Welcome to another children’s book review. This month, we went back to the library for some new titles, and we also went to the Children’s Book Festival to meet John Marsden, Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton. (And to eat sausages in bread, dance to songs about pirates and play with Play-Doh and hula hoops.)
Here are our thoughts!
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Smarty Cat series / Jeannette Rowe and Louise Park
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Smarty Cat is not as smart as his name would have you believe. Or perhaps he is – he’s very curious, and has surrounded himself with some clever friends to answer his questions. Patiently.
Yes, quite smart after all.
Smarty Cat wants to know where Rain comes from, what Bellybuttons are for, why Snails leave shiny trails, and why we need Sleep. And that’s just the start. We borrowed six of the twelve available Smarty Cat books, and Ashleigh loves them. They are mostly factual, although sometimes veer into the cute to get their message across (in the Rain book, the water droplets ‘hug together’ to form clouds).
And they have helped me answer some of Ashleigh’s relentless why questions. So Smarty Cat gets a big fat tick from me!
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My Country / Dorothea Mackellar and Andrew McLean
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If I asked you to recite the first line of My Country, what would you say?
I would have said ‘I love a sunburnt country, a home of sweeping plains…’ But it’s not the first line. It’s in there, but not on page one. Nor on page two.
Mind. Blown.
Mackellar’s beautiful poem about the country I feel lucky to call home is timeless. McLean’s illustrations are beautiful, and some of them give you almost as much to think about as the words on the page. Highly recommended.
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The Fabulous Foskett Family Circus / Quentin Blake and John Yeoman
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I love Quentin Blake’s illustrations (Roald Dahl’s books just wouldn’t be the same without them, would they?). And The Fabulous Foskett Family Circus is cute. Each page rhymes, and the characters do all sorts of fun circus things. It’s fun. It’s cute. And it’s not nearly as repetitive as this paragraph.
But it bothers me. I know it sounds like I’m clutching at straws, but the rhyme rhythm is different on each page and it throws me every time I read it. I have to read the whole page to myself before I read it aloud to make sure I get the emphasis right.
Ashleigh loves it though, and tries to perform the circus acts. Which is fine until we get to the fire-breathing page. Thank goodness none of the Fosketts like to juggle knives!
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The Cat, the Rat and the Baseball Bat / Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton
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This book is fantastic. (I tried to think of a suitable word to rhyme with cat, rat and baseball bat, but could only think of ‘phat’. Yuck.)
The Cat, the Rat and the Baseball Bat is a single story taken from The Cat on the Mat is Flat, which gives you a clue as to the book’s finale. Very Seussian, it’s a delight to read. And after the first reading, Ashleigh had it down pat. (There’s the rhyme I was looking for!)
Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton are a great team, and this story is no exception. And our copy is now signed! Lovely to meet you, gents.
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What books have you and your children read lately? Any recommendations?
And did any fellow Melburnians make it to the Children’s Book Festival on the weekend?
This post is the seventh in a series of children’s book review posts. Check out the others here:
Children’s book review (February)
Children’s book review (January)
Children’s book review (December)
Children’s book review – family favourites (November)
Children’s book review (October)
Once upon a book review (September)
I must have been living under a rock! I wish I knew about the festival, I would have loved it! We’ve been enjoying some oldies but goldies… Wombat Stew, for one. One of my favourites, new to Miss Two. Some great titles here for me to check out. ๐
It was great fun. I only found out about it a week beforehand, and actually had to change some plans to go. Then it rained… but that actually kept a few away, I think. Score!
I have a photo of Dot McKellar’s house – not in the country at all…will try to find it for you….
Oooh, thanks!
I love reading your book reviews – I get so inspired. Thank you! ๐
Thank you Jen. You’ve just put a big smile on my face. Happy Tuesday!
My daughter made me buy The Cat and The Rat… from her school book fair because they read it at library and she can read it, the boys also love it when she reads it to her! Quentin Blake is one of my fav illustrators EVER! Dr Suess is the man in our house again right now, he comes and goes in popularity! Em – also visiting as part of #teamIBOT
Oh how I love the good doctor. It’s been a while since we’ve read one of his too – thanks for the inspiration!
Great books to review! I love A Sunburnt Country, and yes, I’d learned the real first verse at school! I still prefer the verses about Australia as beautiful as the English description is!
The Australian verses are indeed beautiful. I thought the poem might go over Ashleigh’s head, but she’s still asking questions about it, so I’m really glad we borrowed it.
Ohh Mr 4 has been bursting with all of those ‘omg I don’t know’ questions lately so I will definitely be checking out the Smart Cat series.
THEY ARE GOLD!!
The festival sounds awesome. I haven’t heard of anything like that where we live. The Smarty Cat books sound like lots of fun. Lately we’ve been reading Richard Scarry’s Bedtime stories ๐
Richard Scarry! Been a while. Thanks for the suggestion.
The tax deductions at FULLHALFGLASS are way past this stage but reading this post sure did bring back a lot of fond memories.
For the record – Roald Dahl and his book “Revolting Rhymes”was the perennial favourite
I had to read this comment a few times before I got it. I’m getting slow in my old age!
And funny you should mention that one – I just bought Revolting Rhymes and Dirty Beasts for my niece for her birthday!
My son received a few Andy Griffiths titles for his birthday today – fantastic storyteller, so lucky you got to meet him!
We chatted for all of ten seconds. The queue was MASSIVE and he wasn’t chit-chatting. I did however talk to Terry Denton for about five minutes, and John Marsden for a lot longer (I chanced the end of the queue right at the end of book signing time so chatted as he packed up. SCORE!).
Inspired by Harmony Day my boy has been reading Mysterious Traveler by Mal Peet which is a beautiful story and about camels, adventure, lost princesses, strength and goodness and The Little Refugee by Anh Doh.
Thanks for the suggestions! Will look out for them.
I think I will search for these over the next couple of days! Master Jake is in his inquisitive phase and anything that rhymes is a hit. Thanks for the inspiration!
You’re welcome! Now that I know Smarty Cat exists, I’m telling EVERYONE about him.
I haven’t seen “my Country”, it looks like it would be amazing. I love books like that x
Me too! We have Waltzing Matilda and The Man From Snowy River at home so it was nice to get another classic Aussie poem to read to the kiddlywinks.
Seussian! I like that! The series looks great, as does My Country. I will definitely look out for that one. I think all school kiddies should learn that poem. The Man from Snowy River too. They’re both awesome!
Thanks! And yes, TMFSR is a fave here.
Oh I so have to get me some of those smarty cat books! I have a feeling my girls would LOVE them. Never heard of them before either so thanks. Oh and I’m very jealous you got to meet Andy and Terry – my 7 year is a HUGE fan of the tree house series!! Xxx
We’re not up to the tree house series yet, but it’ll happen soon enough. There’ll probably be 78 storeys by then!
One of my boys is a HUGE Andy Griffiths fan and I dont think he has this one so brownie points for me and a big thank you to you for telling me about it ๐ xx
You’re welcome! It’s definitely for younger readers though. Perhaps go for the full collection? x