A certain kind of rabbityness

Front cover

With a cover like this, a picturebook can't fail ...  it's Jo Empson's debut. She's fresh out of the Cambridge University MA for children's literature, and one of a number of exciting new talents. A great friend and storyteller,  Alec Williams, brought the book to my attention.  Not quite sure what adjective to use to describe it as it moves from life to death and back to life again.  

The front cover shows Rabbit, our character, very happy and surrounded by paint splodges giving the reader a clue to the special talents our rabbit hero brings to the rabbit community.  

The endpapers are delightful, Rabbit in various positions, black shadows against an olive green, showing us all the different activities rabbit enjoys doing... 

Front endpapers

The title page opposite the copyright page with a dedication to "... my big brother who liked doing unrabbity things too",  shows three rabbits ...

Close up of title page

They are looking in wonder at the title, if we return to this page after we might understand a little better why they are wondering at the word "Rabbityness". 

The picturebook continues with openings showing Rabbit doing rabbity things, all shown in Empson's singular watercolour of black and green. The illustrations are placed against a white background, using the grass to anchor the black rabbit figures to a non-existent ground. This reduced, minimal setting, helps us focus upon the character showing us Rabbit's rabbityness. Here he is hopping and jumping ...

Opening 1

On subsequent spreads he is twirling his whiskers, washing his ears, burrowing and sleeping.   The verbal text follows rabbit, undulating behind him, over him, through him and under him: it's quite lovely. 

Opening 3

Notice here on spread 3 how the font actually slopes downwards in the verso, as "Rabbit likes burrowing".  As Rabbit slows down and we are shown him sleeping the verbal text tells us, "Rabbit also liked doing unrabbity things."  Upon the page turn we are shown what he likes doing...

Opening 4

Wow!  We are shown a page covered in splashes of colour and almost miss the verbal text, which could be redundant anyway, "He liked painting..."  Rabbit is holding a paint brush skillfully between his ears and front paws, leaving splodges and splashes in his wake ... lovely!  But this colourful life Rabbit leads doesn't stop here...

Opening 5

Musical notes hang in the air like bunting as Rabbit blows skillfully into a didgeridoo. All this makes Rabbit very happy, and we are shown a closeup of his smiling face, just like the one on the front cover. His happiness was catchy and he made all the other rabbits happy too as he "filled the woods with colour and music".  We are seeing spreads full of colour, delicate, but happy colour, then we turn the page and ...

Opening 7

We are told Rabbit disappeared and shown a bare spread, with grey leaves falling, a stark contrast to the earlier colourful spreads. 

Opening 8

The woods are grey and the other rabbits are sad - the spread oozes sadness. But then the rabbits discover "a DEEP dark hole", left by Rabbit. 

Opening 10

Down in the hole, (the words follow the hole downwards) the other rabbits discover that "Rabbit had left them some gifts" ... "things to make colours and music". We can see drums, didgeridoos, paint brushes, and bright bunting, and though it took time these "rabbits discovered they enjoyed doing unrabbity things too". This reminded them of Rabbit and made them happy ... 

Opening 13

... and they filled the woods with colour and music again. Rabbit has left these rabbits with a gift to discover their own creativeness. Just look at them all enjoying themselves. 

The final spread shows us Rabbit ... his back turned as though he's hopping away.  He can leave now he knows his friends have successfully discovered their different talents. 

Opening 14

Rabbityness looks at individuality and creativity and, as it does so, the reader is shown how they can deal with the loss of something precious.  It's a special picturebook, simple and beautiful and very suitable for younger learners. 

Birdsong

Front cover

Birdsong is a delightful picturebook written and illustrated by Ellie Sandall and the first of her picturebooks to be published.  She's since written two more and they are winging their way over to Portugal as I write! She doesn't seem to have a website, but Sunshine smiles have beautifully showcased her work here. 

Her picturebook, Birdsong is perfect for pre-school, with quirky illustrations and a fun rhyming text full of wacky bird sounds. 

BAck and front covers

The front and back covers come together to make one illustration, which when seen opened up show several of the birds who appear in the story, peering out from the other side of the tree on the back cover.  A tree with a lovely rough texture, oil pastel on coarse water colour paper, a nice contrast to the smoother looking birds, who are painted in watercolour, as well as the little, delicate butterfly who flutters nearby.

We open up to the page many paperbooks have, "This book belongs to ...", where that pretty butterfly can be seen again, paused on the word 'to...'

Front endpapers

Next the front endpapers, a textured pasture with collage flowers and a tree in the distance, covered in pastel pink flowers - there's the pink bird from the front cover and, if you look closely, that butterfly is there too. The copyright and title page bring us even closer to the tree ...

Copyright and title page

... and the pink bird and his companionable butterfly begin our story. 

Opening 1

"One small bird, in a tree. Kitcha, kitcha, kee, kee, kee:" You can guess what will happen can't you? 

Opening 2

"Here's another come and see! Urrah! Urrah! Rah, rah, ree. Kitcha, kitcha, kee, kee, kee:"
And so as we turn the pages these lovely birds, mostly watercolour with tiny bits of collage stuck on, see the crest on the yellow and green bird's head. Two more birds come along, and their onomatopoeic sounds continue the rhythm.  "And now an owl's come into view ..."

Opening 4

"Too-whit, too-wit, too-wit, too-woo. Chucka, chucka. Weet, weet, weet. Tchikka, tchikka.Tweet, tweet, tweet. Urrah! Urrah! Rah, rah, ree. Kitcha, kitcha, kee, kee, kee."  These sounds are wonderful, but you need to concentrate as you read through them!  The rhythm helps get the pronunciation right though! Then along comes a parrot, "Ru-tu, ru-tu, ru-tu-tu!"  Then two more, Kirri! Kirri! Kip, kip, kip:" 

Opening 6

The butterfly is still fluttering by and the branch gets more and more bent (an ideal opportunity for talking about accumulated weight!). And don't the birds look happy, together, some of them nuzzling comfortably together ... "Can any more fit on this tree? It looks a little full to me!" Well, along comes a very large colourful bird, we see him flying towards the tree, and then landing ...

Opening 8

A huge bird with a mighty beak joins them with a piercing shriek! KEEYAAAAAAAA!" the font screeches across the page too and knocks the other birds off.  Is he an gaudy bird?  Notice the butterfly is the only creature to fly above the loud noise.  Our gaudy bird sits proudly on the branch, "The little branch is all his own:" But he doesn't see (or hear) the branch cracking, do we if the words didn't warn us? "He hasn't seen the butterfly, gently, gently floating by... Look out bird!" Butterfly lands just by the crack and ...

Opening 11

What a lot of feathers! "... Whatever could have made him fall?"

Opening 12

How forlorn he looks, as the butterfly flutters by and he nurses his head!  The other birds are high in the sky, can you see them? That's spread 12 which is the last in the body of the book, but true to form, this picturebook has not yet ended, for the back endpapers show us how the story is resolved. 

Back endpapers

The eight birds are on the other branch, the one we saw on the back cover and the biggest, loudest bird is skulking off.  Who's in the foreground?  Our butterfly!  
So simple, yet so clever.  Children love the silly bird sounds and pick up the rhythm really quickly.  A lovely book to share and if you want to talk about companionship and sharing it's a nice place to start. 

Jane the girl who followed her dreams

Front cover

Me ... Jane is a picturebook about the world famous Jane Goodall.  The author and illustrator, Patrick McDonnell, is the cartoonist who creates the MUTTS strips, and an animal lover inspired by Jane Goodall and her work. Selected as one of the three Caldecott Honour books in 2012 the blurb goes: "Watching the birds and squirrels in her yard, a young girl discovers the joy and wonder of nature. In delicate and precise India ink and watercolor, McDonnell depicts the awakening of a scientific spirit. A perceptive glimpse of the childhood of renowned primatologist Jane Goodall"

I was so pleased when the book arrived in the post, I wasn't sure if it would be suitable but I liked the idea of writing about a book which encourages children to follow their dreams, and Me ... Jane really is just perfect. 

Back cover

It's slightly longer than the average picturebook, 48 pages in all.  But ever page is worth its inclusion.  The book itself looks rather like one of those travel logs.  The front cover has a photo-like image of a blond haired girl holding a chimp (is it real?) stuck onto a background of delicately watercoloured animals in the jungle. If you turn over and look at the back cover this same girl is running, pulling her now obviously toy chimpanzee behind her, and simultaneously we see the real Jane and a real chimp, the dream come true.   

Front endpapers

The endpapers carry the mocca brown colour from the covers, a repeated doodle-like pattern with occasional paint smudges. Could they represent an African pattern?

Title page

The title page brings us back to the real Jane, hugging her toy gorilla, Jubilee.  There are a collection of different images on this page, giving us a taste of what we are likely  to find inside.  Talking about his choices of media and image, Patrick McDonnell says: "One of the things that makes Jane Goodall so special is that she has the mind of a scientist coupled with the heart of a poet. Her way of seeing the world unlocked groundbreaking work with chimpanzees. I wanted Me...Jane to represent these two characteristics. My more impressionistic watercolors evoke her poetic/humanistic soul, and the intricate 19th- and 20th-century engravings of fauna and flora represent her analytical thinking." We see both the watercolours and the engravings here.  

Opening 1

Opening 1 begins the rhythmic visual verbal pattern: recto watercolour and verso engraving and verbal text.  The engravings are sometimes so fine and light we need to peer closely to see them. For a classful of children this would mean leaving the picturebook in the classroom for them to browse through at their leisure, the illustrations certainly deserve of close scrutiny. The adult's arms presenting Jane with a gorilla are significant, McDonnell says: "It was Jane's father who gave her Jubilee in real life; in my book his hands also represent the hands of fate—which set Jane out on the journey of her life." Jane is seen alone in her world with Jubilee for the rest of the book.  Jubilee accompanies her on all the pages, for in real life he was her constant companion. We are shown Jane watching birds making nests, and squirrels climbing trees.  Jane loved the outdoors and when she wasn't outside she was reading about the outside.

Opening 5

Opening 5 is quite different, a page from Jane's own "The Aligator Society" magazine, with notes and sketches she made as a child. This is a lovely spread, and children will enjoy seeing what such a famous person did at their age. 

Opening 8

A cute story from Jane's childhood relates her hiding in Grandma Nutt's chicken coop to discover where eggs come from.  There are three double spreads in sequence which show Jane and Jubilee hiding and watching as a chicken lays an egg.  Each nicely demonstrates McDonnell's choice of watercolour and engraving coming together showing her humanistic soul facing her analytical thinking.: The first opening shows delicate engravings of chickens in the verso, the second a stopwatch with three bunches of wheat tied neatly, the third, seen in opening 8 above, neat rows of eggs.  Each recto the watercolour depiction of a small child entering a hen coop. 

Opening 9

The sequence of verso recto is suddenly broken again in the next opening, a double spread in watercolour with Jane embracing the world and its miracles.  Little chicks pecking on the grass around her, chicks hatched from the very eggs she watched being laid. 

Until now her life has been very much centered upon her own nearby world, but gradually we see her reading about far away places (sitting in her favourite tree called Beech), reading and rereading Tarzan and the apes. The engravings show wild animals...

Opening 12

But upon turning the page, we are told she dreamed of a life in Africa, and the these animals appear large as life in the watercolour recto, to be followed by a double spread all in watercolour of Jane swinging, Tarzan-like through the jungle. 

Opening 14

The following three spreads show Jane going to bed, tucking in Jubilee and falling asleep next to him.  She wakes not in her childhood bedroom but in a tent ...

Opening 17

for her dream has come true ...

Opening 18

The real life photo of Jane and a chimp emphasize the reality of everything.  The last opening a single verso is a sketch Jane made when she was first in the jungle, with notes on the art work that has appeared in the book. There's also an afterword by Jane Goodall, which inspires us all to follow our dreams...

"There are many people who have dreamed seemingly unattainable dreams and, because they never gave up, achieved their goals against all odds, or blazed a path along which others could follow ... They inspire me.  they inspire those around them."

The illustrations appear very faint in my photos, they are gentle illustrations and we do have to look closely to see everything, but it such a lovely picturebook and well worth sharing the message it brings with it.  A small group of children sitting close to the teacher could easily see the illustrations and be helped to talk about some of the things they depict.  Follow up activities could include discovering a little more about Jane Goodall, and the work she does. The Jane Goodall Institute celebrated its 35th anniversary this year.  There is loads to discover on the website by clicking on the links. Then children could investigate chimps and their habitats and possibly even look at engravings and see how they are made.  But  sharing this book and talking about its message is just as good.

The quotes from Patrick McDonnell come from an interview he gave, which can be found here.

Two penguins who do everything together

Front cover

Fluff and Billy by Nicola Killen arrived last week.  What a cute little book, so cute I had to feature it immediately.  Cute in the sense of being endearing and clever at the same time. And just perfect for pre-school children, with the natural repetition in the verbal text and the expressive illustrations. 

Fluff and Billy are two penguins, great friends, who do everything together. Fluff has red feet and Billy has yellow chest feathers.  The painted font on the cover helps us focus on their different features, highlighting their differences, despite both being penguins. Here they are on the back cover, swimming together under water.  

Back cover

Though red and yellow appear on the front cover, it is blue and yellow which are the two base colours, and white of course.  Yellow introduces us to the two penguins, it appears as we open the paperback version of this picturebook in a recto page splatted with yellow paint, followed by a further spread, a yellow background with an oval window showing the two penguins, wings touching as though holding hands. 

Opening 1

The copyright page brings us the blue, that deep sea we saw on the back cover.  The two penguins are speeding forward into the book and a splat of blue slap bang in the middle of the title page repeats the front cover combination of these three words, "Fluff and Billy", the birds' names written with a paintbrush and brought together with an "and" written in Times Roman(?), the rest of the title is also in the same font. 

Copyright and title page

The play between these two font types continues within the picturebook pages.  The paint brush font represents the birds' voices and the other the narrator's.  You may also have noticed that Fluff's font is slightly darker than Billy's. 

Let's begin ... as though we haven't already!

Opening 2

I think this is one of my favourite spreads.  Look at the movement! Those blue foot prints on the verso spread  pushing us upwards as the penguins rush up the snowy hill and then zooming down the hill following the bluey dots as the penguins slide on their bellies.  The font slopes up and down too, and the verbal text comes twice each time, first it's Fluff, then it's Billy.  Each doing the same thing, so their voices repeated. As the mediator you can use slightly different voices too. Then ...

Opening 3

Aaaaaaa!  Aaaaaaa!  Now that looks fun. Lines and dots again showing movement and that crack in the ice on verso once again pushing our gaze across the spread.  Those splodges of yellow just adding a touch of sparkle to the page. 

Fluff and Billy go swimming, "I'm swimming" they both say; then splashing.  Fluff runs here and Billy runs here. 

Opening 6

Fluff jumps up and so does Billy, but woah!  That is one big jump, shown in the illustrations (we can only see his legs as he jumps out of the page!) but also the way the font has been turned on its side and is whooshing up, following Billy off that page. 

Opening 7

We see the result on the next spread.  Fluff looks worried as Billy lands on his head, those yellow splodges falling around him and things change, Fluff rolls a snowball, but Billy throws one ... right at Fluff. But that's not right, don't they always do the same thing?
"'Ouch!" cried Fluff".  On the next three spreads, we see the two friends sitting back to back, but apart, one on each side of the spread, separated first by the penguins words, "I'm not talking to you".  Their feelings are so visible, from their postures, the way their heads are tilted upwards.  They are as frosty as the snow around them.  

Opening 9

On the next spread it is the narrator who reinforces the point: "Fluff said nothing." "Billy said nothing." The penguins don't look quite so haughty.  Then ...

Opening 11

No need for words, we all know how both these penguins are feeling. And so Fluff tickles Billy, and Billy tickles Fluff. 

Opening 13

And they laugh ... "together!"  Yellow and blue in soft floating shapes. Friends again. 
But that's not the end, remember that yellow spread at the beginning of the book, well here it is again, but this time the penguins are leaving, wings touching, rushing off into more adventures. 

Spread 14

One of the cleverest picturebooks I've seen in a while: it's visually exciting and tells a real story, one of friendship, falling out and making up. The illustrations provide brilliant examples of emotions for children to see and talk about. And, as an added bonus, everything gets said twice!  Love it, love it, love it. A MUST for all early years English classrooms. 

One smart fish

Front cover

One smart fish, by Chris Wormell, won the Book Trust 2010 award for Best Picture Book for children up to 5 years old. I first heard about it through these awards, and since then it's been sitting on my shelf waiting to appear on my blog! Wormell is probably best known for his picturebook, George and the dragon, which has also been illustrated using watercolour and with the same exquisite detail.  If you go to Chris Wormell's website, you will see he also uses wood block and lino printing techniques in his illustrations - a very tallented chap.

One smart fish is a book about how life evolved on earth, but shown in a fun and entertaining way.  There may be readers of this blog who shake their head and say, "No way!".  That's OK,    selecting picturebooks is a personal thing, something we do based on our own personal beliefs, and the context in which we work.  This may not be the picturebook for every ELT class, but it's certainly very suitable for many. 

I'll start with the front and back covers, which satisfyingly make one whole image, that of a group of diverse, brightly coloured fish watching in amazement as a very boring medium-sized fish plays chess. 

Back and front covers

You'll notice there's a sub-title, "One world changing idea!", already giving us a clue about what is to come.  More clues come on the title page.

Copyright page and title page

Can you see the foot prints in the sand?  Once you've shared this book with a group of children you can ask them why they think the illustrator created this image for the title page.  Then, there's a lovely connection between the dedication, on a sign, which appears on the title page illustration as well, but seen from behind. 

Opening 1

The opening spread is beautiful, a wavy, watery under the sea scene, full of brightly coloured fish, accompanied by an undulating font, which tells us that long ago, really, really long ago, "the ocean was filled with amazing fish". We are then told a little about these fish, with fabulous illustrations supporting the descriptions. Colourful fish, "amazingly weird" fish, fat, thin, short and long. But my favourite are the next two spreads, showing big and small:

Opening 3

Notice how the sentence is left incomplete, a page turning incentive, "Some were cute, and some were ..."  What do you think will come next?

Opening 4

Yikes!  The different perspectives in these illustrations work brilliantly, and they are a nice contrast to the pages before and after which are crowded with fish. We have another unfinished sentence willing us to turn the page.  "But the most amazing fish of all..."

Opening 5

Our hero and protagonist, a boring grey fish is the centre of attention. Look at all those brightly coloured fish, they are amazed. 
Now this boring grey fish "was wonderfully smart".  He could play chess, we've already seen him do this on the front cover, he could sing and dance, he drew and performed (a great illustration of this grey fish holding a fish skull in his hand in a Shakespearean pose!).  But he wasn't satisfied, there was one thing he couldn't do, "he wanted to walk upon the land". 

Opening 8

Opening 8 is a great spread which shows our genius with  his head above the water, as his fishy companions are at the "landside for their holidays", an entertining inversion of our terrestrial reality.  I love the sign warning the fish of shallow water!
Our genius fish thought and thought and finally came up with an idea. "Feet!" So obvious now, but no one had heard of such things back then.  WOW!  Clever fish, he put on his feet and walked out of the sea onto a vaste expanse of sand. 

Opening 11

He was the first creature ever to walk on the land, and so it was boring and he was lonely.  This great expanse of orange sand gives us just that impression, doesn't it?    So he dived back into the water, to his waiting fishy friends.   
Then true to Darwin, Chris Wormell tells us, in quite a matter of fact sort of way, that a few million years later, some other fish tried walking, but they didn't have any feet, so they slithered and crawled up the beach, and he shows us just how they do that from fish to lizard in six moves. 

Opening 13

And when we turn the page, WOW ... "all this started happening", and we are shown creatures of all shapes and sizes emergeing from the fish-like animals coming out of the sea. And of course us humans are there too, near the monkeys and apes. A great spread. And all because one smart fish had an idea! 


Even though this picturebook is for under 5's, in an ELT context, with lower exposure to English, it's very suitable for primary children.  Some of the text is quite dense, but accessible in a sort of chatty style.  Older primary children will appreciate the visual humour, they will also enjoy looking closely at the illustrations if you leave the book in the classroom library.