Perhaps it’s because we listen to so much music in the car, but my kids have always been partial to a ‘driving’ song. It started with a Playschool CD that included the very jolly tune, Buckle Up, and extends to the Pointer Sisters classic, Kisses of Fire, that begins with ‘I’m driving in my car, I turn on the radio…’ – the common element is a strong, bouncy beat.

If your kids also like a backseat disco, then Backseat Driver by the Cat’s Pajamas will hit the right note.

Aimed at the littlest of passengers, the album opens with the fabulous Driving in My Car. It’s a story within a song and, in the tradition of ‘There was an old woman who swallowed a fly…’ tells of a movie star, her accessories (‘awesome sunglasses, a long silk scarf,, a big ol’ hat and a little doggie’) and a car trip. There are lots of bits that slow down and then speed up, giving kids good opportunity to sing along.

The second track, How Many People in a Family, is a clever look at what constitutes a family -

“Some people say a family is one
Playin’ solitaire is so much fun
Never have an argument, never have a fight
Never lose the covers in the middle of the night….

Some people say a family is more
Not one, not two, not three or four
But five or ten or a hundred and two
Mine has eleven! How about you?”

The band really hit their stride with Funky Bears – a funk re-telling of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They also drop in on another nursery character, Humpty Dumpty, in a brassy track of the same name.

Shovelin’ has a bluegrass-meets-jazz feel, heavy on the harmonica, a sound which is revisited in I Love My Toes, a cute track about feet.

The album closes with another car song – the bluesy Just an Old Jalopy which, like the opening song, is a story within a song.

The album is great choice for kids aged two years and over. Find it on iTunes for $16.99 or at CD Baby.

They’re words that every parent detests hearing – “I’m bored!” My own mum used to counter with the response, “Do you want a job? There’s lots to do – you could help me with the vacuuming or….” I never actually heard the end of her sentence because I skedaddled and quickly found a way to be ‘unbored’.

So next time kids claim to be bored, offer them half an hour with the vacuum and if that fails, hand them a copy of Unbored – The Essential Field Guide to Serious Fun by Joshua Glenn and Elizabeth Foy Larsen.

This book is a veritable treasure trove of cool stuff. Activities are interspersed with information, trivia, quizzes and lists, all presented in edgy prose and illustrated with modern graphics, photographs and lavish fonts.

The activities are fun, manageable and are designed to get kids engaged with the wider world. There’s everything from craft, cooking in your toaster and code-cracking to knot tricks, making seed grenades and repairing skateboards. For example, a chapter on the home includes a brief history of dwellings, a guide to architectural styles, ideas for creating a home day spa and tips for taking family portraits.

For music lovers, there’s a chapter with a guide to ‘band basics’ (in other words, what’s cool), a fun quiz titled “What Instrument Are You?” and activity guides for making a cigar box guitar and an icy-pole stick harmonica. The chapter also includes a list of ‘best ever musical movies’ because there was life before High School Musical (although I must admit that I felt quite old when I saw Spiceworld on the list – apparently it’s already vintage!).

I’m astounded by the number of canny inclusions in this book that act as subliminal prompts. For example, one page has an excerpt from Anne of Green Gables and is accompanied by the title ‘Double-Dare Yourself’ – some kids will follow Anne Shirley’s example of ‘goofing off’. Others will follow Anne’s example and, interest piqued, will also seek out the wonderful Anne of Green Gables for themselves.

I’ve mentioned a few examples – a fraction of what’s in this three-hundred-and-fifty page book. To get an idea of the breadth of activities included, check out Unbored online.

Unbored is suitable for children aged eight years and over. Find it online at Book Depository which ships internationally free-of-charge.

Not everyone wants to be noticed…

If your child likes a story with a gothic twist then they will revel in the latest from Lauren Child – Maude: The Not-So-Noticeable Shrimpton.

The Shrimpton family live to be noticed – flamboyant, eccentric and with show-offy skills and talents, they certainly don’t blend into the crowd.

Except for one Shrimpton – Maude. Maude lives more quietly, is less obtrusive than her siblings and understands the benefits of blending in. When Maude’s birthday come around she asks for a goldfish. Instead of a goldfish she gets a ‘cat’ (who happens to be a tiger) – far more fitting for the Shrimptons. However, with a tiger in the house, the family soon discover that there are benefits to blending in…

“Maude found it quite embarrassing to step out of the house with a tiger in tow. Everyone looked. But all the other Shrimptons simply loved how people stared as they strolled along the boulevard with a giant cat.”

I won’t give away the dark ending to this story but I will tell you that my kids sat in stunned silence!

The story has a fairytale quality – it’s enough of a good versus evil cautionary tale to set it apart from other picture books.

Maude is illustrated by the incredibly talented Trisha Krauss. Child and Krauss are a perfect author/illustrator match – Krauss’s decorative yet sharp illustrations are spot-on for Child’s descriptive text – Mrs Shrimpton’s big hat has “…a peacock positioned perkily on top of it…”, while Mr Shrimpton’s moustache is “…so long and so twirly butterflies liked to perch on it…”. Needless to say, it gave Krauss full license to create amazing illustrations. Notably, in creating Maude, Krauss painted all of the illustrations onto plywood, giving each a certain texture and depth.

Find Maude: The Not-So-Noticeable Shrimpton at Book Depository, which delivers free to Australia.

Before having kids, I was a cookbook collector. I didn’t actually cook from many of my books but did spend a lot of time looking at the pictures! That all changed when my babies came along and there was one book that I actually did cook from. Every day. For years. And it was written by Annabel Karmel.

Annabel Karmel is the top chef when it comes to cooking for babies. Once you decide to wean your baby and you’re ready to move on from plain mashed pumpkin, Karmel will have the recipes for you.

Karmel has published numerous books but begin the weaning process by arming yourself with Top 100 Baby Purees. The collection includes Karmel’s most popular purees from the delicious smooth apple, apricot, pear and vanilla puree to tasty sweet potato with spinach and peas or pumpkin risotto. Take a look at some of Karmel’s puree recipes and you’ll see just how simple and economical they are.

All of the recipes included in the book are easy, nutritious and are suitable for children aged six months and above. By the time your bub has tried all one hundred purees, they’ll probably be ready for finger food!

Find Top 100 Baby Purees at Book Depository, with free shipping to Australia.

Hitting the book shop in search of the very best titles for children? Start here.

The Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) 2013 shortlist has just been announced and it’s a star-studded line-up, with lots of Australia’s most well-known children’s authors nominated. There are books about animals – expect frogs, horses, elephants and hens – and books about adventures, trees, suitcases and music lovers.

The CBCA awards include categories for older readers, younger readers, non-fiction books and more. You can see all of the nominations here but we’ll be checking out the six nominations for best picture book and the six nominations for best early childhood titles for 2013.

In the Picture Book category the nominations include titles from much loved authors – Tanglewood by Margaret Wild; Sophie Scott Goes South by Alison Lester; Herman and Rosie by Gus Gordon; A Day to Remember by Jackie French; The Coat by Julie Hunt; and Lightning Jack by Glenda Millard. It’s not nice to play favourites but I did really, really love Herman and Rosie.

There’s plenty of well-known authors in the category for Early Childhood as well. Start with Anna Walker’s gorgeous story about a curious hen in Peggy. Continue the animal theme with Ursula Dubosarsky’s riotous romp with Too Many Elephants in This House and Sue DeGennaro’s The Pros & Cons of Being a Frog.

We’ve reviewed a number of books by Freya Blackwood previously on Babyolgy (most recently The Treasure Box) but this year she has teamed with author Emma Allen to produce a charming story about being different in The Terrible Suitcase.

Find out if the tooth fairy visits the Australian outback in Christine Harris’s It’s a Miroocool! and experience a bit more of the Aussie bush through the eyes of Nan in Tania Cox’s With Nan.

Take a minute to listen to this brilliant album.

A few years ago we introduced you the band Milkshake and their fantastic album, Great Day. Milkshake are back with their fifth album, Got a Minute?

With each album, Milkshake aim to create music for children that documents the ‘time of their lives’. Instead of churning out new songs for the same age bracket, year after year, Milkshake write songs about topics that are relevant to their ageing audience.

Got a Minute? is geared toward kids aged four to nine years and includes thirty-three short, punchy songs. The themes of the songs provide a loose retrospective of the childhood years from toddler to tween with topics ranging from birthdays, car trips and lost toys to more serious social, anti-bullying and environmental awareness messages.

The opening and title track, Got a Minute, is a fast-paced gem with a theme that will be familiar to parents – kids cramming all the news, information and stuff that they have to tell you in the space of a minute -

“That little beta fish that I got that’s blue,
Well, I think I’m gonna name him Pink
And I wanna build a tree house
And live there with a pet mouse and a sea otter in the sink.
And I painted hopscotch on the living room floor
So c’mon now, let’s go play
Then you can dye my hair rainbow and teach me how to tango…”

It’s hard to pick favourites when there are just so many terrific tracks in such different styles however I was utterly seduced by the Irish-pub-inspired We Just Wanna Have Fun (unlike anything I’ve heard on a kid’s album before); the gentle bluegrass feel of Looking Out the Window of My Car, which gives you a child’s perspective on traffic; the charming cover of Tip Toe Thru the Tulips; and the pure pop sound of One of a Kind.

For whatever reason, the melancholy One Day, with strains of vintage Kate Bush, stayed with me long after the album was over – I would love to know what inspired this song (although be assured that it’s somewhat sad lyrics are not representative of the rest of the album which is firmly upbeat).

Could this be the last album by Milkshake? Possibly. Singer Lisa Mathews and guitarist Mikel Gehl are parents of tweens, whose musical taste is verging on ‘grown-up’. I hope it’s not the last we hear from Milkshake – I love their sound and their creative take on the everyday.

Got a Minute? is available directly from Milkshake for US$14.

When I first took my son to a music program for toddlers, he wailed. While the other kids clapped along to the music and shook their tambourines, mine was the kid that cried… until the instructor played some country and western tunes, that is.

I’ve never been into country music – who knew my two-year-old was?! Needless to say, he would have been all over the latest release from Hullabaloo – Raise a Ruckus.

There’s no time for rest with Hullabaloo – the opening tracks, My Eyes (“I’m counting sheep but it’s not working, It’s not working and I’m wide awake …my eyes are wide open….”) and Raise a Ruckus set the theme for the remaining upbeat, rollicking tunes, all heavy on the appealing sounds of the fiddle, banjo, mandolin and even a washboard.

Dad Upside Down is perhaps the best song about palindromes you’ll ever hear – it’s clever, funny and catchy. Likewise, Out Standing is a fun play on words.

Kids will appreciate the sentiment of Green Beans Everywhere – a musical story about a kid that doesn’t get dessert until they finish their green beans and they’ll also laugh-out-loud to Bit Her -

“Everybody says my sister is so sweet
I’m here to tell you that’s not so
The truth is she’s more than a little bit bitter
I know because I bit her on the toe.”

Note that the biter doesn’t get away with this behaviour and soon finds himself in a musical time-out!

The highlight is Favorite Day where Hullabaloo are joined by Molly Ledford of Lunch Money. Apart from Ledford’s clear, sweet voice being a perfect complement to the warmth of Hullabaloo’s vocals, the lyrics of this song are wonderfully sentimental.

“I’ve got my blues, I got my reds and my greens
I painted you this picture of this perfect scene
I painted you this picture I call it my favorite day.”

Crammed with bouncy folk tunes, Raise a Ruckus will be an instant hit with pre-schoolers, particularly if they have a leaning toward a little bluegrass. It’s available via iTunes for $16.99 or from CD Baby for US$12. CD Baby ship internationally.

Every so often, an important book comes along. This is one of them.

From two of our most talented picture book creators, Margaret Wild and Freya Blackwood, comes The Treasure Box.

It’s the story of a boy, Peter, and his father, fleeing their country as a war rages around them. They take with them a box that holds something very precious – a much-loved book. They journey through mud and rain and long cold nights, and soon their survival becomes more important than any possessions they carry. But as the years go by, Peter never forgets the treasure box, and one day he returns to find it…

There are so many important themes in this book, I fear I cannot do it justice. At the deepest level, it’s a story about the importance of heritage, the power of words and story-telling and human resilience. But it’s also a simple story about a boy and the ‘treasure’ he is in charge of. I very much like the sentiment that underpins the story -

‘This is a book about our people, about us,’ Peter said. ‘It’s rarer than rubies, more splendid than silver, greater than gold.’

Blackwood’s fragile, expressive illustrations (a combination of ink and water colour) are overlaid on sections of text taken from foreign editions of The Silver Donkey by Sonya Hartnett and Once by Morris Gleitzman. The montage pieces of text give the pages depth and dimension, as well as providing a ‘foreign’ backdrop for relevant sections of the story. As the boy grows up, away from his home country, the sections of foreign text fade away, only to be reintroduced when he opens the treasure box once again, many years later.

As well as using the foreign text, Blackwood also uses colour to visually progress the story. Notably, the subdued palette on the opening pages sits alongside Wild’s poignant text. Colour is introduced as Peter catches glimpses of what lies ahead in a new country – the red hull of the ship that takes him there, the pale blue walls of his new school. The first page bursting with colour shows Peter, now grown-up, returning to his home country – peace has been restored, buildings re-built, the countryside green again.

This book will mean different things to different people . For many it will have literal meaning and for that reason, it’s a very important book.

The Treasure Box is available online directly from Penguin Books Australia. It’s suitable for children aged seven years and over.

As you can imagine, I listen to lots of kids’ music in the search for bringing the best to Babyologists. There are lots of albums that I bypass – I can’t help a little subjectivity entering the decision making process and if I’m not enthusiastic about a CD then I’ll hardly do it justice. The flip side of this is that every so often an album comes along that I unequivocally love.

Miss Nina (Nina Stone) has been on the kid’s music circuit for a few years however her new album, Sha Doo Be Doop, is the first that I’ve heard – and I love it. I’m not sure who Miss Nina’s musical influences are but cast your mind back to Transvision Vamp or Kim Wilde and you’ll get a feel for the rock and dance vibe that dominates this album.

The opening track, My Hula Hoop, is a seriously good song – whether you’re aged five or forty, it’s a song that sticks – gritty but fun, I couldn’t get the lyrics out of my head for days and my five-year-old, armed with her hula hoop, has basically had this song on ‘repeat’.

While other tracks are similar in style (particularly Angry Song and Ridin’ in my Car), much of the album has been influenced by Stone’s favourite children’s books, notably Eric Carle’s classic, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? and Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. The tribute tracks – The Brown Bear Rap and Wild Things, are exceptionally good and kids will love them for the familiar content and catchy beat.

Stone notes “We all know how important it is to read to young children, but some children are left out of the picture because adults are not available to read to them regularly or because the kids are not inclined to sit still or concentrate. Setting books to music can open many doors for children.” Uniting music and literature? You can see why I love these songs!

Although My Hula Hoop is my stand-out track, New Alphabet is also getting some serious air-time in our house. Think of the very best Sesame-Street-style ditties and add a little edge – if you doubt that the alphabet song could be sung in a new and fresh way, Miss Nina will show otherwise.

Sha Doo Be Doop is suitable for children aged one year and over. It’s available via iTunes or from Amazon.

Sydneysiders, are you looking for some theatrical school holiday fun? Because there’s a witch and some animal friends flying into the Sydney Opera House.

The team behind the fabulous productions of The Gruffalo and The Gruffalo’s Child return with a magical musical adaptation of Room on the Broom, the picture book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.

A witch and her cat are flying happily on their broomstick – until a stormy wind blows away the witch’s hat, bow and wand.

A helpful dog, bird and frog find the witch’s lost things, and they all hop on the broom for a ride. But the broomstick’s not meant for five and suddenly the broom snaps in two! What’s a witch to do? And what happens when a hungry dragon appears?!

Room on the Broom combines theatre, toe tapping music and delightful puppetry to bring this popular story about friendship, cooperation and sharing to life.

Room on the Broom is part of the Sydney Opera House Kids at the House program and runs from 14 – 27 April, 2013. The show is suitable for children aged three to eight years. Tickets are priced from $30 and can be booked online at the Sydney Opera House.

Some problems are slightly bigger than others…

In Eric’s house there are too many elephants – in the living room, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, even in his bedroom! The elephants take up a lot of space, but Eric loves every one of them. So when his mum says they have to go, Eric has to come up with a gigantic solution to the elephant problem.

Too Many Elephants in this House is the latest from author Ursula Dubosarsky and illustrator Andrew Joyner, who previously teamed up for the very funny The Terrible Plop.

Children will be automatically attracted to the pure silliness of this book. The fact that there are too many elephants in Eric’s house is stated plainly, as if it is a normal and likely situation.

Likewise, it comes as no surprise that the elephants are very helpful. The elephant in the living room helps Eric build block towers, the elephant in the kitchen is very good at making toast and the hallway elephant is always up for a game of hide-and-seek. I particularly like the illustration of a whole herd of elephants singing Eric to sleep.

Kids will love (and I suspect will fully understand) Eric’s imaginative solution to the elephant problem.

Andrew Joyner has done spectacular illustrations for this book. Eric is a chipper little guy and the elephants are beautifully expressive. Special mention must be made of the sensational end pages (below) – it’s a true elephant sandwich.

Too Many Elephants in this House is suitable for children aged three years and over. Find it online at Readings.

These days, I look at a lot of apps. There are so many out there for kids that you have to be discerning. So coming across an app that is like no other I’ve seen is a bit exciting!

Loopy Lost His Lettuce, created by Adelaide-based Pixelflip Studio, is a stunning new app where modern technology meets old-world handcrafts.

The app includes both a story and games and boasts lots of impressive interactive features. So what makes Loopy Lost His Lettuce so different? All of the ‘graphics’ are hand-crocheted, free-form pieces, from the characters through to the backdrops. You can see the different textures of the wool, the colours are vibrant and the whole thing has a three-dimensional element that is unlike anything I’ve seen before.

The first time we played Loopy (my five-year-old was in charge), I couldn’t critique any of the story or game elements simply because I was oh-ing and ah-ing over the beautiful graphics – little crochet toadstools, butterflies, a squirrel and of course, Loopy, with his rainbow snail shell. There’s also fluffy white clouds, magnificent autumnal trees, flowers that bloom, crocheted snowflakes and a truly magical section where Loopy is stuck in an underground wormhole and his shell starts to glow.

Thankfully, my five-year-old tester kept me on task. The six mini-games included in the app are the highlight – collect butterflies, shake the autumn trees for acorns, collect pollen with the bees, sort snowflakes and more. The games can be geared toward easy, medium or hard for different age levels. My daughter’s favourite was shaking the trees (the iPad!) for acorns.

Find Loopy Lost His Lettuce at iTunes for $1.99.

Please don’t dismiss this as another ‘pink ballet book’.

It’s quite early in the year to be declaring favourites but Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Idle has completely stolen my heart.

There are two characters in this thoroughly beautiful, wordless book – the graceful flamingo and the somewhat less graceful (but charming), Flora. Through an elaborate dance, which begins with Flora mimicking the flamingo and finishes with perfect synchronicity, you watch a friendship between this unlikely pair unfold.

There is so much humour in Idle’s delicate, uncluttered illustrations. It begins with Flora’s awkward flopping around (hampered by her flippers), as she strives to copy the flamingo – unbeknownst to the flamingo, of course. With some tentative glances from Flora and some sharp looks from the flamingo, Flora is soon beaming.

And here’s the stroke-of-genius – most pages have flaps over both the flamingo and Flora. Pull down the flaps one at a time and their call-and-response dance unfolds. It’s fluid, dynamic and the story finishes with a dramatic splash.

The book is suitable for children aged three years and up. It has been the frontrunner as the bedtime story for my five-year-old for more than a fortnight now and I’m quite sure it will become a library treasure.

If, like me, you’re a flamingo lover, have a look at the very pink flamingo round-up we featured two years ago.

Find Flora and the Flamingo online at Book Depository, who ship free to Australia.

I was recently asked what was my favourite book. If, like me, you’re an avid reader, you’ll understand that this is a very, very difficult question to answer. I love different books for different reasons and have ‘favourites’ in various genres, but if really pressed for an answer, it would be Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.

I love everything about Alice and happily there’s no shortage of ‘Alice stuff’ – in the past we’ve reviewed books, costumes, decor and more. But if you can’t get enough Alice then you need Everything Alice by Hannah Read-Baldrey and Christine Leech.

Billed as the ‘Wonderland book of make and bake’, Everything Alice is brimming with fifty stunning craft projects and recipes.

As I’m more capable in the kitchen than at the craft table, I turned firstly to the scrumptious recipes – ‘Drink-Me Cordials’ (including pear and ginger cordial), Duchess macaroons, Cheshire Cat sandwiches, pretty preserves, red velvet cupcakes and a show-stopping Curious Teapot Cake.

The craft projects range from simple, such as a heart-shaped letter holder and teacup candles, to true keepsake pieces, such as the delicate Wonderland Mobile and the March Hare’s Teapot Cozy.

If you are planning an Alice-themed birthday party, know that with Everything Alice as your companion, the party will be unbelievable. From a garden decorated with playing card bunting and giant rose lights to a table set with crown place cards and cake stands constructed from vintage china, your Alice details will be perfection. My favourite party pieces are the Mad Hatter Hats including a flamingo headpiece, White Rabbit ears and a jaunty teacup and saucer hat.

Find Everything Alice online at Book Depository. Also available is Everything Oz, featuring fifty projects inspired by The Wizard of Oz. Book Depository ship free-of-charge to Australia.

Ever had some art on your wall that you didn’t commission? Then this is the book for you (or rather, your little artist).

Meet the little boy who can’t stop creating art. “I am an artist and I can’t stop creating. EVERYTHING inspires me…”

And indeed it does. This little boys sees the artistic possibility in everything from his socks to the contents of the fridge and his cat. His world is alive with colours, shapes and textures. There’s just one problem. The little boy’s mum doesn’t always see the genius in his work.

“Where I see The Loneliness of the Carrot, my mum sees The Unfinished Dinner.”

So the little boy creates a piece of art that he is sure will make his mum smile. I won’t give away the superb ending but know that it is spectacular and on a grand scale (let’s hope real-life little artists don’t get similar ideas!).

I Am an Artist by Marta Altes is genius – the story is very clever, slyly funny and the illustrations are bursting with colour, humour and talking points. In particular, art lovers will appreciate the subtle nods to famous artists and styles peppered throughout the illustrations.

I Am an Artist is suitable for children aged three years and over and is available from Book Depository. Book Depository deliver free to Australia.

This is a story about a little girl and the paper dolls her mother helped her to make. It’s also a story about the circle of life.

From Julia Donaldson, author of the much-loved The Gruffalo, comes The Paper Dolls.

A little girl and her mother make a string of five paper dolls. The dolls have all sorts of adventures together until one day a boy cuts them up with his scissors! It’s quite the catastrophe and as pieces of the paper dolls fly away into the wind, you wonder what the little girl will do. But the dolls are not forgotten. In fact the memory of them and what happens next is simply exquisite (and made this mum a little teary!).

This is one of those very rare books that appears relatively simple at first but then reveals many layers. Mentions of a butterfly hair slide, the paper dolls, “a kind granny”, and the shared experience between mothers and daughters introduces concepts of memory, life and death.

Donaldson has the lightest touch with her words and they are matched perfectly by Rebecca Cobb’s delicate, warm illustrations. This is a very special book indeed.

The Paper Dolls is suitable for children aged four and over. Find it online at Book Depository.

It’s almost one of my favourite times of the year, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Before the festival hits full swing, Melbourne is sending its favourite kids’ comedy acts northwards to warm up the laughs in Sydney and Brisbane.

Kids comedy duo The Listies (also known as The List Operators) bring their brand new show, The Listies in 6D* (that’s twice as good as 3D), to the Sydney Opera House and Brisbane Powerhouse these school holidays.

My kids are long time fans of The Listies (who are Matt Kelly and Richard Higgins). According to my seven-year-old, the Listies have “…the right number of poo jokes.” Don’t ask me what that number is, but know that in the world of kids, The Listies are big-time funny.

The Listies in 6D* promises to be a million times better than the best movie you’ve seen! The duo explores the exciting world of cinema with some behind-the-scenes glimpses of what happens on a movie set. Of course, the show also promises to be raucous, a bit cheeky and may contain a fart joke or two.

The Listies in 6D* is part of the Sydney Opera House Kids at the House program and runs from 16 – 28 April, 2013. The show is suitable for children aged five years and over. Tickets are $30 and can be booked online at the Sydney Opera House.

The Listies will also play Brisbane from 3-6 April while Melbourne kids can laugh themselves sick from April 9 – 13, 2013. More details on these shows are available on The Listies’ website.

Babies love black and white illustrations. Babies love looking at faces. Babies will love this black and white book about faces!

A few years ago we showed you Mesmerised, a book of bold black and white illustrations for babies by Tasmanian mum, Katey Love.

Love has just released a new black and white book called Faces for Baby. The concertina-style cloth book features easy-to-see, happy faces of some familiar characters including a teddy bear, a frog, a cat and, of course, another baby. It’s printed on cotton with baby-safe inks – good to know given that most books end up being taste-tested!

Faces for Baby is $17.95 and is available directly from Mesmerised. For a short time, postage is free.

Grab a torch, turn off the lights and settle in for a bedtime story with a difference.

Hervé Tullet is the master of ingenious publishing for children and his latest release, The Game of Shadows, is no exception. Like many of his other titles – Press Here, The Scribble Book and The Game of… series, Tullet turns books into an  interactive experience.

The Game of Shadows is a clever die-cut board book – use a torch to ‘project’ the pages onto a wall and a shadowy story of what happens in the garden at night comes to life. It’s a simple concept but one that is sure to impress a young audience.

Also new from Tullet is I Am Blop! – again, the concept is simple. Take an odd little shape (a ‘blop’) and put it in all sorts of environments, change its colour and change its pattern – before you know it, you’ll be seeing blops everywhere! The blops are a different and interesting way of introducing children to the concepts of counting, colours, animals, the seasons, art and much more. It’s a thick book with a lot of blops and promises hours of reading entertainment.

Both books are suitable for children aged three and over. Find The Game of Shadows and I Am Blop! online at Book Depository, which ships free to Australia. For more books from Hervé Tullet, see our previous posts on Press Here and The Scribble Book.

When I was about sixteen, my grandma told me that one of her dear friends had died. There had been a group of them, affectionately referred to as ‘the old girls’, a name that had come about because these women were old, old friends. At sixteen, I had no reason to think about losing friends through old age but I did understand the importance and joy of a tight-knit group of mates. That memory has stayed with me and to this day I cherish time with good friends. But as I know, things don’t always stay the same.

The Lilac Ladies by Jenny Hughes and illustrated by Jonathan Bentley is the story of Ida, Nelly, Maisie and Rose – they’re the very best of friends and like all good friends, they have their rituals and roles within the group. Amongst the ladies, Nelly takes charge. Nelly remembers the rules when the ladies play boules, Nelly reminds them to use sunscreen during their Tuesday visits to the pool and Nelly throws the very best tea parties -

‘This cake is fluffier than my feather boa,’ said Ida.
‘And the cream puffs are lighter than spring clouds,’ said Rose.
‘I wouldn’t sip tea with anyone but you darling dears,’ said Maisie.
‘That’s because we’re as close as the prickles on a porcupine,’ said Nelly.

But one day Nelly is not feeling so well – what will the ladies do without Nelly?

The story very gently alludes to Nelly’s death -

‘I feel tired, so tired,’ said Nelly. ‘Come here and hold my hand. Let’s remember the fun times we’ve had.’… Long into the night they remembered. When the sun rose, they finally let Nelly go.”

However it doesn’t finish on a sad note. Instead, it demonstrates how life goes on, even when everything around you reminds you of the person who has gone away – and that that’s okay.

The story is suitable for children aged three years and over and is particularly useful for any child who has lost a grandparent or even has had a friend move away.  For other books dealing with death, see our previous posts on Harry & Hopper, The Heart and the Bottle and more.

Find The Lilac Ladies online at Books Direct.