KS1 Book Reviews

Our Big Blue Sofa by Tim Hopgood

A brother and sister like to bounce on their big blue sofa and imagine that it is other things, like a big blue car, or hot air balloon.

I love to touch things so the flocked sofa (on every page, as advertised) is pretty neat. The story is simple and fanciful, probably something I would read for story time. In the middle of the children's imaginative play with the sofa there is an interjection about how granny doesn't like it because it is old and hurts her back. This paragraph confused me and I thought it was unnecessary. It makes more sense once you get to the end and the sofa falls apart, but even so, I wouldn't have broken up the flow of the story in this way.

Not a Box by Antoinette Portis

A bunny demonstrates several ways that a box can be anything but a box, like a robot or space ship.

I have read this book in story time. The story is told through words and pictures which encourages participation. The illustrations are simple with bold colors and thick lines. In every picture you can see the box and how it is not a box. The narrative style is like that of Willems's Pigeon books. The bunny is talking directly to you. I really like this book.

Two Frogs by Chris Wormell

One frog has a stick for defending himself against dogs. The other frog is telling him how unlikely it is that he will encounter a dog in the middle of the lake when they find themselves face to face with some more common frog eaters.

At first I thought this story was going to have some sort of moral, but really it is just a combination of a few strange twists of fate. It is fun and the frogs have some great facial expressions. Each illustration is a two page spread with space left at the bottom for the text.

The Bear in the Cave by Michael Rosen

A bear goes on a sing-song journey from his cave by the sea into the city and back again. The illustrations are two-page spreads with bright colors. The story is sweet and, thanks to the rhythms, one that kids will want to chant along with you.

Kit the Cat by Alison Maloney

Kit the Cat finally flops Flash the Fish out of the pond, only to be foiled by Dig the Dog.

The tongue-twisting rhymes remind me of Dr. Seuss and the illustrations are sassy. I'm not sure I agree with the cat being categorized as the villain, though.

The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon by Mini Grey

The dish and the spoon run away together and make it big performing but they blow all their money and then get in trouble with a loan shark.

More two page spreads. The illustrations are very busy. The story is cute but I don't think most children would get it.

I went to a discussion group today for "Key Stage One" books. The School Library Service lends books to teachers and then meets with them about every six months to hear what their students thought of them. Unfortunately, when I met the School Library Service people weeks ago, they accidentally gave me the wrong pile of books (there are two Key State One discussion groups), so the only book I read that everyone else had read was The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon. They had pretty much the same opinion of it as I did. But I did learn that Mini Grey is a very popular children's author and people who knew her work expected something different.

The teachers got into a lengthy discussion about a reading program that some people are very into here. The books in the program have no pictures and only contain words with the sounds that the child has learned up to that point. I learned on the car ride back that there is pressure on the public libraries to carry these books because parents want their children to learn to read faster. The teachers didn't seem to think much of this system. They believe there is nothing wrong with children using pictures for context clues and that they are more interested in pleasing language and interesting stories.