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It is very rare these days to find a genuine treasure; something which is priceless in the true sense of the word. But today, in a rather wet Upminster, I did just that.

In the middle of the High Street is a charity shop. Not just any old charity shop, it is packed full of books. Books about foreign lands, children’s books, dictionaries, fantasy, sci-fi…a huge range of previously loved books. There aren’t any super glossy signed first editions, but there are a ridiculous number of books none the less. That would have been enough for me – heaven! I found yet another Alice to add to the collection:

But it got better. These books have been rescued and donated to stop them being packed off to a land-fill site. The shop is run by a very dedicated team of wonderful volunteers, who have a real passion for books. Pretty good stuff heh? And – yes, there’s an and – the books are free! Well, almost. The deal is that you can take up to five books and give a donation of your choosing. Since May 2011 the good people of Upminster have donated £12,134 and saved a multitude of books from being scrapped. The charity who run this initiative is ‘Healthy Planet’; they are a charity committed to tackling Eco issues in a practical way.

I would urge you to check out their website and certainly pootle down to Upminster if you get the chance. You never know what you might discover!

This week saw the first screening (in the UK at least) of Dr Seuss‘ The Lorax, or to be more precise, Universal’s The Lorax. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, which came as a bit of a surprise if I’m honest, because other screen offerings of Dr Seuss’ creations have brought me nothing but disappointment. So how did this one succeed where others have failed?

Well, I think that the superb animation and voice artists had an awful lot to do with it! The animation is beautiful, those vibrantly coloured Truffula trees are quite beautiful and pay homage to the original illustrations:

    

But, more than the stunning graphics or accurate voice art (I’ve just made that phrase up; I quite like it and will no doubt use it again), is the triumph of the story itself. For me, the key reason why this version works is that whilst there has been a great deal of ‘padding’ to lengthen the tale. the essence of the plot and characterisation has remained intact.

The Lorax himself is a true Eco-warrior, with his sense of justice firmly rooted (pardon the appalling pun) on the side of Mother nature, but without forcing his opinions on others. It is up to the characters and audience/reader to reach their own conclusions about what we should do. The Lorax doesn’t ‘fix’ things for us, he gently steers us in the right direction.

I will admit that the end of the film is perhaps better at selling the moral, because it wraps it all up in a much more overt sense of community spirit than the book does. I am not one of these bookish people who insists that the book is always superior, but I won’t deny that I have never found a book which has been bettered by a screen version. There are some great songs thrown into the mix, which counter-balance the missing rhyme and while these work very well, for me, you can’t beat the rhythmic melody of the text itself.

So, if it came to it, who would win? Dr Seuss or Universal? Tough choice, I think I’m going to abstain on this particular vote.

It certainly has been a great summer hols in terms of catching up with my reading. I often struggle to get through my book pile, but with the luxury of seven weeks off (got to love those Olympics when you work in Newham) it’s been a fantastic opportunity to curl up on the sofa and have a read. I haven’t been a neglectful mother though, as my reading times have been grabbed in-between running around with the froglets. Anyway, I digress, which comes as no great surprise to those of you who have read my ramblings before.

The latest book on my ‘to read’ pile was Cracks, a futuristic thriller from new writer Caroline Green. The website has one of those new fangled links to a trailer for the book. I’ll admit that I am not overly familiar with this marketing technique and was a little dubious, but I am assured by my teenage daughter that there is nothing to fear and that it’s ‘cool’. It’s well worth a look; the actor who plays Cal is very convincing, but I am pleased that I read the book before watching the trailer. That’s just me; I like to imagine my own version of the author’s description first, rather than having someone else’s interpretation muddling around inside my head.

When I began to read it, I immediately thought of Dr Who meets The Matrix. There’s a lot of running involved and a great deal of wibbly wobbly time confusion abounding. A superb premise for a thriller in my opinion. The main protagonist, Cal, is a seemingly ordinary teen, with a fair amount of angst churning up inside him thanks to a lousy family life to deal with and the increasing realisation that all is not as it should be. Green’s use of Cal as narrator is inspired, because the reader feels all that he feels, sees what he sees, almost becomes him through the journey of the book.

This book certainly held my interest, as I mentally egged Cal on to fight back against the injustices in his frightening new world. Now I’ll be adding Caroline Green’s Dark Ride to my ‘to-read’ pile.

…then I’ll begin. Today was the first Friday of super-duper free events that are taking place at King George’s Playing Fields throughout the summer hols. To be honest when I woke up this morning to a rather damp looking garden, I was worried. I know what it’s like to get the kids out of the house at the best of times, but when you factor in rubbish weather (again), there is usually an overwhelming sense of doom to the whole affair. However, I should not have doubted the wonderful people of Brentwood, or the weather for that matter, as they came out in force.

We were housed in this magnificent beauty,

which is basically, a huge inflatable tent with cool windows! It was like being inside an oversized marshmallow. By the end of the day we (me and Mrs Mack) were exhausted, covered in pva glue, but incredibly happy. We must have seen at least 200 children throughout the day, all making Olympic-themed crafts, thanks to Claire and her whizzy crafty ways

and listening to lots of stories (thanks to me and my ability to tell, not just read a story). I have no idea what the face is that I’m pulling; I’m clearly in character!

I now know three books particularly well and may even dream about them tonight. Next week I will be taking a larger selection, for the sake of my sanity. Our theme on 3rd August is ‘Recycling’, so if you’re near Brentwood, or fancy a day out in the ‘country’, why not pop along? We’ll be making junk-modelled monsters and sharing many stories and poems too. The day is jam-packed full of free events, including face painting, Punch and Judy and of course, us!

p.s. A huge thank-you to the brilliant team at Brentwood Council for having faith in us, hiring the dome and most importantly, for hosting a superb FREE event for the families of Brentwood. @bwoodevents

There’s an arm of Random House called Vintage Books, who I have talked about before. Well, I still love them and their gorgeous take on children’s classics with a great passion. Anyway, a little while ago, when I clearly had far too much spare time, I made some bunting from one of their catalogues. I was quite pleased with myself and so were the lovely team at Vintage Books, so I have made them some of their own,

which will be carefully posted tomorrow morning.

In my previous post on this subject I mentioned a need for an antique bird cage. Yes, it is a need, rather than a want. An antique birdcage is the key to our success, I’m sure. My point is, we found one. Yay! Here it is,

isn’t it beautiful?!

Ok, now I need to go and do something a bit more productive and stop messing about.

What a great day I’ve had! The sun is actually shining. I did have to Google it to make sure it wasn’t an alien invasion, but apparently that’s what is supposed to happen at this time of the year. We’ve been outdoors without jumpers on. Awesome!

And then, I escaped for a bit with the lovely Mrs Mack to have a good old rummage at the Pyramid Resource Centre. I have blogged about the centre before, but this was my first real-life visit. I thank Claire for an air conditioned car and sat-nav, because otherwise I would have arrived after many wrong turns, in the form of a small puddle. The place is all that it promised to be. We found so many cool bits and bobs, all very useful for the great summer holiday workshops that we have lined up. (Details all available on our events page). This is an example of stuff that you can have for a very small donation:

You may see boxes of toot (as Mr Frog does), but Claire and I see puppets and junk monsters and hours of fun. So there! As well as the huge amount of various recycled materials, there is also a small arts & crafts shop on site, much of which was competitively priced.

We made off with two bin liners filled to the brim, plus lots of shiny gold card, tissue paper etc, all for a price which didn’t break the bank. I now have a shed full (literally a shed full) of junk modelling materials all ready for our ‘Recycling’ story-telling and puppet-making extravaganza next week (3rd August – my birthday for anyone who’s interested…), but if you are local to Brentwood and have any clean recycled materials, including kitchen roll tubes, egg boxes and the like, Claire and I would be very grateful for the donation.

The Night Sky in My Head is the début novel from Sarah Hammond. As it promises the reader that it is ‘the perfect read for fans of Skellig and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time‘, I thought I’d give it a try. I am very glad that I did.

Although I finished it in two days (not bad considering everyday distractions of family life), this is by no means an easy read. I don’t mean this as a negative, it’s just a fact, or at least, it was for me. The character of Mikey is complex, his thoughts are pulled between alternate time frames and as such, so is the reader.

The complexities of Mikey are balanced with relatively simple language.  Once you come to grips with the ‘Backwards’ and the ‘Now’, the reader does not have to work hard to decode any hidden meaning beneath the surface of the text itself. Added to this, the character of Mikey is almost magnetic in his attraction. Not in a physical or sensual way (this is a book for children!), what I mean is that his complete innocence is endearing. I felt myself sharing in his sense of panic, delighting in his moments of joy and daring to hope for the best possible outcome when all seemed so lost.

All in all, a beautifully written story, which leaves the reader with an emotional attachment to the characters. I am very much looking forward to reading Sarah Hammond’s first picture book published by Meadowside Children’s Books next year.

 

 

 

Last night I decided that it would be a really good idea to have an early night – I know, tragic for a Friday night, but I’m not good on too little sleep. So I got my myself all comfortable and picked up my current read, namely Colin Mulhern’s Arabesque. This dear reader was a mistake. I did not get my early night because every time I peered at the clock I thought ‘just one more page’. This continued until I had finished the whole thing. I am weak-willed at the best of times when it comes to putting a book down, but this book is seriously un-put-down-able!

I’ve never read anything of Mulhern’s before (sorry), so wasn’t sure what to expect. From the start it is obvious that this is not a fluffy girlie novel about ballet, with the tag line ‘Be the best. Gymnast. Friend. Thief?’ printed along the top of the proof copy (yes, I am lucky enough to have number 22/150 of a limited edition proof). And although the blurb doesn’t shade the underlying violence which runs through the novel, when those moments are described in such detail, you can not help but be taken aback. I don’t want to give anything away because it really wouldn’t be fair to the reader, but what I will say is that you won’t be disappointed. You may be shocked, your heart will race, you may have really odd dreams, but you will be as desperate as I was to reach the conclusion.

Arabesque is due for publication in September. Believe me it is well worth the wait.

www.catnippublishing.co.uk

I have had such a busy day today, which involved a fair amount of birthday present shopping, quite a lot of reading (Colin Mulhern’s ‘Arabesque’ – a blog will follow shortly) and cooking for the clan. I enjoyed all of these, but the most exciting part of my day began at 10 o’clock this morning. Do you want to know why? Well I’m going to tell you either way.

This morning I had a meeting with the lovely Claire Mackaness and a great team of people at Brentwood Town Hall (Lucy, Kim & Sarah) to discuss the FREE family events that are being organised and funded by the Council. Every Friday throughout the summer break, there will be a whole host of activities taking place at King George’s Playing Fields, including face painting, bouncy castles and the SX Urban Games. So much to do, it’s going to be amazing!

‘But what does that have to do with Chicken & Frog and Beautiful Things?’ I hear you cry. This is the part that I’m extra thrilled about… Claire and I will be running three of the sessions. Yippee! On 27th July we will run an Olympic-themed storytelling and craft day, on the 3rd August there will be junk-modelling monsters being created and on 24th August puppets will be hand crafted to take part in their very own play. All children will go home with a hand-made craft as a result and hopefully have a lot to talk about too!

*

I have a whole stack of gorgeous books waiting to be shared with the children (and adults), whilst Claire is busily compiling a list of all things crafty to gather together.

There’s no need to book, it’s free and open to all, from 10-3 each Friday from 27th July. In addition to that, we will be under cover, so don’t be fair weather friends, come and join in the fun, wind, rain or shine.

*These images are ideas and not the guaranteed outcome!

Ok, so it’s only the second day of my summer holidays and I think I may have too much time on my hands. This morning I bought this,

under the shonky guise that it makes the perfect bookmark holder. Well, it is cool in a chicken-kitsch kind of way. Much better than using it for eggs in my humble opinion.

And then I made bunting using the pages of the beautiful catalogue from @vintagebooks

I am very pleased with my retro purchase and crafty skills. Now I need to buy lots of ribbon in order to make even more bunting, which is currently adorning my kitchen. In time though, said bunting and ‘bookmark’ holder will be gracing the counter of Chicken & Frog. Now, all I need is a big old birdcage to house a chicken* (and possibly frog)…any ideas?

 

*Not a real chicken obviously, that would be crazy, even for me.