I’m having a delightful Sunday
morning with a big pile of picture books, a charming way to start a relaxing
day, not only can I enjoy some lovely, gentle stories that always make me smile
but I can wonder and marvel at the skill of both the storyteller and the
illustrator, sometimes these are one and the same person - even more to marvel
about!
My skills certainly lie more with
words, using them to encourage readers.
I am most certainly a reader, I am not sure I am a writer, at least not
a writer of stories! What I can do
however, or at least what I try to do and especially on a Sunday is to knit and
sew so of course when I looked at my pile of books today the first one I had to
read was … Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett
with illustrations by Jon Klassen (Walker Books). This has to be a book about knitting I
thought to myself but how has it been written for the youngest readers? How will knitting appeal to them? Quite simply because it is about Annabelle, a
little girl who one cold and snowy afternoon finds a box full of many coloured
yarns. What better to do then knit a
jumper with this, so she does, and of course she makes one for her dog too but
then there is spare yarn … so Annabelle gets knitting and soon … word has
spread about all the knitting and the magic yarn. Bring on the baddie. Will Annabelle meet a sticky knitty end or
will the yarn save the day? A clever
story with an intelligent twist and some stunning illustration. A timeless classic.
Of course if I am not knitting I
may be baking so the next title on my pile Hooray
for Bread by Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman (another from Walker Books) was
the perfect choice. Read this book
before breakfast, in bed, after lunch, on a trip to see the ducks, in fact at
any time when you would like to celebrate bread for this is the story of a loaf
and how each of its slices makes someone happy.
Who would have thought that it would be possible to celebrate bread in
such a delightful and fun-filled style?
A clever, captivating story for its simplicity and joy complemented by
vibrant illustrations. What is there not
to love about bread!
