26th December

It is Boxing Day and I maybe should be thinking about boxes, but having done boxes before for a great display in the library and the box construction club (see http://pinterest.com/kinderbookboard/cardboard-boxes/) I feel inclined to write about something else I have observed lately.

A couple of days ago I bought The Bear with the Sword by David Cali and as I read it and looked at the bear and his behaviour I was reminded of  two other bear picture books I had bought this year,  Bear Has a Story to Tell by Philip Stead and Erin Stead and Bear in Love  by Daniel Pinkwater and Will Hillenbrand. How do illustrators make bears have such human expressions? Each bear is different but so imbued with human mannerisms. My favourite bear is the one in Sebastian Meschenmoser's Waiting For Winter. He makes me smile every time I look at him trying to work out what snow is. None of these bears appear to be 'wild' or 'grizzly'. None are bad-tempered or look as if they could do harm, and for someone who lives in a country without bears (except in zoos) it is so hard to remember that we should keep our distance from these animals. They do not look anything like teddybears either so they have become pseudohumans. They are easy to empathise with, so easy to see their point of view, and so easy to fall in love with and want to hug. Look at their eyes!

Here are some of my favourite bears and bear stories and this is without including any of Barbara Firth's for Martin Waddell, Kady MacDonald Denton's for Bonny Becker or Karma Wilson's.

22nd July Alexander Calder (1898 - 1976) Kady MacDonald Denton (1941)

Alexander Calder, known as Sandy, is the American sculptor who made mobiles famous. His father and grandfather were also Alexander and sculptors and his mother was a painter so it may have been inevitable that after initially studying engineering, Calder a brilliant mathematician became a sculptor who combined all his loves to make amazingly balanced mobiles and installations. There's not a lot of books around about Calder that are suitable for very young children, but he is one of the sculptors in 13 Sculptures Children Should Know by Angela Wenzel. There is a work of fiction, Sandy's Circus by Tanya Lee Stone. If you have children who like mobiles and want to read about them, see Counting Chickens by Flensted which isn't Calder, but those from Denmark.

Kady MacDonald Denton is the illustrator responsible for those very endearing bears in Bonny Becker's series of books. She is Canadian and writes as well as illustrates books. Another recent book that she has illustrated is Tim Wadham's The Queen of France. These authors are fortunate to have Kady heighten their profile.

14th July Bastille Day

The 14th July is Bastille Day, the French
national
holiday that celebrates the storming of the Bastille which took place on 14th July, 1789. This date and occasion marked the beginning of the French Revolution and the end of absolute power for the reigning monarch, Louis the 16th. And although this concept is probably beyond the children I teach, they do learn French. It is the language taught to 3 to 8 year olds by very gifted teachers who make French live. The library has a large number of picture books in French. We have a box full of Madeleine books and another of Babar as well as books about France, but today I thought it would be good to highlight three more recent picture books that you may be less likely to know.

The Queen of France by Tim Wadham and Kady MacDonald Denton is not really about France at all, but about a very creative child, named rose who imagines herself a queen and her parents go along with the game.

Moi and Marie Antoinette by Lyn Cullen and Amy Young. This story is told by Marie Antoinette's dog and it concentrates on the princess's early life from a child in Austria up to her marriage to Louis XVI.

The Day We Danced in Underpants by Sarah Wilson and Catherine Stock. Here the King and Queen of France invite guests to picnic with them. A man has a clothing malfunction and his underwear is exposed. The result is very funny and an important lesson is learned from the embarrassing event.