Saturday, July 12, 2014

Augustus and his smile


For Ages: 4 and above

No. of Pages: 32

Publisher: Little Tiger Press, London

Year: 2006

ISBN: 978-1-56148-510-9

Augustus the Tiger has lost his smile! He looks everywhere – under the bushes, on the tops of the tallest trees, on snowy mountaintops, even, at the bottom of the deepest oceans. He does find his lost smile but in the unlikeliest place of all.

This book has a message for children and grown-ups. It’s easy for us look for happiness everywhere else but the right place.   

The illustrations are quite clever from a grown-ups’ perspective but I’m not so sure if children might enjoy turning the pages of a book that is rich in  browns, blacks and dark hues of the rest of the spectrum.

Excerpt

Further and further Augustus searched.

He scaled the crests of the highest mountains where the slow clouds swirled, making frost patterns in the freezing air.

He swam to the bottom of the deepest oceans and splished and splashed with shoals of tiny, shiny fish.

He pranced and paraded through the largest desert, making shadow shapes in the sun. 

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Little Miss Scatterbrain sets off for the sun


Author and Illustrator: Adam Hargreaves

For Ages: 5 and above

No. of Pages: 32

Publisher: Egmont UK Ltd., London

Year: 1998

ISBN: 978-0-74983-314-5

Website: Mr. Men

Meet Miss Scatterbrain, a simple soul who’s very, very scatterbrained and gets everything mixed up. So when she decides to go on a holiday she enlists the help of her friends to ensure a smooth trip. But then, yes, you guessed that right, poor Miss Scatterbrain has another misadventure!

This book is from the 1990s. So I had to explain what a radio was to my children.

Excerpt

This story is about the time that she went on her summer holiday.

Little Miss Scatterbrain, as you can imagine, is not very good at organizing holidays.

The year before last she went skiing, but ended up on the beach.