Book Review: The Bear With the Sword

Today’s book review is part of a blog tour for Davide Cali—a children’s book writer and illustrator who was born in Northern Switzerland and grew up in Italy. Davide speaks French, Italian and English and he is currently on a blog tour before travelling to Australia to celebrate his new comic book/graphic novel, 10 Little Insects. (Kids Book Review has a sneak peek inside 10 Little Insects … check it out here. )

Davide Cali has created more than forty illustrated books for publishers in Austria, France, Italy, Argentina and Portugal. His books have been translated for 25 countries.

The Bear With the Sword by David Cali, ill. by Gianluca Foli, ISBN 9780980607048, Wilkins Farago

In this modern-day fable, we meet a bear with a sword that can cut through anything. He starts cutting all sorts of things to prove it and ends up cutting down an entire forest.

Our bear lives in a fortress and one morning it is destroyed by flooding. The bear is furious—

I’ll find out who did this and cut him in two with my sword.

And so he sets off. He starts by accusing the keepers of the dam, who claim they are not responsible and pass him along to the pigdeer (who charged at them and scared them). But the pigdeer blames the fox, and so on along a line of animals—until the bear discovers the real culprit.

Gianluca Foli’s illustrations reflect the bear’s state of mind. At the start of the book the backgrounds are chaotic and messy. The bear is depicted as a massive hulk of a beast, especially in the first two thirds of the book. (If you look closely, there are hints to his gentler side, though. When his fortress is being flooded, he clutches a small teddy.) Towards the end—when he discovers what caused the flood—he starts to change, and the last illustrations show his gentler side.

This picture book would be wonderful for discussions on a variety of topics, such as:

• environmental issues
• actions and consequences
• anger management
• body language
• bullying
• conflict resolution

There are extensive teachers’ notes available from the Wilkins Farago website.

–

Check out the complete blog tour schedule (and reviews of Davide Cali’s books) on the Wilkins Farago blog.

© May 2012 “Book Review: The Bear with the Sword”  Reviewed by Rebecca Newman http://boobook.wordpress.com

Books on writing

Sometimes I need an energy boost for my writing and this week I came away from the library with these books to inspire me.

Reading about writing is not really procrastinating. Right?

I’m really enjoying all of them, but particularly Brigid Lowry’s Juicy Writing. I was fickle and picked these ones because something about the covers leapt out at me.

I’d ask if you know any inspiring books for writers … but once I’ve finished these I will be putting the books aside and getting on with more writing.  Really.

The blog jar: Purple Frog

So, a looong time ago you might remember I came up with the brilliant idea of The Blog Jar.

Unfortunately the jar got buried under a pile of paperwork and has been collecting dust for quite some time. Anyway, tonight it offered up Katrina Germein‘s gift of a Purple Frog. What a weird little guy.

I don’t know much about Purple Frogs, (nothing at all actually, except what I’ve just re-read on the link Katrina sent. And I had a good chuckle). But I do have a soft spot for frogs in general. Frogs just seem like friendly creatures. (Unlike Cane Toads. Ugh.)

We live quite close to a lake, three streets back in fact. And so we have heaps of frogs visiting our garden. (Not Purple Frogs. Our froggie visitors are Motorbike Frogs.) They particularly like to visit in summer when their croaking is so loud we cannot hear the tv over the noise. And the cool thing about the Motorbike Frogs in our garden is that they are invisible.

True.

We have often gone out at night into the chorus of a thousand motorbikes changing gear and shone a torch about and we cannot spot a single one. Even if we can hear almost exactly where the sound is coming from—Shine it on that spot there! Nothing. Invisible. Which leads me to conclude that Motorbike Frogs are not only loud, they are also smart.

You can check out Motorbike Frogs here. (Click on the speaker symbol above the main photo to hear their croaking.)

Even the word ‘frog’ sounds friendly, don’t you think?

© 2012 Rebecca Newman http://boobook.wordpress.com

Easy Chocolate Slice (in the thermomix, gluten free)

This is adapted from a recipe over at Simone’s Thermomix Essentials, which was a recipe adapted from one at Planning With Kids. We have several people in our house who need recipes adapted for gluten free, low fructose diets and this is our version of those other two glutenful chocolate slices.

Easy Chocolate Slice (Gluten free, low fructose and in the thermomix)

Ingredients:

125g butter

140g gluten free self raising flour (we used White Wings brand)

150g glucose powder*

30g wheat free oats** (we used Freedom Foods Wheat Free Quick Oats)

20g cocoa

1 egg

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180˚C (160˚C fan forced) and line a slice tin with baking paper.

2. Melt butter in thermomix  3 mins at 60˚C, speed 2 or until butter is melted.

3. Add remaining ingredients and mix for 10 seconds on speed 3. Mixture will be clumpy.

4. Press into prepared baking tray and bake in oven 20 mins.

5. Allow slice to cool 10 mins in tin (if you try to turn it out while it is still hot, it will break up). Then slide it onto a cake rack to cool.

6. Cut into slices. I find gluten free baked treats don’t keep very long—I recommend freezing any leftover pieces once the slice has completely cooled. This also makes the pieces easier to handle (not so quick to crumble) and we quite like eating them frozen, too.

* Due to fructose issues, we don’t use sugar in any of our recipes. If you can tolerate sugar, use 140g sugar instead.

** Not everyone with gluten intolerance can tolerate wheat free oats. The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup desiccated coconut which we can’t use but you might prefer!

Also note that I have an older model thermomix which is why we mix ingredients on speed 3 rather than a higher speed—I don’t want the mix to be a purée.

If you don’t need to cook gluten free/fructose free (and/or you don’t have a thermomix), I recommend the original recipe over at Planning With Kids. Yum!

Deadlines and writing

When it comes to writing, I’m a deadlines girl. I look at a deadline and somehow the creativity scrapes itself together and finds its way onto a page. No deadline, and my writing … mostly just doesn’t get done.

You can tell 2012 is off to a good start—this month I have signed myself up for two deadlines. I’ve signed on for Month of Poetry and (while I was in the mood for grabbing at deadlines) I have also signed on for 12X12 in 2012: Picture Book Writing Challenge.

Month of Poetry (coordinated by Kat Apel) involves writing a poem every day for the whole of January. It’s surprising how hard it is to come up with a poem every day and just as surprising how it can be done when you actually sit there and decide it must. be. written.

When 12X12 (coordinated by Julie Hedlund) turned up in my facebook feed, I knew it would be a Very Useful Deadline. So —ta da!—I will be writing a new picture book manuscript every month for twelve months. Luckily it only has to be a draft, not a polished product.

And look! There’s a badge! (Anyone joining me?)

So far 2012 is looking pretty good. Happy New Year!

PS Both of these challenges have twitter hashtags: #MoP and #12x

School holidays minus 3 days.

Twitter has been full of tweets about how blissfully wonderful the school holidays are or how the holidays are just starting and how blissfully wonderful they are about to be. WA doesn’t start school holidays until the end of the week. To say I am envious of you early schoolholidayers would be an understatement. It has been a very full term.

I wish I could send my Term 2 Self a memo: Don’t say yes to all that stuff, it’s going to be busy already without it.

Too late.

Between my busy self and my busy kids I had music exams, music eisteddfods, school cross country, school performing arts festival events, school sports carnival … and all the other busy stuff that goes on during every term time. Plus, winter was thrown into the mix, so there was the fun of winter viruses, too.

But I also had some good news. I entered the 2011 CYA competition with a picture book text (preschool category), and was TREMENDOUSLY EXCITED to find it was shortlisted along with four other entries. I didn’t end up with a 1st, 2nd or 3rd placing but I was still thrilled to make it to the shortlist.

CYA in 2012 will be in July and entries for the competition open in January, so keep an eye on the website. All entries receive feedback from the judges—invaluable to emerging writers.

This week I also received a ‘highly commended’ in a poem competition run by Lorraine Marwood to celebrate her new poetry collection Note on the Door. You can read my poem here (second on the page) and read the fantabulous winning poem—by Janeen Brian—here.

So—a very busy term, but also a rewarding one. And I am really looking forward to the break from the frenzied activities … if you are on the eastern side of the country basking in schoolholiday goodness, save me a seat, OK?

 

Oh! The Endpapers! (The Last Viking)

It’s no secret that I love picture books. And I get very excited about endpapers—attractive endpapers really add that extra zing to a picture book. I especially love the endpapers that continue with the story or reveal something you didn’t notice in the book.

And I’ve decided that endpapers don’t get enough of the limelight. So I’m going to post some of my favourites here. The ones that make me say ‘Oh!’ the first time I read the book, and run my hand over the page. You know the sort I mean.

So here’s the first one—

The Last Viking by Norman Jorgensen, ill. James Foley. 

Published by Fremantle Press, ISBN 971921888106.

NB: Fremantle Press sent me a review copy  for Alphabet Soup but it is my own decision to feature the endpapers here on Boobook. I have permission to show the endpapers.

Firstly, a bit about the book. The Last Viking is a picture book about a boy (Josh) who is scared of … pretty much everything. He becomes interested in Vikings while staying at his grandparents’ house. When trouble arrives he summons up some Viking courage and discovers he’s braver than he thinks. Some of the illustrations are framed with messages written in code—rune carvings. At the back of the book (on the endpapers) there is a key to crack the code. Brilliant!

The story deals with themes of bravery and bullying. It’s a funny and appealing book for kids (and their grownups), and you come away having learned something about Vikings. The illustrations are an excellent match for the story and when you get to the endpapers you can’t help flipping back through the book to read the secret messages.

So—here are the endpapers!

I’ll be posting some more of my favourites soon. Do you look at the endpapers in your picture books? Or are they just more pages to flick through before you get the story (or to ‘The End’)?

© Rebecca Newman 2011 http://boobook.wordpress.com