Books: Crazy picture books for cool kids
Where’s My Jumper
By Nicola Slater (Simon & Shuster, $15.99)
This is a new edition of Where’s My Jumper published as a board book with flaps and cut through pages so loads to look at and things to do.
Rudy, a little piggy maybe donkeyish animal, has lost his favourite pink jumper and is heartbroken – there are tears. He knows it’s too small for him and shows his tummy a bit but he’s determined to find it and off he goes on his recovery mission.
Page one has a ball of pink wool that unspools through the pages leaving us and Rudy a trail to follow – and so the adventure begins.
The language is incredible and lends itself perfectly to a raucous read aloud. The tongue twisting alliteration and rhymes are so rich and illuminating as we count down the creatures we encounter along the way.
Rudy quizzes: ten tumbling cats; nine jiving llamas in fancy-pants pyjamas; and my favourite – eight prima pigerinas pirouetting in the kitchen.
There are creatures hiding, red herrings, hopes and disappointments and a wonderful ending full of love, family and friendship. It’s just great.
Wardini Books are in Napier and Havelock North.
Collecting Cat
By Lorna Scobie (Scholastic, $17.99)
There are so many cats in this picture book for children of about 3 and up and so much cheese, which is never a bad thing.
Our unnamed and unseen first person narrator is a collector and is going to collect cats. Currently, they have no cats, but they do have a plan. Involving cheese. Mice like cheese and cats like mice so you can see where we’re going.
After a few pages the plan begins to come into effect and our narrator states I now have some cats accompanied by an illustration of a fair number of fluffy cats, spotty cats, fat cats, thin cats but this is not enough cats so more cheese and mice are employed until things get rather out of hand when some big, BIG cats arrive on the scene. Our collector needs to reformulate the plan.
The story escalates nicely and the illustrations reflect that beautifully – bare pages with a piece of cheese, then a mouse and some cheese, building to many cheeses and mouses, and many, many cats. The ramp from calm to chaos is vibrantly drawn in a catty palette of greys, blacks and reds with very expressive kitty faces.
The moment the collector realises that things have got out of hand is a great punchline that with repetition will no doubt have small children formulating plans of their own. Wonderful fun for young fans of mice, cats and cheese.
