A poetic walk

I must apologise for our absence over the last week, and for generally being rubbish these last few weeks at updating the blog. As some of you know, I am studying for an MA in Children’s Literature and we had two essay deadlines to contend with. I can honestly say that it was the hardest thing I have done since Finals but now I have a long summer to enjoy before Year 2 commences. Therefore, I can work on this blog more!

In the meatime, Holly has been reviewing books and the reviews are piling up for me to upload. Before we put those up, we wanted to share with you a walk we went on, on the Bank Holiday weekend. Unusually for the UK, we had brilliant, sunny and warm weather so we took ourselves to a nature reserve at Aston Rowant, which is in the Chilterns, around 15 minutes to the east of Oxford. You can read more about it here. I highly recommend it. There are walks along hills, trees that are great for climbing, a high, flat area for kite-flying and woodlands to walk through.

I’ve added some photos below to hopefully show the variety of the area. However, this wouldn’t be a Childtastic post without something wordy in it! Therefore, Holly and I decided we would write a poem each to reflect the time we had in Aston Rowant and as a special one-year anniversary post, since we’ve not had time to do a proper one!

On Aston Rowant, by Holly Fratter

I watch a flock of sheep go by,

I see flowers swaying in the wind.

I hear the trees rustle from behind.

I love the peaceful happiness on the hill

Where you can wander at your will.

I walk up to the highest mount

On Aston Rowant.

 

A lovely, lyrical poem by Holly. Unfortunately mine does not sound quite so majestic or lovely, as I was immersed in nonsense rhyme at the time for my MA. So what you see below is a result of that!

 

Sheep, by Sam Pope

Sheep like to sit on trees

Except when they scrape their knees

Bark is great for itching fleas.

Sheep.

 

Under trees it feels so cool

Fantastic if you wear real wool

Shade is better as a rule.

Cool.

 

Oh dear! Anyway, enjoy the pictures and we will post again soon!

 

A woodland tunnel at the start of the walk.

 

Sheep sheltering under the hawthorn.

 

Holly and her dad with the M40 in the background!

 

The view, glimpsed through tree bud.

 

Chilled-out tree climbing!

 

A seat shaped like a red kite – part of the Talking Trail. You can sit in this and crank up an audio ‘machine’ to listen to stories or poetry or other interesting information.

 

A woodland walk – we came across several wooden sculptures like this.

 

 

Peekaboo!

 

Delicate violets nestling in the grass.

 

The bluebells were gradually starting to come out – they should be at their best soon.

 

We’re 1 year old today!

courtesy of community.babycentre.co.uk

 

We logged into the site today to find a message to say we’ve been blogging for an entire year!

I can’t believe that it was a year ago that we decided to go live with this site.

In the last 12 months, we’ve had an amazing time. We’ve:

• been fortunate to meet and interact an amazing community of bloggers, visitors and followers, many of whom have become friends
• published more than 160 posts
• read some fantastic books and been sent samples by kind authors and publishers
• been featured in the Sunday Times and Saturday Telegraph
• had a ball!

Holly and I will make the most of the Bank Holiday weekend over here in the UK to come up with a special post, but in the meantime, thank you to all our lovely visitors and followers. Without you we’d be talking to ourselves, and while we do that a lot at home, we prefer to interact with people online.

 

courtesy of xoombi.com

 

Review: The Girls’ Book of Crafts and Activities

Review: The Girls’ Book of Crafts and Activities

Edited by: James Mitchem

Published by: Doring Kindersley

 

Image courtesy of thebookpeople.co.uk

 

What it’s about: (from the publishers) For girls who like to decorate, create, make and bake. The Girls’ Book of Crafts & Activities is full of 150 girly projects, ideas and activities. From making button bracelets, baking gingerbread, sewing a phone sock for your mobile or designing your own fashion collection, it’s got it all. Set out in clear step-by-step instructions, you can pick short 10 minute projects to those that will occupy you for a whole day! Not just a craft book, a cookery book or a sewing book – The Girls’ Book of Crafts & Activities is all of the best bits rolled into one.

Holly’s review: This is something a girl would want to read as it has great ideas and many interesting things, and you can keep coming back to it. Some activities include teamwork. I think this is a good book to turn to if you want to do something but it needs more instructions sometimes. A bad thing is you need to buy your own equipment sometimes for the origami activity which can be inconvenient.

This book has a crafty presentation to its pages and is something I think a girl would like to read. You can do things like turn furniture into brighter, better furniture. We made some smoothies from this book which was fun.

Sam’s review: This could be a very good book to have around the house, particularly for bad-weather days (which we’re certainly not short of). I liked the presentation of the book and agree with Holly that it would attract female readers, though I often wouldn’t buy gender-specific books – not that I am against girls like arts and crafts and boys liking cars and engines, it’s just that perhaps boys would like the cooking and the sewing too. It’s a shame to exclude an audience but I suppose it’s just what a lot of readers like.

Anyway, I always approach arts and crafts books with trepidation as I am artistically challenged, to say the least. Holly and I struggled with the origami activity but were relieved to discover it was because we didn’t have the right paper. We did the smoothies activity too and enjoyed that but this is where more instructions or details would have been more helpful – I was having to estimate quantities of fruit and yoghurt, which isn’t necessarily bad but I would have felt more confident with some guidelines. There’s a really lovely feature in the book on Grow Your Own Veg, which gives ideas for children to grow things in pots or other containers, such as strawberries in wellies and sunflowers in old paint tins. This is great if you don’t have a garden, or much of one, and enables children to experience the joys of home-grown produce and flowers. I also liked the herb section, which explained what different herbs were and how they could be used.

Below are some pictures we took of our smoothie-making!

 

Ingredients for our smoothies

 

Adding yoghurt to the blender

 

Mixing the ingredients

 

The finished products! I think we all preferred the banana best…

 

Review: My Tourist Guide to the Solar System … and Beyond

Tonight’s book review is about My Tourist Guide to the Solar System … and Beyond, published by Doring Kindersley

Image courtesy of amazon.co.uk

 

What it’s about: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to take a trip to outer space? Here’s your chance! Jump on board your special spacecraft and take a tour through the Solar System, learning amazing facts and figures about planets, moons, the sun and other features as you go.

Holly’s review: In this book you imagine you are about to blast off into space for a holiday. This book is set in diagrams. It is non-fiction but also sounds a bit like a fiction book. It is also a fun way to learn about the solar system.

This book carries on like it is a tourist guide to a different country. You also learn facts about the outer space world. This book is laid out in definitely a more scientific way with diagrams and captions. This is a fascinating book and doesn’t to me have a downside. You learn about over 100 things after just reading one minute of it. The good thing is you learn in a fun way and you don’t get bored while reading.

Sam’s review: This book’s unique approach in presenting facts about outer space in a tourist guide style is fun and fascinating. I became quite absorbed in it while trying to compare the different wind speeds, gravity levels and temperatures between different planets. Did you know, for example, that the journey time to the Black Hole would be 94 million Earth years? And life on one of Jupiter’s moons – Io – sounds horrific. It is: ‘the most tortured moon in the Solar System’ thanks to Jupiter’s gravitational pull and has over 400 ‘violently’ active volcanoes.

Image courtesy of dk.co.uk

Books like this bring out the geek in me. I love facts presented as snippets of information that are easy to remember. The pictures and illustrations are lovely too, making you feel like you really are on a tour (though I must admit, it’s not one I would like to take!). Holly was definitely impressed with it as she talked constantly about the possible effects of gravity on the body and became quite animated as she related it to her studies.

Please note that we received this book for review purposes but were not influenced in any way by this.

 

 

 

We have two winners!

Hello all,

Last month, to celebrate Holly being in the Saturday Telegraph, we ran a book review competition, asking contributors to write about a book that they enjoyed reading.

Today we are delighted to announce that we have selected a winner and a runner-up, both of whom wrote excellent reviews so it was hard choosing between them. What we loved about the whole experience was learning about what books other children like to read so we can hopefully expand our own choices. We also enjoyed reading different reviewing styles, as everyone has a unique way of writing their own opinion.

So, without further ado, let’s announce the winners!

In first place is Charlotte Corrigan (9) with her review of Cool by Michael Morpurgo.

Runner-up is Aidan Pond (13) with his review of Tom Gates: Genius Ideas (Mostly) by Liz Pichon.

A book will be winging its way to each of them soon as a prize.

Charlotte and Aidan have kindly allowed us to share their reviews with you, so enjoy!

Review of Cool by Michael Morpurgo

Image courtesy of harpercollins.co.uk

Review by Charlotte Corrigan, 9

Everyone should read this book. It is very moving. It tells the tale of a boy and the love of his dog. Poor old Robbie saves his dog from being knocked down and is hit by a car. Robbie ends up in a coma and nearly died. The story is so sad and happy the same time. As a dog lover I could relate to Robbie. Even Zola his favourite football player could not bring him round from his coma .  But the love of a good dog could save his life.

I love Michael Morpurgo’s style. His descriptions are detailed and the language is lively. It is one of the best books I’ve ever read.

What we liked about Charlotte’s review: Charlotte gives a good and succinct summary of what Cool is about – enough to tantalise us but not too much to give the plot away! She also gives impressive judgements on how Michael Morpurgo has achieved such powerful writing through style and language.

Review of Tom Gates: Genius Ideas (Mostly) by Liz Pichon

Image courtesy of amazon.co.uk

Review by Aidan Pond, 13

This book is by L. Pichon and it is about a boy called Tom. He is in a band called Dog Zombies and there are little illustration in the sentences. Here is an example [Sorry Aidan - I couldn't get your image onto this page but I've sourced this from the internet:]

Image courtesy of scholastic.co.uk

It is a very easy book to read. I give this book a 9/10 because it is interesting and funny. I gave it one mark lower because I think it needs more writing than pictures. This author just recently won the Blue Peter Award for Best Story. It was announced on World Book Day. Here’s a quote from the author: ‘Just being on such an amazing shortlist was fantastic enough – but winning is absolutely AMAZING! A huge thank you to everyone involved: the judges, Blue Peter and to all the children who took part and voted for Tom Gates.’

What we liked about Aidan’s review: Aidan has really hit the nail on the head in his observations on how Pichon has written this book and the effect it has on the reader. We liked that he found both positive and negative aspects to the book and gave well-thought-out reasons why. We also loved the mention of the band, the Dog Zombies!

 

Thanks again to Charlotte and Aidan for writing such amazing reviews. Please keep following the blog, and do comment whenever you like about anything we write about as we love to hear from our readers!