Public Address | Cafe | Busytown: A real page-turner

Jolisa

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:12:47 +1200

Jackie, I'm fascinated by the link to Moving Smart. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that there are multiple dimensions to being "smart" and learning. And also that different children will respond to different approaches.

This reminds me of a visit to my big boy's school earlier this year. They…

Amy Gale

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:07:36 +1200

Ooo! Oooo! Moomintroll!

(But not the book that's like a cross between a drug trip and a depressive episode. Just the ones about jungles growing inside and so forth.)

Jolisa

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:04:10 +1200

Squerp'yens might be scorpions

Bingo! Scary whichever way you spell 'em!

Jolisa

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 07:01:19 +1200

So many great titles! Am madly jotting them down. We've had fun with the Magic Faraway Tree books too. Say what you like about Enid Blyton's deathless prose, but anyone who can invent a magic tree with a super fast slippery spiral SLIDE inside, for speedy exits from dramatic situations,…

Jackie Clark

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:32:19 +1200

I'm on jury duty next week, but I'll have a poke around at work Jolisa and see what other childrens' gems we can dig up – after all, being a kindergarten teacher, you'd think I'd be able to immediately think of some great contemporary classic childrens books, wouldn't you?. I'm…

Amy Gale

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 11:24:50 +1200

Russell Hoban's The Mouse and his Child is good to read aloud.

Still remember my mother encouraging me to read The Mouse and His Child before we went to the movie. Such a bad habit to get children into! Sets them up for a lifetime of disappointments... That said, the…

Venetia King

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:36:41 +1200

Just had a d'oh moment... re-reading several days later, finally figured out that squerp'yens might be scorpions. Fantastic.

If you like the sound of Sin Fairies you and your son(s) might enjoy Ferocious the Puppy Dragon. It was one of my favourites – I always want to recommend…

Aidan

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 14:51:41 +1200

My wife is really enjoying reading our five year old some of her old favourites by Enid Blyton. Particularly "The Faraway Tree" series and "The Wishing Chair". They are a bit "jolly hockeysticks" and "Oh no! Mother will be very cross if we are late for tea!" but that is…

Rob Stowell

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:33:26 +1200

Russell Hoban's The Mouse and his Child is good to read aloud. Also quite a few Dahl's are good: we've got a tape of Fantastic Mr Fox the kids have listened to again and again. But there are many others.

Jackie Clark

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 12:25:16 +1200

Jolisa, a lovely, lovely post as per usual. On the reading to kids thing, I once spent a day with Margaret Mahy at the Storylines festival here in Auckland. I was supposed to shepherd her hither and thither, and failed dismally. Anyway, the one thing she said to me that…

Jeremy Andrew

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:33:52 +1200

When they were born, their sensible, liberal modern parents announced that O & I would be bought up free of sexual stereotyping, unencumbered by traditional gender roles

I was bound & determined to raise my baby girls with matchbox cars & lego, but was thwarted when we had boys instead. In the end…

Jeremy Andrew

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:29:04 +1200

coming soon to Public Address.... BusyTotBlog.... the musings of a young man on playground politics, sand pit games, bed time story critiques and other pertinant issues of the day.

Its never too early to start blogging. My 7 yr old has a page on blogspot that he updates sporadically. We…

Jonty

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:18:46 +1200

My partner has an hilarious collection of sayings of our daughter when she was the age of Busyboy. Back in the days before we joined the settled folk and were still wandering in our house on wheels; when the traffic dept was separate from the police and were easily identifiable…

Leigh Kennaway

Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:33:40 +1200

coming soon to Public Address.... BusyTotBlog.... the musings of a young man on playground politics, sand pit games, bed time story critiques and other pertinant issues of the day.

__the precipitating books were a noxious series of seven books called The Rainbow Fairies. Six and seven year old girls love…

Jolisa

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 04:12:00 +1200

I'm quite sensitive about this, not wanting to feel like I'm indoctrinating my child.

I'm with you on this – he mostly got it from the Hurricane Katrina coverage and figuring things out for himself. We try to be mild-mannered and even-handed with answers to self-generated questions, including the unanswerable…

Jolisa

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 04:07:51 +1200

Mrs Windyflax and the Punga People

My Brown Bear Barney

[scribbling frantically, always keen for recommendations]

The Rainbow Fairies

[reaches for bucket] You poor thing. They sound vile. We've suffered a similar phenom with Captain Underpants, which get pretty wearing long after you've realised that the truly cool thing about…

Jolisa

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 04:02:34 +1200

As a teacher, I say you are so right to enjoy his version of language as sadly his originality and freshness will be squeezed out of him.

I fear so. And yet, his Dad is a tireless coiner of words and user of curious turns of phrase, some of which…

Jolisa

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 04:00:24 +1200

Those cartoons taught him everything from what life might have been like for our dad growing up on a farm to where babies come from.

Er, yes. All those cartoons with Cyril the reluctant ram, or Dolores the ravenous sow, or indeed Jess the bitch with the little love-hearts floating…

Deborah

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 19:28:39 +1200

I read My Brown Bear Barney by Dorothy Butler to my eldest daughter the day she was born, and we haven't stopped since, 'though these days we mostly read to her younger sisters. I didn't read to them the day they were born, but only because it was about 8pm…

Russell Brown

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 17:28:07 +1200

So yes, thank you Murray Ball for services to literacy in the greater New England area!

Allow me to recommend Mrs Windyflax and the Punga People, words by Barry Crump, pictures by Murray Ball (we have a copy signed by Barry Crump!). It is a wonderful book of verse for…

Lucy Stewart

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:53:31 +1200

One night only a few months ago, checking to see that all was well upstairs, I heard a little voice chatting away from a darkened room. Peeking through the crack in the door I could see Busyboy hunched over a book, holding his dim night-light up to the page and…

Ian MacKay

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 10:48:25 +1200

A charming read. Thankyou. I read to my two sons from the time they were a few weeks old until they were 11-12 years old and we loved it. My now 23 year old son is almost obsessed with books and spends every spare dollar on them. As a teacher,…

Public Address

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 10:48:25 +1200

Discussion from blog post.