February 2009

  • The Snowman

    By roskopp on 2/20/09 4:38am
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    The SnowmanThe Snowman is a beautiful bittersweet tale about a young boy who looks out of his window one night and sees a snowman come to life. The two embark on a wonderful adventure with a poignant ending. The book was first published in 1978 and was created by talented author Raymond Briggs.

    The book is entirely without words and relies on the wonderful images to tell the story. A young boy named James wakes one morning to see that it has snowed overnight and transformed his garden into a winter wonderland. He rushes down and builds a snowman. Later that night James can’t sleep and goes to check on his creation. To his great surprise he finds that the snowman has come to life. The snowman takes him on a flight through the chill night air and they see many sights along the way as they fly over the South Downs and Brighton Pier.

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  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar

    By roskopp on 2/18/09 2:36am
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    The Very Hungry Caterpillar coverThe Very Hungry Caterpillar is a superb book ideal for toddlers and young developing minds. It charts the progress of a caterpillar as he eats his way through the week. You can get it in a board book format which makes it tough and durable and it is so well written that both adults and children will be captivated.

    The book was written by Eric Carle and first published in 1969. It is said that one copy has been sold every minute since then and there are certainly millions of copies in print. The television and movie rights were sold in 2005 for over £1 million and the book was named by George W. Bush as one of his favourites. Something which caused a bit of a stir when it was pointed out that he was already 23 years old when the book was first published.

    The book tells the story of a life cycle as it begins with a small egg on a leaf which becomes a very hungry caterpillar.

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  • Harriet the Spy

    By roskopp on 2/10/09 3:31am
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    Harriet the Spy book cover copyright Harper & RowHarriet the Spy is a terrific book first published back in 1964 and written by Louise Fitzhugh. It is about the 11 year-old Harriet and her combined love of writing and spying. She spies on everyone in her life, her family, her friends, her neighbours and she writes detailed notes about them in her notebook. This is witty and very well written and will appeal to kids aged between 9 and 12.

    The book opens with an introduction to Harriet’s life and we find her living in the city with a well to do family. She is determined to be a writer in later life and so she writes all her thoughts down in a notebook which she carries everywhere. She is looked after by her nurse Catherine Golly and she has several friends at school. In order to find things to write about she begins to spy on the people in her local neighbourhood and on her friends and family. Things get tougher for Harriet when her beloved friend and nurse moves away and then her friends find her notebook.

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  • The Twits by Roald Dahl

    By roskopp on 2/2/09 7:41am
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    The Twits book coverThe Twits is another book I remember fondly from my childhood and like Fungus the Bogeyman it is both disgusting and frightening, definitely major draws for young boys in particular. Mr and Mrs Twit are an incredibly unlikeable couple, in fact they don’t even like each other. They catch and eat small birds and mistreat their pet monkey and his family. They are smelly and rude and thoroughly horrible and they hate children.

    The book was written by British novelist Roald Dahl, the author behind works like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and James and the Giant Peach. The Twits is especially well known and loved in Britain though some parents may find it too revolting for their young ones and it is certainly darker and more subversive than most of his other works. Dahl also has an open revulsion for beards, he genuinely didn’t like them and so his description of Mr Twit’s beard is fantastically disgusting.

    In the book the Twits capture birds by pasting glue onto a tree and they bake them in pies.

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