Tag: nick bland

Donald drummed all day long.
He even dreamed about drumming.
But nobody else seemed to enjoy Donald’s drumming quite as much as he did.

Donald loves drumming, but no one around him seems to enjoy the drumming as much as Donald does, so Donald decides he needs to find something new to love. His attempts are not very successful, but finally Donald hits upon an idea which gives him something new to do, and ultimately a new place to do his drumming.

From the author-illustrator of the much-acclaimed A Monster Wrote Me a Letter, Nick Bland, Donald Loves Drumming is a very cute picture book offering. With Bland’s trademark animal characters – Donald is a rhinoceros – and soft colours, as well as a simple, but feel good, story line, the book will appeal to preschoolers and to adult readers.

Lovely.

Donald Loves Drumming, by Nick Bland
Scholastic Press, 2008

This book is available online at Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Henry was a very serious boy.
His room was always tidy and he always
buttoned his shirt right to the top.
Henry never daydreamed or played with toys.
He preferred doing sums and straightening
things that were wonky.
Until one day Henry had a thought
that didn’t make any sense at all.

Henry lives in an ordered world. An organised and slightly dull, monotonic world. His clothes are tidy, his socks pulled up. His hair part is straight, so are the flowers – after he’s tied them up. He is a thoroughly sensible boy. Then one day, while preparing to clean his teeth, he has a thought that makes no sense at all. And for the first time some colour enters his world. He tries to combat and banish subsequent nonsensical thoughts but the results are quite unexpected. Henry is determined to find an answer to his problem, and of course he does. His world will return to normal. When it’s proper and sensible that it do so.

Order is a good thing. It helps to structure the day and organise the week. But it can go too far. Nick Bland introduces the reader to a little boy, Henry, who seems to have received a double-, or triple-dose of order. Too much order and wonder of life can be lost. And so it is with Henry. There doesn’t even seem to be any joy in the tasks he completes so diligently. Imagination, or as Bland calls it, ‘Imaginitis’, can strike at any time. It is not ordered or structured, but wild and bright and wonderful. And it is something to be embraced. The early monotone spreads are invaded by just the hint of colour. Even this is enough to disrupt the shadows of Henry’s life. The colour elements wax and wane as Henry struggles with his dilemma, until they triumph as he does in establishing the appropriate place for imagination in a life. The text is very spare and delivered in almost deadpan prose, with the illustrations providing much of the humour. Recommended for 4-7 year olds.

13347214 When Henry Caught Imaginitis, auth/ill Nick Bland
Scholastic 2008
ISBN: 9781741690309

This book can be purchased from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.