The bear has the most GLAM-U-LICIOUS long hair ”… and the adventure goes on, with piggies taking pictures of peacocks in socks: the use of language is imaginative indeed.


at


types of pianos and takes us inside to explore how a piano works. The rest of the book is divided into two


After a brief brain-freeze


as her train loaded with a zillion ants goes into a tunnel, Rosa gets more ideas and keeps drawing, then realises that she has drawn all over


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