October 2000Baby books: *18 months and over*
THIS MONTH’S FAVE RAVE:
Friends, by Rod Lewis
This is a
longer story for children who are beginning to spread their wings,
gain a little more independence, and enter the tricky world of
friendships.
Ambrose the rabbit moves to a new area and finds it hard to make
friends with the other rabbits because he feels he has little in common with
them. But by the end, he is playing music with Maisie, building a
train with Charles and even gives a heart-warming hug to the shy
Charlotte. At the very end of the book Ambrose and all his rabbit
friends are shown diving off a bridge into the
water for a swim – a uniting interest. The artwork is a great
combination of large-scale characters with strong expressions your
child can relate to, and tiny background details that you can look for
on repeat readings.
Published by Red Fox, £4.99
HONOURABLE MENTION:
Dream Snow, by Eric Carle
This big gift-book is pricey, but if you like to look at the detail of
texture, pattern and colour in pictures, and you know The Very
Hungry Caterpillar book by the same creator, then there’s lots of
wonderful stuff for you here.
Also, if you buy into the romantic dream
of a white Christmas (which I most certainly do) you will find the
story appealing, although perhaps like me, a little disappointing
until the ‘PUSH HERE’ button at the end, which contains a
sound chip.
It’s an exquisite, tinkly metallic sound, evocative of
brittle frost and cold Christmas skies. Wonderful.
Mother of a two-and-a-bit year-old comments: “My daughter goes
again and again to the press-button at the end, because – in my view – the sound is really special. Sometimes we have a race to see who
can reach it first.”
Published by Hamish Hamilton, £14.99
For more books in this age range see our baby
books archive.
Also see this month’s books for babies:
Click here for
pregnancy and parenting books and videos.
