Children’s Book of the Week: When a Monster is Born by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Nick Sharratt

Our children’s book this week introduces readers to the two basic kinds of monster.  On every page there are two possible outcomes… but some possibilities are more horrible than others!  Here are five monstrous things to do, inspired by the story. 

1. When a Monster is Born – read aloud

So, when a monster is born, what kind of monster will it be?  Find out by watching this read aloud version, over on YouTube.

An illustration from When a Monster is Born

2. Sponge monsters

These sponge monsters are a lot of messy fun, and great for younger kids.

Photo of a child’s painting made of sponge prints

3. How to make a paper monster puppet

These paper puppets are amazingly easy and fun to make – this video shows you how.

Photo of two paper monster hand puppets

4. How to make monster cupcakes

Baking with the kids is a nice activity for a rainy afternoon – here is a monster cupcake tutorial for Halloween.

Photo of a green monster cupcake

5. Monster party games for kids

And finally, we found some party games to help your little monsters celebrate Halloween indoors!

Photo of a Halloween pumpkin. Photo credit: Łukasz Nieścioruk 

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Lucy the giraffe can’t sleep – the zoo is full of such a lot of different noises.  Ellie has the solution – she organises a way for everyone to live together and express themselves in a beautiful way.

The ‘Ellie in Concert’ orchestral suite

Andy Jimenez has composed an orchestral suite for the book.  Listen to it here, accompanied by an animation based on Mike Wu’s illustrations.

Cardboard tube elephant craft

Mike Wu’s ‘Ellie’ books are proving very popular.  Here is a cute elephant craft for fans of the books.

Panpipes craft for kids

‘Ellie in Concert’ shows us that it is possible to create music out of surprising ingredients.  This is a great way to make a musical instrument out of 8 drinking straws.

Paper plate hippopotamus craft

This craft takes paper plate animals to another level, without being complicated.  The result is very comical hippo with impressive teeth.

DIY music shakers

Music shakers are a great way to enable children to explore music.  We particularly like these cardboard tube shakers decorated with tissue paper.

 

 

Children’s book of the week: Daisy 006 and a Bit

Daisy: 006 and a Bit’ by Kes Gray, illustrated by Nick Sharratt is the story of Daisy, who was first introduced as the pea-refusing star of ‘Eat Your Peas’.  There are now over fifteen Daisy books, including this one where she wears a moustache and joins the Secret Service.

A reading of ‘Daisy: 006 and a bit’ by Kes Gray

Check out the author Kes Gray reading ‘Daisy: 006 and a bit’  over here.

 Explore Daisy’s website 

If you’re wondering who Jack Beechwhistle is, or if you’ve forgotten the name of Dylan’s snake, this is a fun way to find out.   Click here to find out more about Daisy over here.

Draw Daisy with Nick Sharratt!

The lovely Nick Sharratt shows you how to draw Daisy, line by line, in felt tip over here.

How to make a Caesar wheel

Budding secret agents need some kind of code-cracking device to send and receive messages.  Luckily the clever people at Bletchley Park have created this printable Caesar wheel.

How to make invisible ink

Another way for kids to send a secret message is to experiment with invisible ink.  Here are some great ideas for creating hidden messages.

 

Children’s Book of the Week: Giraffes Can’t Dance

Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae and Guy Parker-Rees, is the wonderful story of a giraffe who finds his own rhythm with the help of his little friend the cricket.  What will happen at the Jungle Dance?  We have put together some great resources to explore the story further.  Take a look!

Dr Seuss Day at Kensal Library

We celebrated the wonderful world of Dr Seuss on Thursday 2 March which was also World Book Day so we had some children wearing great costumes in the library.  There was a ladybird from ‘What the ladybird heard’, Catwoman, Woody from Toy Story, a spy, Spiderman and later we were joined by The Woman in Black!

Our first craft was making a mini version of the Cat in the Hat’s hat.  Look at how cute they turned out!

Making a hat for The Cat in the Hat – step 1: colouring

Making a hat for The Cat in the Hat – step 1: colouring

Making a hat for The Cat in the Hat – step 2: assembling and sticking

Making hats for The Cat in the Hat

Making hats for The Cat in the Hat – Rosemarie tries on her hat!

Next we made The Lorax’s face from polystyrene balls cut in half which we coloured orange and stuck on eyebrows and a moustache made from yellow felt, googly eyes and a sweet mini pom pom nose.

Then everybody decorated and made some cool Cat in the Hat bookmarks.

Dr Seuss would have been 113 years old on the 2 March 2017! His books are still immensely popular and his quotes continue to inspire.

Below are a few of my favourite Dr Seuss quotes:

‘The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.’
– I Can Read with My Eyes Shut

  “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…”
– Oh, the Places You’ll Go

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
– The Lorax

Hope you all had a great World Book Day.

Natasha Chaoui, SCSA, Kensal Library

Christmas has arrived at Brompton Library!

Steph, Librarian at Brompton Library, writes: 

Brompton has now swung into full Christmas mode! We had our first Christmas craft session last Saturday and the youngsters decorated little card Christmas trees with glitter and all manner of sticky things. Their parents and carers were delighted!

Glue, sequins, paper…Christmas fun!

Elisabeth has created an Advent Christmas tree and adds a new box to it every day for the children to decorate (I don’t know where she gets all her great ideas for the kids!)

Advent tree

For the grown-ups we have our terribly tasteful Christmas tree complete with presents (library stock) underneath for the taking plus our hand-picked display of Christmassy books, CDs and films.

Merry Christmas!

 

Christmas music, books and more!

For the rest of this month we have another Christmas craft session for children this Friday– please join us!

From Monday 15th December onwards the staff will be initiating the public who may be giving or receiving tablets and e-book readers into how to download our new, improved collection.

Never Lie on a Lion…

Just a quick one to brighten up your Wednesday…

Our Story & Craft session at Kensal this month had a lion theme.  We read Never Lie on a Lion by Alan James Brown and A Tinga Tinga Tale – Why Lion Roars by Claudia Lloyd.

After these fabulous stories we made equally fabulous colourful lion faces and the roaring was so loud you’d be forgiven for thinking there were real lions in residence at Kensal Library!!

Work in progress…

ROOOAAARR!!