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Ladybird Tuesday – Christmas Customs

December 1, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

I’m making a massive effort to get onto my 2021 resolutions early with a determination to get Ladybird Tuesday back on track. I’ve said that several times over the last few years, but life has that annoying habit of getting in the way. With a toddler who now occasionally lets me get my laptop out and doesn’t try to sit on it when I do, I’m a tad more hopeful that I was on previous attempts.

With today being the 1st of December I’m also determined to dig out some festive titles from my Ladybird collection. These might not be the oldest books in my collection, but they’re certainly appropriate for this time of year.

Christmas Series

I’m starting off with Christmas Customs, a title that was published in 1988 as part of Series 8818. This isn’t a series that I’m very familiar with, as it’s a little later than most of my collection, but a bit of research suggests that there were a total of six titles in the series. Looking at Nicole’s amazing master list of Ladybird books (here is you’re not familiar with it) it lists the following as being published between 1988 and 1991:

Christmas Customs
Christmas Songs
The Christmas Mouse
The Christmas Story
Toad’s Christmas Party
Well Loved Carols

Only three of these titles are listed on the series list on the back of my book – Christmas Customs, Christmas Songs and Well Loved Carols – and that seems to fit with those three being the first titles published in the series.

What is lovely about Christmas Customs is that the book actually goes somewhat further than the title suggests. As well as covering the Christmas Story and the Christian customs that many of us are familiar with, the book also looks back at the Saturnalia which was celebrated by the Romans who honoured Saturn. They were the first to decorate their homes with evergreens (to remind Saturn to send crops and plants for food the following spring) and this tradition continued to celebrate the birthday of Jesus. The book looks at why holly, ivy and mistletoe were chosen to be used to do this.

The influence of the Victorians

Christmas Trees came over to England from Germany with Prince Albert in 1846, and whilst I knew that I have to admit that I wasn’t totally familiar with the original story of Martin Luther’s tree.

Ladybird Christmas Customs Victorian Traditions

The Christmas Tree wasn’t the only Christmas Custom that was introduced in Victorian times. It was also when the first Christmas cards were sent, and the first Christmas Crackers pulled.

This morning my children opened the first door on their advent calendar, and I suppose it’s a bit disappointing that the book talks about these, but now where they came from. A quick search online suggests they were first used by German Lutherans in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Christmas around the world

Christmas Customs can vary from country to country and as well as introducing us to Santa Claus the book also talks about St Nicholas (or Sinterklaas as he is known in The Netherlands), Christkindl (Germany’s Christ Child) and Befana who delivers gifts to Italian children on 6 January each year.

For many people food traditions are an important part of their Christmas celebrations. But why do we eat mince pies, turkey and Christmas puddings? It’s worth reading to find out.

What’s in a name?

Many children wonder why Boxing Day is called what it is. Some think of people donning boxing gloves for the day, whilst others think about all the boxes that their gifts came in the day before. The real reason for the name comes from medieval times, when alms boxes were placed at the back door of every church to collect money for the poor. These boxes were always opened on 26th December and so that is why the day became known as Boxing Day.

I’ve actually learnt quite a few new facts from reading this book. I wasn’t aware before that the word pantomime means “all mime” and that the first pantomimes were acted out entirely through dancing and mime. They’ve become such a huge Christmas tradition that I know many of us will miss this year in particular.

It can be so easy to be caught up in the commercialism of Christmas, but even if you’re not religious yourself, it’s lovely to try to understand some of the Christmas customs, why we do them and when they originated. Christmas Customs is actually a perfect way to start filling in some of the gaps in my knowledge.

About Ladybird Tuesday

Ladybird Tuesday is a regular feature here on Penny Reads, where I delve into my Ladybird book collection and choose a title to share with my readers. The weekly series originally started on my old blog, Being Mrs C, and this post originally appeared on there. I’m now in the process of moving all those posts over to Penny Reads and also adding titles that I have acquired since then. A list is currently being compiled here of all the titles I have in my collection.

The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman

November 23, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

Cover or The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

I always approach any celebrity written book with a slight degree of caution. Just because someone is famous doesn’t mean they’re a good writer. Yes, this theory has been proven completely wrong with the likes of David Walliams and his children’s books. And I’m delighted to say that Richard Osman also disproves it in the adult crime fiction genre with The Thursday Murder Club.

I honestly can’t remember where I first read about The Thursday Murder Club, but as soon as I did I was determined to get myself a copy to read it. Just the setting of a group of pensioners in a posh retirement village getting together every week to investigate unsolved murders intrigued me enough to hook me into the story and want to find out more about them. Richard Osman has said in interviews that he was inspired by people that he met when visiting a real retirement complex and I’d love to hear what those particular pensioners think of the book.

The Thursday Murder Club is a bit like a modern day Agatha Christie story, with these pensioners suddenly turning their skills to a live local murder case. One where they knew the victim. But instead of curtain twitching Miss Marple you have Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron. An unlikely quartet, who bring together a mix of backgrounds that give them the skills to succeed where the police struggle.

One of the things I love most about The Thursday Murder Club is actually what I struggled a little with in the first few chapters. The characters. Richard Osman has done an amazing job in creating some brilliant characters. As you might expect from their age, they all seem to have fascinating backstories and I want to know more about all of them – especially Elizabeth. But with there being so many (wonderful) characters in the retirement village I actually got a bit confused at the start of the book. So many new people to meet in quick succession had my head spinning a bit. Maybe that’s just me showing my age though!

Once I’d sorted out in my head who was who the book just started to fly. So many twists and turns, and so much more that I’m still keen to find out about our “amateur” detectives. I’ve heard there is a second book planned and I so hope that’s right as I can’t wait to learn more about everyone’s back story.

It’s also fair to say that I can no longer go past any sort of retirement village or block without wondering if there’s an equivalent club there. Part of me’s quite excited now by the prospect of retirement!

The Thursday Murder Club is available to buy online *here.

Disclaimer: Any links marked * are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links I receive a small commission. It will cost you no more than if you’d arrived at the site on your own. Any commission is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Finding Calm in Books and Reading

September 18, 2020 by penny 1 Comment

Today I am delighted to welcome my dear friend Becky Goddard-Hill to Penny Reads. My children and I loved Becky’s first book Create Your Own Happy and now she’s back with a follow up title – Create Your Own Calm – and today she is sharing her tips on finding calm in books and reading.

This is an extract from Create Your Own Calm – an activity book for 6-12 years olds written by Becky Goddard-Hill and published this week by Harper Collins.

It has contains 50 activities, all backed by science, to support kids with their big feelings and develop ways they can help themselves to feel calmer

Reading

‘Reading gives us a place to go when we have to stay where we are’ Mason Cooley (Speech and language professor)

Those of you who love to read will already know how amazingly powerful a book can be. It can educate you, distract you, change your mood and transport you to another world.

For those of you who have not (yet) discovered the magic of reading here are some tips to help you fall in love with books

5 tips to help you fall in love with books

1. Try books you haven’t read before. So, if serious books make you groan, try a joke book or something more light-hearted. Maybe you like books about people your age, or maybe mysteries will hook you? As a general rule of thumb the kind of things you like to watch on TV or at the movies are probably going to be the kind of books you like to read.

2. Read regularly. Like anything at all that you try the more your practice the easier it gets Try 15 mins a day for a week and see how you go.

3. Try reading a series – it’s a great way to get into reading and brilliant to see the same characters across several books. Here are a few you might like ….

The Worst Witch
Diary of a Wimpy kid
The Famous Five
The Magic Faraway Tree books
Beast Quest
Ruby Redfort
Murder Most Unladylike
Percy Jackson
Harry Potter

4. Not everyone finds reading easy or fun but pretty much everyone loves a story. Audiobooks are spoken books and they can be a lovely way to help you chill out.

5. Reading should be done somewhere where you can properly relax. Maybe you can read under your duvet with a torch, in a warm, bubble bath, or lying on a blanket in the grass.. Make your reading space comfy and you will soon get lost in a book.

The science bit

Reading is a powerful way to relax. Even six minutes can be enough to reduce your stress levels by more than two thirds, according to new research at the University of Sussex. They believe this is because the distraction of entering a whole new world eases tension in both your heart and in your muscles.

It works faster than other ways of de-stressing such as listening to music, going for a walk or having a warm drink.

Activity – Book Bingo

Book bingo is a great way to read different books, maybe your school does this? The idea is to colour in ones you have done and when your book bingo is complete reward yourself with a prize (maybe a kitchen disco?)

Create your own calm … by escaping into a story.

If you want to find out more about this book and read some extract and activity ideas, check out the “blog tour” below!

Penny Reads – Encourage Reading Activity / Book Bingo

Rainy Day Mum – Stress Less Yoga for Kids

Much More for Less – Nature Crafts

Emma and 3 – talking about feelings

Growing Family – Creating a pizza garden

Thrifty Mum – Cloud Watching

AD: Kindness Counts 123 – R. A. Strong and Ekaterine Trukhan

August 19, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

At 21 months old now my daughter is starting to recognise the concept of numbers and counting – although she might not always get the numbers in the right order yet! She has definitely started to understand that there are some books all about counting though, and she often picks them out and I see her jabbing items in the pictures with her finger, whilst counting out loud. Kindness Counts 123 is a beautiful example of such a counting book.

Counting down from 10 on each double page, Kindness Counts 123 is full of examples of how children can make the world a kinder place. The delightful illustrations show children helping each other and being compassionate towards how others might be feeling. Learning skills like kindness and empathy are so important and it is wonderful for children to see these as early as possible.

I’m also pleased to say that Kindness 123 is also a very diverse book in terms of the people featured in all the pictures throughout. There is also a lovely flow though them of the child who has received kindness in one picture, being the one who is performing an act of kindness in the next.

The acts of kindness may be relatively simple, but then the best acts of kindness often are. Taking cookies round to a new neighbour, sharing your toys or reading a bedtime story to your brothers. It really does show that you can demonstrate kindness with small acts. I’m guessing it also wasn’t deliberate, but the act of “three short words for Grandma and Grandpa so they don’t feel so far away” was also incredibly poignant during lockdown.

For my daughter though being pushed high on a swing had to be her favourite page. Every time we turn to that page there is utter delight in her voice as she shouts “swing, swing!”

Kindness Counts 123 is published by Highlights and has a RRP of £12.99. It is aimed at children aged 2 to 5 years. ISBN 9781684376520. It is available to buy online *here.

Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Kindness Counts 123 for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain my own. Any links marked * are affiliate links and if you make a purchase through them I receive a small a mount of commission whilst it costs you no more than if you had gone to the site yourself to make a purchase. Many thanks for all purchases that you make. It is very much appreciated.

Wave Me Goodbye – Jacqueline Wilson

August 18, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

When then 9 year old Little Miss C started reading Jacqueline Wilson’s Wave Me Goodbye the plan was that I would read along with her. That didn’t exactly go to plan. Firstly, she has far more free time to read in than I do, and secondly, when I stated reading it I just found it all far too emotional! Let me explain.

The cover of Wave Me Goodbye by Jacqueline Wilson

Starting in September 1939, at the start of World War 2, Wave Me Goodbye tells the story of ten year old Shirley Louise Smith who is about to be evacuated out of London along with thousands of other children. But Shirley’s mother doesn’t initially tell her what is happening. Instead Shirley is told that they are going away on a “little holiday” together.

When I started reading the book it was just days after probably one of my lowest days of lockdown. The day on which my children had finished school before they closed, and on what ended up being my son’s last proper day at his Infant School. That morning I had been allowed in with my Governor Hat on to video their final class assembly for all the other parents. They had been learning about World War 2 and were supposed to be telling the rest of the school and their parents about everything they had learnt, including what it was like for children to be evacuated and to have had to carry gas masks around with them. At a time of such uncertainty and with everything being compared to war time I simply couldn’t cope with reading a book set at the time.

A few months later though and life has moved on a bit and doesn’t feel quite so scary and war like any more. I sat down and started again with Wave Me Goodbye and I’m so glad I did.

It’s a lovely story about what it must have been like for a young girl to leave her mother and everything she knew at home behind and be moved to a totally different part of the country.

When they arrive in the countryside, Shirley is one of the last children to billeted and ends up in a slightly strange situation with two women who for various reasons are set apart from many others in the village. She’s not there alone though. Two boys from her school, lanky Kevin and baby-faced Archie, are also placed at the mysterious Red House.

Over time Shirley starts to uncover some of the house and its occupants’ secrets. The book culminates in what I can only describe as a very grown up plot-twist that I certainly didn’t see coming at all.

For children learning about the Second World War and the evacuation of children to the countryside Wave Me Goodbye is a wonderful way of immersing them in what it must have been like to have been evacuated as a child. There are several points in the story that I can see would be perfect for initiating discussion with children about all the emotions surrounding evacuation, and for them to feel real empathy with the characters in it. The twist at the end leads me to say that it is probably better for slightly older primary school children though, rather than younger readers.

Wave Me Goodbye is available to buy online *here.

Disclaimer: Any links marked with a * are affiliate links. If you buy anything via them I receive a small commission, but it costs you no more than if you had gone there yourself. Thank you for any purchases that you do make.

AD: Chef Junior – 100 Super Delicious Recipes by Kids for Kids

August 18, 2020 by penny Leave a Comment

During lockdown there was a definite push to use that time at home with your kids wisely and try to teach them some of those lifeskill that you might not normally have time to work on. Many families used that time to cook together and I think it’s vital that we ensure that such skills aren’t forgotten when (or should that be if?) kids return to school. That’s where Chef Junior comes in.

100 Recipes

Containing 100 recipes that were all written by children aged 11 to 14, this is the perfect book to appeal to children who want to get busy in the kitchen, making the kind of food that they want to eat.

With the authors all hailing from North America, there is a definite American twist to many of the recipes, as well as standards like Mac ‘n’ Cheese and Burgers. Some of them may sound a little strange to us – Pizza Cauliflower soup has Little Miss C howling with laughter – but actually all of them look delicious in the accompanying photographs.

Recipes in the book are split as follows:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
Snacks
Dessert
Drinks

and each recipe is graded from Easy to Advanced so that you can see the skill level required to make it.

Background food and cooking tips

Before launching into the recipes the book has several introductory sections that cover things like Real Food, How to Use the Equipment in this Book, Using Knives Safely and How to Substitute Ingredients to Make Recipes Allergy-Friendly. Whilst the latter three sections make sense wherever in the world you are (possibly with a few names changed) the Real Food section is very North America specific. Rules around food labelling for instance are definitely different here in the UK and some of the advice given (for instance about using Price Look-Up Sticker codes to work out whether something is organic or not) simply doesn’t apply here.

When talking about organic food the book mentions about The Dirty Dozen and The Clean Fifteen as guides for fruit and veg that you should only ever buy organic as they are most likely to be contaminated with large amounts of pesticides, or ones that are most safe to eat when not organic. These aren’t terms I’ve ever come across in the UK before but a bit of research suggests that whilst they are US lists (and our farming methods are different) it is suggested that these fruit and veg are most susceptible to contamination regardless of the methods used.

Clear instructions and easy to follow recipes

The book as a whole features some really good clear instructions for children to follow. There are also extra useful hints like details on how to safely cut, peel, slice or scoop out an avocado. With the book being aimed at children it doesn’t assume loads of cookery knowledge or experience. That’s something I often find can be the stumbling block when you let a child loose with some adult cook books. I also like the really clear way that for each recipe it tells you both the active time and the total time for the recipe. It’s something that I think should be in all cook books.

I’m also pleased to report that the book contains some clear metric conversion charts at the back, which are necessary when you have American recipes measuring things in Cups. There’s also a short section on meal planning which after lockdown has to be one of my most detested jobs. Any book that can help children realise what there parents have been going through for all these years when it comes to meal planning is a wonderful thing.

So far we’ve only had time to try out the pizza recipe in the book, but it was a huge success and I for one am eyeing up the Cheeseburger Casserole and Banana Bread recipes. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Buying Chef Junior

Chef Junior is published in September 2020 by Sterling Epicure. Hardback RRP £16.99 ISBN 9781454933618 It can be purchased online *here.

Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Chef Junior for the purposes of this review. All opinions remain my own. Any links marked * are affiliate links and if you make a purchase through them I receive a small commission whilst it costs you no more than if you’d gone to the site on your own. Thank you for any purchases you do make.