To all our subscribers and followers: Happy World Book Day!
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Book of the month Man on the Moon A Day in the Life of Bob
With British astronaut Tim Peake in orbit in the International Space station, we’ve chosen a space theme for our March book of the month Man on the Moon A Day in the Life of Bob by Simon Bartram.
In Man on the Moon we meet Bob, who is an apparently ordinary man, with an extraordinary job. He’s an astronaut who commutes to the moon every day in his rocket to prepare for tourist visits. The story tells us about a typical day, working on the moon. The beautiful illustrations are a delight with so much to discover and discuss, not least the aliens on every page. Bob doesn’t think aliens exist, but readers will soon decide he is mistaken!
Rachel and Isaac enjoy Man on the Moon a Day in the Life of Bob
"Isaac absolutely loved Man on the Moon. The illustrations in this book are wonderful and they captured my son’s imagination. We spent ages spotting the aliens in the pictures and trying to deciding which alien was our favourite."
"Following the activities suggested by Lovemybooks, we had a fantastic day reading, making and talking about space. We loved making a rocket together and this inspired so much discussion and learning about space."
"Reading the book and talking about the story and pictures in detail meant that my son was really willing to do some writing himself. He wrote a book about Bob’s day and was able to sequence the story himself because he was so familiar with the story. Making a zig zag book was a fantastic recommendation because it meant he was so proud to have written a book himself."
"Thank you Lovemybooks for such a brilliant recommendation and such imaginative and inspiring activities. I really think it’s such a brilliant resource for parents and teachers!"
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Space and Aliens
Our Space and Aliens section has a wonderful selection of exciting books – including our book of the month Man on the Moon A Day in the Life of Bob by Simon Bartram. You will meet some memorable characters such as Beegu the alien who has lost her mum and Space Dog by our patron Mini Grey.
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Jemma writes about storytime with three children
 Jemma has three children, Elodie (7), Finlay (4) and Orla (2):
"We struggle with this [reading with children of different ages]. Orla is at the stage where she just wants to turn the pages constantly, annoying the other two."
"We find we need to have more time for bedtime reading as they all want to pick a story each! Having a slot of reading time with each child individually helps, so they know they get some ‘one-on-one’ time."
"Reading a story with vivid pictures, but perhaps more suited to older children often works, the younger children will ‘listen’ for the pictures, they may tail off and go and do something else but then the older one stays for the story."
"It generally seems to be about the book as well, so the best ones that keep them all engaged, and our age group favourites are Dear Zoo, Each Peach Pear Plum, Peace at Last, We're Going on a Bear Hunt and So Much."
"Interestingly all our children have loved these stories equally and all had 'a time' for them. This is without us promoting them also. For example, each of them have had us read Dear Zoo 10 times a day between the ages of 9 months and a year! A firm favourite for all of them is So Much and We're Going on a Bear Hunt, all 3 of them will happily listen to that, even Elodie.
"Max at Night is also popular. Finlay (4) absolutely loves Alfie books, we read these a lot. I didn't realise there was a video with Alfie Gets in First."
Jemma is interested in our new novels section:
"Elodie (7) is an avid reader and reads books so quickly. I'm always on the lookout for new ones at the library or to buy but sometimes books that are suitable for her reading level are not always suitable in content. (They often have lots about boyfriends!)."
"Elodie has read Charlotte's Web which she adored; she loved discovering what animal the characters were. She did find it sad though, I think it was the first book that really 'moved her', so that was interesting to see. She also became a vegetarian for a couple of days!"
"She read Mango & Bambang: The Not-a-Pig in one sitting in an afternoon, I was a bit worried that she hadn't read it properly but she recounted the whole story and loved it."
"There are loads of books on your site that we like and some great ideas for new reads that we haven't read on your new picture books list. This is such a great list for buying books as gifts for friend's children! It’s a lovely and very helpful website. Well done!"
Read more about Jemma's and other parents and visit the lovemybooks video gallery.
Please send us pictures or comments on what you are doing with lovemybooks ideas.
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Meet our new patron: Marilyn Brocklehurst
 We are delighted to announce that Marilyn Brocklehurst has agreed to join us our new patron.
Marilyn is incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about children’s books and reading. Marliyn worked within the library service before founding the Norfolk Children's Book Centre, a wonderful independent bookshop, over 30 years ago. She works with schools to develop library provision, provides support for National conferences, has judged National book awards and writes reviews for The Bookseller and other publications. In recognition of her work she has recently become a Fellow of the English Association.
Marilyn is passionate about reading for pleasure and this is central to work with schools and parents. She writes in the children’s books’ magazine Carousel in 2014:
"The phrase 'reading for pleasure' has been bandied about so regularly in schools these days, it’s as if the connection between the two had just been invented. However, the fact, that for many children reading might not be connected to a pleasurable experience, is desperately sad and worrying, so this emphasis is absolutely crucial, not just at school but at home as well."
"[At Norfolk Children’s Book centre] we emphasise that the development of the reading habit should begin very early so that babies identify books with pleasure and when the experience is combined with a cuddle and the undivided attention of a parent or carer it becomes a delight for every child. Without regular and early access to books, it’s clear that children approach reading at school at a huge disadvantage."
"We reinforce to parents how valuable reading aloud is in those early years – and indeed throughout childhood – not only for entertainment or for bedtime comfort, but to develop concentration skills and language development, to introduce a wide range of vocabulary, grammatical constructions, to encourage questioning, to explore conflicts and emotions. Hearing stories enables children to predict outcomes, to identify with characters and to be curious about new concepts and experiences explored in stories."
At Norfolk Children’s Book Centre Marilyn and her staff intend to emulate the atmosphere of a wonderful children’s library. Children, parents and teachers can browse, discover delights, chat about favourites and stay all day, relax, read, eat biscuits and pet our magical and mysterious black cat, Daisy.
Thank you Marilyn for agreeing to become a lovemybooks patron. Read more about our patrons.
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