A Barrel of Laughs A Vale of Tears by Jules Feiffer

This is on my nine year old's bedside table at the moment. He is taking his time with it, but when I ask (I ask my kids about their books WAY too much) if he has grown bored with it he tells me (insulted tone) "No! I really like it!"

It's got pretty big font and lots of illustrations so is a book that may well be a gateway for Wimpy Kid addicts to books with only text. (I love Wimpy Kid books but do think that its easy to get stuck at that reading level - the same applies to graphic novels in my house. They are fantastic but so often now I see my kids rereading them rather than tackling something slightly more taxing but great too. I suppose I was no different last week when I kept putting down A Tale of Two Cities to read about Brad and Angelina's wedding in Hello magazine.)

Anyway, look at these feet sticking out of the whales mouth..

And King Whatchamacallit..

So, so far, two thumbs up from a nine year old. And as for me, I finished both the Dickens and the magazine. The latter had the most exciting last one hundred pages of any book I have ever read, and can you believe Brad is 50?

P.s. Its easy to get any of Dickens works cheap, but the cheaper the edition, usually the smaller the font. The edition above is a nice size, perfectly readable for those of us over forty.

The Moomins and the Great Flood by Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson was born in 1914, so this year there are all sorts of Moomin related events on around the world to celebrate what would have been her 100th birthday. This was her first Moomin book. My friend over at My Book Affair wrote an excellent review of The Moomins and the Great Flood just here, that I won't attempt to better. Here are a few not great pictures of the lovely and magical illustrations. Infinitely better in real life. I promise.

I will just say that it is not one of those beautiful books that sits unread on a shelf. (and it is really, really beautifully bound, and illustrated) but that my then ten year old flew through it. He loved it.

Saving Mr. Banks

After mentioning P.L. Travers in this blog post, she was on my mind. So when I saw Saving Mr. Banks for sale in my local Tesco, it seemed like serendipity.

Oh my goodness, I LOVED this film. There's definitely a copy of Mary Poppins coming through my letter box soon.  Surely she's a must in every house? This hardcover is particularly pretty.

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.

Learning Resources Mini Motors Counters

I know I've mentioned these before, but just wanted to do an update to say that they are still being played with and still really lovely.  (I ordered them last Christmas from Amazon.com for my then three year old. Even though they were sent from the States there was no import tax/duty and the postage was fine - about €6. I'm in Ireland so I pay at least that for most things I order from the UK.) Anyway, almost a year later and we are only missing one blue boat.

Now I know our little vehicles (fire engine, car, bus, boat, plane) are pretty boyish but I had a look on Amazon and Learning Resources also do Muffins,(very sweet, very girly) Bugs,(caterpillars, dragonflies, spiders) and Farm Animals (Sheep, lambs, ducks, ducking, cows calves, mother bunny, baby bunny- very, very cute.)

So, great things about these little rubbery counters/figures; they're cute, they're actually used, they're very neat and easy to store, they're not transformers and if a little person asks you to play with them too, they're surprising therapeutic to organise. (I love reading to my kids but "playing" is not my favourite thing.) These though, these I like. Oh and actually, the whole point of them (hence the name of the brand - Learning Resources) is that the are meant to aid learning how to count, categorise, and identify colours. They do all that too.

The Brixton Brothers by Mac Barnett

There are four Brixton Brothers book in the series so far, I just have three in the photo below because I didn't have time to find them all. No doubt it is under a bed upstairs but if I go up to get it I'll be waylaid by dust balls and old socks and every else that needs to be picked up. That's something that I'll face when I have finished my coffee and this post.

I got the first of these when my eldest son was ten. He gobbled it up. Then, for each birthday and Christmas stocking following, he got the next in the series. I moved the books to his brothers bedroom last year, assuming they were now outgrown but the other day saw them piled on his bedside table. He's thirteen now and started secondary school last week. He has to read The Outsiders and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas for his english class and was using the Brixton Brothers books as chasers. And, I think as something easy and relaxing to read before bed to take his mind off the challenges of the following day. I love those kinds of books. They're worth their weight in gold.

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.