A pile of washing

I blogged about one of my favourite Jez Alborough books ages ago, Hug. This post is about another of his picturebooks, Washing line. It's a small book, nothing mega, except of course it's full of Alborough's humour and perfect for sharing while children are learning about clothes. 

Front cover

Here's the front cover showing a huge pair of spotty underpants hanging on a line, and a little white mouse scampering by. Not only does this present one of the characters in the story (the mouse) but also an important item of clothing in the storyline. Who could these underpants belong to? 

Copyright and title pages

There are no endpapers, but the copyright and title pages make up for this!  The copyright is written on a white sheet hanging on the line, and there's that white mouse again, this time undressed. The title page shows a basket of washing, ready to hang out, I suppose. These are all good things to return to having shown the picturebook to small children. 

Opening 1

The pages in this book aren't all the same size.  Can you make out the page break in the middle of the grass there? The elephant has found some very long socks on the washing line and is asking, "Whose are those socks hanging on the washing line?" Do you know? What animal has long legs? Turn the flap and you see a kinky flamingo in warm stripy socks! "They're mine", said the flamingo.

Opening 2

On each spread a bit of the next item of clothing can be seen, it rarely goes unnoticed by the children, certainly not during rereads. They love calling out what will come next. This time, both the elephant and the flamingo want to know "Whose is that jumper hanging on the washing line?"

Opening 3

"It's mine" grunted an orang-utan!  Of course with arms that long! You probably can't see the tiny yellow dress, but it's there in the top right hand corner. 

Opening 6

We discover this belongs to the mouse - can you see her on the pole? There's a hint on the front cover of course, where we saw her scampering over the boxer shorts, and children will comment on this during retells. That strange orange and blue striped thing is a scarf, '"Whose is that jumper hanging on the washing line?" asked the elephant, the flamingo, the urang-utan and the mouse'. Children call out "a snake", but they're wrong!

Opening 8

It's a giraffe's scarf of course! As we've turned each page the animals enquiring about the hanging clothes get greater in number, and we have to remember the order in which they appeared - this is a very subtle maths related activity and one of the many reasons that these kinds of picturebooks are so useful for small children - remember we are never 'just' teaching English!

Opening 9

But look! What an enormous pair of boxers. "Whose are those underpants hanging on the washing line?" asked the flamingo, the orang-utan, the mouse and the giraffe (have you noticed the elephant has gone?)

Opening 10

Turn the flap and oooo! It's the elephant!  "They're mine of course!"  He does have a big bottom! 

But then all the animals wonder what to do next, afterall they are wearing their dry clothes. But elephant has an idea. We can see a bit of his idea to the right of the illustration ... can you guess?

Opening 13

Arghhh!  "LET'S GET THEM WET AGAIN!" Cool idea Mr elephant, and the children chortle with delight! But that's not the end of the story for if we turn the page again, we see all the clothes hanging on the line, dripping of course! 

Opening 14

Can you remember who wears what? The children can and it's a great way to help them remember and make connections. There's a bright sun shining on the clothes so they'll dry nice and quick and this is something to talk about with the children too. 

What a simply lovely picturebook. So easy, nice and repetitive and with a wonderful twist at the end. Great for a clothes related topic, but also very useful for helping children sequence and match, suitable early maths concepts. And if you don't follow the sharing of this story by setting up a washing line in your classroom, shame on you!

I need a hug

I rediscovered a favourite whilst I was preparing for a talk about emotional intelligence and picturebooks, so I thought I share it with you all.  It's Hug by Jez Alborough.  

Alborough has a wonderful website, with lots of information about his picturebooks, so do click and follow links.  In the picturebook section he actually describes where his inspiration came from, how the story developed and how he made decisions about what to draw and what to write.  The behind the scenes information about Hug is fascinating, and can be read here. And this wonderful description of what it means to be an author and an illustrator, couldn't put it better myself. 

Taken from Jez Alborough's website http://www.jezalborough.com/

What's so very clever about Hug is how Alborough has used so few words, rather like Emily Gravett's Orange Pear Apple Bear, and given each one a different meaning depending on what he shows in the illustration.   So, there's 'Hug', which means 'Hey, that's a hug happening over there!', another which means, 'I want my mummy', another which means, 'Thank you!' ...  oooh and plenty more as well. Reading this picturebook out loud is loads of fun, as you get to dramatise all the different meanings behind one little, three-letter word. 

Our front cover presents us with Bobo the chimp.  Arms wide open, inviting us into the book for  a hug.  There are no endpapers in my paperback edition, but the book opens on a single cameo image of little Bobo, walking happily by himself.   

The copyright and title page are a whole scene, the setting, a Savannah-like wood.  Bobo is happily, chimp chomping along.  He comes across a Mummy and baby elephant, that's where Hug means 'Hey, that's a hug happening over there!'

He comes across several pairs of animals hugging ...

... and his posture clearly shows us how he's feeling.  The next page has no words, but we feel his sadness and we also feel the other animals' sympathy as we look at the illustrations.   Bobo is helped by Mummy elephant and together they begin their quest: a search for a mummy to hug.

They pass a lioness hugging her three spotty cubs, Bobo moans, 'Hug'; two giraffes, their long necks entwined in a hug and eyes closed with pleasure and Bobo moans, 'Hug'; then a baby hippo hugging a hippo parent, both lying in a muddy pool.  Bobo's face is wretched ... 'Hug' he wails, clearly meaning,  'I want my mummy.'

He sits down and cries.  The other animals are all around and you can feel their empathy oozing from the page.  Poor Bobo.  But all is not lost, we turn the page and larger than life, here comes Mummy chimp. She's calling 'BOBO' in a big bold font.  And Mummy and Bobo are reunited.

And they ... HUG.  The other animals unite in breathing a sigh of relief, 'HUG', they all say.  'Thank goodness!', 'Oh, isn't that nice!', 'Yeah, go for it Bobo!' 

Bobo hugs Mummy elephant's trunk - that's 'Thank you!' of course. Then he turns to the other animals and calls for a mass group hug. What a clever chimp he is. 

Lions and gorillas, elephants and snakes, the whole jungle caboodle in one massive jungle hug.  They are delirious with happiness!  And one final page turn sees a cameo of Bobo and Mummy walking towards us, holding hands, happy to be reunited. 

Ahhh... and doesn't that make you want to go and hug the next person you see?  I'll give my husband an extra big hug when he comes in and I'll hug my cats and dogs too.  I'll hug our next door neighbours, and their neighbours, the whole village, and the next one too. I'll hug the world.  Goodness, it's catchy!

In fact that's just what Jez Alborough is after!  If you click on 'Jez says' you'll see that he's very happy for us all to send hundreds of hugs around the world.  Bless! 

You can be sure that after reading this picturebook in class, everyone gets a hug ... well they do in mine! 

This is an excellent example of how picturebooks can help children understand what emotions look like; contribute to developing their ability to understand themselves and others, and to respond appropriately.