ZZZZZ A Book of Sleep - Il Sung Na

ZZZZZ A Book of Sleep is a picture book for the very young, suitable for bedtime, but not an actual story. Il Sung Na begins by pointing out that when it grows dark everyone goes to sleep except for the owl, shown here staring as he sits on a branch in front of a full moon.

Over the next few pages, double-spread illustrations show us that not all creatures sleep in the same way. Koala bears sleep in peace and quiet, whilst elephants snore noisily through their trunks. There are creatures that sleep standing up, and whales that sleep while they are swimming. We see birds sleeping with one eye open (watching what the owl is up to), and fish that keep both eyes open and don't even blink. Giraffes are pictured sleeping alone, resting their heads on cloud pillows, whereas penguins huddle up when they go to sleep to keep out the cold.

The book ends when all the creatures wake up at sunrise, apart from the owl, of course, who then needs to go to sleep until the sun sets again.

Il Sung Na has illustrated his book in a delightful way; my only reservation is that, since the scenes are set at night, the backgrounds are of necessity rather dark and might not be too appealing to young children. To alleviate this, Il Sung Na has decorated many of his creatures in pastel shades and floral patterns. The last two sets of double pages are set in bright sunshine, however. I particularly liked the scene showing all the animals waking up, where a row of birds perch on the giraffes neck, the Koala bear and her baby cling to the elephant's trunk and the penguins slide down the whale's forehead.

The text is in a very clear, large font, and there are never more than four lines to a page – in fact there is only one line on several pages. As well as being perfect for reading aloud to the very young, this could be a suitable book for young independent readers who are still gaining confidence and don't want to be put off by whole pages of text. There is a certain amount of repetition, and the illustrations will give clues to help in deciphering the words.

This is of course an excellent book for learning about the habits of various animals and for discussing the fact that there are so many different ways that a creature might sleep. I read it aloud to a group of three- to four-year-olds and as we went through the book I asked them to pretend to go to sleep with one eye open, then with both eyes open but without blinking. Not as easy as it sounds, they soon discovered.

For very young children this is obviously a picture book that lends itself perfectly to bedtime reading, and parents will hope that with all this talk of sleep their little ones will soon drop off. The paperback is perhaps a little expensive, but there is also a board-book version for £3.99.

ZZZZZ A Book of Sleep

by Il Sung Na

Meadowside Children's Books, 2007

Paperback,

ISBN 9781845392703

Price £5.99

But excuse me that is my book - Lauren Child

Charlie and Lola are off to the library, and Lola announces that she must borrow her favourite book, 'Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies'. When Charlie comments that Dad took it out for her last time and the time before that, Lola explains that it's the best book because 'the bugs are quite buggy and the butterflies are really beautiful and the beetles are... very silly'.

Once they are at the library, big brother Charlie does his utmost to keep Lola quiet and suggests she look for her special book amongst all the books beginning with B. Lola is quite distraught when she can't find it, and she won't accept Charlie's explanation that someone must have borrowed it. She considers it to be her book. Charlie tries to persuade her to have a look at a few other books, but Lola protests that the one about the Romans has too many big words and the pop-up book with cherry blossom rain just isn't funny. Charlie realises that he will have to find an animal book that will make her laugh, and he shows her 'Cheetahs and Chimpanzees'.

Just then, Lola is shocked to see a girl walking off with 'Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies'. She finds it hard to accept that anyone else can take it out. She has no choice but to give 'Cheetahs and Chimpanzees' a go, and thankfully she finds it to be wonderful. In fact, she says it has the best pictures ever and thinks the chimps are very funny. Charlie must have breathed a big sigh of relief.

This may not be the best or most popular of Lauren Child's Charlie and Lola books, but it is the perfect one to introduce a young child to the idea that when you bring a book home from the library it doesn't actually belong to you. It is also ideal for perhaps persuading your son and daughter to be open minded and try different books or toys, particularly when one they are obsessed with is lost or broken. They might discover something even better when they try something new.

Lauren Child illustrates all her stories herself in her distinctive style. She uses vibrant colours throughout, and the page where Lola talks about her favourite book is dotted with patterned butterflies and a row of wide-eyed bugs marching along. When she finally looks at 'Cheetahs and Chimpanzees', Child uses photo-montage to show her standing in a jungle setting with the book while a friendly grinning monkey watches her from each side.

The text is usually superimposed on the illustrations, and on one or two pages in appears in mauve or pale blue on a black background. Sometimes lines of text curve around the pictures, and the font can vary in size to emphasize particular words or phrases. In some instances, the individual letters of a word jiggle playfully up and down. Lauren Child has Lola speaking at times in an amusing, ungrammatical way that might be typical of a young child, for example when she says that 'Beetles, Bugs and Butterflies' is a 'very great and extremely very interesting' book.

While 'But excuse me that is my book' is an ideal book to read aloud, the creative use of the text does not make it an easy one for a child that is just learning to read. An older sibling, however, who is a confident reader, would probably enjoy reading this to a brother or sister. Many of them are likely to identify with Charlie and not find the book too childish.

I often read picture books aloud to groups of children aged three and four, and if I give them a choice I almost always find that a Charlie and Lola book is asked for. This one is unlikely to appeal to two-year-olds, but might still be approved of by children of five or six. Although it may not be the best in the series, I don't think you can go wrong borrowing a Charlie and Lola story from the library and then deciding if it is worth buying. If I have grandchildren one day, I hope I will be able to enjoy reading 'But excuse me that is my book' aloud to them.

But excuse me that is my book

Lauren Child

Paperback, 32 pages

Puffin 2006

ISBN 0141500530

Price £5.99 (Amazon £3.99)

Not Now Bernard - David McKee

Masquerading as a children's book, Not Now Bernard might perhaps be seen by many as one for the parents who read it aloud as a bedtime story to their little babes. The front cover acts as an introduction to the story, setting the scene. We see a small boy whom we presume to be Bernard, gazing wide eyed at what is obviously a monster, and a fearsome one at that, baring his teeth from on top of a mound. The monster is about as broad as he is tall and is almost all face, with short limbs attached.

Opening the cover, we see the monster again, but this time he has his index finger on his mouth and looks as though he thinks he has done something wrong. On the title page we see a full-figure picture of Bernard, wide eyed again and with a minute dot for a mouth. Turn the page, and Bernard is saying hello to his Dad, pictured here banging a nail into a wall. Bernard is standing behind him, and Dad doesn't turn round but merely replies 'Not now, Bernard.' At the same time he hits his finger with the hammer and appears to cry out in pain. A similar episode occurs with Bernard's Mum on the next two pages; she is busy in the kitchen and ignores Bernard's hello just like Dad did. Bernard seems to be seeking attention when he persists by telling Mum that there is a monster in the garden that's going to eat him. Mum obviously thinks this is a tall story and continues to give the standard 'Not now, Bernard' as a reply.

Having had no joy with his parents, Bernard decides to go into the garden and say hello to the monster. Perhaps it will take some notice of Bernard. This is what he in fact does, but not in the way Bernard had hoped. He eats Bernard up, and we see the monster left holding just one shoe. The monster then decides to go indoors, and lets out an almighty 'ROAR' behind Bernard's mother as she is painting a wall. Thinking once again that it is just Bernard, she gives the usual reply 'Not now, Bernard.' The monster then finds Dad sitting in an armchair, hidden behind the newspaper, and on biting Dad's foot, the reply is merely repeated, as Dad doesn't actually see what is happening. When Mum puts Bernard's dinner on a table in front of the television, she calls her son but doesn't wait to see if he comes to eat. The monster eats the dinner and continues by amusing himself with a comic and the television. After a while, Mum calls to Bernard, telling him that he should go to bed and that she has taken his milk upstairs. We see the monster on his way up with teddy in tow, and then settled in bed with teddy. At this point he objects, 'But I'm a monster.' Mum is in the doorway, but rather than take a look or say goodnight, she switches off the light and for one final time says, 'Not now, Bernard.'

Do we interpret this as a message concerning the terrible consequences for parents who persistently ignore their children and never spend any time with them? Or do we assume that everything was a figment of Bernard's imagination because of his boredom? Did he convincingly take on the role of a monster, roaring, biting, and breaking one of his toys? Such deep questions. Perhaps the most interesting point is that young children don't seem to find this story frightening; they usually love it and have a great laugh over it. This could be partly because of the illustrations. They fill most of the page, and the monster looks rather comical just after he has supposedly eaten Bernard: his tongue hangs out as he holds up a shoe. He holds up a dinner plate and lets the food trickle into his mouth; when he watches television, he stands on top of the set (before the flat-screen era) and peers down from above. Colours and patterns are bright and cheerful, giving a definite friendly feel.

As well as being a popular bedtime story, this is an excellent reading book for children between the ages of four and a half and seven. It fits the National Literary Scheme's requirements in England and Wales of being a story with a familiar setting, a story with patterned language, and a story by a significant children's author. For these reasons there is also an accompanying teachers' resource book available. The fact that phrases such as 'Not now, Bernard,' are repeated would of course make it easy for very young readers to recognise words that appear every now and again throughout the book. There are never more than fourteen words on a page, and in fact the word count on most pages is only about six.

Not Now, Bernard has delighted children for more than twenty years now; some that heard or read the first edition are now nostalgically reading it to their own children. I would definitely recommend it either for reading aloud or for early independent reading. It is attractive both visually and in terms of a story that captures the imagination of a child who can identify with Bernard's boredom and loneliness.

Not Now Bernard

by David McKee

Red Fox, 1984

Paperback, 26 pages

ISBN 0099240505

Price £4.99

The Ghost Library - David Melling

I remember as a child how much my imagination was stimulated by C. S. Lewis's 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe': the idea of walking through the back of a wardrobe into a fantasy world where you met fauns and had to fight against a wicked Queen was enough to relieve the boredom of any school holiday. As my sons were growing up, it was the novels of Road Dahl that captured their imagination. Fancy being able to point your finger at people and turn them into birds, as the furious little girl in 'The Magic Finger' does. The idea of mixing up a glorious concoction to deal with a despicable person, as in 'George's Marvellous Medicine,' seems almost within your own reach.

Lewis and Dahl are still tremendously popular today, but what of younger children whose imagination needs stimulating? 'The Ghost Library' by David Melling seems to be just the answer.

Having been impressed by Melling's 'The Kiss that Missed' and used it successfully as the basis for a drama session with a group of four-year-olds, I asked if I might be the first to borrow his picture book 'The Ghost Library' when I spotted it amongst a pile of new books at my local library. The cover, which has 'glow-in-the-dark' appeal, shows three strange creatures peering down at a book that a little girl in dressing-gown and pyjamas is trying to read. It gives the impression that there will be plenty to stimulate the imagination inside.

Bo, the little girl on the cover, is reading her favourite book about a witch with smelly feet. It's bedtime, and the lights suddenly go out. Bo feels a hand grab her book, and before she knows it she and the book are jerked into the air. She soon finds herself in the ghost library, and the three ghosts from the front cover introduce themselves to her as Magpie, Twit and Puddle Mud. The ghosts explain that they wanted Bo's book, but she came too because she was holding it so tightly. Bo angrily accuses them of stealing, but they claim that they always give books back to children after they have read them. They ask Bo to read her book to them, and when she agrees ghosts fly out from all over the library to listen.

The ghosts enjoy Bo's book so much that they ask her for another story. She says it's their turn, but they protest that they don't know any stories. Bo says she will help them to make one up; they shout out their ideas, but they want Bo to tell the story because she is so good at doing different funny voices. After all the story-telling Bo eventually returns to her bedroom to find a little surprise on her pillow.

Melling's books are always so beautifully illustrated in a way that would appeal to any young child. Each of the ghosts is quite different from the next and most look very friendly rather than scary. One page opens upwards to show a tall tower with the ghosts and Bo swirling past in the night. There is a fair amount of text on many of the pages, so this is a book for reading aloud rather than one for independent young readers. Sometimes italics are used, and sometimes individual lines of text swirl around the page, in tune with the illustrations. All of this adds to the visual appeal.

The unusual thing about this book is that when Bo is reading her book to the ghosts or telling them a story, you see merely a series of pictures without any text. This is in fact an ingenious way of stimulating a young child's imagination and encouraging them to tell the story as they see it through the pictures. When Bo is reading her own book to the ghosts, the double-page spread shows around thirty-six small pictures, mostly in light blue on a yellow background. This would necessitate some quite detailed story-telling, and might be suitable for a child of six or seven. When Bo is telling the story that she and the ghosts have made up, however, there are two double-page spreads in comic-strip style with very colourful and bold pictures that a slightly younger child could follow and tell the story that the illustrations show.

This is a story that successfully combines fantasy with the reality of story-telling ideas. Although about ghosts, they are friendly ghosts and all ends happily, so it should not be too scary as a bedtime story. I would recommend this for children aged three up to either six or seven; with David Melling, I think it is hard to go wrong.

The Ghost Library

by David Melling

Hodder Children's Books, 2005

Paperback, 34 pages

ISBN 0340860898

Price £5.99 (Amazon £4.99)

Winnie in Winter

Having had so much enjoyment from reading aloud Winnie the Witch and Winnie Flies Again, I was on the lookout for more of Valerie Thomas's stories about our beloved Winnie and her black cat Wilbur. This witch is not just for Hallowe'en, of course, and the next book I found at the library was Winnie in Winter.

It's not just winter, it's a severe winter, and Winnie's garden is covered in snow. Even her yellow and red striped tights hanging on the washing line have icicles drooping from them. Winnie is not enjoying it; she is indoors, hanging up Christmas decorations, when her black cat Wilbur comes in through the cat flap with frozen whiskers.

Winnie realises of course that she can do something about this inclement weather. She dons her winter woollies and picks up her wand. Wilbur follows her out into the snow in anticipation. When Winnie waves her wand five times and utters the magic 'Abracadabra', the snow disappears and we find Winnie relaxing on a deckchair in her garden, under a cloudless blue sky where the sun shines brightly. Wilbur is enjoying the summer weather just as much as Winnie is.

The animals that were hibernating, however, are not so pleased. The sun wakes them up too early, and all they want to do is go back to sleep. The flowers that begin to grow wilt under the blazing sun, and Winnie starts to worry a little. But then the problems really begin: crowds of sun-worshippers flock to Winnie's garden; they trample on her flowers, bathe in her pond and drop orange peel on the grass. Unable to stand the crowds and their noise, Winnie retreats indoors. The last straw for her is when she notices someone selling ice-creams in the garden. Seizing her wand and once again waving it five times along with her shout of 'Abracadabra', the spell is reversed. You can probably guess the reaction of the sunbathing crowds, whilst Winnie and Wilbur realise that winter is not so bad after all, especially when you can keep warm and cosy indoors with a toasted muffin and hot chocolate or a saucer of milk.

Korky Paul's illustrations always contribute enormously to the enjoyment of Valerie Thomas's stories centring around Winnie and Wilbur. In Winnie in Winter we see Wilbur struggling through the snow as he stalks a multi-coloured bird trying to drink from the frozen pond, and a strange array of yawning birds, reptiles and mammals that have been rudely awoken from their winter slumbers. The sunworshippers look a little like a section of the crowd from Glastonbury festival (without the mud), and there even seems to be a Winnie impersonator fleeing when snow falls once more on the garden. In that same picture, don't miss the Santa Claus riding on his sleigh high in the sky between the towers of Winnie's mansion.

This is of course a very entertaining story, but it is also useful for teaching young children about the different seasons of the year. It brings up the question of animals hibernating, and shows that flowers cannot grow all the year round. Then there is the matter of invading other people's privacy and creating a disturbance that doesn't have to be tolerated. It's serious stuff, but it's dealt with in a delightfully humorous way.

This is essentially a read-aloud book, probably for ages three to six. The illustrations are double-page spreads and many have just a few lines of text on one of the two pages; at most you will encounter twenty-three short lines of text over two pages, but usually it is quite a bit less than this. The book could therefore appeal to a fairly confident young reader, especially with so much humour and so many imaginative illustrations.

I would urge any young parents not to let their children grow up without enjoying the tales of Winnie the Witch and Wilbur; I'm sure that these are books that will provide entertainment to share over and over again. Winnie in Winter is available as an individual book or as part of a collection of six Winnie the Witch stories. Definitely recommended.

Winnie in Winter

Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul

Oxford University Press

Paperback, 32 pages

ISBN 0192726452

Price £5.99 (Amazon £4.49)

A few of the best

If a love of books is instilled in our children by reading aloud to them at an early age and then sharing books and listening to them read as they begin to learn, let's hope that books will still be a pleasurable source of entertainment for them alongside television, computers and games consoles as they grow older. I have chosen several authors here and focused in most cases on a particular book as an example of that author's work; each author writes for a certain age group, ranging from three- to four-year-olds through to early teenagers. Let's start with the youngest group.

BABETTE COLE

Young children will love the humor and colorful, lively illustrations of Babette Cole's 'The Trouble with Grandad'. Grandad gets into a pickle because of the enormous vegetables he grows: he wins all the prizes at the Vegetable Show and makes other competitors jealous. When a rival gives him a tomato plant that becomes taller than the police station, Grandad is put in prison for growing a dangerous vegetable. All attempts to destroy it fail, so Grandad is released to see if he can solve the problem himself. He discovers that an enormous caterpillar is hidden inside it, which emerges and devours the tomato. When the prisoners decide to escape, they are so frightened of the caterpillar that they run back into jail. The caterpillar turns into a chrysalis and crashes into the police station. Grandad and grandson manage to escape the wrath of the chasing policemen by flying off on the back a a giant moth that emerges from the chrysalis. On returning to his allotment, Grandad hollows out a huge cucumber complete with windows and a clock tower, presenting it as a new police station. The police are delighted, but they have to protect their station from marauding giant slugs.

There is plenty of fantasy and humor here to delight young readers, and illustrations fill the greater part of each page. I find the one of the huge caterpillar happily sleeping on the roof of the police station particularly attractive. If children enjoy this story, there are others in the series such as 'The Trouble with Mum', who is in fact a witch.

FRANCESCA SIMON

Once children become independent readers, there are few who will not appreciate the tales of Horrid Henry by Francesca Simon. Henry is the bane of his parents' life: he throws food, squashes pet beetles, and steals tent pegs to make a camp fire. His brother Peter is the exact opposite of him. When Henry decides to be the perfect angel for a change one day, Peter is so annoyed that Henry isn't being his usual self that he eventually picks up his plate of food to throw at Henry. He misses, and his dinner lands on top of Mum's head instead. Henry finds it hilarious and doesn't even mind being sent to his room for laughing.

This is another series of books with comical illustrations, this time in the form of black and white drawings by Tony Ross. We see caricatures of pirates and ballerinas, or Henry and his neighbor Moody Margaret mixing up a concoction of Glop. The first book in the series includes a story of Henry's dance class as well as his camping holiday. Other titles in the series include 'Horrid Henry Tricks the Tooth Fairy' and 'Horrid Henry and the Mummy's Curse'. There are enough female characters in the stories to encourage girls to read, as if they are likely to need much encouragement when the tales are ridiculously funny.

ROALD DAHL

By the time a child has finished with Horrid Henry, they will be old enough to discover the delights of Roald Dahl's novels. The perfect one to begin with, as it is not overly long, is 'The Magic Finger'.

The heroine is a girl who can zap people with her finger with drastic results: her teacher may have regretted calling her stupid, as she grows whiskers and a tail after the finger is turned on her.

Worse still is the fate of the Gregg family, caught shooting deer and ducks by the girl. She is so incensed that she puts the Magic Finger on them. The following morning, Mr and Mrs Gregg and their two sons have dwindled in size and grown wings. They have to spend the stormy night in a nest, as enormous ducks take over their house. Only when the ducks threaten to shoot the Greggs do they have the chance to return to their normal selves by promising never to shoot birds or deer again.

A child who enjoys 'The Magic Finger' will almost certainly delight in another of Dahl's novels, 'Matilda', once again centring on a girl with magic powers. Follow this book with 'The BFG', a tale of a Big Friendly Giant, or 'George's Marvellous Medicine'. Humor in 'The Twits' is taken to the somewhat vulgar extreme; for something more serious, try Dahl's 'Danny the Champion of the World'. Illustrations again form an important part of these books, and are almost always by the amazing Quentin Blake, who captures the essence of Dahl with his line drawings and caricatures. These stories will keep children absorbed for hours on end.

TERRY PRATCHETT

For children aged nine to twelve, Terry Pratchett's 'Only You can Save Mankind' is the story of Johnny Maxwell who has an unexpected experience whilst playing a computer game. My younger son, when at the top end of this age group, was a reluctant reader, but when he discovered Terry Pratchett's novels, all that changed. Other Terry Pratchett novels that will appeal to children of this age are 'Johnny and the Bomb', in which Johnny Maxwell becomes a time traveler; 'The Carpet People', a fantasy first written when the author was only seventeen; and 'Truckers', the first of a trilogy about little people called nomes who are searching for a new home. The books are full of humor and highly imaginative.

ANTHONY HOROWITZ

Young teenagers, especially boys, are almost certain to enjoy Anthony Horowitz's series of novels that center on the hero, Alex Rider. The plotlines are very detailed and full of tension, involved as they are in the world of espionage. The first in the series is entitled 'Stormbreaker', in which Alex is recruited by M16; it is both thrilling and fun to read. Female characters are sadly lacking, however, so the series may not appeal to the majority of girls.

FRANCES RIDLEY

If, however, your young teenage son is still struggling with reading (and this is not uncommon), I would suggest Frances Ridley's 'Download' series, published by Rising Stars. Each book focuses on a topic such as motocross, mountain climbing or racing cars, so a book can be chosen that will tie in with a young teenager's interests. Ridley presents information in a magazine-style layout, using relatively easy vocabulary alongside colorful illustrations; a short story is also included in each one. The books can also appeal to younger, more confident readers who have particular interests in the topics in this series.

There are of course many other authors such as J. K. Rowling, Jacqueline Wilson and Philip Pullman that will appeal to children. I have perhaps concentrated here on books that contain a strong element of humor (with the exception of Horowitz and Ridley), as this is likely to encourage reluctant readers. The books by Cole, Simon, Dahl and Ridley also feature excellent drawings or colorful illustrations that play a large part in helping less confident readers to follow the text. If your child is not a natural bookworm, share the books with them and read aloud; you might be surprised how much enjoyment an adult can find here too.