…Vicki!
Congratulations indeed to Vicki from Reading At The Beach who wins the Ladybird coasters and her choice of Alison Lester’s Magic Beach. Vicki – I’ve sent you an email – please look out for it and let me know if you don’t receive it 
Thanks to everyone who entered my first giveaway, for all your kind comments, and thanks too to Dani from The Literary Gift Company for donating the set of Ladybird coasters. V
As often happens in this house we read a book by one author or illustrator and then the girls want more of the same. So having re-read Whale we had to get Halibut Jackson, also by David Lucas, down off our shelves.
Halibut Jackson was shy.
Halibut Jackson didn’t like to be noticed.
Halibut Jackson liked to blend in to the background.
To ensure that he is never noticed Halibut Jackson makes suits for himself which match the background of where-ever he is – they essentially provide camouflage. For walking in the park he has a suit made of fabric printed with grass and flowers, in the supermarket the pattern on his coat looks like the apples stacked up in the fruit section, and even at home he has an outfit made out of the same material as his armchair. One day Halibut Jackson receives an invitation to a party at the palace in celebration of the Queen’s birthday, but this puts him in a quandary. Much as he longs to see the palace made of silver and gold and covered in jewels, Halibut Jackson, being rather shy, and not wishing to be noticed, finds parties rather difficult. Fortunately, a night’s sleep presents him with a solution – he makes a suit to blend in with the palace, a suit of silver and gold, covered with jewels. “Now nobody will even notice me,” said Halibut Jackson”.
A twist of fate, however, ensures that everyone at the party does indeed notice poor blushing Halibut Jackson. But as it turns out, all is far from lost, as the guests are amazed by Halibut Jackson’s suit and ask him to make suits for them, including one of silver for the Queen and one of gold for the King. His special skill is finally recognised and rewarded – Halibut Jackson is able to open his own shop selling the most magical clothes one can imagine, and with his recognition and success Halibut Jackson’s self confidence finally begins to blossom.
This heart-warming, beautifully told story is *often* re-read in our house. The simplicity of the text is a perfect foil for the stunning, detailed and humourous illustrations. M and J love to “search” for Halibut Jackson on each page – to uncover his camouflage, whether he is wearing his book suit in the library or brick coat when walking amongst the city buildings. At the end of the story we pretend we’re customers in his shop ordering clothes from our imagination, for example clothes with leaves on which we would wear when climbing trees, or a coat of cakes for wearing to the bakers. As a fledgling seamstress myself I love the story for the fabulous fabrics and ideas for outfits. All in all a surefire family winner!
When we first read the book last year M requested her own “Halibut Jackson outfit” and seeing as I had just made my first pair of curtains, we used some material left over from that to make her a “lazy days” skirt using the free pattern from Oliver and S.
This is a fantastic pattern for newbie seamstresses and tailors and one that has become a firm favourite of mine as the skirts are so easy and quick to make – M can also help with the sewing and elastic threading. The material I used for the curtains and skirt comes from Zimbabwe and is available at The African Fabric Shop.
This week’s Halibut Jackson related activity, however, was more exotic than left-over curtain fabric – a silver and gold and bejewelled suit worthy of a palace party was requested…
We raided the box of fabric scraps we have as part of the family dressing up cupboard for all the silver and gold material we could find. To this we added some tinsel (after all, the shops here are already well stocked for Christmas so why not!?), and for jewels we bought some embellishments from an indian fabric stall at the market. First M, with only a little help from me, sewed the “jewels” on to a gold dressing-up top.
Then we made a couple of no-sew skirts using strips of the gold and silver fabric and tinsel.
1. We tied a knot in a piece of elastic just a couple of centimeters bigger than each of the girl’s waists.
2. We took strips of fabric/tinsel about twice the length of the girls’ legs and folded them double.
3. We placed the fold in the fabric strip underneath the elastic waistband and then fed through the two loose ends of each strip, over the top of the elastic and through the loop, pulling it tight to fix it securely to the waist band. Here’s a not very professional looking attempt to explain what I mean!
Once M had been shown how to do this she was able to do it all by herself which gave her a great sense of accomplishment.
4. I made a headband for each of the girls using a short strip of elastic and some of the fabric embellishments and then it was time to dress up, and have a wonderful (garden) party!
The skirts were just brilliant for whirling round and round in and we all had so much fun sparkling in the autumn sunshine!
Halibut Jackson: 
(And yes, you could choose this if you were to win the giveaway!)
Whilst we were making our palace clothes and dancing in the garden we were listening to The Sewing Machine (from Annie Get your Gun) sung by Betty Hutton, The Sewing Machine Song by TR Kelley and Don’t be shy by Cat Stevens.
M would love it if I now went on to make some more clothes to match those that Halibut Jackson wears. If I could somehow find the time I’d like to use this fabric for the apple suit, this fabric (if I could find it anywhere) for the brick outfit, and perhaps this fabric for the library suit (Thanks to Cindy from Random Charm for the tip, via the forum at Sew, Mama, Sew!).
Other Halibut Jackson inspired activities that I’ve got my eye on for doing with the girls include:
I’d also like to recommend The Big Picture – nothing to do with sewing but rather a (UK) campaign which promotes picture books. I came across this organisation last year when they announced their list of the 10 best new illustrators since the turn of the millenium, and it was through this list that we first discovered David Lucas. This interview with him on The Big Picture is fascinating! Lucas’ latest book, Cake Girl, is already out in the US and is due out here this week – I just can’t wait!
For as long as I can remember M has been captivated with whales. We visited a wonderful playground when she was about 2 with a whale you could climb inside, and a local museum on the island of Ameland where she saw a video of an exploding whale (…! Be warned: if you’re squeamish it’s perhaps not a good idea to click through 
), and then when she was a little older she was naturally bowled over by the model of the truly enormous Blue Whale at the Natural History Museum in London.
This week whales have been in the news here with one found swimming in the River Clyde in central Glasgow, a place very dear to me, and another’s dead body being washed up in Dorset. Thus it was inevitable that a whale activity was requested and this is what we came up with – our own family pod of spouting (blowing) whales!
What you’ll need:
1. Paint your bags in the colours you’ve chosen. We found it easiest to do this by placing a bag over a box or jar so that it stood upright by itself whilst we painted all over.
2. Once your bags are all dry, stuff them with scrunched up newspaper or other recycled filling. You want each bag to be about three-quarters full.
3. Scrunch the open end of the bag together and use a little sellotape to seal. You’ve now made the whale’s tail and body.
4. Add eyes and mouth by gluing on the googly/card eyes and mouth.
5. Use something sharp eg scissors or a knife to punch a hole in the middle of the top side of the whale’s body. Don’t make this hole too wide.
6. Take a length of film or paper and roll it up (we used a piece the entire width of the roll of film by about 60 cm and once it was rolled up we cut this into 3). You may wish to use a little sellotape to stop the film unravelling. Using scissors, cut slits down the sides of the rolled up paper, pull up from the centre a little and separate out the fronds.
7. Insert your frondy film/paper into the hole on the top of the whale’s head and ta-da! you have your own spouting whale. Please provide the whale with a nice deep pond to swim in
As fan’s of Julia Donaldson’s The Snail and the Whale we spent ages looking for a snail shell to glue onto a whale’s tail but to my disbelief we couldn’t find one anywhere! Maybe you’ll have better luck.
With our whale making activities we have of course been re-reading the said Snail and the Whale, but actually our current favourite whale book is Whale by David Lucas.
One stormy morning Joe is woken by a huge crash. The tempestuous wind and waves have washed a giant blue whale right into the seaside town where Joe lives, causing much damage and destruction. Joe, the mayor and all the townsfolk climb on top of the whale and discuss what is to be done. Joe does not think the idea of turning the whale into fish pie is a good one, but cannot immediately come up with an alternative solution to the situation. Fortunately the Owl who lived in the town’s clock tower buys the whale some time by going to ask the wind what he thinks should be done. The whale gets a further stay of execution when:
At last the Owl returned.
“I have spoken to the Wind,” he said.
“The Wind has gone to speak to the Sun.
The Sun will want to speak to the Moon.
The moon will want to speak to the Innumerable Stars.
The Innumerable Stars will, no doubt, want to talk it over amongst themselves.”
“Then we must wait,” said Joe.And so they waited.
After waiting through the day and night, an answer finally comes back from the Innumerable Stars: the townsfolk must sing. This proposal is met with some incredulity, but when Joe starts singing The Rain Song, the inhabitants of the town join in one by one, eventually being joined in chorus by the whale himself.
And for once, The Rain Song works and the heavens open. In the flood waters the whale is able to float away from the town, but now the problem is that all the townsfolk are stuck on top of the whale floating out in the bay. In an attempt to solve this newly created problem the Whale “began to drink. He drank and drank until the land appeared“. But when the townsfolk go ashore they find their homes ruined. What now? The people hear the Whale singing, and as is oh-so true, the whale song is quite magical, and before long the town is being repaired by every kind of sea creature, all of whom have come ashore with shells and bright pebbles and pearls to make “the town more beautiful than ever before.” The townsfolk, and Joe, are delighted – out of disaster something far more wonderful than what went before has been born.
M and I love the fairytale character of this story – the magical abilities of the whale, the wise old owl, the Innumerable Stars, and the illustrations are just gorgeous; full of beautiful detail yet unfussy, with lots of colour and (metaphorical) sparkle.
Whale: And yes, you could win this wonderful book in the giveaway!
Whilst we were making our whales we listened to some great music:
The Greenland Whale Fishery, a traditional song here sung by the Watersons although many different versions exist, The Whale Song by Hoagy Carmichael, Blue Whale, Blue Whale by Twin Sisters Production, and Standing On A Whale by Paul Borgese And The Strawberry Traffic Jam.
We’ve also got our eye on a few more whale activities:
I also love these whale lolly molds from Bake It Pretty, which I’m pleased to say does ship worldwide, these cuddly whales from etsy seller Woolywotnots, this amigurumi whale from PlanetJune, and this whale pincushion from Confessions of a blueberry bandit.
Whales seem to inspire a lot of creativity! Do you have a favourite whale craft, book or song? If so, please do let us know about it.
**The giveaway is now closed. Thanks to all who entered!**
Hmm… This blog has been up and running for nearly 2 months – and I’ve been really enjoying writing it. So today I’m very pleased and excited to have my first giveaway
To one lucky reader I will send a a beautiful set of 4 Ladybird coasters donated by Dani from The Literary Gift Company PLUS a copy of any book I have reviewed here on Playing by the book.
To be in with a chance of winning please take a look around The Literary Gift Company – you’ll find loads of lovely gift ideas there for you and other book lovers you might know – and leave a comment here at the bottom of this post stating which of the books I’ve reviewed you’d like to win and read. If you have a blog or website a link back to Playing by the book will gain you an extra entry into the giveaway.
Please leave a comment by 6am (UK time) Wednesday 30 September and I’ll announce the winner (randomly selected) later that day. This giveaway is open to all, worldwide
On our most recent trip to the library we took home a book which, quite by chance, is a perfect companion to Katie and the Sunflowers (reviewed in the previous blog post): The Shape Game by Anthony Browne (the current UK Children’s Laureate).
An apparently autobiographical story, The Shape Game follows the experiences of a family on an outing to an art gallery.
I was a little boy and didn’t know what to expect.
It was my mother’s idea – that year for her birthday she wanted us all to go somewhere different.
It turned out to be a day that changed my life forever.
As the family explore the gallery Mum tries to engage the reluctant kids and the Dad who is more interested in telling terrible jokes with what they can see. She points out curious details and asks the kids how the scenes they see might be similar to events or occasions in their own lives. As the family start to look more closely, the pictures (sometimes literally) come alive. Before returning home a visit to the gallery gift shop nets a blank notebook and a couple of pens, which soon get put to use:
On the way home Mum showed us a brilliant drawing game that she used to play with her dad. The first person draws a shape – any shape, it’s not supposed to be anything, just a shape.
The next person has to change it into something. It’s fantastic, we all played it for the rest of the journey.
And, in a way, I’ve been playing the shape game ever since….
Like Katie and the Sunflowers, The Shape Game includes both reproductions of original paintings (e.g. by Stubbs and Millais) and reworkings of the original by the illustrator (Anthony Browne) in his own style. M really enjoyed comparing the two versions of the pictures, but most of all she liked the idea of the playing the shape game and so that’s what we’ve done at least once a day for over a week now.
This game is great for nurturing imagination (although sometimes M draws a shape and tells me what I have to turn it into…). I also love it because it is so simple! All you need is a piece of paper and a pen (although two different coloured pens are ideal) – I can see it becoming a stock activity for when we’re travelling on trains or buses or need an activity for 5 minutes whilst we’re waiting or when we’re needing to calm things down a little. It also gets a big thumbs up from both me and M as our “artwork” has been truly collaborative and inclusive: when I set up an art activity for the girls I try to do some painting/drawing etc alongside them, but this time we were actively working together to produce something. It was also an activity that worked well for both my 1.5 and 4 year olds – J also loved drawing shapes for M and me to transform.
Simply learning how to play the Shape Game made this book a great discovery. I also enjoyed the understated role of the mum in trying to educate her children – it all rang so true! The jokes made by the Dad were a little difficult for M to get (“It’s gone, gone forever, I tell you!” said Dad. “What has?” I asked. “Yesterday!” said Dad.) and so I think a slightly older child (say 6-8 years old rather than 4) might get more from the text, but this book was still very much worth reading.
Whilst we’ve been playing the Shape Game we’ve been listening to Picture Gallery by The Times, Art Gallery by Papa Dada and best of all, for dancing and singing along to, Drawing by Barenaked Ladies.
The Shape Game is definitely a good book to read before going to a gallery with your kids, but if you want some more ideas about how you could prepare for such an outing you might find these links interesting:
Here’s a great interview with Anthony Browne
“Picture books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older. The best ones leave a tantalising gap between the pictures and the words, a gap that is filled by the reader’s imagination, adding so much to the excitement of reading a book,” he said. “Sometimes I hear parents encouraging their children to read what they call proper books (books without pictures), at an earlier and earlier age. This makes me sad, as picture books are perfect for sharing, and not just with the youngest children.”
I was so happy to read this! What do you think about picture books for older kids (and adults)? And what other books do you like about looking at art or visiting museums?
Oh! And look out for the next post here at Playing by the book – I’ll be announcing my first giveaway….
