November 2018

Month

Mon
19 ^th

Ivy’s Guest Book: Nadine Bannister & Sarah Cooper, Managing Directors, My 1st Photos

Tell us a little bit about yourself

My name is Sarah Cooper and I’m a Director at My 1^st Photos in Guildford. I live in Godalming, Surrey with my husband and 2 year old daughter. I set up My 1^st Photos with my partner Nadine in April of this year. We make fabric photo albums for babies.

What is your daughter’s favourite book?

‘Brown Bear, Brown Bear’ by Eric Carle has been a favourite since she was very little. It’s really helped her learn colours and animals. She’s now a bit cheeky and mixes up the colours and animals to try and catch me out!

Sun
18 ^th

The Cook And The King By Julia Donaldson & David Roberts

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At the start of this lovely book the King is sat at his royal table eating takeaway pizza from a box. He needs a new cook and he needs one now. There’s a problem though – he’s really, really fussy! He auditions lots of impressive chefs but none of the meals they create for him is quite right. Then in walks Wobbly Bob – a self-confessed wimp who really wants the job!

The King agrees to give Bob a trial and sets him to work making fish and chips, but Bob is scared of every single step of the process. He’s scared of catching fish. He’s scared of digging for potatoes. He’s scared of slicing up chips. And he’s very scared of using the frying pan on the cooker. Fortunately the brave King is there to help and every time Bob is nervous about a task he steps in and shows him it’s okay.

Sat
17 ^th

Hedgehogs Don’t Live In The City! By Lucy Reynolds & Jenna Herman

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We loved ‘Parrots Don’t Live In The City’ by Lucy Reynolds & Jenna Herman so we were very excited to discover that they have a new book out – this time with a hedgehog in the starring role!

The story follows Grace and Archie, two children who are scooting through the city at dusk. Grace spots something in the leaves which she thinks looks like a hedgehog but Archie disagrees. He tells her that hedgehogs don’t live in the city so it must have been something else. Grace doubts herself but as they continue their journey she thinks she spots another. Could it really be a hedgehog on the busy city streets?

The lovely rhyme makes this a pleasure to read and the words bring the bustling city to life. You can feel the hum of the traffic and the leaves being swirled in the autumn wind. The words are elevated by the crisp and leafy illustrations which encourage you to seek out the hidden wildlife.

Mon
12 ^th

Ivy’s Guest Book: Dr. Pragya Agarwal, CEO, The Art Tiffin

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Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family

I am Pragya, CEO of The Art Tiffin and Organiser of TEDxFPWomen events. I live in the north-west near the sea with my two-year-old twin girls, my eldest daughter who has just graduated from Cambridge, my Scottish husband, and our cat, Belle and dog, Taylor.

I did my PhD from Nottingham and was a Senior Academic in the US and UK Universities, and now run a social enterprise and think-tank about gender diversity, creativity and mental health. I am a TEDx speaker and I write about parenting, feminism, art and mental health for Huffington Post and Forbes. I run an active facebook group for parents ‘Raising Creative Kids’ and an art subscription which is a comprehensive learning programme to introduce children (ages 4-10) to various artists.

Sun
11 ^th

Under The Love Umbrella
by Davina Bell & Allison Colpoys

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We are big fans of this brightly-coloured book which introduces the concept of a metaphorical ‘love umbrella’.

The neon images throughout the story show a diverse group of children encountering situations out in the world which may make them feel sad or uncomfortable – like being afraid of the dark, feeling shy around other children, moving house or starting a new school.

The lovely rhyming text explains that even if the child is on their own, their loved one is always with them ‘under their love umbrella’. They may not always be physically present but they are right there with them in spirit to help them through, because of the strength of their love.

This is a really comforting read and it’s definitely a good one to snuggle up with before bed. There are so many scenarios in which this book could be helpful to a small child – from being worried about being left at nursery for the first time right through to the loss of a loved one.

Sat
10 ^th

Oliver & Patch
by Claire Freedman & Kate Hindley

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Little Oliver is feeling sad. His family have moved from the countryside to the big city and everything feels strange. He misses the wide open spaces but most of all he misses his friends, and he hasn’t made any new ones since he arrived.

One day Oliver heads outside on his own to explore and in amongst the crowds he spots a dog called Patch who seems to be lost. Oliver befriends him and together they have lots of fun in Oliver’s new neighbourhood. For the first time he doesn’t feel lonely and the city doesn’t seem as scary after all.

But Oliver is old enough to understand that Patch is not his dog and that somebody out there must love and miss him very much. He sets about making some posters to help Patch find his way home, even though in his heart he wants him to stay.

Wed
07 ^th

Jumble Wood By Helena Covell

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In a quirky little world called Jumble Wood there lives a multitude of cute little creatures. Each of them has a thing they carry around with them which makes them happy. There are creatures with flowers, creatures with balloons, creatures with sunglasses or hats and even creatures with scooters and skateboards!

But there is one little creature called Pod who doesn’t have a happy thing, and this makes her very sad. She decides that the thing that will make her happy must be hiding out there somewhere so she sets off on a journey to find it. Along the way Pod meets Peach and Worm who help her in her quest

Together they venture in to the deepest and darkest part of the wood in search of the hard-to-find thing which will finally make Pod happy. Will they find it? Or will Pod realise that a happy thing doesn’t have to be a thing at all?

Mon
05 ^th

Ivy’s Guest Book: Charlotte Khan, Owner, Moo Like A Monkey

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Hello! Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family

I’m Charlotte and I live by the sea in Folkestone with my husband and two children Mabel (3) and Luna (1.5). I’ve recently opened a Children’s Boutique in Folkestone’s Creative Quarter called Moo Like a Monkey. We stock clothes, books and toys that are a unique, colourful unisex, eco-friendly and generally very cool. I quit my job in London earlier this year to run the shop full time. I work in the shop most days with my youngest, Luna. I spend my days in the shop cleaning up crumbs and changing nappies. In the evenings once the girls are in bed, I stay up looking for new stock and trying to figure out my accounts.

What are your children’s favourite books?

Mabel’s bedtime favourite at the moment is ‘A Bit Lost’ by Chris Haughton. She finds it hilarious that the baby owl falls out of the nest at the start of the book. The illustrations make me smile and with so few words the squirrel’s character comes across really clearly. You can’t help but put on a silly voice for the over-eager Squirrel who tries to help the owl find it’s Mummy. Such a sweet book that still makes me giggle. Mabel picks up on the fact it amuses me too, so reading it at bedtime it always nice as we have a laugh together. Hmmm maybe this is my favourite book, not hers… Another Favourite is ‘Press Here’ by Hervé Tullet, perfect for some quality one on one time with Mabel. Luna isn’t into that one yet, she’d rather chew it.

Sun
04 ^th

The Knight Who Wouldn’t Fight By Helen Docherty & Thomas Docherty

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A few weeks ago a lovely lady called Helen dropped me a message to recommend us a book which her son had picked out at the library – The Knight Who Wouldn’t Fight. It wasn’t one that i’d heard of so I want to give a big shout out to her to say thank you as we LOVE it! (It should be noted here that this is definitely a different Helen to the one who wrote the book!)

The story is about a little mouse called Leo who likes nothing more than to curl up with a good book. However Leo is a knight so, despite his protestations, his parents insist that he has to go out in to the world and fight dragons.

Leo packs a bag with some sandwiches (and lots of books of course!) and heads off on his horse to fight a dragon who has been terrorising a town a few hours ride away. En route he faces a fearsome griffin and an angry troll, but defeats them quickly and easily using not his sword but his collection of books. It turns out that nasty creatures can be quite vain and love to hear stories about themselves!

Thu
01 ^st

Who’s Hiding? By Satoru Onishi

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Ivy spotted this on the shelf of our local bookshop last week and was instantly fascinated. She sat on the floor looking at it for so long that I definitely had to buy it!

The simple format shows 18 animals per double page spread. Their size, shape and position on the page doesn’t change so Ivy quickly learned to identify what each one was and its rough location.

Each page then asks you a question and you have to find the correct animals in order to answer it. The questions are things like ‘Who’s hiding?’, ‘Who’s backwards?’ and ‘Who’s sleeping?’.

I particularly like the questions around emotions (Crying, Angry etc) as your child has to identify the emotion by looking at the expressions on the animal’s faces. Ivy likes to mimic the faces – particularly the angry bear!

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