A HISTORY OF MYSTERY (part 1 - picture books). by Sharon Tregenza

     Mystery stories can excite, engage and encourage reluctant readers and mystery fiction is one of the most popular genres of children's literature.

    When kids hunt for mystery clues they are reading the books analytically and searching for patterns. Mysteries cover a wide range of settings and subject matter, so they can be easily integrated into different countries, cultures and interests. Even the youngest child can be drawn in by a good mystery. The best books in the genre are original and exciting. Here are three of my favourites...

    'Tuesday' by David Wiesner is a picture book example of puzzles and crime mystery, although you may not have thought of it in that way. It's a book of very few words but here the flight of the frogs is the puzzle, how and why did it happen. The detective aspect comes in at the end when the town is trying to solve the puzzle of the lily pads scattered everywhere. There's plenty of opportunity after reading this book to discuss funny options with a four year old.

    'Piggins' by Jane Yolen and illustrated byJane Dyer. This is a lovely pastiche of a classic British mystery, complete with butler, jewels, and plenty of Agatha Christie type cosy mystery elements.

    The understated humour provides a gentle read for young children and the classic structure makes a good picture book example to share with older kids. 

    And my all time favourite picture book: 'Black and White' by David Macaulay. It's won a stack of awards and I think it deserves every one. This is a stunning illustration-based book in which four separate stories happen simultaneously on each page. Or are they separate? Kids get really excited at finding connections and they can surprise you with details you hadn't even noticed. Maybe this isn't a traditional mystery story but it exercises the same open-minded, analytic collecting of clues and searching for patterns. I love its originality. 

sharontregenza@gmail.com

www.sharontregenza.com

    

THE LITTLE GHOST WHO.... (Book series review) by Sharon Tregenza

 

THE LITTLE GHOST WHO...

'The Little Ghost Who Didn't Like to be Scary'

'The Little Ghost who Didn't Want to be Mean'

by Isla Wynter

These two books in the 'Little Ghost' series by Isla Wynter carry a similar message: 

Layla is a ghost and aren't ghosts supposed to be mean and scary and haunt places and people? But that's not what Layla wants to do - she just wants to carry on playing with her friends.

These delightful books for younger children are comfortable with their simplicity and are perfect for those who aren't happy around the more frightening aspects of ghostliness.

I like the stark black and white illustrations, they add to the unpretentiousness, and as I don't see a named illustrator, I assume are also done by Wynter.

Wynter's author profile says: 

Isla Wynter lives in Scotland with a tiny cat, a lonely pot plant and a horde of imaginary friends. She believes in unicorns and plans to one day convince the world of that fact. Even if she has to catch a unicorn herself.

Full disclosure here: I didn't initially intend to review these sweet little books. I wanted to tell you about the research I've been doing on The Cornish Witch Trials of the 16th and 17th century but I've been fighting with my damn printer all day and simply ran out of time. Hopefully, for the next blog... 😟

www.sharontregenza.com

sharontregenza@gmail.com

WHAT'S IN THE SHOPS – Dianne Hofmeyr

The Natural History Museum London

It's that time of the year when temperatures suddenly plummet and the late afternoons are dark and twinkly and shop windows glow and beckon. Time to see what local bookshops are recommending. And time to get behind the hashtag #PictureBooksforGifts.

First stop South Kensington Books with its window full of Christmas books and a celebration of Paddington Bear. 

Then on to Daunt Book Shop in the Fulham Road where a very large window was crammed full of children's books... needing three pics to show them all. 

In comparison Daunt in Marylebone doesn’t have much window space but they created a charming corner cornucopia of children’s books. I found Jane Ray’s Cinderella with her skirt in the air. (lower left behind ribbon) But the window was too tightly packed for the assistant to put her right. 

However inside the shop on the main Christmas stand, Cinderella was in her normal upright position alongside her Nutcracker. And Jackie Morris’s and James Mayhew’s Mrs Noah’s Pockets was definitely in evidence. The Glassmaker’s Daughter not so! But I persuaded the charming shop assistant that a single book on a lower shelf around the corner near the floor with spine out, wasn’t giving my girl much of a Christmas outing. So she was perched next to Jane’s other books with the promise that she might have her single moment of glory. It’s depressing to find only a single copy of a new book in a store! And even more depressing to find it hidden! But I suppose better than not finding the book at all!

A bit further afield in Long Acre Covent Garden is Stanfords Travel Bookshop. True to the nature of the shop, its windows sported globes. Who doesn't love a globe and inside the shop there were even small globes as Christmas tree baubles. And inside too were stacks of Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris's Lost Words. In the window Oliver Jeffers Here We Are was showing up well.

Then on to Hatchards in Piccadilly. A small but full window and more Lost Words. And inside the shop a lovely surprise of a book, Lyle the Crocodile, from South Africa by two friends...  author Dianne Stewart and illustrtaor Joan Rankin.

I suppose one can’t talk about bookshop windows without mentioning a certain bookshop. Waterstones King’s Road is dismissed immediately because they have demoted their children’s window from a large front window to a side street. If Christmas is not about giving books to children then they don’t deserve a place here. 

Waterstones on Piccadilly on the other hand had gone all out to devote the entire long, long window on the right of their entrance to children’s books except the books were all from one author and illustrator team. I wonder how much was paid by the publisher for such exposure? These pics don't do justice to the immensity of the display. Perhaps the size of the books will put the cut-outs in proportion.

A notice in the back of the window stating they had a HUGE 2nd floor Department crammed with children’s books, rang a bit hollow.  

Jane Ray’s beautifully painted Christmas window for Pickled Pepper Books complete with gondola transporting a Christmas tree for The Glassmaker’s Daughter looks amazing from outside as well as from inside the shop as it the afternoon darkens but it doesn't quite snow. 

Lastly... sorry a bit of promo and not exactly a shop window, but a banner outside Omnibus Theatre celebrating their Christmas show Zeraffa Giraffa which is on until 17th Dec. A roaming Vox Pop video interviewing the children after the play last Sunday, showed that a giraffe can steal the hearts of modern day children as easily as it did the hearts of the people of Paris in 1827. 

Good cheer for the festive season! I hope all your own local bookshops are crammed full of children's books.

www.diannehofmeyr.com

twitter: @dihofmeyr