Before getting into the book reviews, I’ll start by plugging the weekly Soulla’s Saturday Morning Library to any Larnaca parent interested in finding new stories. Run by the indomitably cheerful Soulla Sophocli at the American Academy’s library, this gives your child the opportunity to sit with others for an English-language book-reading, followed by songs, dances, and the chance to let off steam in the playground.
The choice of stories is done very well to suit a wide age range (up to about 5 years old), and there’s
always a good turnout so it’s also a good chance to meet other English-speaking parents. The €1 cost
includes hot & cold drinks and biscuits for the kids.
Even better, you can also join the library itself at the event, which for a nominal per-annum fee gives you access to two books to borrow per child (though they also have a decent selection of books for grown-ups), which you can keep for a fortnight. It’s that great feeling of browsing with your child, and them getting to discover interesting books for themselves, which you just can’t get with internet shopping or catalogues. Soulla also introduces parents to commercial book-of-the-month schemes, runs regular events such as the upcoming
Family fun Day (May 26 th, email
soullassaturdaymorninglibrary@cytanet.com.cy for details), and is generally an all-round good ‘un.
Reviews
Hug
Jez Alborough
Walker Books, 2002.
Simply the best first book for children I’ve seen. Bobo, a young chimp, sees all the animals are getting hugs from their mummies and friends. But where’s his mummy to give him a cuddle? The genius of the book lies in the dialogue, which consist of just the one word, “HUG,” repeated over and over. This gives mummies and daddies a great chance to do active reading, since the whole book is brought to life by giving one “hug” a happy inflection, reading the next one as sad, the next as envious, and so on.
Meanwhile, children get to concentrate on the very expressive pictures of Bobo and his jungle friends. If
you are teaching literacy using whole word techniques (not something I’m personally terribly keen on),this would be the ideal book as any child will begin on multiple readings to recognise the shape of the
word HUG (or, in the follow-up books, the words “TALL” and “YES”).
Whoever You Are
Mem Fox
Harcourt Children’s Book, 2007
“Message” books for children are often pretty tedious, if only because as an adult you’ve hopefully
that it’s nice to share things, or that looking left and right before crossing the road is a good idea. That Whoever You Are is different is largely down to its epic scale. In its 32 pages it manages to cross four continents several times over, and follow a cast of dozens of children of different races and backgrounds through trials and triumphs. The narrator (the one in the sky-blue sort of cowboy hat on the front cover) hugs the children tightly and tells them, again and again, to understand that despite the many superficial differences between people, they are all the same underneath, with the same hurts, dreams and laughter. Love eventually emerges as the force that will hold the world together. The illustrations are superb, done in a naïve style that perfectly suits the narrative voice while still managing to mix in enough details to reward the repeated readings your child will almost certainly demand.
Mem Fox says on her rather brilliant blog (http://www.memfox.com/) that she was inspired to write the book after reading about a war crime perpetrated by a child. That, I think, explains the strength of emotion and passion in what could otherwise have been a very bland book.
Mr Pusskins: A Love Story
Sam Lloyd
Orchard, 2007
You only have to see the contrast between Mr Pusskins’ name and the expression on the face of this supremely grumpy fluffy cat to see where this story is going. Sam Lloyd, who both writes and illustrates,
has created a really brilliant character here, a pampered Persian who dreams of hanging out in alleyways
with the Pesky Cat Gang. His owner Emily, meanwhile, just wants to brush his fur and read him bedtimes
stories. Children will see the connection to their own meaner impulses, of course, and the classic hubris narrative brings Mr Pusskins to see the error of his ways. Although the plotting and voice are great, what really makes this book is the artwork, which is just stunning: a very thick line that could well have
been done with marker pen, and a fabulously twisting perspective that plays tricks with the reader’s sense of space. Original styles like Lloyd’s are few and far between, and it’s no wondet Mr Pusskins has
spawned a litter of sequels.
Please do share suggestions for your children’s favourites in the comment box underneath this article.
Happy reading!
by James Mackay
LPN Dad
“James Mackay is Lecturer in Comparative Studies at European University Cyprus”
