Bookstart Bear
Read about the Bookstart Bear's travels around the country.
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Snow days!
Posted Thursday January 7th 2010
by Bookstart Bear
Here I was thinking last month was cold – and now look! Snow everywhere! My cold is all better now and I’ve been having a brilliant time making snow angels and throwing snowballs in the park. And after a day of frolicsome snowy adventures, there’s nothing better than coming back home to a big plate of peanut butter sandwiches, a huge glass of milk and a few well-chosen books to settle in with.
But I think my favourite, most perfect, very best thing to do in winter time is to join in with the Rhymetimes session at my library. Singing songs and rhymes and doing the actions gets me all warmed up. I love mixing with all the children and their parents there too, and to top it all off, once the session is finished I get to look around the library and choose some new books to take home with me. At the moment I’m on the hunt for books about snow.
So far I’ve found We Love the Snow by Richard Edwards, which is about Littlemouse who wants to discover the snow for himself. There’s also Snow Bears by Martin Waddell, which of course… -
Winter chills
Posted Monday December 14th 2009
by Bookstart Bear
BRRRR! I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to get very chilly. And when I get chilly, I get sneezy. And when I get sneezy, I get grumpy. And when I get grumpy, I want to hide away with lots of comfort food and a pile of good books. Today I’m tucked up warm under my duvet with a big bowl of banana porridge. I’ve got the perfect staying-home-with-a-cold setup in my room. There’s a box of tissues right next to the bed, some cough medicine for my tickly throat and some salmon-flavoured ice-cream in the fridge for later. Because when you’re ill, you get ice-cream – that’s the rules.
Which stories do you like to have read to you when you’re not feeling well? At the moment one of my favourites is Cowboy Baby by Sue Heap. It’s about Cowboy Baby’s adventures looking for his toys in the desert, because he won’t go to bed without them. There’s lots of big colourful pictures to look at too. It’s good to read right before bed, and right after your ice-cream – then you can drift off into a nice warm sleep and dream about deserts and desserts… -
Sweet smells and snuggly stories
Posted Tuesday November 24th 2009
by Sarah Bourn
If there’s one thing bears do well, it’s smell. And I don’t mean like a pair of old socks (personally, I have a lovely smoky aroma like a mountain forest). I mean we have a powerful sense of smell – I can catch a whiff of a tasty buried morsel from 18 miles away! So I’ve been really enjoying the tantalising wafts and pongs of autumn. Damp grass after the rain, the burny smell of fireworks, the yummy sweetness of a hot chocolate piled with marshmallows – all of it is music to my nostrils.
So I’ve been busy following my nose all over town, only stopping now and then to dive into a big pile of crackly autumn leaves. The days have been disappearing faster than I can say 'Chestnuts roasting on an open fire.' It’s a good thing too, because if I wasn’t rushing around I think I’d be starting to notice the weather getting chilly, and the afternoons getting darker. And I’m not sure I’m ready to go shopping for a new woolly hat and mittens just yet. I have to buy another set every year – when you’ve got claws you have to be very gentle…
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It's National Bookstart Day this week!
Posted Monday October 5th 2009
by Bookstart Bear
It’s National Bookstart Day 2009 this year and I’ve got to make sure
That I appear in as many places as I can, that’s for sure
This year’s theme is the nursery rhyme
Tell me your favourite and I’ll tell you mine
Oh, I cannot possibly decide which is the best
If I tell you one, I immediately think of the rest...We’ve been getting all the parents and children in the UK to tell us their favourite nursery rhymes recently and we’re putting together a list of the nation’s favourite to tell you all on Thursday. I’m so excited! I wonder which one is the most popular? There are so many to choose from. I’ve also been reading about where all the nursery rhymes come from? I didn’t realise so many of them are so historical and are about things that happened. You can read about where nursery rhymes came from here
Also, we have so many fun things for National Bookstart Day. We have fun stuff for you to download, like colouring-in sheets and activity sheets. You can find them here
I met Booktrust’s lovely new writer-in-residence, Nii Ayikwei Parkes recently…
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Favourite animal?
Posted Monday August 10th 2009
by Bookstart Bear
Do you have a favourite animal when you read? I like books and stories about elephants, especially Ellyphant Wellyphant. I love their trunks and how big and clumsy they are but always very strong and proud and loyal. I also like stories about bears, even the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, even though it says that daddy bear is scary, which isn't true! He was just scared someone had broken into his house.
The reason I ask is because I always love reading books about other animals, but if I see a book that has an elephant in it, I know I have to read it! I've never had an elephant as a friend but if any of you know any, I'd love it if you introduced me. Reading books about animals is fun because sometimes people forget we have feelings too. Just because I'm a bear, doesn't mean I'm scary. I'm a big softy. I got upset the other day when I was too engrossed in a book to realise my ice cream had melted all over my paws.
Anyway, my favourite books about animals are usually books about elephants and bears. Imagine if elephants and…
