Category Archives: Themes

Jul2

Little Lost Unicorn by Lorna Hussey

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IMG_0832Little Lost Unicorn by Lorna Hussey, hardback picture book, published by Hinkler Books in 2009.

Little Unicorn goes exploring in the forest and gets lost. Some little forest animals befriend him and they have a lovely time playing together until baby rabbit falls into the stream. Little Unicorn must be brave to help baby rabbit.

This is a magical story of friendship and courage with beautiful illustrations on embossed pages. There are unicorns hiding on every page, which my preschooler loved! She spent a lot of time poring over the pages looking for them, and running her hands over the embossing. She is a big fan of unicorns and this is the best unicorn story book we have read so far. It was very engaging for my preschooler, and I enjoyed her enthusiasm for the book. Perfect for every little unicorn lover, this is a great book for sharing with your preschooler, or for lower primary school students.  Personally, I liked this story, and I was very impressed with the lovely illustrations, and ingenuity of the hidden unicorns.

Jun29

The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith

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IMG_0794The Wonky Donkey by Craig Smith and illustrated by Katz Cowley, boardbook (and CD), first published in the boardbook format by Scholastic New Zealand Limited in 2013.

This is an hilarious tale of a very interesting donkey. He only has three legs, one eye and he likes country music! And as the story progresses, a new quirk is added to the previous ones, making this a donkey like no other.

The illustrations are just as humorous as the story, and a great asset to the book. The donkey really is a very cheeky fellow, and is drawn as such. The Wonky Donkey is a cumulative story, repeating all of the previous attributes before adding the new one. This repetition is fantastic for preschoolers and lower primary school children alike. Older children and adults will also laugh out loud while reading this book! Both my preschooler and my second grader love it, they think it is side-splittingly funny. My preschooler loves to make the Hee Haw sound when we see the donkey on each page. Both of my kids really like the illustration of the donkey releasing such foul gas that it knocks out a bird (he is a stinky-winky as well as a wonky donkey!) Read it aloud, or follow along with the CD, for even greater enjoyment of this very funny story.

 

 

Jun28

Elmer and the Rainbow by David McKee

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IMG_0759Elmer and the Rainbow by David McKee, paperback picture book, first published by Andersen Press Ltd. in 2007, this edition published by Andersen Press Ltd. in 2009.

Elmer is a rainbow patchwork elephant living in the jungle with his elephant friends. They are sheltering in a cave during a storm, and Elmer is excited about the possibility of a rainbow emerging once the rain stops. However, when the rain is over, instead of the beautifully coloured rainbow that Elmer imagines, there is a pale arch across the sky. Elmer thinks he could share his own colours with the rainbow. The birds tell him that to restore the colours, he must find the end of the rainbow, so with help from the other animals in the jungle, Elmer goes searching.

This is a nice story about helping and sharing, with the lovable and well known character, Elmer the Patchwork Elephant. My kids are quite fond of Elmer, and this book was no exception. The story is simple, and the text is in a biggish, black, basic typeset, which is easy to read. The illustrations are interesting and unique. I particularly like the expressions on the animals’ faces throughout the story. We enjoyed reading this story together, and my second grader has read it several times on her own since we brought it home. My preschooler likes it when Elmer shares his colours with the rainbow, along with the picture of the rainbow as it would be if it had become patchwork like Elmer. Elmer and the Rainbow is most suitable for lower primary school and preschool children.

Jun28

Esther’s Rainbow by Kim Kane and Sara Acton

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IMG_0757Esther’s Rainbow by Kim Kane and Sara Acton, hardback picture book, published by Allen & Unwin in 2013.

While she is eating lunch one Sunday, Esther sees a rainbow streaming out from under her stool. She touches it, and smells it, but it soon disappears. Throughout the following week she looks for the colours of the rainbow in the world around her. Each day shows her a new colour, as she continues to search for her rainbow.

This is a truly beautiful book about discovering our surrounds, and the joy of everyday items. I felt warm and fuzzy reading this with my preschooler, it is a gorgeous book for sharing with preschoolers and children in lower primary school. My daughter marveled at the things that Esther found the rainbow colours in, and this gave us an opportunity to talk about the colours in our own everyday world. She particularly liked that Esther used all her senses to experience the colours, like smelling green in mint, and tasting yellow pears. Esther’s Rainbow will be read many times in our house, and it will make us feel happy and inspired every time.

Jun27

Rainbow Mobile

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Colouring a rainbow.

Colouring a rainbow.

Paper plates, again, so versatile! I cut some paper plates in half and I coloured one half in using markers to form a  bright rainbow on one side. I coloured the other side with crayons, which made a pale rainbow. A liked the bright marker rainbow better, so she chose to use the markers for her rainbows. It was easy to make the arch of the rainbow by following the shape of the plate, though for some reason, A’s rainbows have more stripes than normal, and they are a bit jagged and spiky. She is no perfectionist!

Colouring the second rainbow.

Colouring the second rainbow.

Once she had finished colouring in two rainbows, she punched a hole into the top of each plate. She also punched a hole in the rainbow I coloured in, as she wanted to use it on her mobile. I helped her to tie some white string to the rainbows, and then attached them to a plastic hanger. I collected a handful of these hangers from some clothes I had bought the children a few weeks back. I knew they would come in handy, and they are perfect to use as the top of our mobile.

Very proud of her mobile.

Very proud of her mobile.

She was very pleased with her mobile, and asked me to hang it up in our lounge room.

Jun27

Watercolour Rainbow

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Painting a rainbow.

Painting a rainbow.

We pulled out the watercolour paints today to paint a rainbow picture. A likes to paint, and she likes dipping the paintbrush into the water, and then watching the water change colour as she uses more colours. She painted a beautiful rainbow using lots of bright colours, even two shades each of blue and green.

Painting rainbow hair.

Painting rainbow hair.

Once her rainbow picture was finished, she painted a picture of what she would look like with rainbow coloured hair. I can imagine her coming home as a teenager with hair this colour….

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Jun27

Ladybird Baby Touch Rainbow by Fiona Land

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IMG_0761Ladybird Baby Touch Rainbow illustrated by Fiona Land, big boardbook, published by Ladybird Books Ltd in 2013.

This is a big format boardbook that explores the colours of the rainbow from red through to purple. Each page focuses on one colour, with that colour’s name in big writing at the top. There is some rhyming text describing the illustrations, which are simple and easily recognisable for children. The pages are shaped on the edge, and get bigger as the book progresses. There are touchy feely bits on each page too, giving babies and toddlers the opportunity to feel didn’t textures.

The book was too big for Baby T (14 months) to hold, but he was happy to lay it on the floor and turn the pages. He explored the different textures on the pages, and was very taken with the orange cat’s soft tummy. He wanted to keep stroking the cat’s tummy over and over. My preschooler was with us while we were reading this book, and though it was really too young for her, she still enjoyed touching all the different textures and talking about what she could see. She liked the bumpy tortoise and the sparkly boat sail best.

I liked that each colour was represented with multiple illustrations in that colour. I could point them out to Baby T, naming them and repeating the colour’s name to reinforce his colour learning. This was a very good introduction to the basic colours for babies and toddlers.

Jun26

Princess Evie’s Ponies: Indigo the Magic Rainbow Pony by Sarah KilBride and Sophie Tilley

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IMG_0754Princess Evie’s Ponies: Indigo the Magic Rainbow Pony by Sarah KilBride and illustrated by Sophie Tilley, paperback picture book, published by Simon and Schuster in 2012.

Princess Evie and her pet cat, Sparkles, have a stable full of magic ponies who take them on adventures. In Indigo the Magic Rainbow Pony, when they ride through the tunnel of trees they emerge into a world of colours. Evie’s clothes have changed to rainbow colours, and so has Indigo’s coat and mane, and there are beautiful butterflies everywhere. Yet, as they ride on they encounter a drab, grey garden, drained of colour. Evie discovers a map that tells her to find the magic girls and collect their coloured stones to return the colours. So Evie, Indigo and Sparkles set out to do just that.

A fun story with magic, adventure, new friendships, sharing and colour. The illustrations are particularly nice, with lots of detail and lovely colours. My preschooler was immediately drawn to this book because it had silver sparkles and a pony on the front cover. She also liked the shiny pink hearts and lettering of the title. The story containing a princess, magic and rainbows were bonuses. My daughter is very pink and princessy and this is the sort of book that she will ask for repeatedly, until I can’t stand reading it any more. And when I have had enough, she will continue to peruse it herself. With two daughters, I’m working on building my tolerance for magic ponies, fairies, princesses, animals…. I prefer a good giggle book to share, but I have to run with what the kids like, though it will be nice when A can read these types of books herself! This is not a bad book however, it just isn’t my cuppa, and my four year old loved it! This book would particularly appeal to girly girls in the preschooler to lower primary age groups.

Jun26

The Rainbow by Flying Colours

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IMG_0758The Rainbow by Flying Colours, paperback first reader, 16 pages, by Cengage Learning Australia, 2004.

This basic Flying Colours reader shows a boy and a girl painting a rainbow. The book is rated at level 1-2, so the language is very easy and repetitive, the text is large and the story extremely simple. The photos were bright and clear. My preschooler had no difficulties reading this book to me, and she seemed to enjoy the progression of painting the rainbow. This early reader is a great way to build reading confidence in young children just starting out on their reading journey.

 

Jun26

Amazing Baby: Rainbow Fun by Emily Hawkins

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IMG_0755Amazing Baby: Rainbow Fun text by Emily Hawkins with graphics by Mike Jolley and Emma Dodd, boardbook, published by Hardie Grant Egmont in 2008.

This sturdy boardbook introduces babies and toddlers to the colours of the rainbow, one by one. There was minimal text using simple words and rhymes along with simple black outlined graphics. Each double set of pages was a different colour, from red through purple. The pages are also die-cut with decreasing concentric circles in the middle of the pages, until it disappears for the last double page where the colours all come together to form a rainbow. The physical size of the book is also just right for toddlers to hold.

I borrowed this book from the library, and as soon as we got it home, Baby T (14 months) pulled it straight out and starting looking through it. He was fascinated with the circular holes in the pages, and kept putting his hands through them. He also loved the bright colours, and pointed to some of the graphics. I tried to hold it to read to him, but he kept snatching it off me so that he could turn the pages himself. I did read it to my preschooler as well, and she enjoyed it, though it was really a bit young for her. However, she used the simple layout of this book to practice naming the colours in both English and French. She also liked the holes in the pages. I was amazed with how much Baby T liked this book, he has come back to it a number of times, seeking it out from the pile of library books to look at. This book is a fun and engaging introduction to the colours for babies and toddlers.