September 2019

Month

Fri
13 ^th

Splash Day by Nick Sharratt

Class One have worked really hard all year so the teachers have decided to reward them with a special treat – a Splash Day! When the children arrive, dressed in swimsuits, trunks and wet suits, the school playground looks very different to usual. There are buckets, sand trays, crates and washing up bowls everywhere, and each one is filled to the brim with water.

Anticipation rises when the teachers appear. Taking no chances they are armed with rain coats, shower caps and wellies! Mrs Thistle lays down a few ground rules before she blows her whistle and then the children are off. They splish, splash, splosh and spray until the whistle sounds again.

But just as they are reaching for their towels, Mrs Rose appears with a hose. She wouldn’t, would she?

Thu
12 ^th

Let’s All Creep Through Crocodile Creek by Johnny Lambert

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When Mouse, Rabbit and Shelly the Tortoise spot the sun going down they realise they need to get home quickly before it gets dark. Mouse suggests taking a shortcut through the creepy crooked creek but Rabbit isn’t sure. What if the tales of hungry crocodiles are true? Mouse is adamant that he has never seen a crocodile there so they all set off together.

It soon transpires that Shelly doesn’t even know what a crocodile is, so Mouse decides to educate him along the way. To reassure his friends, he repeats many times that he has definitely never ever seen a crocodile in the creepy crooked creek – but Rabbit and Shelly start to spot evidence to the contrary.

Here, the brilliant illustrations come in to their own as they start to diverge from the story which Mouse is telling. Just like Rabbit and Shelly, we can see that there are in fact crocodiles EVERYWHERE! The bridge they walk over is a crocodile’s back, the scratchy thorns are pointy claws and the vines they swing on are crocodiles tails – but Mouse just doesn’t seem to see it!

Wed
11 ^th

Felix’s New Skirt by Kerstin Brichzin & Igor Kuprun

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Felix loves to wear skirts. He likes how they feel, how they spin, and he particularly likes the fact they mean he can run faster and climb more easily. Felix borrows them from his older sister and his supportive mum even takes him to buy one of his own.

When Felix starts school he’s really excited about the prospect of wearing his new skirt but his parents aren’t so keen. They are worried that the other children won’t understand and that he will be bullied. However after a few days they finally relent and Felix is very excited about showing his outfit to his friends.

However all does not go well at the school gates where he is met with laughter and confusion. His friends tell him he looks like a girl and even the other parents whisper to each other that it just isn’t right. Felix has a very sad day at school and doesn’t understand why everyone just points and laughs. Girls can wear trousers, so why can’t boys wear skirts?

Tue
10 ^th

In Every House On Every Street
by Jess Hitchman & Lili La Baleine

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This gorgeous book celebrates the love, warmth and mayhem of a family home. The story follows a family of four as they take us on a tour of each of the rooms in their house.

First up is the kitchen where they bake, dance, sing and make a mess. Then we see the dining room where they eat, pretend to be pirates and tickle their parents feet under the table. The living room is for relaxing and getting things off your chest, whilst the bathroom is for washing and pulling funny faces in the mirror.

The richly worded rhyme and the warm illustrations show us love, laughter and tears against a familiar backdrop of toys, washing up and teetering piles of books.

Mon
09 ^th

Ivy’s Guest Book: Sarah Birchall, Founder, Cub & Pudding

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Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.

I’m Sarah – juggler of two kids aged 6 and 3, founder/designer of Cub & Pudding – my unisex kidswear brand (named after the mini’s baby bump nicknames) and wife to a Graphic Designer who came south to uni from Bolton and hasn’t left yet. We live in Crystal Palace where we spend half our time proclaiming its amazement and the other half cursing & vowing to escape London to the coast somewhere.

What are your children’s favourite books?

Urgh. I’m going to forget Peppa Pig books exist and bypass them to instead mention The Something by Rebecca Cobb. It’s the story of a mysterious hole appearing the garden and wondering what ‘The Something’ is that might live down it.. a dragon? a mole? a hungry troll?

Mon
02 ^nd

Ivy’s Guest Book: Elinor Perry, Founder, Biddy and Bear

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Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family

I’m Elinor, maker of children’s clothes and mother of four, based in Leeds. My eldest is all grown up now at 19, and my young ones are 5, 4 and 14 months.

What are your children’s favourite books?

My 5 and 4 year old adore the whole Oi Frog series by Kes Gray. They howl with laughter every time, and they can recite them now too as we’ve read them so often. We love the rhymes and it’s been great for widening their vocabulary. When we meet new people, they want to find a rhyme to see where they would sit!

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