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My Cat Likes To Hide In Boxes by Lynley Dodd Analysis
Written by Eve Sutton, My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes is the very first picture book illustrated by New Zealand’s Dame Lynley Dodd.
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Why is the Australian Women’s Soccer Team Called The Matildas?
Many people are wondering for the first time in 2023, why are The Matildas called The Matildas? Is it sexist or fine, actually?
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Sinky Boo by Ann Maclean and Art Barton 1947 Australian Picture Book
If you find a copy of Sinky Boo in a secondhand bookstore, look after it. It’s rare. Published in 1947, Sinky Boo was written by an unknown writer called Ann Maclean and a one-eyed artist best known for his fairground artwork at Sydney’s Luna Park.
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A Sock Is A Pocket For Your Toes by Liz Garton Scanlon and Robin Preiss Glasser Analysis
A Sock Is A Pocket For Your Toes (2004) is a picture book by Liz Garton Scanlon and Robin Preiss Glasser, published by HarperCollins. A cave is a pocket for a bear,a breath is a pocket full of air.A hat is a pocket for your hair,and a seat is a pocket called a chair… A Sock […]
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Whimsy: What does it mean for a book to be whimsical?
What are the common features of popular works commonly described as ‘whimsical’? A long while ago I swapped a middle grade critique with someone who had used ‘whimsical’ in the title of their work, yet the story itself did not feel whimsical. I started to wonder about the unspoken rules of ‘whimsical’. But could I […]
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My Shadow Is Pink by Scott Stuart Analysis
My Shadow Is Pink is a rhyming picture book by Australian author/illustrator Scott Stuart, perfect for Rainbow Storytime, or at any time in fact. I’d encourage readers to compare and contrast this book with The Day The Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers. The Crayons picture book is a mega bestseller, and I […]
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On Rhyming Picturebooks and Children’s Poetry Analysis
Examine the work of rhyming masters like Jane Yolen, Jack Prelutsky, Karma Wilson, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen and Corey Rosen Schwartz. Tara Lazar, How To Write Children’s Picturebooks “If it’s going to rhyme, it’s just terribly important that there’s some repeated phrase, some sort of chorus-y bit.” Julia Donaldson, The Guardian interview In 1991 an editor in […]
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The Annotated Night Before Christmas
“The Night Before Christmas” is an alternative title of the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (controversially) by a guy called Clement Clarke Moore. The poem was first published anonymously in 1823 and only later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, who claimed authorship in 1837, the start of the Victorian era. A Dutch migrant called Henry Livingston might be the true author.…
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In A Dark, Dark Room And Other Scary Stories
In A Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories written by Alvin Schwartz was first published in 1971 for emergent readers ready for scary… but not too scary. I recently looked closely at a modern picture book called Creepy Carrots, another excellent example of a ‘scary’ story perfectly pitched at 4-6 year olds. This collection […]
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Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Aardema and Vidal Analysis
Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain (1981) is a cumulative picture book written by Verna Aardema and illustrated by and Beatriz Vidal. The rhyming scheme borrows from the well-known childhood rhyme, “This is the house that Jack built“. Vidal’s illustrations have a folktale vibe about them, partly due to those nice white outlines reminiscent of […]
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Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss Analysis
This month I’m blogging a series aimed at teaching kids how to structure a story. This seven-step structure works for all forms of narrative. It works for picture books, songs, commercials, films and novels. Today I take a close look at another Dr Seuss early reader, Green Eggs and Ham. Green Eggs and Ham is buddy […]
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The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler Analysis
The Gruffalo is an example of mythic structure, which has been super successful as a story structure across cultures for the last 3000 years.
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A Fish Out Of Water by Helen Palmer Analysis
The story of Helen Palmer is — from the outside, certainly — a sad one. Helen is ‘the woman behind the man’ in the Dr Seuss duo. It was Helen who encouraged her husband Theo to start writing picture books. When the marriage ended and Theo embarked upon a second relationship, Helen suicided. It would […]
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The Biggest Sandwich Ever Analysis
The Biggest Sandwich Ever is a book from 1980. It was my first “Lucky Book Club” purchase, and I loved it. (I don’t agree with my husband either, who says there should also be an “Unlucky Book Club”.) What makes it great? It’s not especially original, but it does follow a successful formula. Although the […]
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Slinky Malinki by Lynley Dodd Picture Book Analysis
Slinky Malinki is a picture book by New Zealand author illustrator Lynley Dodd. A cat has nine lives. For three he plays, for three he strays, and for the last three he stays. Old proverb A BRIEF HISTORY OF CATS IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE Sometimes it is difficult not to resent their apparent success, and they […]