The indoor season is nigh upon us. Goodbye summer. Goodbye sunshine. And goodbye long afternoons sans the pressure to continuously entertain small humans.
But don’t panic — if you need to ward off the impending cabin fever that winter brings, and don’t want your young ones stuck in that mind-sucking screen-time rut, this eBook, chock-a-block full of sensory play ideas, will keep you all going until the sun shows his face again.
If you expose little ones to reading early on – and often – it’s rarely difficult to get them excited about a new book.
As they get older, though, the number of distractions competing for kids’ attentions accumulate exponentially, and those once beloved bookshelves can get pretty dusty.
There are plenty ways to rekindle (or ignite) enthusiasm for the written word, however; there’s the obvious dedicated ‘library days’ and making the time to read with your child — another is to create bookmarks together, or choose printable bookmark designs online.
Potty training – argh. There is no word (or sound) more appropriate. Out if all the things that parents have to do – change nappies, clean up vomit, wake up at 2a.m. to pick up a dropped teddy – potty training ranks well up there in the unpleasant-o-metre.
But equal to the inconvenience is the sense of achievement when a child masters the toilet. There is no joy quite like a poo that makes it into the toilet – with regular occurrence!
Brooklyn artist and storyteller Ida Pearle makes indelible those moments we wish we could press like flowers and return to again and again – the moments when our children are still filled with wonder for the big, wide, world and all of its secrets.
Pearle’s new book, The Moon is Going to Addy’s House, is a beautiful, unique look at the dusky hours that precede bedtime, and how that magical nightlight in the sky – an endless source of fascination for children everywhere – is not only a cue for the end of play and busy days, but a constant, faithful presence forever watching over slumber.
Addy, a recurring, endearing character in Pearle’s stories, has been at a playdate in the city and she’s headed home for bed. As the family drives through the buzzing city, over the Brooklyn bridge, and toward their house in the country, the moon remains ever present, popping up in different sizes, hues, and quadrants of the sky. Addy is transfixed by her travelling companion as it illuminates the journey home and casts a warm, comforting glow upon her as she gets ready for sleep.
In a spellbinding choreography of collage, colour and texture, Pearle’s cut-paper illustrations (sumptuously patterned with marbled, speckled, dotted, floral and geometric designs) vibrate with energy and movement; zig-zagging, swirling, and softening as the children’s frenetic vigour waxes and wanes with the falling darkness, giving way to the soothing cadence of ritual – bath time, storytime and bedtime – and all set against the unchanging backdrop of the lunar light.
The story’s visual style is distinctly reminiscent of Ezra Jack Keats, but so too is the inherent sensibility; a recognition of the simple joy of childhood, and that untainted, deeply-felt emotional connection to that which we have long forgotten.
The Moon is Going to Addy’s House is a treasure that your children – and you – will want to revisit again and again.
Available at Amazon.co.uk
Just in time for the summer hols, adorable, sneezy panda Chu is taking a trip to the beach! And, as any fan of the hapless-but-happy bear will know, wherever he goes, chaos, comedy and fantastic FUN is sure to follow…
Fantasy-fiction superstar Neil Gaiman has teamed up again with the equally fantastically-minded illustrator Adam Rex for the third in the series of Chu’s Day books, Chu’s Day at the Beach.
