book reviews – Picture Book Dragons

Mae’s First Day of School by Kate Berube

Posted on August 18, 2022 by Siobhan

Mae's First Day at School by Kate Berube book on a colourful rug, the book cover shows a nervous little girl stood outside the school gates, she's worried about her first day of school

It’s been a while since I’ve been in formal education, but the start of the academic year in September still feels like the “true” New Year to me, in a way that January 1^st never has. This year is an especially big one in our house, as the youngest human in the house will be starting reception class, so we’re sailing toward September on a heady mixture of excitement and fear, and naturally picture books about starting school have been a big part of addressing and managing those big feelings.

Mae’s First Day of School, written and illustrated by Kate Berube, is a great way in to conversations about starting school. It’s Mae’s first day of school, but Mae isn’t going. Her parents focus on the fun things that will be at school like class pets, big libraries and exciting play times, but Mae isn’t convinced. She’s worried about making friends, not being able to write, and missing her parents and decides that she won’t go. While her mother is distracted talking to the other parents of new starters, Mae squirrels up a tree and refuses to come down.

Before long, Mae hears a rustling and another little girl appears. Her name is Rosie, and she’s not going to school either. They share the biscuits from their lunchboxes and talk about their fears about starting school for the first time, and as they do, they hear another rustling. A tall lady climbs the tree, and she’s pleased to hear that Mae and Rosie aren’t going to school, because she’s not planning to go either. She’s Ms Pearl the class teacher, and she’s worried about the children not liking her, spelling words wrong on the blackboard and missing her cat…. More biscuit eating and chats about the big feelings ensue, but happily all three decide to come down from the tree and go in together by the time the bell rings.

Two little girls sit on a tree branch, they are frightened about starting school, one offers the other a cookie — Rosie and Mae making friends on their first day of school – they are both worried about starting school

My kids love this book. I think it speaks to something in human nature that it’s easier to reflect on the fears and weaknesses of a character or another person than your own, and the beauty of Mae’s First Day of School is that Mae’s character is believable and her fears are so relatable. When the children see Mae’s fears being echoed by Rosie, and even the class teacher, they get a sense that these are things that we all worry about, and that we’re all in the same boat. It’s cathartic without being heavy handed, and like Mae, they feel a little bit better about starting school at the end of it.

Two little girls and their teacher go happily into school to start their first day — Having overcome their fears about the first day of school together, the friends go happily into class

Inspector Penguin Investigates by Eoin McLaughlin

Posted on July 4, 2022 by Siobhan

Inspector Penguin Investigates: A Penguin with a nose for fishy goings on

You know the frustrating feeling when a book you expected to love lets you down? I’ve recently had the opposite experience when a book which I had zero expectations for proved a smash hit with my children.

I bought Inspector Penguin Investigates by Eoin McLaughlin and Ross Collins in a hurry when the cashier at Blackwells pointed out I was one book off getting a 3 for 2 deal after the children chose a picture book each, and if you’re going to grab a picture book from a table, then the one with a penguin dressed in the manner of Sherlock Holmes is an obvious choice. They both agreed that it should be their bedtime story that night instead of the books they chose themselves, and they’ve been asking for it as their bedtime story with an alarmingly high frequency ever since. I can even tell when their father is reading it as their bedtime story from the squeals and giggles that come out of them.

Inspector Penguin Investigates opens with the disappearance of the Diamond del Mondo from Baron von Buffetworth’s top secret and completely secure mega safe in an impenetrable castle. A detective is called in to investigate, and even though the penguin who arrives at the door doesn’t look like an inspector at first, they provide him with a hat and a magnifying glass and tell him to go off and find some clues. Inspector Penguin isn’t very good at finding clues, but he does have a finely-honed talent for finding fish while the young readers spot a series of clues which lead to the culprit on each page. Remarkably enough, Inspector Penguin does solve the crime at the end of the book, but who’s to say whether that’s because we’ve underestimated his talents, Columbo style, or whether it’s because there’s a large barrel of fish near the final clue.

Inspector Penguin Investigates is an uproariously funny book to read with young children, especially those who fancy themselves as great detectives. It’s great fun to appear absolutely baffled about what’s happened to the diamond, and the children take great pride in pointing out all the clues their silly parents have missed and explaining how the crime went down. I’m excited to check out Eoin McLaughlin’s other books, The Case of the Missing Cake and Secret Agent Elephant.

Big Feelings

The Bad Mood and The Stick by Lemony Snickett

Posted on January 27, 2022January 27, 2022 by Siobhan

The best facial expressions in picture books? That’s a bad mood!

When Curly’s mother won’t let her have an ice cream, she gets in a bad mood. Until she pokes her brother Napoleon with a stick, and the bad mood passes to her mother, who cheers up when she sees a man called Lou fall in a muddy puddle, at which point the bad mood passes along to him.

The Bad Mood and the Stick written by Lemony Snickett and illustrated by Matt Forsythe follows a bad mood cloud as it passes from person to person as a humble stick sparks a series of chance encounters that cause the characters moods to change, though not always in the way you would expect! It’s a great visual model of how events can affect people’s emotions, with the bad mood cloud being more of a marker than a character, though it does take on something of a persona of it’s own towards the end of the story as it lurks around the corner waiting to catch someone unaware. I love this book as a fun way to spark conversations about feelings, and the cause-and-effect relationship between actions, events and feelings.

The bad mood travels around the world but comes full circle and back to the cat

Lemony Snickett’s writing is well-paced and good humoured, but the nostalgia tinged illustrations by Matt Forsythe are the cherry on the top of The Bad Mood and the Stick for me, and complement the text perfectly. My favourite page spread is when the bad mood travels around the world and you get to piece together a vague chain of events that might have happened from who has the bad mood cloud throughout the sequence, which as well as being great fun to discuss with children is great for developing early years visual literacy.

I think this book is a great addition to the home library if you’re starting a collection of fun picture books, as you can see from the battered cover, ours has been very well loved!