The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White

Until I heard of this book, I only knew E.B. White as the author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. (one of my favourite kids movies too - with Geena Davis and Hugh Laurie).

The Trumpet of the Swan first came to my attention on this Dinner A Love Story post about the best collection of books to give a new baby. I have most of them now but I think this one is my favourite.

If your kids are of the age when they can still for a half an hour each evening, and you need some kind of stress relief, just order this book. Get the hardcover (I wish I had) because its one that will be around for a long time. I read it on a camping holiday, so I did have a captive audience (no wifi, Nintendo DS out of battery, laptop out of charge, everyone in withdrawl) but my three elder boys, then eleven, nine and seven sat rapt while I read. We usually did it when our youngest was having a nap and my husband was deciding which incredibly cheap but delicious wine he was going to get in the nearby French supermarket. Happy Days.

For ages seven and up.

Fast and very bearable family game - Quallop

We're not really a game-ish family. Vital pieces in our Mousetrap were lost before it was ever played, our Monopoly is used mainly by our four year old for some kind of money/skateboard/burger game that thankfully is a solo thing, and Twister lasted about eight minutes before I felt very much like snapping the arrow/board thingy in half. Which would have been very easy, it was so flimsy.

Anyhoo, in a way I want us to be a game-ish family. It just seems like a very good thing to sit down with our kids at a table and play something. (They will sometimes play together but more often than not, the main attraction of the whole thing is that one of us is involved.)

Which brings me to Quallop. It's great. Doesn't take too long, easy to understand (really - very easy. It's noughts and crosses with a few twists) and compact. (That's a folding board in the picture above. Its about two handspans wide and one high.)No cumbersome boards and big boxes. No tiny, vital pieces to lose. So far, it has made nobody cry and I have never felt like sneaking it into a charity bag.

Suitable from ages five or six to adult.
P.s. This isn't a sponsored post - I chose and paid for the game.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, performed by David Hyde Pierce

This is the audio version of The Phantom Tollbooth, read by Niles from Frasier. I got it last Christmas for my then ten year old but up to now it has always been played in his bedroom. When he started putting it on the kitchen before school, I wasn't too happy. The hours between seven and half eight are spent concentrating hard on getting four boys fed, dressed, supplied with a lunch they might actually eat and out of the house. Usually I work in silence at the kitchen counter muttering..

Nutella sandwiches, drink, apple  oreos, soup, no, not soup, he won't eat it, peanut butter sandwiches, no, peanut butters all gone, nutella? Ham? Recorder, no not today, better put it in the school bag anyway. Please put your socks on. Bike helmet, lights? Sign journal. Find pen. 

Hearing David Hyde Pierce blast from the speakers the other day nearly drove me over the edge. Howandsoever, I must have slept well the night before because when I suppressed the screams, turned down the volume a bit and listened, I had to admit its pretty good. I know it sounds like a cliche, but it's thought provoking. And very entertaining.

This one is unabridged and four and a half hours long. Needless to say, it is read brilliantly. Highly recommended for ages seven or eight to twelve.

More nice books - for seven, eight, nine, ten and eleven year olds

Emil. He lives on a farm in the Swedish countryside with his father, his mother, his little sister Ida, the farmhand Alfred and Lina, the maidservant. The chapters in these three books have titles like

Tuesday, the twenty-second of May when Emil got his head stuck in the soup tureen.

or

Sunday, the thirteenth of June when Emil made three brave attempts to pull Lina's tooth and then painted little Ida blue.

and

Tuesday, the tenth of August, when Emil put the frog in the lunch basket and then behaved so badly that I hardly dare write about it.

He's not all bad though, little Emil. There's also

Saturday, the eighteenth of December, when Emil did such a noble deed that the whole of Lonneberga was proud of him and all his past tricks were forgotten.
                     
These books are very funny and perfect to read aloud to ages five or six and up. Great too for kids to read alone from about seven, depending on ability. The chapters are long and definitely written before attention spans were shrunken by screens but fantastically written. Emil isn't as well known as Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgrens  more famous creation, but I prefer him.

The Great Brain. This is about the same reading level and also about a little boy in a small town. Its very popular in the States, but we just got it this past Summer and my nine, 11 and 13 year old sons loved it. Again, very funny and again great too insofar as it is set in another time and place - here it's Utah in the 1890's. An overall very good read, both aloud and independently. There are three in the series.

You could say this series is a bit gimmicky. Theres also 12 Finally and 13 Gifts, both of which I meant to get for the appropriate birthdays but completely forgot. Anyways, 11 Birthdays is great, Well written and obviously, perfect for an 11th birthday present.

For ten years and up too there's the His Dark Materials trilogy. Utterly brilliant. Good for those who have finished with Harry Potter and anyone who likes any kind of magical, creepy exciting mystery. So beautifully written, they're hard to put down. I started reading The Northern Lights out loud the other night and and went on way longer than planned.

Washi tape!

Washi tape. I only heard of it about a year ago and couldn't find it anywhere in Dublin. It seemed to be one of those things that you can get in America easily and cheaply but no one has heard of here. Which of course made me want it even more! Anyway, I was in BookStation last week and found these. Three rolls for €2!

Wow. Its very handy. My four year old spent ages cutting and sticking with it. For three days in a row, while I did homework with his brothers, he was occupied. Which made that painful afternoon hour, between half three and half four way more bearable than usual.

P.s. In Bookstation this isn't labelled washi tape - in the shop I found it tucked in with the crafty stuff - lollipop sticks and the like - have a look at all the rolls - there are loads of different patterns.

Last minute Minecraft party

My nine year old had his birthday during the school holidays in August and I promised then that we would take a few friends to the Ninja Turtles movie when it came out. Anyways, I noticed that it was showing yesterday and today for previews, whatever they are and thought we may as well go for it. There were three friends free and with brothers, that filled the car. Then he reminded me that I also promised a Minecraft cake. I think the picture explains how we put it together. Those are Tesco fizzy water bottles (7up ones are green too) and that's a sponge cake made in two brown bread tins. My oldest boys did the creeper faces on the bottles with the sharpie and I did the one on the cake (using the Betty Crocker incredibly sweet icing as glue) with the mint aero balls which VERY handily are both green and brown. And tasty.

Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann

This is just one in my hidden-away-for-Christmas stash.

I loved Struwwelpeter when I was small. I don't know why, its not for the fainthearted and I would certainly have been classified as fainthearted. I was a thumb-sucking wimp and yet my absolute favourite story in the book was about little Suck-a-thumb!

For anyone who has not heard of it Struwelpeter is a collection of cautionary tales written in Germany in 1845. Anyone who is tired of reading about Horrid Henry and the lack of consequences for his actions - try this book. Look what happens to Harriet when she plays with matches!

Anyway, I CANNOT wait to read this one at bedtime.

For ages three to adult.

Books for a seven year old girl

My friend Laura asked me for reccommendations for a seven year old girl, and I was a bit stumped. I really don't know girls - no sisters, no daughters, and what I enjoyed in the 1970's might not be still in print. That's if I can remember what I read when I was seven. I keep thinking of the Noel Streatfield Shoe Books, but maybe they are more for ages nine and up? Definitely worth checking out though. What I have in the house that might work are..

The Amelia graphic novels - cartoony stuff about Amelia the tomboy - just right for age seven or eight.

The Worst Witch series (written before Harry Potter and definitely for a younger age group.) Fine for age seven.

This is the font size.

And a bit easier are the A to Z Mysteries..

These are great value, which is just as well and they are flown through.

We love Henry Huggins, but his pal Beezus is even more popular. Although you probably already have her.

If not, this is the font size.

I gave this to my eight year old last Christmas - he loved it.

This is what it looks like.

Also, I couldn't find our copy of All of a Kind Family, but that is PERFECT for a seven year old girl. And, now that I think of if the Little House on the Prairie books and of course Pippi Longstocking. 

National Geographic Kids - Planets and Arthur's Halloween

I got Planets because I knew my boys would like it, and also because I suddenly realised that if I were at a table quiz and faced with questions about our solar system, I might not know the answers. The National Geographic Kid series are great. (This is the hardcover version of my one - the softback ones are between four and five euros! And reliably good. Like this one and this one.)

And there's Arthur's Halloween. I may have blogged about him before, if so treat this as a reminder that Arthur is great. We were reading this last night and none of us could remember what animal Arthur was. I have read so many American kids books that we are by now familiar with Opossums and chipmunks and bears, but for the life of me I couldn't remember if he was an anteater or an aardvark. Anyway, I just checked. He's an aardvark.

The Legend of Spud Murphy and The Legend of Captain Crow's Teeth by Eoin Colfer

About six years ago I borrowed the audio version of The Legend of Spud Murphy from our local library. It was read by Ardal O'Hanlon. (only available second hand through this link. Or try the library).

For the next year or two, we borrowed it regularly and now, due to use by us and others, it is no longer on the shelf.  It either wore out or someone kept it. I wish it were me. Not only is it just a great story (about two brothers who are sent to the library by their mother to do something other than squabble), Ardal O'Hanlon manages to make it even better. If you have a five year old with younger siblings, just buy it now and leave it in the car. You will never get sick of listening to it over the next few years.

Next we got The Legend of Captain Crow's teeth, (about the same brothers, this time on a seaside holiday) which was nearly as good and will get your kids talking about phosphorescence for days. 

Both area for ages seven and up - or when they are pretty comfortable reading themselves. (There is also The Legend of the Worst Boy in the World which is good, but we didn't love quite as much as the other two.) 

The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Again.

I mentioned a while ago that I had splashed out on the Taschen collection of Grimms Fairy Tales. Well, it was money well spent. We all love it. But especially my nine year and eleven year olds. This post is just to share a few more of the illustrations (all from various editions of the tales, from the 1820's to the 1950's). They are AMAZING.

Jedi Academy by Jeffrey Brown

Fans of Flat Stanley, Star Wars and Origami Yoda will love this one. My guys definitely did.

Lots of cartoony-ness and according to my nine year old its "good, one of those stories where friends become enemies and then become friends again."

The one above is the second in the series and hopefully not the last. (Heres the first one.)

The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay

I'm a bit wary sometimes of buying some my boys "classics" to read. Maybe its memories of trying to plough through Middlemarch in college (I never succeeded) but I think its understandable if they opt for something light and easy at bedtime rather than get stuck into something worthy. Actually a lot of the classics will work well read aloud, but my nine and eleven year sons share a room with their four year old brother, so it is still picture books only that I can read aloud there.

When I saw that The Magic Pudding was still on the shelf unread, since its appearance in a stocking last Christmas, I wrote it off as a loss. I'll get to it at some stage I thought. It was, after all, written in 1918. The language is different to what they are used to, to say the least. Then my eleven year old asked me to get him a Godzilla graphic novel. Hmmnn, not for nothing. Give this a go first, I asked him, if its too difficult, that's ok, but give it a try.

He read a slice or two a night. This book isn't divided into chapters, its in slices. With no complaining whatsoever. Really, it is not a chore to read this book. Its a pleasure.

Bunyip Bluegum is a Koala Bear. He lives with his uncle in cramped circumstances.

Tired of the lack of space, he asks around for advice and is told it would be good for him to head off on his own for a while. But he is not on his own for long. Soon its a gang of four; Bunyip, Bill Barnacle, a sailor, Sam Sawnoff, a penguin and The Magic Pudding.

They encounter crafty pudding thieves,

kind dogs carrying baskets of eggs, 

and  much, much more. 

An excellent read. For ages seven and up. Maybe I was wrong about children's classics? Maybe I should give Middlemarch another try.

The Great Big Enormous Book of Tashi by Anna Feinberg, Barbara Feinberg and Kim Gamble

This is a good one. Bought a few years ago on a whim(I saw it on Julias Bookbag) it was an immediate success. Its what my son describes as a "second reader". That is, if you can get through the "I Can Read"s easily, than this is the next step. And what a rewarding one! The collection we have huge - nearly one thousand pages. (there are all thirty two stories in this one - you can also buy them singly or divided into two volumes.)

It's definitely one which they will need to be sitting up in bed with two pillows to manage. Its not one to slip into the schoolbag for reading time. However, what my guys liked was that every now and again they could say nonchalantly "I'll just mark my page...hmm..that's page eight hundred and forty five!" For early readers, this is very exciting.

Written by Australian trio, Anna Feinberg, Barbara Feinberg and Kim Gamble these are the stories of a little boy called Tashi, who come into Jacks life on the back of a swan. And they become friends.

There are beautiful pencilly drawings throughout to accompany Tashi's amazing stories.

For ages six and up.

Maps by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinska

For some reason, Maps was reduced to £6.40 stg last week on Amazon.co.uk. This week its £10.88. That's still a lot cheaper than the price in the shops around here - around €24.00. I have been eyeing it up for a few months but the price and the glaring omission of Ireland from its pages stopped me. However, I got over that and have to admit, it is a fabulous book. Not a conventional atlas, its a (long pause here, how do i describe this book?) set of illustrations of forty two countries, the Artic and Antartica, with details of each country also drawn in. Make sense?

As well as being enormous, beautifully bound and chock full of fantastic details, it has an impressive shelf life. My four year old pre-reader can examine the pages the same way he does the Where's Wally books and other detailed illustrations and his older reading brothers can look up whatever countries they have an interest in at the time and are bound to find out something new.

So, if you gave this as a present to a three year old and he would still be using at at the ages of seven or eight and older. A pretty good investment all round.

Tom Trueheart and the Land of Dark Stories by Ian Beck

There are four boys in this house and its a pretty noisy place. Each of us have our own way of finding a bit of peace(mine is getting up extra early and having a cup of tea in a silent kitchen, recently my nine year old has decided to join me..) and my eleven year old listens to audio books in his bedroom. (That is, when the option of a computer screen, Youtube and a pair of headphones have been ruled out.) So, I was putting away pyjamas the other day heard a excerpt of this.

Wow, I was really impressed. Its great! Adventurey, fairy tale-ish, funny and most importantly for an audio book, there's an excellent narrator. Its the second time my son has taken it out of the library, so he's a fan, and later at bedtime, when I decided I was too tired to read, his four and nine year old brothers listened to it with him. In silence. Bliss.

The one above is the second in the series, and I think there is a third too. So far I have found the first on audio here and all the books here. But I'm pretty sure the library would have the lot.

Andrew Henry's Meadow by Doris Burn

I really thought I'd blogged about this one before. But I must just have thought about it, and never actually done it. Anyway Andrew Henry's Meadow is one of our most beautiful well, loved books. It's particularly popular at the moment as my youngest has recently got a bit more patient and I can read picture books with a bit more bite. And we can take some time to examine the detail in the illustrations. Which is one of the amazing things about this book. Look, here is one of Andrew Henry's inventions.

and here's a close-up. (And that's just a fraction of the whole thing. Its ALL beautiful.)

Created in 1965, Andrew Henry is inventive. The middle child of five, neither his siblings, or parents appreciate his creative nature.

And so he decides to take off for a while.

My photos have come out too dark for some reason but there are millions of details in these drawings; tools, toys and household objects which make them a joy to explore.

Anyway, Andrew Henry goes to a meadow he knows, and builds himself exactly the type of house he wants, where no one complains about him.

And, before long, other kids whose interests are not appreciated at home, appear.

First,  a little farmers daughter who loves birds.

Later, a musician who can now be as loud as she likes.

Then someone who wants to be Lady Jane, rather than plain Jane.

Before long, the meadow is full.

But, the children are missed and are eventually reunited with worried parents.

And Andrew Henry gets his own spot for his inventions, where his family finally appreciate them.

For ages four and up.