New library books

Despite not having posted for aaaages, we have been reading every night although not as much as we should be. This is because I've been crocheting something that has to be finished next week. We've also been making things from Recycling Things to Make and Do - checkout our (my) castle desk tidy (I decided to spray paint it in front of Ben after all and he couldn't have cared less). How skinny are those legs?!

We went to the library yesterday and only borrowed 5 books as I found we weren't getting through 10 (and the overdue fines turned out to be hideous). We read 3 of these books last night, the first being Little Sisters Are..., which we have already had but had to have again. And still, the 'little sisters are bitey' page is immensely popular. You may reclal that the first time I read this story to Ben he was upset by the illustration of a little sister chomping into a visibly distressed bigger sister's arm. But this time around he considered the page with complete glee.

We also read Willy the Champ. A bad selection for a 2.5 year old - Ben just didn't get it. It's about bullying so I'll borrow it again in 6 years' time (hopefully not). We also read Peepo! which I had never read before, despite the backcover boasting that it is "'The BEST book ever published for babies' - Books For Your Children". I don't agree with this claim but then again Ben isn't a baby which is perhaps why he didn't like it either.

So I only have 2 books left to try on him tonight: How to be a Baby by Me the Big Sister and Curious George Catches a Train.

Little sisters are... is by Beth Norling

Willy the champ is by Anthony Browne

Peepo! is by Janet & Allan Ahlberg

The best $13.95 I've spent in a while

We are now the happy owners of the best activity book in the world - Recycling things to make and do. I bought it at around 1pm yesterday at the Botantic Gardens bookshop and it has kept us occupied for at least 3 of the 30 hours that have since elapsed! I knew it was a top purchase when the guy working at the shop told me sotto voce "this is a really good book".

The book shows you how to make things using stuff you have lying around home and in your recyling bin. I've been hoarding shiny paper, wrapping paper, ribbon, small cartons and wool of varied textures for the last 10 years, just waiting for a book like this to come along. Last night Ben and I made 3 robots from the 'Robot Collage' page. We used cardboard, shiny paper, pipe cleaners and ribbon that was wrapped around a bunch of flowers. Grandma Bo and Papa Karl came over today and were ushered into Ben's room to admire the 'bots as soon as they arrived.

Then this morning I was woken up and dragged to the kitchen table to make a 'Castle desk tidy'. It's a work in progress but I will post a picture when we've finished. We have used the bottom of a nappy box, a Sirena tuna box, 2 toilet rolls and half a Vita Weets box. I'm going to incorporate some egg cartons and Tamar Valley mini yoghurts plastic in the design too. The instructions suggest spray-painting the boxes once you've assembled them in castle formation, which I really want to do because I have red spray paint, but then again I don't think Benji could cope with the excitement of spray-painting.

Now I'm in a complete recycling zone - checking out anything and everything lying around the house and wondering what little marvel could be made out of it. I wonder whether the Reverse Garbage Truck still exists?

Recycling Things to Make and Do is by Emily Bone and Leonie Pratt and designed and illustrated by Josephine Thompson

Where's my teddy?

We have read most of the books we currently have on loan from the library and so far Where's My Teddy? is Ben's second-favourite. The Birthday Box is still leading the charge.

I selected this book because it was one of my favourites for preschool storytime. It's about Eddy who loses his teddy called Freddy in the dark woods. Eddy bravely goes into the woods to look for Freddy but his fear turns to confusion when he comes across a gigantic teddy sitting in a clearing. He's trying to work out how Freddy got so big when he hears loud crying - it's a big brown bear looking for his own teddy. And tucked under the big brown bear's arm is Freddy!

So Eddy and the big brown bear do a quick swap - they're clearly scared of each other - and then run home to their snuggly beds. I adore the illustrations on the last page which show the big brown bear in bed clutching his teddy and then Eddy in bed clutching Freddy, both with looks on their faces as if to say "That was close!".

Turning to my new Good Book For A 2yo Boy Checklist, this book rhymes, has a scary part, requires the reader to shout "HELP!" and ends with bedtime (albeit uneasily). The illustrations deserve special mention because Eddy's emotions are clearly visible as he goes into the woods, finds the gigantic teddy, swaps bears and lands in bed. There's also an illustration of the dark, empty woods at the start and the end of the story which we ponder over for a minute or two, wondering what's in there...


And just to prove how much Benji loves this book he interrupted me during the writing of this paragraph to read Where's My Teddy?. We have also been reading No More Bottles For Bunny and the enigmatic Potty Time. More about them next time.

Where's My Teddy? is by Jez Alborough

Camping (and books)

We are back from our 5-day Easter camping extravanganza and I am pleased to say we had a great time. Ben took to outdoor life like a duck to water which meant I had a great time too - even got to have a snooze in the hammock! We went to a place called the Glasshouse on the shores of Lake Tyers, about 20km past Lakes Entrance. No running water, no toilets but lots and lots of fresh clean air and sunshine.

I knew nature would keep Benji entertained, nonetheless I took some toy cars, playdough, a full pencil case, a battery-operated DVD player with 3 DVDs (including Madagascar), a colouring book and a pile of softcover books. He ended up playing with everything but the cars and I am hoping some wombat isn't choking on dried up playdough pellets aka 'cakes' as we speak.

I didn't want the books to get wrecked so they weren't allowed to leave the tent, which was in fact a camper trailer. What a godsend and a must for toddler-camping! Happily the books returned home intact - we didn't take library ones just in case.

The days were filled with Ben pottering around having the time of his life: playing on the beach, in the sand dunes, by the lake, driving the car (yes, Ian gave him a driving lesson), trotting around after his heroes Birdie and Carol and lots of hammering and tinkering with the bolts, screws and handles hanging off the camper trailer. On Sunday morning we had an Easter egg hunt which went down well as one would expect. Everything a 2 year old boy could ask for!

After his evening socialising round the campfire we trekked off to the tent for bedtime storytime with our old friends Ernie, Rosie, Hairy Maclary, Spot, etc. I was very glad he had something familiar to fall asleep with as even the pyjamas he was wearing were new ones I had bought for cold nights.

Sadly we didn't see much wildlife, which I attribute to the presence of lots of family pets. At one point we spotted someone's Jack Russell halfway up a tree - hilarious, but not if you're a bird. Oh well, at least the Easter Bunny found us!

Happy to Ben!

Last week was one full of illness and disappointments but we made it to this week, largely thanks to a successful library visit last Tuesday followed by a quick trip to Bunnings (this is relevant, believe me - all will be revealed). So far we've only managed to read a few of our borrowings because we are stuck on book 3 - the most popular so far by a country mile - The Birthday Box.

The Birthday Box is about a boy, dressed in nothing but a nappy, who gets a box for his birthday. There is a puppy in the box, which the little boy is happy about, but it is the box that he is truly thrilled to receive. He takes the puppy on adventures through the skies and across the sea in his new box. He turns it into a robot costume and then kits it out with some pillows and a blanket. The story ends with the little boy settling into the box for a nap with his puppy, saying how lucky he is to have been given a box.

This is book has everything that Benji is into: birthdays, birthday cake, the "Happy Birthday to You"* song and boxes. It was during our Bunnings trip that I grabbed a Benji-sized box at the checkout and loaded our stuff into it. Before we even sat down to read this book Ben was all over - and in - the Bunnings box. We have since read The Birthday Box many times and it's now no.1 toy...

*Benji has taken the liberty of shortening "Happy Birthday to You" to "Happy to Ben". It is just wonderful to overhear him singing "Happy to Ben" to himself.

The Birthday Box is by Leslie Patricelli

Magnificent Mister Magnolia and Scoot!

Today started well with everyone happily ensconced at childcare and work but at around 2pm things declined when childcare called to say Benji was sick and needed to be picked up. He was overjoyed to see me and overjoyed to get home which made me think he'd just orchestrated his first sickie, but a few hours later even Madagascar, neither movie nor book, could keep him happy.

So tonight I selected 3 short books to read at bedtime. Ben picked Spot Visits His Grandparents first and then I picked Scoot!.

I thought we'd give Scoot! another go because, as you may recall, I really liked it the first time but Benji didn't stick around to hear the second page onwards. This evening I had his full attention and so we got through Scoot! - and he liked it! It is about the animals, insects, birds and amphibians that live around a pond, in the middle of which live "silent turtles who sit still as stones".

The story features finches, salamanders and dragonflies and some brilliant illustrations which lend themselves to being counted. We counted the turtles on each page and pointed out the different animals. We are going camping by a lake in East Gippsland at Easter, where birds flock freely, so this book was great preparation for our upcoming holiday.

The third book I picked was Mister Magnolia. This wonderful book is about eccentric Mister Magnolia who has only one boot. He's also got 2 sisters who play the flute, a trumpet that goes rooty toot and a dinosaur - what a magnificent brute! But poor Mister Magnolia has only one boot. Benji and I counted the kids in the picture who are taken for a scoot (what a coincidence, there's that word again) and the owls in his bedroom who are learning to hoot. This story has a happy ending as Mister Magnolia is given a new bright sparkly cowboy boot - and then goes to bed.

I'm going to have to create a list of books that end with people going to sleep in bed soon, as well as another list of books where every character in the story is depicted in the picture on the last page (for example, The Waterhole and Who Sank the Boat?).

Scoot! is written and illustrated by Cathryn Fallwell

Mister Magnolia is written and illustrated by Quentin Blake

Visit to the op shop

We have been reading lots of books lately, with an emphasis on Rosie Sips Spiders, BANANA!, Who Sank the Boat?, Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy and Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo. Spot's had a bit of airplay, but interest in him seems to be waning. Ben's getting too old for him now anyway.

The little gem you see on the left is the result of a visit to the op shop last week. Instead of coming out with doll's cradle, I left with a brand new copy of Madagascar Movie Storybook for $1. The movie is one of our favourites - can't quite say the same for the book which contains about 0.05% of what's in the movie.

That's a bit unfair of me really because it is a picture book after all. It has got some of Marty the Zebra's great lines in it that I can do in my best Chris Rock voice as well as the lead penguin's "Cute and cuddly boys, cute and cuddly". Benji giggles through most of this book, which I abridge even further such that we launch between one quote to the next - no storyline to speak of. Best of all are the illustrations - isn't that usually the case? - which are 1960s Golden Book style. We've had at least an hour of entertainment from this book already, which isn't bad for $1.

Sadly our library books are going to cost us more than that because we didn't get to the library last Wednesday and I keep forgetting to renew them. We'll take them back this Wednesday instead and get a new batch, which must include Mr Gumpy's Outing or Mr Gumpy's Motor Car or anything else by John Burningham.