Each week we review some of the books we’ve read together with Squirm

You Wish Jellyfish by Sue Whiting and Lee Krutop

Jellyfish is sick and tired of moving. All the time moving, without any say in where he goes and never quite knowing where he might end up. But then he meets someone who can’t move very much at all, and he’s forced to rethink his lot in life.

I really, really enjoyed this book. There’s the basic message of the deal you’re served in life maybe not being as bad as you think it is (would make a nice connection with Baby Brain and Robomum from last week.) But there’s much more than that. I loved that Jellyfish’s mum and dad both told him not to miss out on the Journey. It made me think that sometimes we’re so focused on what we don’t have that we miss the things we do have (oh, philosophy in a children’s picture book). I also loved the bright illustrations that were very Australian and the gentle, but quite funny tone through the book.

There’s a lot you could connect with this book – it warms the heart of the teacher inside me. If you’re able to see fish in an aquarium, this book would be a perfect companion. You could spend some time looking at pictures of sea life, and learning about how some of them move around – or don’t move. You could extend that to look at how other animals move too. You could move like a jellyfish, which would make a pretty awesome dance activity.

There’s also word play in this book. You wish jellyfish is one of those rhyming phrases that reminds me of ‘far out, brussel sprout’ and ‘yeah right, vegemite’. I bet you could make up a whole bunch of them – it would make a great book activity. You could also collect a whole bunch of movement words.

Finally, there’s the journey idea. You could talk about journeys, map journeys, create journeys, draw journeys, video or photograph journeys . . . you could even sing about journeys – like ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’.

Baby Bear’s Books by Jane Yolk

This book is a love story to reading. Throughout the book Baby Bear asks to be read to and talks about all the best times for reading – the beginning of the day, snack time, nap time, dinner time, bed time . . . The book is written in rhyme, and the words roll off your tongue as you read it aloud. The book is illustrated with soft, painted illustrations, with little bits and pieces going on to talk about as you read.

Of course, this book is perfect when you’re talking about books. You could use it whenever you sit down with a reading session, and definitely use it to talk more about books with children. It’s the kind of book I would have liked to use with reader’s workshop – it’d be great for talking about when and where children like to read. With younger children, you could draw pictures of the best places to read. You could also try reading in different places – there’s something a little bit magical about reading in playgrounds, on the front lawn, or reading underneath a table!

My Baby Love by Meredith Costain and Beatriz Martin Vidal

This was such a lovely, sweet book. It runs through the day of mothers and babies, from holding to sleeping. It’s a simple rhyme, followed by counting to three, then repeated. But the illustrations are truly magnificent. Each rhyme uses only one main colour, then there’s white used in the people and the surroundings which really makes the pages stand out. And there’s such beautiful detail in the pages. My favourite is the final rhyme, with a picture of the baby asleep in a cradle made of the mothers long, plaited hair.

This is a baby’s book, though and through. It’s one of those books which makes you want to snuggle close to your baby, and at each ‘three’, I found myself giving Squirm a big hug. He loved it too, making sweet, lovely noises the whole way through it. You could make up some good actions to go with it. With older children, you could talk about some of the things babies do (great for an older brother or sister) and look at the details in the illustrations compared to other books. You could also have a go at creating your own rhymes for older children.

Each week we review books we have read with our baby Squirm

Katie and Cleo Move In by Catherine Jinks

This is the story of a pair of research mice who are adopted by a family. Except, because these are research mice, they’re very smart. Also, they’re rather dissatisfied with their  new home. So they set about making things better. They rig up a system that lets them get out and enjoy better food. Then they find themselves some furniture. Then electricity. But when the television breaks, Katie and Cleo realise they can use their powers for good.

While this book is funny, it does show the mice abandoning their quest for books in favour of television. If you’re trying to limit television time or encourage reading, this might not be the best book to read. It does allow for looking at mice, though, as well as trying to figure out how they made electricity work. If you have an older child, you might want to look into a simple electricity kit to see if you can make your own light 🙂

Baby Brains and Robomum by Simon James

Baby Brains parents worked hard before he was born to try and make him smart. They just never thought he’d be this smart! He’s so smart that he develops a whole bunch of time saving inventions – like a self rocking cradle – to make life easier for his parents. But they’re still tired so Baby Brains develops a Robomum. Only, what will happen when Robomum starts taking over everything?

This is a good ‘be careful what you wish for’ book, with the cracks developing soon after Robomum takes over. It also points out that some things are worth doing, even if they’re a bit tedious at the time.You could definitely look at inventions with this book, researching some of the common things we find around our homes. Or you could think up inventions that would make life easier at home (I’d like a nappy hanging robot, please) or make your own robot out of cardboard boxes.

The Great Rescue Race by Raymond McGrath

“Good morning,
good morning.
Your tickets if you please.”

This is the story of Nick, aged six, who leaves his stuffed dog on a tram. Suddenly everyone jumps into action, in a lovely rhyming way, to make sure Nick gets his friend back again. From construction workers to executives to police, everyone works together to find Nick.

This is a gorgeous, bright book with words twisting and stretching across the pages. There’s a whole heap of characters, so if you’re a person who likes making voices when you read aloud, this is the book for you.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a city with trams, you could go out and explore with them. If you’re further away, maybe you could look at what cities in the world have trams. Here in Brisbane, there’s a tramway museum, and you could definitely use that with this book. You could also look at how a lost and found works, and what kind of items might be left behind. There’s also a lot of onomatopoeia in the story which could be discussed – you could even make a book full of it. (A felt book of onomatopoeia would be awesome for younger children. Finally, there’s a lot of different ways of travelling here, if you want to look at that.

Linking up with The Children’s Bookshelf Linky Party