Last-Minute Picture Book Costumes for Halloween

Did Halloween creep up on you this year? Stuck for a costume? Try a few of our favourite picture book characters with this quick and easy how-to.

The Nutbrown Hares
Is Guess How Much I Love You? a favourite in your house? Try dressing up as everybody’s favourite father-son duo, the Nutbrown Hares. Pair a brown jumper with brown slacks or track pants, and add a set of ears. Don’t have ears lying around the house? A piece of cardboard (the inside of a cereal box works well), a brown texta, and a couple of slivers of sticky tape and you’re all set.

Where’s Wally?
If you have a few little explorers in your house this Halloween, celebrate with their adventurousness with a Where’s Wally? costume. Pick up a red-and-white striped shirt (or make one with an old tee and a red texta), don a pair of blue jeans, slip on some glasses, and you're ready to go. Want to go the whole hog? Take it a step further by adding a red beanie and one of Wally's accessories, such as a walking stick or binoculars. (Not into red and white? Pick up a black and yellow shirt and black jeans, and you've got an instant Odwal.)

Goldilocks
Have a yen for a costume that’s just right? Try Goldilocks. A blonde wig and a dress, accompanied by a teddy bear or set of plastic bowls, and you’re all set. Or have a little fun, and try one of the variations listed in Allan and Jessica Ahlberg’s version of Goldilocks.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt Bear & Company
This one is especially easy if you have a few children. For the bear, start with a brown outfit (as with the Nutbrown Hares). Add a pair of beary ears – they can be cut out of cardboard, or fashioned out of any left over fabric that’s fuzzy and brown. Draw a black nose on to your bear with face paint (eyeliner also works in a pinch).

Next, get the whole family involved – sing the words to We're Going on a Bear Hunt as you walk about on Halloween. Or, if you’re so inclined, try matching the other members of your party to the characters in the book: all the outfits are fairly simple, and you probably already have the makings of the family costumes in your wardrobe.

Happy Halloween!
 

Poetry for Children: Guinea Pig Town and Other Animal Poems

Peta Jinnath Andersen is an Online Consultant for Walker Books Australia. Her absolute, forever-and-ever favourite children's books areGuess How Much I Love You, A Bit Lost, Howl's Moving Castle, A Wrinkle in Time, A Monster Calls, and Winnie-the-Pooh.

When we think of poetry, we rarely think of children. It’s usually Keats and Wordsworth, or Henry Lawson, or Seamus Heaney and Billy Collins, or dozens of other wonderful wordsmiths who come to mind. And much as I love them, and share them with my son (it is never, ever too early to share the rhythms of language), reading adult poetry aloud is vastly different to reading poetry intended for children.

Poetry, whether it be for children or adults, has value—especially when read aloud. The differences are usually about pitch, tone, and subject: poetry written specifically for children relates in some way to their experience, in a way that which is written for adults cannot. Moving house, being out bush, animals (movement, sounds, behaviours), play…there are dozens of things and ideas kids can relate to, recite, and share.

Love the idea of reading poetry with your kids, but stuck for where to get started? Look for illustrated works, like one of our favourites, Lorraine Marwood’s Guinea Pig Town and Other Animal Poems. The illustrations help younger children verbalise and discuss the words. And don’t be afraid to play! Ask questions, make silly noises, appreciate language! The marvellous thing about poetry is that there is no wrong way to read it—it can be happy or sad or hilarious. You can experiment and have fun and talk about it in a way that’s not possible with straight up prose. And when paired with illustrations, like the wombat shown here, words become something almost tangible and exciting.

Lorraine Marwood was born and raised in rural Victoria and has lived for most of her married life on a dairy farm with her husband and their six children. Lorraine is an award-winning poet who has been widely published in literary magazines across Australia, as well as magazines in the UK, USA, New Zealand and Canada. Read more of her poetry in A Ute Picnic and Other Australian Poems, Ratwhiskers and Me and Star Jumps, which was short listed for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards 2010, Lower Primary Category; received a Notable mention in the Children s Book Council of Australia Awards, 2010; and won the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, Children’s Fiction, 2010.

Tell us about the poems you read with your children in the comments!

No Bears Released Into Paperback!

This month sees the exciting release of No Bears into paperback. It’s a cracker of a book, short-listed in the Early Childhood and Picture Book Categories in the Children’s Book Council Of Australia Book Of The Year Awards, 2012.

Ruby wants to tell you a story. A story with absolutely no bears. You don’t need bears for a book. You need pretty things like fairies and princesses and castles. And maybe funny things and exciting things - but definitely no bears! 

The book is a marvellous marriage of prose and illustration, each playing off the other. It’s also a fun introduction to what makes a story a story, full of possibilities to learn, discuss, and play.

Meg McKinlay grew up in Bendigo, Victoria, in a book-loving, TV- and car-free household. On the long and winding path to becoming a children’s writer, she has worked a variety of jobs including swim instructor, tour guide, translator and teacher. These days, she lives with her family near the ocean in Fremantle and is an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Western Australia, where she has taught Australian Literature, Japanese, and Creative Writing. Meg divides her time between teaching and writing, a balance that swings wildly between chaos and calm.

Leila Rudge was born in England and grew up making mud pies with six siblings and Jeni from number 15. After completing an Illustration Degree at Bath Spa University, Leila headed to Australia to seek her fortune (and the sunshine). Creating tiny characters for books is her favourite part of illustrating.



Love No Bears? Take a peek at Duck for a Day and Definitely No Ducks!

Martin Waddell Discusses "Owl Babies"

Learn more about Owl Babies here, and more about Martin Waddell here.

Sneak Peek: Big Red Kangaroo, by Claire Saxby and Graham Byrne

Peta Jinnath Andersen is an Online Consultant for Walker Books Australia. Her absolute, forever-and-ever favourite children's books are Guess How Much I Love You, A Bit Lost, Howl's Moving Castle, A Wrinkle in Time, A Monster Calls, and Winnie-the-Pooh. 

Kangaroos are a quintessential part of Australian life – they are emblematic, featured throughout official materials, shown on television shows, a fixture in many children’s songs. Depictions vary; often times, children see kangaroos as cute and cuddly or large and lazy. (As anyone who’s ever been to a kangaroo park at the zoo can attest.)

In Big Red Kangaroo, Claire Saxby and Graham Byrne have cast the kangaroo in a more natural light. Clear and beautiful prose details Big Red’s life; well-researched facts accompany the story, creating opportunities for discussion.

Far inland, where ocean is a dim memory, the sun floats on the waves of another bake-earth day. In the long shadows, a big red kangaroo licks his forearms and lets the early evening breeze wash over him.

Stunning illustrations of inland Australia bring depth to the story, and particularly to Big Red.

Both text and illustration highlight key non-fiction details and encourage readers to think about kangaroos and their place in the natural world. But, as with Flight of the Honeybee, this book is so much more than a story about kangaroos, or an exploration of facts. It's a pleasure to read aloud; it's exciting; it's full of opportunities for acting out what it is to be a kangaroo, or to go out into the world and consider how it would look to Big Red. It is a book that brings bush to city, and roos to heart.

Claire Saxby was born in Melbourne and grew up in Newcastle, NSW where she thought she'd stay until the end of her days. Then, while she was holidaying in Melbourne, Claire's parents decided to move to Bougainville Island in Papua New Guinea. Fortunately, they waited and took her with them. Since then, she's lived in more houses than she can remember. Claire is the author of Ebi's Boat, illustrated by Anne Spudvilas, which was a Children's Book Council of Australia Notable book in 2007. Her title published with Walker Books Australia in 2010, There Was an Old Sailor, illustrated by Cassandra Allen, was short-listed for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards 2010, Young Children Category. (See the colouring sheet here, or find the Classroom Notes.)

Born in Sydney sometime last century, Graham Byrne did the usual school and university time, worked as an electrical engineer for years, then went into building houses and structures. The old back injury put paid to hard physical work. An interest in art as a creative adjunct to the practical nature of building led to formal education, work installing artworks at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, and wonderings about other roads to explore. Wanting his art to have some 'practical' useful purpose, to be illuminating, pointed Graham to illustration and design pathways. Explorations of drawing, painting, filling sketchbooks, making books for his grandchildren and illustrating short stories have combined to prompt his journey as a book illustrator. Big Red Kangaroo is Graham’s first picture book.

Learn more about Nature Storybooks: Big Red Kangaroo, and find our classroom notes.

Sneak Peek: Helping Little Star, by Sally Morgan and Blaze Kwaymullina

 When Little Star falls off the edge of Night Sky, he meets Python, Dingo and Kangaroo. Will his new friends be able to help him get home?

From an award-winning mother and son team.

Blaze Jake Kwaymullina loves writing children's books and hearing kid's opinions of books. He also enjoys working in the area of oral history and helping people get their stories told. He currently works as a lecturer.

Sally Morgan is both a writer and a visual artist. Sally loves animals and is passionate about the Australian bush. Sally has written books for both children and adults. Her autobiography, My Place, is an Australian classic. It has been published in a special children's edition called Sally's Story. Together with her adult children, Sally wrote the Stopwatch series. Sally is a respected visual artist whose work has won international acclaim. She is represented in galleries in Australia, US and elsewhere. Sally is a descendant of the Palyku people of the Pilbara region of northwest Western Australia.

 

Learn more about Helping Little Star here.

Caption Contest: Oh Baby! The A to Z

In need of a little cuteness for the afternoon? Feast your eyes upon these pages from our absolutely adorable Oh Baby! The A to Z.  Leave a comment with your caption for these gorgeous animals, and you'll be entered to win a copy of Oh Baby! in hardback or board book.

Learn more about Oh Baby! The A to Z here, and don't forget to leave your caption entry in the comments below.

Spotlight: James Foley On What You Should Never Feed A Lion

Western Australian author/illustrator James Foley is always on the go, presenting at schools and libraries and running fun workshops at bookshops in WA. Here's a sneak peek inside his studio, along with a few very important Top 5s. 

1. Top 5 Things You Should Definitely Not Feed A Lion: 

• a house
• a bomb 
• the principal 
• the Eiffel Tower 
• a toilet 

2. Top 5 things children tell me I definitely should feed a lion: 

• a house 
• a bomb 
•  the principal 
• the Eiffel Tower 
• a toilet 

Top 5 Things you definitely should not feed small children or lions: 

• Well you should never feed small children to lions, and you should never feed lions to small children.
• BUT, you can try feeding larger children to lions (it's more of a satisfying meal) and you can try feeding a single small lion to a group of children (I don't think they'd be able to polish off more than one lion but it depends on the size of the group and the size of the children).
• Small children and lions should also never eat chewing gum, or anything else that will stick to their hair or their mane - or their parents' hair or mane.
• Small children and lions should never eat anything they find down the back of the couch.
• Small children and lions should never eat tuna mornay. (It just tastes really gross).
  
  

3 Things every hungry lion should have: 

• good table manners 
• a large supply of digestive biscuits 
• a well-stocked litter tray 

Learn more about James, lions, and little boys who are handy with a toothbrush here.