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