0 G is for Gravett, Emily : Again Review

G is for Gravett, Emily

Emily Gravett
An author , an illustrator, an artist, a book binder, Winner of Kate Greenway medal twice for Wolves and Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears - Much loved at The Bubble Ink.

Books that Bubble Ink has read :
Again, Dogs, Orange Pear Apple Bear, Matilda's Cat, Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears, Blue Chameleon and Cave Baby.

Books read to the Bubbling:
All the above except Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears

Bubble Ink pick:
Again.

Bubbling Pick:
Cave Baby [Written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Emily Gravett]

Some more that we think are great:
Monkey and Me, The Odd Egg, Wolves and Wolves don't bite.

Since we already did Cave Baby, we will review Again.

The Book:
Again is written and illustrated by Emily Gravett

Available at a great price on Amazon.in here . Also check on  Flipkart here. 
Some More Emily Gravett - Genuis Gravett and at Great prices there.


The Bubble:
The book is a story of a baby dragon who gets a book to his mother requesting her to read him to sleep. The mother reads a story of Cedric, a red dragon who doesn't ever want to sleep , kidnaps princesses to make himself dinner , torments trolls and wants to do all of this AGAIN and AGAIN. Every time the story ends, the baby dragon in our story, demands it to be read "Again". The mother reads the book - this time, tweaking the story to trick the little one, saying Cedric should be sleeping at night. But, "Mom Proposes, Child Disposes" - "Again" says the baby dragon. She re-reads it, shortening it some more and eventually falls asleep herself. This angers the baby dragon that he eventually burns a hole in the book! 

The illustrations which show the expressions of the mommy and baby dragon are mind blowing. The book within this book is also illustrated very intelligently to depict what is happening in that story and in view of how the baby dragon visualizes it.

Bubble Ink's verdict:
There is so much to love about the book. The attention to detail in the illustrations, the intelligent way of incorporating a book within a book, the imagination that has gone into designing the book, the hidden messages in the illustrations to gel with the story , the furious little dragon blowing a hole in the book - reasons aplenty to love the book.

The inner story that is being read by the mother-dragon to the baby-dragon gets tweaked, shortened at every subsequent read by the drained out mom to trick the little dragon to doze off. Haven't we all done that ourselves to our book-loving children? Shortened the story, tweaked the story to convey it is bedtime and witnessed the rage of our little ones!

If you have got a book loving toddler , the one who demands a book to read again and again at bedtime, "Again" would definitely be that book.

We bought ours at the LightRoom Bookstore in Bangalore.
We give it 5-bubbles.

Bubbling's verdict:
The bubbling is a bit young to understand and appreciate the book in its entirety. But while we read the book, we adapt it to her level. So the actual story we read as is and the inner story is  usually modified / adapted to convey the message but we don't read that story aloud. 
But she gets the actual story well and she giggles says "Amma, Again!" and "Oh-Fire - Book gone!" - She loves the book no doubt, but not giving a bubbling rating on this one. 
We will come back a while later to have the bubbling read it completely.

0 Y is for Yay, You

Part of the A to Z challenge #atozchallenge

The Book:
Yay, You is by Sandra Boynton. 

The Bubble:
Perfectly sub-titled Moving Out, Moving up, Moving On!, the book is a perfect read for all ages. It is best suited when you are moving schools, graduating, moving cities, shifting jobs or for just a light read to liven up your mood.

It tells all the things that you want to hear to feel good about yourself, to feel confident about the decisions that you have made or yet to make and to feel just great about doing what you are doing. It lists many different options like map reading and travelling, going fast, going slow, loving art, Nothing preachy! 

Sample lines:
And whatever you do -
now or later,
big or small,
loud or quiet-
whatever you do,
don't worry.
Just try it.
Whatever you do,
whether near or so far,
I know you'll be great.

You already are!

Love, love those lines.

Bubble Ink's verdict:
A must read for every one. It was an adorable and touching read. Love the illustrations with the cute Pookie. When the most profound life's lessons are told with cute illustrations like these, who would think it is advice?

Love the page that says , 
Hey, What s the hurry anyhow?
There are places to get to, projects to do,
people to talk with and lunches to chew ,
but Stopping a while is ok , too ( this page has the Pookie, blowing bubbles - We love bubbles - blowing bubbles is the best thing on this earth, we believe).

Atleast one page or a line is sure to touch you in a way of "Been-there-felt-that" feeling or "just-what-i-wanted-to-hear" moment! 

A borrowed read.
A sure 5-bubbles.

Bubbling's verdict:
Since the book was a borrowed read , it was not read to the bubbling. My little bubbling isn't the age yet for this one! But am going to have her read this , for sure, whenever she is ready.
So no bubbling verdict on this one.

0 P is for Pete the Cat

Part of the A to Z Blogging Challege. #atozchallenge 
The Book:
Pete the Cat, I love my white shoes is written by Eric Litwin and illustrated by James Dean. 
It is a series featuring Pete the cat, the coolest cat in the world of picture books. 

The Bubble:
The book is a story of a super cool cat - Pete who goes for a walk with his white shoes singing his song, "I love my white shoe". Along the way , he steps into strawberries , blueberries and mud turning his white shoes into red , blue and brown. 
Despite his shoes getting discoloured and dirty - Pete doesn't cry and keeps singing his song because it's all good. 
The story is in the form of a dialogue, hence makes a great interactive read aloud with the child. 

Sample lines 
"Oh No, Pete stepped into a pile of strawberries.
What color did it turn his shoes ? 
RED.
Did Pete cry?
Goodness No! 
He kept walking along and singing his song .
I love my RED shoes ,
I love my RED shoes,
I love my RED shoes. 

Bubble Ink's verdict:
Great illustrations , repetitive text, a sing-along verse within the book and a cute story and message weaved in - this one can easily become one of your child's first books to be picture read , well before knowing letters and sounds. 

We bought ours at a book sale. We give it 5-bubbles. 

Bubbling's verdict: 
One of the books that was an instant hit on the very first read itself. The bubbling loves singing along and dancing to the verse "I love my white shoes ". It is , without any doubt , a bubbling-full-five. 

Buy your copy from Amazon or Flipkart. 

0 The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

The Book:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a story about  the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly.
Eric Carle is a famous American writer and illustrator of many popular children's books. He is most famous for this one. 

The Bubble: 
There is so much we love about the book. From the simplest of it being holes for the little fingers to learn counting to the most complex of seeing beauty in change and its hidden message of "Dream On", this book is all about the things that every child must know. 

The book is a story of how a caterpillar hatches out of its egg and comes out hungry. He eats fruit and vegetables on each day of the week in increasing quantities. The illustrations are lovely and the holes are just right for the little fingers to practise counting. It moves on to a treat page with beautifully illustrated kiddie favourites like cake, lollipop etc on the sixth day where the caterpillar eats a whole lot of junk and ends up with a stomach-ache. This teaches your child the lesson of how too much junk food can turn out to not being good. 

Then comes the most beautiful part of how the prickly caterpillar builds a cocoon around itself and stayed inside it for more than a week, dreaming of being a butterfly. It dreams of things bigger than just crawling and eating. It dreams of flying, it dreams of colorful wings.  It works hard towards his dream by shedding all its skin and one day became a beautiful butterfly. This is a lovely first lesson for your older child to believe and to see the beauty in change. 

 If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies - Author Unknown.

Oh, how true. As you read the book , teach your child to not be afraid of the many changes that await her in life. Teach her to always "Dream big", to dream beyond the obvious; Like the prickly, crawling caterpillar dreaming of colorful wings and flying. It has the hidden message that dreams come true by a lot of hard work like how the caterpillar had to shed all its skin to get those colorful wings and to persevere in pursing this dream.

Bubble Ink's verdict:
This is our first story book review and the book also happens to be the first story book in the Bubbling's book collection. Call it bias or sentiment or our love for dreams or whatever, we strongly say this is a must own in every child's library.  From your child's first counting lessons, days of the week lessons,  healthy eating learning, science lesson of transformation to her moral science lesson to Believe and Dream, the book has it all. It will be a long time before your child outgrows this book.

Go, Grab the book, Learn to Count, Say the Days of the week, coax her into healthy eating and teach her to Dream On.

We bought ours, the board book version at this lovely book store in Chennai - Pappadum. We love buying books at bookshops and this shop is one of our favourites.
We give it 5 bubbles out of 5.

The Bubbling's verdict:
Bubbling loves this book. I have seen her transformation from a baby just observing the colorful illustration, her tiny fingers on those holes on the book, beginning to identify the fruits to now saying almost all items on the junk food page. That is my bubbling, the little egg that she was , then went on to becoming a crawling caterpillar and is soon going to be on her wings to become that beautiful butterfly. Her transformation is her verdict for the book. It is a bubbling fab-four. Fab four only because her lesson of Change and Dream is still waiting to be understood. 
We might come back to this post, a couple of months/years later to give it a Full-Five. For now, Fab-Four it is.

0 Hippo Has A Hat

Hippo Has a Hat

The Book:

Hippo Has a Hat is about animals going shopping , the clothes and the accessories they try on at the store in order to get dressed for the party.

Julia Donaldson is one of UK's most successful writers for children. She is undoubtedly a "Bubble Ink Favourite" and a hit with the Bubbling.

The book is illustrated by Nick Sharatt.

The Bubble:

With any animal lover, the book will be a great hit. The illustrations are lovely and the unconventional way in which the animals are illustrated brings a smile on one's face. The tiger standing up wearing a shirt, the hippo grinning with a hat, the cat looking smart in a cardigan, the zebra with a zip are a treat to view on each page. What is amazing about the illustrations, despite them looking unconventional, the baby brain can so easily identify those animals. It is a moment of mommy pride to have your little one actually identify a frog drowned in an over sized tracksuit. The shop set up with clothes, shoes, bags and even chain for the animals to try on brings cheer to the reader. The illustrations are well detailed with attention given to even the variety of each item on rack display. 

What we love most about the book is the message it sends out to be adventurous, break the conventions and not be feel shy dressing up and the party mood that it sets you in.

We love the caterpillar with shoes on page and the last party page.

The book offers a lot of scope for games with the child. Each page gives a sneak preview to the animal on the next page provides for a good guessing game. The final party page with all animals sitting on each other provides for a challenging "Find the animal that you call out" game.

Bubble Ink's verdict:

A  funny read which makes you realize how the simplest of things can bring joy to your child and a smile on your face too. They say, kids bring out the child in you. I have been a big animal hater all these years, but I just love this book! It makes you want to play dress up or to grab that long lost pair  of shorts to try on! 

Read, Giggle with your little one and get set on shopping mood or the party mood , dress up and indulge! Break the rules!

We bought ours, the board book version on amazon.in.

We give it 4 bubbles out of 5.

The Bubbling's verdict:

This section will feature a rating too. 

Full Five

Fab Four

Tantalizing Three

Teeny Two

Only One

Bubbling, an animal lover gives this one a "Full Five". At the caterpillar page, the way she teasingly says "So many shoes" in baby talk is testimony to her love for the illustrations on book. Did anyone say, kids can't get jokes?

1 Huggy Kissy - Review

 Huggy Kissy

What better way to start the blog for the season, the climate and the blog's theme itself of Bubbles, Babies and Books. This book is all about showing the love in form of hugs and kisses. 

The Book:
Huggy Kissy is a book about Hugs and Kisses with a baby and her close associations. 
Leslie Patricelli is a famous children's author and an illustrator.

The Bubble: 
We love the mere sight of this board book with its color and the matte finish on the pages. Each page of the book has a family member hugging and kissing. No one is forgotten, all close family associations, grand parents, uncle, auntie , the friend, the dog, the cat, the fish and even the blankie is hugged and kissed. We love the message the books sends out ; love all and express it too. Say it with a hug and a kiss.
The joy of bonding is beautifully illustrated in the book with details to the blushing, the sulking during the good-bye hug, the tear for the hug not to end and the pricky uncle.
The love and the mood lift it brings when it is being read is magical.We love the last page with the different types of kisses. It is beautifully hand lettered by the author herself. 
 
The Bubble Ink Verdict:
What's life with a child without those priceless hugs and kisses. A great read. Get it and cuddle your little one. While you are lost in cuddling the little one, the book makes you want to and teaches you how to do it to every one else {aka husbands} whom you love.  Go ! Say "I Love you" with a Hug and a Kiss to all whom you wish to and as the book reminds you , Don't forget anyone, not even the blankie! { may be the smart phonie for many} and wish for the hug not to end.
{XOXO}

We bought ours at amazon.in.

We give it 4 bubbles out of 5.

The Bubbling's Verdict:
The bubbling's verdict can't be put in words. A picture , as soon as she sees the book : that adorable smile and arms held out running for the hug can only do justice. The bubbling , on every read of the book, doesn't forget to demand to be lifted up like what the dad does in this book.

A Bubble Ink book review will have these sections. 
The Book - The synopsis of the book and the author. 
The Bubble - Why we at Bubble Ink love it? 
The Bubble Ink Verdict: The blog author's verdict of the book to other mums  and a rating out of 5
The Bubbling's Verdict: The author's offspring , the tiny thing behind "The Bubble Ink", my toddler's verdict of the book which is expected to be more valuable than the Blog Author's verdict.