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An Eagle in the Snow – Michael Morpurgo

October 27, 2018 by penny Leave a Comment

With eight year old Little Miss C a fully independent reader I’m soon realising two things. Firstly how much I miss sharing books with her. And secondly, just how few children’s classics I’ve actually read. I have to buy (or borrow) books for her at an astounding rate to keep her in reading material and I keep trying to steer her towards classics. Books that I think it will be good for her to read, as well as ones that I think she will enjoy. She has certain favourite authors (Jacqueline Wilson being top of the list!) and it can sometimes be a bit tricky to get her to try someone new. Michael Morpurgo is such an author.

Michael Morpurgo

Born in St Albans, where LMC goes to school, I’ve always been aware of his books, and his role as the children’s laureate, but I have to admit to having never read a single of them. And nor had LMC. Until last week. I’m obviously very aware of War Horse, and knew that there were several books he wrote set during the war, but beyond that I knew little more.

LMC then went to a birthday party last weekend where the children were all given a book as a gift when they left instead of a party bag. The birthday girl’s favourite author is Michael Morpurgo and so she gave them all one of his paperbacks, and LMC came home with An Eagle in the Snow.

With what can only be described as quite an intense and serious looking cover design, I did find myself wondering if she would read the book, as my previous attempts to get her pick up his titles in the library had fallen on deaf ears.

Later that afternoon I crashed out in bed for a couple of hours (late pregnancy does that!) and when I got up again and asked her what she’d been up to she happily told me about how she’d started her new book and how fantastic it was. So keen was she to share it that I was then told I had to read the first two chapters that she’d already read whilst she did her maths homework.

Not one to disobey orders I did just that, and could see exactly why she had been captivated by it.

An Eagle in the Snow

Set in 1940 An Eagle in the Snow is really a work of historical fiction. I don’t want to give away the whole story, but it is set in a train that is sheltering in a railway tunnel having been under attack from German fighters. In one compartment are Barney and his mother. Escaping from the bombing that has destroyed their home in Coventry they are on their way to Cornwall to stay with an Aunt there. Also on the train is a man. A man who seems to know exactly where Barney is from. A man who has an amazing story to tell. A story about his friend Billy in the first world war trenches.

LMC ended up reading the whole of An Eagle in the Snow within the week and she very determinedly brought it back to my house and told me that I needed to read it next so we could talk about it together, and then we also needed to buy her Granny a copy of it so that she can enjoy it too. (Apparently Granny isn’t to be trusted with just borrowing LMC’s copy!)

Again, following her instruction, I have curled up and read the book in just a couple of short sittings, and I can fully see why she enjoyed it so much. It’s a great read. It has taught me lots about a story in history that I didn’t previously know about, and also I thoroughly enjoyed getting lost in a book again.

The power of sharing a book

Finally though, it’s shown me how lovely it is to share a book with someone, even if you’re not reading it out loud to them. For a while now I’ve been making plans to read all those children’s classics that I never got round to and maybe this is the motivation to do so.

Being able to talk to LMC about what she enjoyed most in the book, and how it made her feel has been lovely. Almost like a recollection between the two of us. Replacing something that had been lost when she started wanting to read on her own rather than being read to. It also helps get around the fact that she’s not always staying with me, so I don’t get to sit with her each evening at bedtime and talk about what she’s reading. We FaceTime each night and it’s lovely having books to connect over when we do talk.

Must read children’s classics

My challenge now though is to compile a list of the children’s classics that I ought to read and share with her. In a way the hard bit might be trying to narrow it down to a manageable list. I’m hoping I can get through a few of them though during this late pregnancy insomnia that I’m currently battling. It seems children’s fiction is somewhat easier to get through at 3am than some of the adult classics that I’ve been meaning to read for years!

If you’ve got any suggestions for books that should be on my list though please do leave me a comment below.

An Eagle in the Snow is available to buy online here. Other Michael Morpurgo titles are also available online. On the author’s website there is a very good listing of all his books, split by category, and against each it has a recommended reading age.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Never Too Young! 50 unstoppable kids who made a difference

October 22, 2018 by penny Leave a Comment

How do you inspire children? Especially when it comes to realising that it’s not only adults who can make a difference in the world? That’s exactly what Never Too Young sets out to do and the timing for Little Miss C to read this couldn’t ‘t be better.

Having read Create Your Own Happy LMC seems to have been empowered somewhat by the realisation that she is in charge of her own future. Even at the tender age of 8.

Never Too Young shares the stories of 50 children who have made a difference in the world. With a double page spread devoted to each person, there is full size illustration of them alongside a page describing what they did to make a difference.

One thing I really like about this book is the mix of “children” that have been included. Some are historical figures whose actions are well know – like Anne Frank or Mozart. Others may only just be into adulthood, but are still well know to children of today, like Emma Watson. Some are not household names at all, but all have an inspirational story to tell and it’s been really interesting talking to LMC about how people don’t have to be “famous” in the traditional sense to make a difference to others or the world around them.

The other thing that I really like about this book is that it’s not just looking at one gender. I fully understand other books that do, but it’s also lovely to see a book that just celebrates children rather than just boys or girls. On a practical level, that also means it’s the perfect book to be a gift for either a boy or a girl.

My daughter is Year 4 at school and loves reading and took to this straight away as a book to read on her own. It’s also perfect for sharing with children (either older or younger) and with there being a page per person it’s nice to be able to split it up and read a couple of pages at bedtime or similar. The list at the start of everyone covered, makes it easy to dip in and out of the book if you prefer to do that rather than read it all in order.

Since reading it, Little Miss C has already written proudly about the people she’s read about in Never Too Young in her school reading record, and she’s also spoken at length with me about how good it is to read about “children who do things, rather than just about grown ups”. What more can I say?

Never Too Young! was written by Aileen Weintraub and illustrated by Laura Horton. It was published by Sterling in September 2018 and priced at £11.99 in hardback, but is available for less (£7.82 at the time of writing). ISBN 9781454929178. It is available to buy online here.

Disclaimer: We were sent a copy off Never Too Young! for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain my own. This post contains affiliate links.

Ladybird: Learning with Mother Book 4

October 19, 2018 by penny Leave a Comment

Learning with Mother Book 4 original featured as part of the Ladybird Tuesday series over on Being Mrs C. As I prepare to start on the motherhood journey afresh it seemed an obvious choice to move over to Penny Reads. And it’s also possibly time to refresh my memory as to what I’ve got to come over the next few years!

And who could possibly resist these gorgeous vintage illustrations?

As soon as I see this particular Ladybird book, or in fact any from this Learning with Mother series, I’m somewhat overtaken by emotion and a desperate desire to give my children the wholesome, educational upbringing that it shows.

I’ve covered Book 2 from the series before on Ladybird Tuesday, but Book 4 (covering 4 – 5 years of age) deserves its own post too now that it’s in my collection. This Under Five series (number 702 for any keen collectors reading) is designed to fit in with the belief, stated inside the front cover, that “almost half of your child’s intelligence will be decided by four and a half” and it is therefore targeted at parents who want to give their children every opportunity to develop to their maximum potential.

The book starts with a really good description of the development stage that 4 – 5 year olds are at and what sort of opportunities they need to given to help them in their development. Published in 1971 this book was written at a time when parents made their own entertainment for their children during the day, instead of the present day schedule of toddler classes and trips out. It really was Learning with Mother.

I strongly believe that there’s a lot we can learn from how children spent their days as I regularly feel that many modern day children don’t have the simple, old fashioned, ability to entertain themselves. Learning with Mother really does contain some lovely ideas of activities to do with children and also examples of everyday things which have great learning opportunities behind them.

I really love the activities in this book, especially because they’re so simple but engaging for children. I spent Sunday with my mum and Little Miss C at a 1940s experience (a whole blog post about that very soon as I loved it!) and it was fascinating watching LMC play in the children’s room there. She loved all the simple games and toys that they had and kept asking to go back to play with the toys there for the rest of the day. Children don’t need modern day technology to keep them amused, it’s just turned into a habit for us to give them that sort of thing.

I’m determined now to set my kids off with some old fashioned traditional toys and games based on both what I see in Ladybird books and also what children had during the war. Hopefully I’ll be back soon to share how we’re getting on.

Teach Your Child Meditation – Lisa Roberts

October 17, 2018 by penny Leave a Comment

Last year my son’s school decided to use some of their sport’s premium money to pay for someone to come in and run a session with all the kids on meditation and mindfulness. It may seem like a slightly strange way to use money designated for “sports” but mental wellbeing is just as vital as physical wellbeing and luckily his school recognises and supports that.

The school used the session to also up-skill teachers so that they could continue this mental wellbeing work with children throughout the rest of the school year, and I’m so glad they did. My son (who is now six and in Year 1) has a regular meditation session at school. Just five or ten minutes, but when I ask him about his school day he often tells me that it’s one of his favourite parts.

He’s very much a boy who likes to be active, so when I first heard this I have to a admit that I was a bit surprised. I personally struggle with meditation and mindfulness as I’ve always found my mind wandering and myself wondering what else I could be doing with that period of time to tick things off my to do list. It may well be that I’m just not doing it right, but I realise how helpful so many other people find it, so I’m glad my whirlwind of a son has found a way to meditate that works for him.

Teach Your Child Meditation

Lisa Roberts’ book, Teach Your Child Meditation, has the subtitle 70 fun and easy ways to help kids de-stress and chill out, and I think that sub-title really explains what we all need to help our kids do. Kids seem to feel stress and pressure in our busy lives in a way that I’m not sure we did when we were their age. My eight year old daughter sometimes speaks about feeling stressed, and I find it a bit sad that children are feeling something that previously was always considered an adult thing. There are times when I want to help her calm down and centre herself again after an angry outburst about something.

Five Sections

Teach Your Child Meditation is aimed at children aged 5 to 12 and is full of step-by-step exercises that parents and teachers can work through with kids. The book is split into five sections:

I’m the boss of my breath
Hocus Pocus, I can focus
Stress busters and energy equalizers
The Chill Zone
Connect – group exercises

making it easy to jump in and find something that you want to try with your child depending on their circumstances and emotions. There’s also a fantastic “Getting Started” section which presents an overview of what you’re going to cover in the book, along with some general tips and techniques for working through it with children. It’s a brilliant introduction, especially if you don’t meditate yourself.

Exercises kids can understand and follow

Each of the exercises is presented really clearly, with a box entitled “simple steps for kids” which you can work through with children. The steps explain everything in plain language, in a way that children can understand and without any confusion. The amusing titles for each of the exercises help to capture children’s imaginations and help them see meditation as a fun thing to do.

I can see Teach Your Child Meditation as becoming a bit of a family bible for when the kids need a bit of help to either calm down, de-stress, or just coming to terms with their emotions. The exercises are quite different to what my son has being doing at school (in his words they get told to “imagine” they are things a lot there) but the basic principles are the same. I’ve flagged quite a few exercises in the book as ones that I think will help at different points in family life and I’m keeping the book so it’s to hand for being able to quickly pick it up and get going with an exercise when one is needed. It certainly gives me a great array of new tools in my parenting toolkit!

Teach Your Child Meditation – the facts

Teach Your Child Meditation, 70 fun & easy ways to help kids de-stress and chill out by Lisa Roberts was published by Sterling in October 2018. RRP £14.99. Paperback ISBN 9781454929185. Available to buy online here (just ignore the bit where Amazon says it comes with a CD – it doesn’t!).

Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Teach Your Child Meditation for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain my own. This post contains affiliate links.

Buzby Annual

October 4, 2018 by penny Leave a Comment

Hands up then. Who remembers Buzby?

Who is Buzby?

This cheerful bird first appeared in 1976 as part of a marketing campaign for Post Office Telecommunications, who later became part of British Telecommunications. His main aim was to get us to use the telephone more, and I think he did that.

Voiced in the TV adverts by the legend that is Bernard Cribbins, Buzby became a bit of a star, with loads of marketing items produced, including toys and badges. He also spawned a cartoon strip in TV Comic. At some point along the line his feather changed from yellow to orange (maybe it was an age thing?) but still he remained a hit.

With the strap line “make someone happy with a phone call” I wonder if BT could bring back Buzby today as part of a marketing campaign to get people actually talking to each other again rather than just sending messages.

But I digress…

The Buzby Annual

During one of my usual secondhand bookshop trawls I came across the Buzby Annual and knew it had to come home with me.

A spot of internet research tells me that there were two Buzby Annuals produced. This one in 1979, and then a second version in 1980.

As a child of the 80s annuals were very much a standard Christmas present. Something that we always looked forward to receiving, whether it be a Blue Peter one (another of my collecting habits) or one from a favourite band or TV programme. I’m not sure how many came out celebrating the start of advertising campaigns though.

What’s inside?

The Buzby Annual includes many of the features that you came to expect in annuals of the 70s and 80s. A mix of cartoons, longer stories, puzzles and a few educational features. The stories obviously featured Buzby, whilst the games and puzzles revolved around a theme of telephones.

Everything from spotting telephone handsets in a picture through to the “fill a ‘phone box game”. There’s a page of telephone related jokes and puns, as well as photos of telephone handsets from years gone by.

The copy of the annual I found seems to be in immaculate condition considering it’s age. Inside the front page the corner containing the price has been cut off (as was normally the way with annuals given as gifts at Christmas) but the only other sign that it’s ever been read is the crossword that has been completed inside.

There are plenty of games in the book that would have required the owner to cut the pages – something I felt uneasy doing, even as a child – and I was quite relieved to see that this hadn’t been done. I’ve no idea if modern day annuals ask kids to do the same or not, but in my mind scissors and a book should never, ever meet!

Why Buzby?

That’s what I’ve been wondering since picking this up. Was he really that big a star back in 1979 that he merited an annual on the bookshop shelves next to ones for Blue Peter, Football magazines and favourite bands? Then again, I recall an annual for a local radio station that I picked up in childhood from a car boot sale and that must have been a pretty niche market.

‘Fess up. What annuals do you remember having as a child?

Ladybird: People At Work – In a Hotel

September 30, 2018 by penny Leave a Comment

This post on Ladybird People at Work In A Hotel originally appeared on Being Mrs C as part of Ladybird Tuesday. It has been updated and edited before appearing here on Penny Reads.

I started collecting Ladybird books by accident. I never intended to become a series collector, but the more I bought the more I loved them and the more I wanted to share my collection with other people.

I love sharing my Ladybird collection with my readers and hope to continue to do so here on Penny Reads. When I started collecting I was amazed that although I could find excellent listings of the books on sites such as The Wee Web there were very few people writing about the individual books themselves. Some of that has changed with the amazing Ladybird Fly Away Home, but when I first started Ladybird Tuesday back in 2012 that site didn’t really exist in the way it does today.

Ladybird Tuesday is going to kick off with In A Hotel which was part of series 606B People at Work. Originally published in 1972, this book aimed to provide information about the people who work in a hotel and how they contribute towards its smooth and efficient running. The series looked at a variety of occupations ranging from fireman and policeman to miner, car maker and pottery makers.

Things have obviously changed a lot in the hotel industry since People At Work In A Hotel was written and one of the most obvious things is the absence of computers at the time. The idea of a receptionist having charts showing which rooms are occupied and which empty is very old fashioned, but then so is the concept of someone writing a letter to book a room.

One thing that is obviously noticable in this book (and looking at the other titles in the series) is just how much the roles are gender based. The “girls in the cashier’s office” are obviously no more, but at the time of writing many companies had rooms full of women who were either cashiers or typists. Technology has replaced both these roles but it is strange to look back and see how women at the time were somewhat limited in the roles that they could take on.

The expectations at the time were that men would take on the senior roles and hotels were no different.

“In all hotels there is one man who is in charge of everything. This is the manager.”

Not one person, but specifically a man. The book even goes on to describe exactly what he will be wearing. I’m guessing that the ideal of a female manager would have probably blown the mind of whoever wrote this at the time, but it’s still a bit surprising for the 1970s.

As a child I’m sure I would have loved this book as I always thought of hotels as being incredibly exotic places and I really wanted to understand how things worked behind the scenes. That was in the 1980s though and even then things had changed. I’ve no idea when they stopped publishing this particular book but it is funny looking back and seeing just how dated it is, yet I suppose a lot has changed in 40 years!