Long time no speak

Wow, it has been almost one year since I last posted on here, oops. I never intended to stay away so long but it has been a hectic year with one thing and another, so I have taken a back step with Little Scribbles.

Little Scribbles started out as a blog to write about my experiences as a new mum who had just been made redundant while on maternity leave and had a wealth of ideas. I stumbled upon the Barefoot Books ambassador programme and felt that is was the perfect opportunity to earn a little money while taking time away from work to raise my daughter. My love for children's books has long been in my heart and my Barefoot adventure gradually turned into me developing my own online bookshop and storytelling business. I had no idea how long I would spend in this business as my long-term goals were always to return to a 'proper job' once my daughter started school.

The past year has seen my long to return to my job as a counsellor, which I have been doing for almost 10 years now on top of my main job that I was made redundant from. I have always kept up with some voluntary work to keep me in the loop, but I have started to work for a couple of organisations and will be looking to do some private work once my daughter starts school in September (how is this happening so quickly?).

During the same period that I stepped up my counselling work, Barefoot Books sadly withdrew its ambassador programme and a lot of health issues meant that I had less zest for my storytelling sessions. So, I have decided that my bookselling business will take a back seat for now and I will think about opening my shop once things settle down after September.

My new counselling website will launch during the summer and I will be featuring children's books that can support a child's emotional development and parental guidance books. I still have a huge passion for children's books, especially those that challenge stereotypes and celebrate diversity, so I still want to immerse myself in that world. With this in mind, I am planning to keep this blog running and chat about children's literature and storytelling without the business side of things.

I am looking forward to chatting to people more and hearing about how you and your children are enjoying reading and storytelling. I promise not to stay away too long this time!

February Book of The Month

Wow, where did January go? As we step in to February, we are looking forward to lots of storytelling and crafting fun for St Valentine's, Shrove Tuesday and, most of all, Chinese New Year. With Chinese New Year in mind, we have chosen 'We're Riding on a Caravan' as our February book of the month.

This beautifully illustrated story from Barefoot Books is an exciting tale of a year long trek along the famous Chinese Silk Road. The exciting lyrical tale takes children on an adventure, stopping off at significant places along the road and teaching children new facts about China. There are great endnotes, with information of important Chinese cities and map of the Silk Road, making your storytelling session educational as well as fun. You can bring your story to life with gathering any Chinese themed items that you have around the house, such as chopsticks, drums, materials or dragon puppets. Add a little music for ambiance and you have a fun filled story time ahead of you. Head over to our Facebook page to enter our giveaway, in which you can enter to win a copy of this book in time for Chinese New Year.

Why not enjoy a Chinese New Year craft, once you have finished reading your story. A classic paper lantern is a cheap and easy activity or you can make your very own goat mask, to celebrate 2015's Year of the Goat.

Other great books for Chinese New Year storytelling  include, Lin Yi's Lantern, Little Leap Forward and The Great Race.

Happy New Year

Junior Book Club: Tales of Mystery and Magic

Tales of Mystery and Magic proved to be a hit for our recent book club sessions, as we hosted a storytelling spectacular. The book, a collection of short stories, was a nice little change from our standard independent reader books. The group was tasked with reading the collection, choosing their favourite short story and planning to bring the story to life during our session.

So off we stepped into a bewitching world of mystery and magic that awaited us. We met singing elves with magical feet; skeletons that move of their own accord; and a heroic blackbird who outwits a powerful king. Inspired by Master storyteller Hugh Lupton, with his exceptional storytelling we had a fun filled session, full of noise and laughter.

Tales of Mystery and magic is a great book to inspire children to read aloud and understand how they can enhance their storytelling skills and it would also make a great session for parents who are looking to keep older children interested in reading. Our session kicked off with a quick brainstorm on what makes good storytelling and how we can best engage with our audience.

After listening to one tale told by Hugh, on the accompanying audio CD the group were inspired to tell their favourite tales. Everybody had brought their own props but we helped out with a selection of drums, bells, audio clips, plastic bags and general bits and bobs to help create some of the spooky sound effects that the stories conjure up. It was wonderful to see the children getting so involved with their chosen stories and brilliant to see the support given to one and other, as the different reading levels  in the group are embraced. The session ended with the group coming together to share the story of ' The Strange Visitor ', with great repetition and just the right level of scary, it was fun way to bring the group together and end the session. We love book club!

Storytime:Sunflowers

Inspired by our Book of the Month for April, 'What' This?', we decided to hold sunflower themed storytelling sessions this week. In 'What's This? ' we learn the basics of how plants grow in this bubbly, springtime story. When a young girl plants a seed, she learns she must be patient to achieve results. She is rewarded by a beautiful sunflower, and brings her flower to school to share the seeds with her entire class. It may not be quite the weather for sunflowers yet, but there is plenty of sunshine at the moment and we need to get sowing our seeds so that we have a blooming garden at summertime. 

If you have younger toddlers or babies, you may want to start your storytelling sessions with some classic nursery rhymes. The new Clare Beaton Garden Rhymes from Barefoot Books is an ideal collection of short rhymes that get you in the mood for spring and summer stories. In ' What's This?'  you will find a relaxed, slow paced story with lots of opportunity for children to step inside the story. Ask the children to stretch and see how tall they can grow, just like the flowers in the story or make it an educational session by asking what flowers need to grow or what they grow at home. You can also hold a handful of seeds to show the children as the book describes what they seed looks like and if you are telling the story in summertime, you can have a sunflower at hand for when the flowers finally spring to life in the story.

Once the story is over, why not have a go at planting your own sunflower seeds. All  you will need is some little plastic plant pots, compost/soil, seeds, a trowel and lots of little hands to help plant the seeds. Follow the instructions on the seeds, sing a little song as you sow and water the seeds, then wait until summer to see your smiley flowers come into bloom.

Another great story, to extend your sunflower story session, is The Sunflower Sword. This books is a lighthearted and warming story about a boy who uses a sunflower instead of a sword, to slay a dragon and bring world peace! A children's book that challenges gender stereotypes and one that will have boys and girls up on their feet, mimicking the actions of the little boy as he befriends a dragon and runs through the village proving that fighting is not necessary.

All the swishing and swooshing in The Sunflower Sword made us want out own flower to wave about and bring peace. As we will have to wait until summer for real sunflowers, we went off in search of sunflower craft ideas and came across this fabulous giant sunflower craft, over at Crafts for Kids blog. Don't worry if you don't have materials for a large sunflower, you can easily adapt so that you make smaller flowers from toilet roll holders and lolly pop sticks or any size card you have.

A bright, fun, flowery storytelling session, to get you in the mood for summer!

Book of the month: April

As we burst into spring,our minds are focused on bringing adding a little colour to our wardrobe, putting away the casserole dishes and sprucing up the garden. April is a lovely time of year to bring out those green fingers and there are some great gardening activities to get children in touch with nature. Our book of the month for April is What's This? , published Barefoot Books.

A great book for children aged 3-7, you will learn the basics of how plants grow in this bubbly, springtime story. When a young girl plants a seed, she learns she must be patient to achieve results. She is rewarded by a beautiful sunflower, and brings her flower to school to share the seeds with her entire class. Includes notes about roots, shoots, flowers and seeds. The book is full of wonderful colour, simple language and, most of all, it is held together by an engaging take that will want children to plant some seeds themselves.

The book is great for use in schools and nurseries or for simple outdoors sessions at home. There are lots of opportunities to educate children on how seeds grow, which you can put into practise by holding your own planting session. Little Scribbles' Stories will be out and about reading this book throughout the month and we will be helping little green fingers plant their very own sunflower seed. We cannot wait to see how big all our sunflowers grow and we are very much looking forward to lots of outdoor storytelling sessions, surrounded by fresh air and flowers.

The Windy Beach

Lazy Sundays are made for family time, long walks and even longer lunches. Last Sunday, the sun was shining, the air was crisp and the beach was calling us. A visit to the beach during summertime, for me, is a bit of a nightmare but when you can pop on a warm coat, cosy wellies and look forward to the wind in your face it is a different story. Boy was Sunday windy! Crosby beach was our destination of choice, a family favourite, especially with the addition Anthony Gormley's Another Place. We were hit with a big whoooooosh as we got out of the car and swirled away down the beach for our walk. Kicking the soggy sand, making pictures and searching for shells made us smile and watching the high tide swish onto the sand was mesmerising. Getting out and about can be fun at any time and should not be dictated to by the weather. Wrap up warm, run around, discover nature and blow away those cobwebs.

Obligatory ice creams were in order on our walk back to the car, where we sat and watched the world by go by and did our best to stop the strawberry sauce from dripping all over us. Then home to bring out the paints and create our very own beach on paper, Gormley's statues included. With lots of swooshing, swishing and howling noises made as we painted, we had nearly as much fun as our walk on the beach. As well as painting, there are lots of fun and educational crafts and activities relating to wind and beaches, that you do as a family. Ask children how they felt at the beach, what noises they heard? what did they see? All of which make great material for a beach inspired poem. Or perhaps collect seashells and make your own musical instruments. The list is endless and a fun, fresh walk will certainly inspire your creativity.

If your next walk in the wind inspires you and your children to read about nature, here are a few of our favourite picture books about wind.

Blowin in the Wind by Bob Dylan
The Windy Dat by Anna Milbourne
The wind Blew by Pat Hutchins
The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba

National Storytelling Week

We have had such a busy weekend of telling stories and holding book club sessions and have not had a chance to post about National Storytelling Week. We hope you have been sharing lots of great stories over the weekend and you little ones have been introduced to a new book or two. National Storytelling Week is organised by The Society of Storytelling. They say "National Storytelling Week is about giving out to all cultures, tales that give a twinkle to the eye, that raise a question in the mind and stories that have survived the brightness and the shadow of man’s imagination ". 

There is sure to be lots of events and storytelling sessions in your local areas, so check out the Society of Storytelling website to see what takes your fancy. If you cannot make it to an organised event, simply pick up a book and share it with others. Maybe take a seat in a homemade storytelling den or take a book for a walk to the park for some outdoors reading. 

We will be out and about hosting storytelling sessions and parties for the rest of the week and will be sharing some of our favourite books with you. Keep you eyes open for a run down of our best read aloud books, help with bedtime stories and our weekly story time blog. To give you a little reading inspiration, we have a copy of ' Storytime: First Tales for Sharing ' to give-away this week. Simply head over to ' Like 'our Facebook page and leave a comment, telling us what your favourite read aloud story is. 

Winner will be announced on Facebook on Monday 10th February. Please note that this competition is open to UK residents only and is in no way associated with Facebook.

Storytime: Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is a time of celebration with an abundance of bright colours, feasts, well wishes and positivity about the year ahead. Traditionally the festivities last for fifteen days, ending on the date of the full moon. If you want to join in with the celebrations and introduce children to Chinese culture and traditions, a Chinese New Year themed storytelling session is a great way to get started. The Great Race is an excellent book for children to have fun learning about the Chinese Zodiac and to find out what their year is.

Which animal will win the race and get the first year of the Chinese calendar named after them? Race along with Rat, Monkey, Dragon, and their companions while discovering the origin of the Chinese Zodiac. This bright and colourful book includes intriguing notes about the Chinese calendar, the festivals, and the animal that rules each year. The book is ideal for 4-9 year olds but can be adapted to fit toddlers. Whilst older children will appreciate the educational aspects of the story, younger children will love the interaction between the different animals. The book is quite lengthy for toddlers but there are lots of opportunities to get them involved in the story by asking them what sounds and movements the animals make and getting them excited about who they think will win the race.

If you can, use puppets to to help bring the story alive. This great dragon puppet is quite expensive but is a great resource for lots of books and it certainly adds wow factor to this story. Musical instruments are also great for this session, I picked up small drums for a punt or two at our local Chinese supermarket, where you will find lots of goodies to decorate the room for your storytelling session.

If you plan ahead, you could always ask the children to dress up as then animal for the year they were born or for each of them to take on the role of one of the animals, so they can act out the race and really get them to step inside the story.

This is guaranteed to be a fun storytelling session and you can easily incorporate activities to the session. Older children can enjoy making dragon puppets, intricate lanterns, fact finding sheets or painting and younger children can enjoy making paper dragons or these simple paper lanterns.

Find out what year each child was born and they can draw their animal onto the paper, before adorning with lots of glitter and sparkly bits and making your lantern. Here's how to make your lantern.

Finish of your session by inviting the children to taste some traditional Chinese foods. Check with parents for any allergies, as I find that a lot of traditional  Chinese New Year biscuits contain nuts. Think lychees, Chinese pears, New Year cakes and of course fortune cookies. This is a great opportunity to open children's senses to different cultures and no matter what the child's age, they are sure to take something away from this great tale.

Happy New Year

Storytime: We're going on a Bear Hunt

We're Going on a bear hunt, we're going to catch a big one! Recognise those words? If you do, then you will know then, like me, you will probably never tire of hearing them. We're going on a Bear Hunt is a favourite book on the shelves of children and adults alike. It is such a fun book. The book will keep your attention if you are reading on your own but it is most definitely best when reading aloud to little ones. Whether you have one child or reading to a small and large groups, Michael Rosen's retelling of the story will have your audience engrossed.

If you are looking for storytelling ideas, this story is perfect for outside reading, where children are free to move about and really get to grips with the swishing and swashing through the grass and stumbling through the forest. If reading outdoors is not possible, you don't have to worry, the book can kick start the a child's imagination in any setting. Little Scribbles has read this book over and over and it is a firm favourite on our storytelling schedules.

The story is great for children of all ages, from toddlers through to adults! This classic book is a great read aloud that will engage various age groups, so it is a sound choice if you are reading to a mixed age group. Younger children can enjoy the engaging adventure through it's magical rhymes and older children can get lost in their imagination when looking at Helen Oxenbury's thought provoking illustrations. With an abundance of resources and activities to accompany the book, it is sure to be a favourite for years to come. You can choose to colour in a simple image taken from the books, invite older children to write their own bear adventure or get to work on fun educational play with work on understanding of the grammar used. I love to work with the onomatopoeia, whilst working with different colours and textures. All you need is a piece of plain card, a pen to write the 6 different stages of the bear adventure and lots of bits and bobs to create your own grass, river, mud,forest,snowstorm and cave. Of course, you will need an abundance of glue and scissors to cut lots of different shapes for those imaginative little minds.

This We're Going on a Bear Hunt craft activity is so simple but is so much fun to do, especially accompanied by lots of little ones shouting " hooo wooo '" and " Splash Splosh " as they create their pictures.

If you and the children have a little energy left, why not finish the session with a sing a long version of the story, just like Michael Rosen himself!

Barefoot Book of the Month for January

As we enter a new year, Little Scribbles will providing you with lots more book reviews and recommendations. As an ambassador for Barefoot Books, I will be continuing to choose my Barefoot Book of the month but the blog will feature lots of our other favourites, that we will be stocking over at our Little Scribbles' Stories shop. For most of us, New Year has been and gone but for those who celebrate Chinese New Year, the festivities have yet to get into full swing. Barefoot Books have a great selection on books that introduce children to different cultures and that includes a selection of stories that can give children an insight into Chinese culture and traditions. The Great Race is a great book for Chinese New Year story time as it introduces children to the signs of the Chinese zodiac, with a fun and engaging story. Whilst this is a great read aloud story, I have chosen Lin Yi's Lantern as my Barefoot Book of the month for January as it is such a beautiful tale with lovely artwork to engage all ages.

Meet Lin Yi — a little boy with a big heart and a talent for bargaining. Tonight is the moon festival and he wants nothing more than a red rabbit lantern; but first he must buy the things his mother needs at the market. This heartwarming story shows the rewards of putting others first, and includes educational notes at the end about the Chinese moon festival, life in rural China, and the legend of the moon fairy.

Little Scribbles will be holding  Chinese New Year storytelling sessions this month and will be posting a guide on how you can hold your own session to get children involved in the festivities. If you are in the Merseyside area, drop us a line and we can book you into one of our great sessions, where we will be reading stories, learning about the zodiac and having fun with fortune cookies.

Halloween Books for Children

Halloween is fast approaching and I am sure you all have lots of ghostly adventures planned. As a child, I loved Halloween. Me and my sisters spent weeks making costumes out of bin bags and Kit Kat wrappers and planning our trick or treat route. These days, you can buy an abundance of Halloween decorations and outfits but I still plan on getting crafty with my daughter; we made a start today on papier-mache lanterns, which I will post about when they are finished. Another activity that I loved was Halloween storytelling, the scarier the better for me!

Barefoot Books have a great selection of Halloween books for children, for all those who plan on having a get together or just want a few (not too) spooky stories to read together.

The first two books I have listed are great anthologies that feature short stories that are great for reading each evening in the run up to Halloween or to appeal to a large group in organised storytelling events:

Tales of Wisdom and Wonder

Prepare to be amazed, intrigued and enchanted by these astonishing tales. The seven stories gathered from sources around the world are full of magic, mystery and transformations. This Book  comes with CD read by Hugh Lupton so it is great for playing in the background at your Halloween party.

Tales of Mystery and Magic

A bewitching world of mystery and magic awaits you! Meet singing elves with magical feet; skeletons that move of their own accord; and a heroic blackbird who outwits a powerful king. Master storyteller Hugh Lupton is at his exceptional best as he shares the most mysterious tales in his repertoire.

This book is now out of stock online but contact me if you are interested in buying a copy direct as I have some in stock at discounted price.

For those of you looking for books for independent readers, the Monster series is a great collection of books, with lots of popular titles, including the very popular The Feathered Ogre. "This Italian tale tells how Pírolo, the King’s youngest gardener, sets out on an impossible quest which frightens even the bravest of the King’s knights. Can he steal a magic feather from the back of the terrifying feathered ogre who eats tasty boys and girls for his supper? "

If you have little ones and totally want to avoid anything that may frighten then, I Could Be, You Could Be could be for you. Trick or Treat does not have to mean getting dressed as a witch or Dracula,  with a little imagination and creativity your little one can be whoever they want to be! " Join a young boy and girl on thrilling adventures as they imagine themselves as space-travelling astronauts, ferocious dragons, jungledwelling monkeys and more. The fine line between children's make-believe and the fantastic worlds they create is cleverly portrayed through Barroux’s bright landscapes "

For those of you wanting a little Halloween boogie,  Barefoot's Dragon on my Doorstep and  Creepy Crawly Calypso singsongs will add lots of fun to your Halloween party.

Barefoot Book of the month: September

As you know, Little Scribbles is an ambassador for Barefoot Books . Barefoot have lots of amazing books for children and I will be highlighting one as book of the month, that I think you and your little ones would love. As September is Organic Month, I have chosen a book that enable children to learn about how food grows and healthier food options.  'Grandpa's Garden' is a beautifully told story, following Billy from early spring to late summer as he helps his grandpa on his vegetable patch. They dig the hard ground, sow rows of seeds, and keep them watered and safe from slugs. When harvest time arrives they can pick all the vegetables and fruit they have grown. Children will be drawn in by the poetry of the language and the warm illustrations, while also catching the excitement of watching things grow!

Written by Stella Fry and illustrated by Sheila Moxley, this book is a very popular for Grandparents wanting to pass on their love of gardening to their grandchildren. With great end notes on the vegetable featured in the book and ideas on how you can grow your own, this is a fun way to get to know vegetables and encourage healthy eating.

To learn more about how you can make a small difference this Organic September, and for some great organic check out The Soil Association

Like the look of this ? Take a further look at Barefoot Books and get 20% off your order using the code GIRAFFE13 at checkout.