Day 15 (Week 3, Day 1)
We're into our third week! How the time doth flyeth. It's soon going to be time to start raiding the libraries of Derbyshire as we're coming to the end of the picture books on our shelves at the moment. And let's face it; the chance to go raiding library shelves is a very exciting prospect!
So, how have we started the third week of the Picture Book Challenge? Read on below...
1) The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Eric Carle (Author & Illustrator)
This surely needs no introduction, being possibly the most famous children's picture book of all time, suffice to say I'm sure you've all read this at least a hundred times yourselves going back to early childhood! It's a great introduction to the process of caterpillars becoming butterflies, has extremely iconic artwork, and great fun to go through with your children just how much food the caterpillar has eaten.
Chris says: We all remember this, and it's great fun to share stories from your childhood with your own children. Caterpillars and butterflies are always interesting creatures for kids to study, so it's nice to have a story that tells the journey of one becoming the other.
Josh says: I liked seeing the caterpillar become a butterfly.
Xander says: I like strawberries!
2) Mr Happy and the Wizard - Roger Hargreaves, Adam Hargreavcs (Author & Illustrator)
We've not actually read that many Mr Men books together, and I rather think it's high time we started, so the Picture Book Challenge could be a good excuse for reading many of them this year! The creator and original author/illustrator, Roger Hargreaves, died in 1988 having written nearly 100 Mr Men & Little Miss stories, and his son Adam Hargreaves has been continuing the series in many different stories since. It's a fun tale of Mr Happy trying to make the lives of some of the Mr Men better with spells from a spellbook he finds in the library, but quickly learning that you should ask someone for help first before you interfere, in case you make a problem worse.
Chris says: I remember the Mr Men & Little Miss books from when I was little, of course, and I look forward to reading more with the kids. We've only read a few together, but those from the original set that Roger Hargreaves wrote trigger such vivid memories. They're always good fun and inventive.
Josh says: I liked when he met the wizard and returned his spellbook and hat.
N.B. Xander was busy re-reading The Hungry Caterpillar at this point and I couldn't convince him to stop!
3) Carlo and the Really Nice Librarian - Jessica Spanyol (Author & Illustrator)
I'll skip over the part where Carlo can get a library card without ID or parental consent (the librarian in me wouldn't allow it!) and celebrate the fact that this is a lovely story about the joys of going to the library and the lovely folk that are librarians. We really do love to recommend books to children when they come in, so it's pretty accurate from that point of view! Also, I know of at least one library that has an official 'library cat', so we certainly wouldn't object to one coming along with its owner!
Chris says: Anything that encourages children to think that libraries are awesome is going to go down well in my book! We're lucky that our kids love to go to the library anyway, but books like this can be a good way of encouraging those children who are a bit more reluctant to go to a library for the first time.
Josh says: I liked when Carlo took loads of books out because that's what we like to do.
Xander says: Roar! (N.B. He was joining in with a lion in the middle of the story.)
So, to summarise Day 15...
A nice trip back to my childhood to revisit some familiar stories and characters, as well as a trip to the library to see why librarians are awesome. Definitely a day to get a warm feeling from books! It's particularly put me in a mood for revisiting the Mr Men & Little Miss series', and though I'm trying to spread authors out so we don't read all they're books too early on, there's so many of Roger Hargreaves' books that we'll naturally end up having them close together if we choose to read many! Though it might feel like cheating if a tenth of the books in the Picture Book Challenge were all from the same series...
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