 |
Guess How Much I Love You - Sam McBratney
by cornishchic
Guess how much I love you is one of the books my daughter received for her third birthday. I was fed up with toys taking over the house and asked some relatives to buy books for presents instead and she received a great deal of good quality story books that are the next step up for the character and board books she mainly had ... previously.
Guess how much I love you is written by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram. It's a paperback book and measures approximately 22cm x 22cm. It contains 24 pages in total.
The story starts with Little Nutbrown Hare who is being put to bed by Big Nutbrown Hare. Little Nutbrown Hare wanted Big Nutbrown Hare to know just how much he loves him and continues to stretch his arms out wide showing how much he loves him, Big Nutbrown Hare then goes on to stretch his arms even further. The book continues on with Little Nutbrown Hare trying to show Big Nutbrown Hare he loves him the most and he can't out do Big Nutbrown Hare until the end of the book. The story finishes with Little Nutbrown Hare going to sleep when he says 'I love you right up to the moon!' then Big Nutbrown Hare whispers 'I love you right upto the moon - AND BACK!'
The story is quite simple with only a few words on each page but the words used are really effective. I like the way that Little and Big Nutbrown Hare are always competing to be the one that loves the other the most. It is written in a good way and provokes a variety of emotions. The illustrations are beautiful and help to tell the story in a good way, they match the text and show the hares going about how they love eachother the most. The colours used are easy on the eye and it's easy to work out what each picture is trying to say.
My daughter loves this book and often giggles along at the hares trying to out do eachother. Although the actual storyline is quite basic it's quite a powerful book and my daughter often refers to it when she tells me she loves me 'this much' whilst stretching out her arms. It's not one we read all that often but it gets chosen as a bedtime story atleast once a week as it's quite gentle.
I'd definitely recommend this book to children of all ages, the message it portrays is lovely. It holds my daughters attention and she likes to point out little things from the story.
ISBN-10: 1406319260
RRP: £5.99
Read the complete review |
 |
Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? - Martin Waddell
by pmcds
Martin Waddell's Little Bear books have reached 7 million sales across the world. We've read a plethora of kids books in our house, so it surprised me a bit that I'd never come across a Little Bear book before now. There are a series of books featuring Little Bear and Big Bear, each one a different scenario. This one features Little Bear ... trying to get to sleep, and the soft pastel colours and Barbara Firth's lovely illustrations really do match well with Waddell's tale.
Little Bear is having trouble getting to sleep as he's afraid of the dark. Bi Bear keeps bringing lanterns of increasing size to combat the vast dark in their cave, but to no avail as Little Bear always finds more dark that the lanterns don't light. How can Big Bear get Little Bear to sleep?
The first time I read the book to our 20 month old, I hadn't realised how long it was. Some of the pages have a good few paragraphs, and it's not of print for little ones to find the easiest to read. I'd definitely say this was one for adults to read to the kids as opposed to them using it to help them read. However, my 9 year old does read this to him occasionally, and it's good practice for his reading aloud skills.
The book does get somewhat repetitive, as each time Little Bear tries to sleep, the conversation goes almost exactly the same way, just with Big Bear getting more frustrated each time. In shorter books I find the repetition is endearing and lends itself to being effective in the story. Here though, it gets a bit annoying, and some of the sentence construction makes it a bit tricky to get your tongue around.
However, this doesn't detract from what is ultimately a lovely tale and a book that will make you smile. It's relaxingly written, the repetition and tongue tying elements aside, and I liked the way that the pages are designed. There is an archway effect for each page, the words and images contained within them for the most part but illustrator Barbara Firth using the space effectively to dip in and out of this design from time to time; the odd chair back or Big Bear overlapping to give some definition to the page, and a couple of the pages dispensing with the archway effect and using the full width and height of the pages to good effect.
Firth's illustrations are gentle and warm, the pastel colours soothing and making you think of bedtime. The story certainly indicates when the book is for, naturally, and the artwork merely backs this up in the softest of fashions. I thought this was a well designed book, cover to cover. I can always tell whether I'm going to like a book or not based on how I turn it over in my hands, and I enjoy flicking through and just looking at its design, without even looking at the words of the tale itself.
Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? retails for around the £6 or £7 mark, and is a delightful story. Slightly repetitive and occasionally awkward to read out loud, it has lovely illustrations and will most likely make you smile. Not perfect, but recommended.
Read the complete review |
 |
Where's My Teddy? - Jez Alborough
by karlsm93
I am go glad that my daughter seems to adore books, and at nineteen months, I can see her concentration really lengthening when we read stories. She particularly loves rhyming books, and it doesn;t seem to matter how long they are, she will listen contently, and then at the end ask for 'more' which obviously means mummy is to read it ... again (and again!). Well one rhyming story that my daughter loves, that her daddy or I get asked to read 'more' and 'more' is this lovely book by Jez Alborough 'Where's my teddy?', published by Walker Books.
There isn't a huge amount of text in this book, so it will appeal to young children, even younger than my daughter, but making up for the lack of text are the beautiful, large, colourful illustrations of the wood where this story takes place. The story begins with Eddy, a little boy, who has lost his teddy 'Freddy' in the wood. He doesn't like being in the woods and is scared, for instance, 'Help!' said Eddy. I'm scared already! I want my bed! I want my teddy!'.
The little boy Eddy sees something that takes him by surprise, a giant teddy bear. He initially thinks it is his teddy Freddy but only a lot lot bigger, and he can't quite understand why eg. 'What a surprise! How did you get to be this size'. He knows he cannot fit it in his bed.
Then, through the forest, a deafening sobbing starts, and Eddy hides behind the giant teddy. The crying voice is complaining about his teddy getting so small, and can't understand how it has happened. Then the gigantic bear appears holding a tiny teddy (which is obviously Eddy's teddy). The bear spots his teddy, Eddy spots the bear, the bear spots the boy, Eddy spots his teddy. So after a bit of a fright on both sides, both parties head back to their homes as quick as they can, back to their snuggly beds to cuddly their teddy bears.
My daughter can relate easily to the theme of having a teddy bear and snuggling with it in bed, so I think that is another reason why she loves this story, alongside the gentle rhyme. I could easily read this book to her four or five times in a row, before she is content, which is always the sign of a good book in my opinion!
All in all, this is a very well written, lovely story to share with any child who loves teddies.
Read the complete review |
