Book of the week - Up and Down and this week's 5-a-day books

This week's books are a mishmash, all but the Gingerbread boy where library picks, the mobile library doesn't have a huge selection so we just choose what either Luath or I like the look of.

Book of the week

Up and Down

A lovely drawn picture book about a boy and a penguin who are friends.  The penguin wants to fly.  He finds a way he can fly and goes off to try.  The penguins rushes off and forgets to tell the boy he is going.  I hadn't heard of Oliver Jeffers before but we are now fans and will be looking out for his other books.  The test and drawings are very enjoyable.  Daddy is a fan.

5-a-day books
(I started doing this after reading this post on the Imagination Tree blog about selecting five books to read everyday for a week and why it is important), 

Maisy tidies up

A picture book.  Maisy is cleaning the house when Charley arrives.  There are some yummy cakes but the floor is wet so while it dries he helps Maisy tidy up.  Luath very quickly started repeating parts of this book.  One day we were out for our dog walk and she was chatting away.  I realised she was actually saying bits of the story. 

Two by Two and a half

A picture book.  The nursery are off on an outing.  They hold hands and go two by two, expect little bat Jack, but he doesn't count.  On their trip they think they spot some creatures - a lion, dragon, rampaging ragamuffins.  Each time it is just little bat Jack.  He does save the day though. One of the parts of the book is too old for Luath to understand, the creatures are actually tricks of the eye - the way a tree looks, the way a wall is in shadow.  It would be fun to read once she understands and then go off on an adventure to look for our own creatures hiding in places.

Handa's Hen

We have Handa's surprise so I thought we would try this one.  A picture book, lovely drawings.  It is a counting book within a story about Handa and her friend Akeyo looking for Handa's grandmother's hen.  Introduces some Kenyan creatures.  I prefer Handa's surprise.
The Gingerbread boy

A Luath selection,  She picked this from her book cupboard the other week and as she enjoyed the story I thought we would have it as a 5-a-day book.  It is this version, an old ladybird book, so the text might have changes, but the main part "run run as fast as you can" is there.