Parents' blog
What do Bookstart parents have to say? Find out more and add your comments.
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Offsetting the weather with good books
Posted Tuesday August 25th 2009
by Natasha Worswick
If the weather has been anywhere near as bad for you as it has for my corner of London, you won’t have had the chance to get out to enjoy the sunshine much. Like a lot of my friends with kids in our area, we’ve often found ourselves indoors tucked up with a good book quite often recently.
So when it isn’t raining, we’ve been venturing out to the library to stock up – and it has turned into something of a social occasion for Milo and I. We are guaranteed to bump into someone we know. Often we’ll realise that a book we’re returning is sought after by our friends or vice versa.
At the moment we’re finding that we really depend on the library because we can’t really afford to keep buying things for Milo, and this seems to be the same for a lot of people I know. My friend and I were chatting about how much books aren’t just for reading but are also activities or toys - especially at the age our babies are at the moment (her little girl is just a couple of months older than Milo).
It’s true – lots of books…
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Bedtime Books Save the Day
Posted Monday August 17th 2009
by Natasha Worswick
We went to a wedding a few Saturdays ago - our first truly big occasion with Milo in tow. Needless to say, we were a bit worried beforehand about how it would all go.
For us it was a lovely day... the bride looked gorgeous and the groom was very handsome in his suit. The church was atmospheric and the reception was electric. And the baby...well, you'll be very pleased to hear the baby behaved himself for the most part!
Naturally, when you mix an eight-month-old with a big social event you expect some hiccups. And needless to say, there were a few. But you know what really made the difference between a confident mum and dad and strung out parents?
Milo's bedtime books, that's what. At the crucial changeover point between the ceremony and the reception, we took him to a quiet spot in the church and read to him his current bedtime story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We always use his books before naps and bedtime and hope they work as a cue to sleepy time. And for a very over stimulated and overtired baby Eric Carle was there to relax him into a gentle…
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Booktrust Early Years Awards shortlists
Posted Monday August 17th 2009
by Rebecca Wilkie
The shortlists for this year’s Booktrust Early Years Awards have just been announced and I think it’s the strongest in recent years. Animals of all shapes and sizes appear in books across the categories, from Ed Vere’s colourful, pop-up Chick to Emma Dodd’s Miaow Said the Cow, which features a farmyard full of mice mooing, hens oinking and, yes, a cow miaowing!
All the books, selected by a panel of judges including Bookstart founder Wendy Cooling and Radio 1 DJ (and new mother), Edith Bowman, are perfect for sharing.
There is a great mixture of authors and illustrators both emerging and established to choose from, including Babette Cole, who many readers will recognise from the now classic Princess Smarty Pants and Mummy Laid an Egg, who appears in the Pre-School category illustrating Richard Hamilton’s funny tale of a father and daughter swapping lives, If I Were You. Kate Greenaway Medal winner and Big Picture Best New Illustrator, Catherine Rayner is also nominated in this category with Sylvia and Bird; Mara Bergman and Nick Maland with their third rhyming story about Oliver Donnington Rimington-Sneep: Oliver Who Travelled Far and Wide, make the list too.
The shortlists for the other categories are…
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Every Book Can Be a Conversation
Posted Monday July 13th 2009
by Natasha Worswick
If you are particularly eagle-eyed or especially news-hungry, you may have spotted this story last week about some research on ways of improving little ones’ language skills.
The point, says Dr Frederick Zimmerman from the UCLA School of Public Health in California, is that encouraging your child to speak is the best way to promote their language development.
For us at Booktrust, it’s not, as some news headlines suggests, about choosing a bedtime chat over a bedtime read. We believe that the best way to enjoy a book at a very young age is to approach it as a conversation.
A book is something you can actively share and enjoy together. You could recite the words together, talk about what you see or how the story makes you feel, for example. And I won’t bore you with it here, but there’s research to back it up, too.
Dr Zimmerman calls the advice to read to your child “sound”, but wants to place “more emphasis on the importance of getting children to speak”. As books can make use of little ones’ emotions, imaginations and their relationship with you, they are the ideal way to do just that.
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A Really Nice Interview with the Children's Laureate
Posted Friday July 10th 2009
by Natasha Worswick
We mentioned about a month ago that Anthony Browne, author of Gorilla and some other very beautiful picture books, has been chosen as the new Children’s Laureate.
I found this really nice interview with him the other day. It points out something really interesting – that only one previous Laureate, Quentin Blake, has been an illustrator. And whilst many of the others who have held the post have also had established public profiles, Anthony spends most of his time 'sitting in a room on my own, painting pictures.'
It’s a really interesting read, in which Anthony talks about his intention of making the picture book take a stronger place in society. I won’t say much more, because it really is worth a read with a cup of tea when you get a minute.
But I’ll leave the final word to him: 'Force me to choose my best book, and I always come back to Gorilla. It was the first time I felt I understood what picture books could do.'
