May 13, 2015

TERENCE THE TOILET TRAVELS THE WORLD :: a toilet with a yearning for enlightenment :)

May 13, 2015/ Kim Fulcher

Ages 4 to grown-up
I mentioned to my adult children that I was going to do a top 5 on ‘poo’ books, and Terence the Toilet was the first book they each thought of!

When you’re a ‘bog-standard’ toilet, chances are there are magazines left in the bathroom with you – magazines that show ‘exotic bathrooms in exotic places all over the world’. And that can leave you feeling restless and unsatisfied.

That’s what happened to Terence – and I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that most of us have felt that way too after leafing through the magazines left in the bathroom.

March 25, 2015

sometimes we fall into a hole, but home is always at the end of our travels

March 25, 2015/ Kim Fulcher

ages 2 to 8 years
Alison Lester has a gift for writing words that bounce – there’s a rhythm to her words that's easy for the reader to catch and hold onto. The Journey Home isn't a rhyming book, but it does read in a lyrical sort of way. There’s a repeated refrain of ‘come inside and stay’ making this a good early reader.

March 18, 2015

PRINCESS BEATRICE AND THE ROTTEN ROBBER :: a little kid doing what has to be done

March 18, 2015/ Kim Fulcher

Age guide: baby to 8 year old
Princess Beatrice understands her privileges – she’s the daughter of a King and Queen who love their daughter and give her free range of all the castle jewels – and there are many!

But one day, when a rotten robber charges into the castle and spots Beatrice decked out from head to foot in extravagant jewels, it all goes wrong. Being an opportunist, the robber grabs Beatrice and steals the jewels, Princess and all.

However, Beatrice has her head screwed on right and resourcefully tricks the robber into tying himself up in the jewels and Beatrice is free. She loads the robber up on his own horse and hauls him home to her now distraught parents.

March 13, 2015

The Matchbox Diary: a warm and engaging story of keepsakes and family history

March 13, 2015/ Kim Fulcher

ages 4 to 10 years
Set in USA—there was a time when matchboxes were ubiquitous, now there are probably children who will need the concept of a matchbox explained or shown to them. But once that’s done, I suspect many children will want to start their own matchbox diary – and adults too.

March 11, 2015

The Museum: a fun and physical look at art through the eyes of a young girl

March 11, 2015/ Kim Fulcher

ages 4 to grownup.
I’m not a really big fan of telling children how they should react to art, but I am a big fan of reminding adults that when children do react to art – or anything for that matter – it’s very often physical. The Museum is a fun book written as a poem that follows a young girl through an art museum (think MoMA). She’s an exuberant child who lets her body show what she is feeling.

February 04, 2015

A BEE IN BEN'S BONNET :: a relatable introduction to idioms

February 04, 2015/ Kim Fulcher

Age guide: 4 to 12
Our oldest boy, who is now an English teacher, had a thing for idioms. He was 15 by the time this book was published but still got a laugh out of it.

The bee in Ben’s bonnet is that he wants his large family to celebrate his birthday but they are all too involved with life to talk to him.

Each family member has something going on that is described in a well known idiom, for example, ‘Godfather Maurice was burying the hatchet’. The very funny illustrations flesh out the story

January 29, 2015

The Terrible Wild Grey Hairy Thing: an amusing warning about being too easily alarmed

January 29, 2015/ Kim Fulcher

ages 2 to 8 years
This is a rollicking book—so much fun to read and so much fun to look at. The story is an adapted Danish folktale and the fabulous illustrations reflect that. It’s the story of Goodie, a plump and obviously happy woman, who is making sausages to store up for her family—she makes hundreds of them and has to hang them from every nook and cranny. Inevitably, funny happens!

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