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Chronicle Kids

It’s So Quiet
by Sherri Duskey Rinker & Tony Fucile

It’s nighttime at the farm but little Mouse can’t sleep because it’s just too quiet. He tosses and turns in his bed until his mother comes to sit with him. She suggests that he snuggles down and lets the soft noises of the night carry him into slumber.

The mouse listens carefully and soon his little ears pick up the sounds of a bullfrog croaking nearby and some crickets chirping in the long grass. The old screen door bangs, the wind whistles through the trees and somewhere in the distance a coyote howls.

Alarmed the Mouse gets out of bed and opens the window. Where once it had all semed quiet, now he can hear nothing but pure noise. Owls, dogs, snoring, creaking, tapping – where is all this noise coming from and how on earth is he supposed to get to sleep?

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Stella Brings the Family
by Miriam B. Schiffer & Holly Clifton-Brown

Stella has two dads. This has never been an issue but when her teacher announces they’re going to be throwing a special Mother’s Day party she finds herself in a bit of a pickle. She doesn’t have a mum so who is she supposed to invite?

As the other children play, Stella finds herself worrying about the party. She can’t concentrate on anything and she doesn’t want to eat. She doesn’t know how to explain that she doesn’t have a mum to bring to the party.

Eventually her friends ask her what the matter is and she tries to explain. The children are surprised and they have lots of questions. If she doesn’t have a mum then who makes her packed lunch? Who reads her a bedtime story? Who gives her kisses when she hurts herself? Stella explains that her two dads do all of these things for her and more. Plus she has Nonna, Aunt Gloria, Uncle Bruno and Cousin Lucy. She has a whole host of people who love her – but she still doesn’t have a guest for the Mother’s day party.

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You and Me, Me and You
by Miguel Tanco

This smartly written book follows a father and his child as they enjoy the small moments of wonder to be found in an ordinary day.

Together they play in the park and count the ants on the ground. They make boats out of cardboard boxes, splash about in the rain and read bedtime stories. The simple pleasures shown in the illustrations are underlined by the minimalist text which, rather cleverly, can be interpreted in two ways.

The words are essentially a list of lessons being passed from one to the other, including how to choose words with care, how to be creative and how to look at the world in different ways.

The first time I read the book to myself I instinctively saw this as knowledge being passed down from father to child. However on further examination I realised that equally these could be lessons that we as parents learn from our children.

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Cave Dada by Brandon Reese

After a hard day of hunting and gathering Cave Dada is looking forward to putting his feet up – but his little baby has other ideas. He wants his father to read him a book and he’s not going to stop crying until that happens.

The father seems somewhat reluctant and suggests he plays with a rattle or snuggles his blanky instead – to no avail. Tired and a little grumpy, Cave Dada sets off to get the book and when he returns we can see why this wasn’t his first choice of activity. The book is a giant stone tablet!

Unfortunately this isn’t the book the baby wants so the tears resume until a bigger book is brought, but that turns out to be the wrong one too. Whilst travelling back and forth to gather more books Cave Dada accidentally invents fire, but still the baby is unimpressed. All he wants is his favourite story before bed.

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