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Our book in focus | School closures: Home learning with Lovemybooks | New books and activity pages | Old and new favourite books | Let’s create workshop | Family Review of graphic novel 
We're sending out our March newsletter again because we've had lots of new subscribers to our newsletter and visitors to our website in the last few days. Please see our Home Learning section below and look out for our list of recommended learning websites, soon to be published on our website, and in our next newsletter. 

We send our very best wishes in these difficult times to parents, children, teachers, carers, nursery workers and staff across the world

The Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Rebecca Cobb
      
This is the story of a little girl who makes some paper dolls with her mother’s help and has lots of adventures with them until they face the ultimate threat – a pair of scissors! Cut to pieces, the paper dolls remain in the little girl’s memory until one day she teaches her own daughter how to make them. This is a lovely story with beautiful illustrations about imagination, memory, and links between the generations.
 
Samantha tells us about sharing the book and our activity ideas with her daughters
‘Both my girls (aged 6 and 8) really enjoyed The Paper Dolls. It is a tender, partly rhyming and comfortingly repetitive tale that is easy for children to remember and recite back - it was a real winner with my two.

My eldest daughter enjoyed reading it out to us herself and using the repeat of the dolls’ names in a rhythmic way which sounded nice. The book is not without its emotional challenges, and my youngest in particular was a bit upset when the paper dolls were destroyed. Although the dolls’ destruction was a shock, it does teach young children about loss, how ultimately nothing lasts forever and how all things change which is a valuable life lesson to take away. Her favourite part was the scene in the girl’s imagination where the dolls live again and as she rather poignantly said; “the granny is keeping them safe.” 
Both my girls made their own paper dolls, the eldest from a book where they could be cut out and designed, and my 6-year-old made her own jellyfish versions! (She has a particular interest in jellyfish, the reasons for this are known only to herself!)’
Visit our activity page and try out some of our activities yourself
Buy the book


   
With schools closing due to the COVID-19 crisis, we are highlighting our ideas for fun, creative reading activities at home. We hope that schools and early years settings will recommend our site to parents and grandparents. While it is almost certain that many libraries will be closed, it is possible that some online or local book stores will be open. Perhaps you can swap books with other parents and friends in a similar situation. 

SHARE lots of great books something old or something new. Not sure how to choose books? Here’s what we look out for.
   
TALK about books Share favourite characters or parts of the story, talk about what you want to happen next. Find the rhyming words, think about what unfamiliar words might mean. 

REVISIT books Encourage children to join in as you read with the rhyming or repeated parts, by being one of the characters or just with the sound effects!

PLAY the story Act it out together or make sock or stick puppets to retell the story.

MAKE a mini book To retell the story or draw the main characters.

VISIT Lovemybooks for 200 + activity pages They are all based on great books for children aged 0-9, all with ideas for sharing, talking or playing the story, lots to make and do and find out about.
Here’s an example based on Shark in the Park by Nick Sharratt
A Story About Afiya, James Berry illustrated by Anna Cunha
In this beautiful re-imagining of the poem by celebrated poet, James Berry, Afiya’s childhood world is magically created and captured in the ever-changing patterns on her white cotton dress. From sunflowers to butterflies, pigeons to tigers, the dress is printed with images. Yet, next morning, it is fresh, like a blank sheet of paper, and ready for the new day’s adventures.
Visit our activity page  Buy the book here




Grobblechops, Elizabeth Laird, illustrated by Jenny Lucander
It’s bedtime but Amir is afraid of the dark and doesn’t want to go to sleep.He thinks there’s something hiding under his bed: a big scary monster that growls like a lion and might eat him up. This version of the classic monster-under-the-bed story features a little boy whose father reassuringly and inventively counters Amir’s fears, helping to transform an imaginary ogre into an imaginary friend.
Visit our activity page
Buy the book here


The King who Banned the DarkEmily Haworth Booth
Here is another story about a little boy who was afraid of the dark. But in this case the little boy is a prince who decides that when he becomes king, he will actually BAN the dark. This is a clever, engaging story which encourages readers to think about the importance of nighttime in our lives and also how power might be used, abused or resisted.
Visit our activity page
Buy the book here




The Girl and the Dinosaur , Hollie Hughes and illustrated by Sarah Massini
Marianne spends a lot of time alone, but she is happy, especially when she discovers ancient bones on the beach and puts them together to make a dinosaur. She wishes and wishes for the dinosaur to come to life and in her dreams, it does, taking her on an adventure to a magical island. Soon Marianne is no longer alone, other children start coming to her beach in search of dinosaur bones and magical adventures of their own.
Visit our activity page
Buy the book
 

Former School Librarian, blogger and reviewer Anne Thompson shares some ideas for contemporary alternatives to old favourites. Why not give some of these a try?
It is wonderful to rediscover your own childhood favourite books and share them with your own children and perhaps it’s also often easier to reach for the familiar rather than try something new. However, there are many wonderful contemporary books which might capture your child’s imagination and yours too – perhaps becoming new family favourites. Why not give some of these suggestions a try?
      
Books by Enid Blyton
For younger readers The Worst Witch series by Jill Murphy features traditional school stories with a touch of magic. Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell and Mr.Tiger, Betsy and the Blue Moon by Sally Gardner combine adventure and quirky characters and may appeal to lovers of Blyton’s Magic Faraway TreeMurder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens is set in a traditional boarding school but introduces more confident readers to the crime mystery genre.  As an alternative to the Adventure series I would recommend Kat Wolfe Investigates by Lauren St John and The Secret Breakers by Helen Dennis both of which combine adventure with intricate mysteries to solve.
      
Books by Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl’s books are full of humour and are slightly anarchic in the way that the children generally get the better of unsavoury adults. The popular alternative is David Walliams but there are others to try too. The ‘Wings and Co’ series by Sally Gardner, beginning with Operation Bunny, combines magic, a plucky heroine and dastardly villains in a way that should appeal to Dahl fans. A great adventure with a slight retro feel is Trouble in New York by Sylvia Bishop. Lovers of Matilda may like to try Pippi Longstocking, a classic by Astrid Lingdren about a girl of independent spirit. Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce is full of humour but with wisdom at its heart and the ‘Mr Gum’ series by Andy Stanton will tempt those who love the silliness of some of Dahl’s books.

The Narnia Chronicles by C S Lewis
Confident readers who love the fantasy element of these classics may enjoy The Northern Lights series by Phillip Pullman. Current titles inspired by Narnia provide a modern twist and include The Lost Magician and The Frozen Sea by Piers Torday. In Pages & Co: Tilly and the Book Wanderers by Anna James the reader travels through a portal to another world but this time a world of stories. Many of Abi Elphinstone’s books would be excellent.  The villain in Sky Song has echoes of the White Witch and in her latest series, ‘The Unmapped Chronicles’ of which Rumblestar is the first, children visit another world to right wrongs.

Follow Anne Thompson on Twitter @ALIbraryLady  and visit her blog  

We were delighted to link up with creative community hub The Exchange in Erith and support their recent workshop for pre-school children and their carers as part of the Bexley Book Buzz festival. Workshop leader Lauren Price took the children on an imaginative and interactive story journey exploring Petr Horacek’s brilliant picturebook A New House for Mouse with animal toy props and different shaped boxes to represent their underground homes. There were lots of hands on activities including printing with apples, making mini animal homes and creating large scale dens to curl up inside. The session ended with mice themed songs and rhymes. If you live in the area look out for more workshop sessions like this when the Centre reopens. They are great fun.  
We’ve been inspired to update our own activity page for A New House for Mouse incorporating some of Lauren’s ideas.
Buy the book here

For our latest family review panel Ruth and her children Louis 11 and Ellen 8 have a lively conversation about the graphic novel Looshkin: the adventures of the maddest cat in the world by Jamie Smart.
  

Ruth: Looshkin is a collection of stories from the popular weekly comic The Phoenix.  Written and illustrated by Jamie Smart (of Bunny vs Monkey fame), Looshkin is a blue cat who was brought home by Mrs Johnson in the hope of making her home more normal.  This doesn’t quite work out for her as Looshkin unleashes chaos around him wherever he goes! Looshkin The Big Number 2 is the second in the series.

Ellen: My favourite character is Looshkin of course, and Mr Buns.  Mr Buns is a cat that lives next door to Looshkin and always gets caught up in Looshkins’ adventures. I like Mr Buns because he is obsessed with annoying Looshkin! 

Louis:  My favourite character is the bear – he is the one that suffers the most from all of Looshkins’ crazy japes, and is sometimes his friend, sometimes not…

Ruth:  I have to empathise with Mrs Johnson.  She didn’t ask for all this to happen to her, she just wanted a cat as a calm, peaceful addition to her life!

The stories are funny and they just suck you in so you want to be in the crazy world of Looshkin.  Cat lovers should definitely read this book because Looshkin does stunts and even puts himself on fire!  Sometimes you just need a daft book that is going to make you belly laugh and put a big grin on your face – we love Jamie Smart for this reason.  Keep them coming!
Read the whole conversation here


Buy the book
Interested in graphic novels? Try the Iguana Boy series by James Bishop and Rikin Parekh or Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz and Kanak Yuzuru
Looshkin clearly engaged this family! It is one of the books shortlisted for the Lewisham Primary book awards. We are delighted to have partnered with Moon Lane Ink and Ruth Bonser from Stillness Junior school to deliver these awards. To see the full list of shortlisted books or find out more see here.

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