Two Ants Puzzled, written by Elizabeth Laird, illustrated by Jenny Duke, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

    This is a simple picture book story, but a fresh and pleasing one that opens the way for children's imaginations to take it further. It's the two ants' viewpoints that we get here as they explore up onto a table where a child is drawing.

 They puzzle over the fingers and crayons, then notice what she has been drawing ...

... and wonder if they might try their skills at 'ant art'. The book stops there, so its us to up to draw their ant art in our imaginations, or may try inventing it onto paper. 

    An everyday moment of ants appearing, then going away again, but given from the non-human viewpoint. Once we grow our abilities to see the world from others' points of view, our worlds become so much richer and more empathetic. 

The Name Game, written by Elizabeth Laird, illustrated by Olivia Holden, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

 

This is a simple story that sets a fun game going, leaving us to carry that game on with what we see in the illustrations, and then into our own lives.

A child is bored, so starts naming things - a magpie, a tree, a butterfly, a cat -, giving grand and fun names such as Diamond Dodger and Sapphire Princess.

'Everything, everyone, needs its own name!

A wonderful name!

A Beautiful name!

A perfectly gorgeous,

Surprise-me-please name!'

But the girl herself is given no name in the book. So I hereby name her Nancy the Fancy Namer.

A lovely book to share and expand into children's own worlds and imaginations.