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.

NannaAnne's present

It was with great fanfare that NannaAnne stopped by on her way home from work yesterday with a present - which was a very big book! The Wind-up Plane Book comes with a wind-up toy plane which you can see it in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. Several pages have a track built in so that you can wind up the plane and race across the page. Ben can't yet wind but loves the racing part. And what's more, the story is about a boy called Ben who is going on his first plane trip with his mum and dad and baby sister.

This evening we contemplated the double page map of the world at length. We have a couple of globes on the front hall table so Ben is aware of maps and happily he is taken with this one. I think this is probably due to my brother Nick's trip home from London in January, because I was able to show him where Nick and his girlfriend Anna both live. He seems fascinated that we live at the bottom of the map and they live at the top. Just wait until we get to the parts about how baggage handlers do their job!

I must add the Magic Pudding to my to-buy list because we went to the Children's Garden today at the Botanic Gardens and Ben had a great time climbing all over the sculpture of same. It's a shame I cut the Magic Pudding out of the photo - I laugh just looking at him because he's such a grumpy old boot.

Ben's in his nappy because they've turned the water feature back on - hooray!!! I have to say that garden is the best place for 2 year olds in Melbourne, without any shadow of a doubt.

Wind-up plane book is by Gillian Doherty and illustrated by Stefano Tognetti

The Magic Pudding: being the adventures of Bunyip Bluegum and his friends Bill Barnacle and Sam Sawnoff is written and illustrated by Norman Lindsay

The Elephant and the Bad Baby

Well it appears our diagnosis of hand, foot and mouth was wrong because although Ben was still under the weather yesterday, this morning he seemed okay. So I dropped him off at childcare and drudged off to work despite feeling rotten myself (I'm certain I have the adult version of it sans the spots). I went for some fresh air at lunchtime and made a beeline to Readers' Feast.

I bought Benji The Elephant and The Bad Baby, having lurked around the Australian picture book section for a few minutes, flicking through classics such as Wombat Stew and Possum Magic. I was on the verge of buying the latter but the thought of explaining the concept of invisibility to him was more than I could bear.

I distinctly remember that our childhood friends the Hewetts had this book and that we read it over and over again. I also distinctly remember being horrified at the bad baby's bad manners. In the story, the bad baby hitches a ride with an elephant and they both go rumpeta rumpeta rumpeta through the town, stopping off at various shops and helping themselves to ice creams, pies, buns, chips, chockie bikkies, lollipops and apples*.

The elephant becomes upset because the bad baby doesn't say "please" when he is offered the goodies. But this upset is nothing compared to the anger the shop keepers feel as they chase the bad baby and elephant down the street because they haven't been paid. Paying for things you buy at the shop, by the way, is definitely a concept that Ben understands because I make him give our corner milkbar owner 65 cents each time he buys a Freddo frog.

This story is just like Hairy Maclary From Donaldsons Dairy, My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes and The Wonky Donkey in that it introduces a new character or story development at each turn of the page and builds upon itself (there must be a technical term for this kind of story). I love reading these rhyming building books more than anything because you can almost sing them - which gives me something to do (having read the book a hundred times) and it keeps Benji captivated too. He also studied Raymond Briggs' wonderful illustrations intently as the elephant and the bad baby exit each page to the right with the shopkeepers wielding things such as a shiny meat cleaver and spatula.

Clearly the message to the story is that it is bad not to say please and commandeer elephants to steal food from shops.

The Elephant and the Bad Baby gets a double thumbs up from me. Ben listened to the whole story without wriggling, but as soon as we'd finished it he demanded Love That Baby! and chortled the whole way through it. He's such a softie! He's going to be devastated when we return it to the library on Wednesday.


* I like that a healthy food is tacked onto the end of the list as an afterthought. And threatening babies and animals with meat cleavers and spatulas? Clearly this book was written decades ago (1969 to be precise). How refreshing...


The Elephant and the Bad Baby is by Elfrida Vipont and illustrated by Raymond Briggs
Wombat Stew is by Marcia K Vaughn and illustrated by Pamela Lofts
Possum Magic is by Mem Fox and illustrated by Julie Vivas

Poor little B

Since Friday afternoon Ben has been whiney and tired and refusing to eat, and voila! spots (not the canine kind) have tonight appeared on his throat and his hands. Ian and I have made an internet-assisted diagnosis of hand, foot and mouth, largely suggested by the signs appearing in the childcare centre this week announcing that it's spreading around. We've done well I suppose to have avoided it for so long. Lucky I brought heaps of work home to do this weekend - looks like no work for me on Monday.

So it's been a tough day and the only time he quietened was to eat his Trampoline ice cream, watch Over the Hedge and then to read Rosie Sips Spiders, Wibbly Pig Likes Bananas and Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy. In fact he smiled during HMDD, but not the ice cream.

We read Little Sisters Are... last night and it didn't go down too well. He did not like the page where the little sister bites the older sibling at all, and seemed to disapprove of the remainder of the story. I on the other hand found it amusing and will have to track down Little Brothers are... to see what he thinks of brothers' antics.

Fingers crossed that the poor little guy feels a bit better tomorrow. Apparently HFM comes with a very sore throat so what a great excuse for more ice cream.

Little Sisters Are... is by Beth Norling

Bottomley Potts all covered in Spots

We read 4 Spot books tonight and Ben was asleep within 2 minutes of me putting the last one down. Believe it or not I choose Spot because a) Ben clocked up a meagre 10 minutes of sleep today and was exhausted and b) consequently I am exhausted and travelling interstate very early tomorrow morning so wanted something that I can recite with my eyes closed. Which unsurprisingly I could, as could he (he read Spot Goes on Holiday, kind of).


And did you know Spot is 30 years old this year? I visited http://www.funwithspot.com/ today which I will show Ben as soon as I get home tomorrow night. I am seriously considering purchasing the 30th anniversary teal-coloured foil special edition of Where's Spot? and oh my goodness, Spot's Birthday Balloon would make his day!

We didn't get to the library today because we had a lot on. But I checked our borrowings online and they are not due until next week anyway. Which is good because we've lost Scoot! and we are still enjoying Love That Baby! Speaking of babies, we met a completely gorgeous newish baby today and Ben was fascinated because he was drinking milk from his "mummy's tummy". We haven't managed to read our other baby book "Little Sisters Are..." that we borrowed from the library yet but will do so after perused funwithspot.com tomorrow.

Old favourites

We went away for the long weekend to the beach and took a bundle of books with us - you know, the usuals: Who Sank the Boat, Spot Visits his Grandparents, Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo, Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy and The Wonky Donkey. We also took 2 new instant favourites, Rosie Sips Spiders and Hairy Maclary's Bone. I must hunt for another beach book along the lines of Grandpa and Thomas and the Green Umbrella - actually maybe Magic Beach would be good given our current penchant for Alison Lester, although from memory it's not about beaches.

Ian did the reading last night. The pile by the side of the bed revealed a few additions to the those listed above, including an In the Night Garden book which we read again when we woke up this morning (it's one about the Tomliboos playing a happy waving game which lends itself to some great sound effects... haaaaaaaaaaaahoooooooooooooooooooo).

Tonight we revisited Things I Like, plus a few of those listed above which I really must start abbreviating, eg. WSTB, EDD and HMDD. We have developed a few little games for storytime - each story is prefaced with Benji saying "Ready... Set... GO!" which is a cue for me to open the first page really quickly with pretend fumbling and fussing which just cracks him up. And now he adds a grandiose "The End" to each story before he leans over to select the next cab off the rank.

I was thinking during Things I Like that I also need to find a story about cleaning up. Benji is going through a real bin and throwing-out-rubbish phase, evidenced by great fanfare when we turn to the bin page. There's also a bin in HMDD which draws especial attention. Oh, now I remember that we have Harry the Dirty Dog that Amy and Ned gave us with Stick Man so that's a good start. So, my shopping list for our next library visit, which is tomorrow (yay!), contains books about beaches and bins.

Trip to Readers' Feast

I went to Readers' Feast today at lunchtime and bought Benji two new books - Rosie Sips Spiders and Hairy Maclary's Bone. We read each book twice at bedtime as well as Who Sank the Boat once, just for old time's sake.

I was looking for the Hairy Maclary books when Rosie Sips Spiders leaped out at me. I grabbed it after flicking through it and realising that it had the same layout as one of our faves, Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo, in that it also features 6 children, including one called Ernie, who share various aspects of their lives with us on each page. The spiders Rosie sips are of the fizzy icecream drink variety, which Ben has never had, so as far as he's concerned it's called Rosie Sips Milkshakes.

It wasn't until I started to read the blurb on the back cover that the penny dropped that Rosie Sips Spiders and Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo are actually part of a 6-part series... excellent! Four more excuses to buy Ben books.

He liked Rosie Sips Spiders more than Hairy Maclary's Bone. He dragged his finger across each page, pointing at each child and making the occasional observation as to what they were doing. Frank flying his rocket to the moon was a popular picture and we had a giggle when we saw Ernie's bum while he was having a shower under a tree.

Hairy Maclary's Bone features Hairy's canine friends getting stuck in awkward places while trying to snatch his bone from him. Hercules gets stuck in a sign, Muffin in a hedge, Bottomley in some fishing baskets, Bitzer in some builder's rubbble and Schnitzel on an old stone wall. Poor old Schnitzel just can't take a trick.

Another penny has dropped as to the type of illustrations that Benji likes, those being simple and colourful drawings (Sometimes... is an exception to this). I tried to read 2 of our library books - Scoot! and We're Sailing to the Galapagos - to him earlier this week but he wasn't the slightest bit interested. This was to my dismay because I thought they were both completely ace in terms of both story and illustrations, which are paper collages. I had selected Scoot! because it has onomatopoeia AND alliteration in it (Liz did we learn about them in year 7 or 8 English? Maybe it's more primary school level, I can't remember). And I had selected We're Sailing to the Galapagos because I want to sail to the Galapagos and see the blue-footed boobies.

Anyway, no matter, I will make a note of them and try them again in 6 months' time.

Rosie Sips Spiders is by Alison Lester

Hairy Maclary's Bone is by Lynley Dodd

Scoot! is by Cathryn Falwell

We're Sailing to the Galapagos is by Laurie Krebs and illustrated by Grazia Restelli

Hairy Maclary et al

I haven't posted for a while but that's not to say we haven't been reading - we've been reading all of our library books over and over again and then some more! We've been reading so much that after we read our bedtime stories I fall asleep when Benji does.

Our latest favourite has to be "Cairy" aka Hairy Maclary From Donaldson's Dairy. Be warned though, even though this story ends with a cute little dog curled up in bed, it is NOT a bedtime story - especially if you read it with a lot of oompf - and how could you not given its ending?

It starts with Hairy Maclary going for a walk down his street, collecting on his way Hercules Morse as big as a horse, Bottomley Potts covered in spots, Muffin McLay like a bundle of hay, Bitzer Maloney all skinny and bony and Schnitzel von Krumm with the very low tum. That's Bitzer to the right and Muffin McLay below.

They're all out enjoying their walk when they encounter Scarface Claw the toughest tom in town who scares the living daylights out of them such that they turn around and hurtle home. I can't help but read this page with noisy bluff and bluster - "Off with a yowl and a wail and a howl, went Schnitzel von Krumm with the very low tum, Bitzer Maloney all skinny and bony, Muffin Mclaylike a bundle of hay..." and through the list a scampering dogs we go!

Benji loves it! And then it takes about half an hour for him to settle down and get to sleep. Which is a bit annoying but far be it from me to tell him he can't read the book he wants to read the most. And of course to the right we have Schnitzel von Krumm departing his salubrious surrounds...

There is a whole series of Hairy Maclary books. I still have my Readers' Feast voucher, and it's work Friday tomorrow, so I will nick down there at lunchtime and pick him out another one. And one final bit to say in favour of this great story - I remember Hairy being one of my little sister's favourites when she was small - and she's now 23. Hi Amy!!

Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy is by Lynley Dodd.