Tag: Chantal Stewart

My Band by Elizabeth Lea & Chantal Stewart

I’m off to play in the band.

See if you can guess which instrument I’m going to play …

It starts with the letter Tt

I’m playing the triangle.

I play the triangle by hitting it

with a small metal rod.

Triangles belong to the percussion family.

I’m off to play in the band.

See if you can guess which instrument I’m going to play …

It starts with the letter Tt

I’m playing the triangle.

I play the triangle by hitting it

with a small metal rod.

Triangles belong to the percussion family.

Here’s a musical instrument primer, written and illustrated for young children. Each spread has a flap and a question. The same character, a young girl, is featured asking the question throughout, as if she’s trying all the instruments on for size. As well as the first letter, there’s a small image showing part of the instrument. When the flap is opened, the instrument is revealed in full and there is an explanation of how to play it. There’s also information about which family the instrument belongs to. When the reader reaches the final flap opening, the band is revealed: a collection of young children. There is a blank space for a photo of the reader, so they can be the leader of the band. Final pages feature projects and history based on some of the featured instruments. This is a sturdy paperback, built to withstand multiple readings. Youngest children will enjoy the open-the-flap, while budding musicians will enjoy learning more about music. Recommended for pre- and early-schoolers.

My Band

My Band, Elizabeth Lea ill Chantal Stewart National Library Australia Publishing 2013 ISBN: 9780642277701

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Available from good bookstores or online.

Between the Pages by Joan van Loon ill Chantal Stewart

The wind blew, the rain swept.

Two brave boys crept into the forest. Their names were Billy and Jack.

Palms stretched like huge umbrellas over their heads.

Trees, taller than giants, rose beside them.

The wind blew, the rain swept.

Two brave boys crept into the forest. Their names were Billy and Jack.

Palms stretched like huge umbrellas over their heads.

Trees, taller than giants, rose beside them.

Two young boys, Billy and Jack, inhabit a book. They encounter Australian animals large and small and all seem as fascinated by the boys as the boys are with what they see. The pace escalates with each page-turn, each new animal-type. The boys encounter bats, pythons, spiders and more in their journey through the bush. Excitement and fear in equal measure accompany each ‘page turn’, until the boys fall through a cloud of butterflies into their beds, where they are reading the book of their adventure. Immediately they want to begin again. Illustrations are watercolour and a combination of vignettes and full colour spreads. The bush is dense and lush, the landscape rich, the animals curious and surprised.

Between the Pages imagines an exciting life, if the reader could actually, rather than metaphorically, be immersed in a story. The two young characters are wide-eyed and enthusiastic as they discover the animals who inhabit the pages. They don’t know all about each animal, and decide that observing from a distance is safer than staying in any one opening. They carry with them a book, which only at the end is revealed as being the book they have entered. As the pace increases, text becomes more spare, until they explode back into ‘reality’ via butterflies. Although they seem to be in pajamas, it may be that this is a morning book, encouraging flights of fancy rather than a bedtime book! Recommended for pre- and early-schoolers.

Between the Pages

Between the Pages, Joan van Loon ill Chantal Stewart
New Frontier Publishing 2013
ISBN: 9781921928444

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Available from good bookstores or online.

I Spy Mum! by Janeen Brian & Chantal Stewart

I spy with my little eye
mums all starting with m.
But can I find the one who’s mine?
Will she be with them?

A young boy sailor is searching for his mum. He sits in his boat and peers out through his telescope. With gentle rhythmic language he tells of the mums he sees. There are drawing mums and roaring mums, making mums and baking mums. But none of them are his. There is a refrain, to let the reader know that the search must continue, and never be given up. Of course, he ultimately finds his own mum and they sail off together on the ocean. Illustrations are watercolour with plenty of white space. Text meanders around the pages, much as the searcher does with his telescope. There is always a sense that he will eventually find his mother.

I Spy Mum! is a celebration of the special relationship between child and mother. It might be on the tennis court, stringing flowers or sailing the seas, but the main point is that children love to share time with their mum. They like doing all sorts with mums, including playing hide and seek. The text is short, the language simple with repetition of sounds, and children will soon be predicting the next word, then ‘reading’ the whole text. The relationships portrayed are varied but all warm and inclusive. I Spy Mum! is a companion to ‘I Spy Dad!’ and will be enjoyed by young, pre-reading and early reading children.

I Spy Mum!

I Spy Mum! Janeen Brian, ill Chantal Stewart
New Frontier 2010
ISBN: 9781921042164

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
www.clairesaxby.com

This book can be purchased from good bookstores, or online from Fishpond.

Dragon Mode, by Sally Odgers

Reviewed by Kathryn Duncan

Every little boy has times in his life when he is in dragon mode and this is definitely no different in this wonderful book by Sally Odgers. Unlike real little boys, the main character knows what he does wrong when he is in dragon mode and that mothers, brothers, teachers and even the cat “don’t like dragons much.”

The illustrations are bright and entertaining and Chantal Stewart has done a wonderful job of capturing the emotions of each character – even in dragon mode, this little boy is rather appealing. Sally Odgers has kept the text simple and easy to understand for young children and uses repetition throughout to reinforce the two modes – dragon and boy.

As with all books, people will read different things into this story, but I found Dragon Mode to be about a boy being a boy (all little boys have two modes), and also about how children react to the behaviour of others. As the story progresses the main character appears in dragon mode when he is not getting the attention of someone, or when he does something they do not like. Maybe there is a message here for parents.

Dragon Mode is a book ready to become a favourite with pre-schoolers and early readers.

Dragon Mode, by Sally Odgers, illus by Chantal Stewart
New Frontier Publishing, 2007
HB rrp $24.95