30 October 2008

Great books for Big Blue Days

Alexander has a very bad day. It starts when he wakes up with a piece of gum stuck in his hair and goes downhill from there. His day gets so bad that he wants to run away to the other side of the world. In the original US version, Alexander wants to run away to Australia..... Obviously here in Australia Alexander had nowhere else to go, so he wants to run away to Timbuktu!
The illustrations are black/white and beautifully done. Alexander's mood is captured with his face like a thundercloud. It's a great book for teaching children about bad days, because they will have them and will need to learn how to get through them. It's also a userful reminder to parents that seemingly insignificant (to us) things can be Big Blue Things for a child and that they can have bad days too!


This is a perfect book for learning how to get through a Big Blue Day. Bradley Trevor Greive first gained fame with his Blue Day Book for grown ups. It was so popular that it didn't take long before requests were made for a kids' version.

The Blue Day Book for kids features the same gorgeous black/white photographs of animals in perfect companionship with words of wisdom for children. It talks about the kinds of things that can make you blue, from feeling lonely, being forced to share toys or snacks, having made a mistake, having brussel sprouts for dinner (and how come nobody makes you share those?). The book then shares advice on how to feel better again. Singing, dancing, standing on your head:
"It's a great way to see the world differently. (More grown-ups should try this.)"

I road-tested this on Doodlebug when he was having a really blue moment, and we weren't even halfway through the book before he was rolling around in stitches over the photographs.


What about when Mum has a Blue? Mem Fox wrote this story about little Harriet who is a typical little 3-4 year old girl in all her exuberance and unintentional naughtiness. Harriet's mother does not like to shout, and starts out being very patient. But as the "moments" add up, the patience starts to wear out until a feather broke the camel's back and at last she shouts (and shouts, and shouts). The story continues with Harriet and Mum apologise and make up, and go on to have a good laugh together picking up the feathers from the pillow that popped.

The illustrations capture both Harriet and her mum perfectly. This is one of Little Possum's favourites..........I can't for the life of me think why............ :)


1 comment:

Rachel said...

I LOVE Terrible No Good Very Bad Day...exactly how one feels sometimes! :)