0 E is for Elmer

Part of the A to Z blogging challenge #atozchallenge

The Book:
The Elmer series is written and illustrated by David McKee is about a patchwork elephant who is unique in all his ways than just his appearance. He made sure that he kept all elephants happy always.

The Bubble:
Elmer is the only elephant in the herd of all grey elephants and gets laughed for this appearance. Elmer gets disturbed by this and he decides to sneak away one night. On his way, he meets all the jungle animals who address him as Elmer and not elephant. Elmer finds a large bush of grey-colored berries and colors himself in berry juice, thus ending up looking like the other grey elephants. When he goes to the jungle, no one recognizes him. The illustrations are lovely where despite now being elephant color, Elmer is shown to stand out in the crowd with his naughty, funny looks.

Even if not recognized by appearance, Elmer couldn't contain his laughter and gets himself identified by bursting into laughter. It then rains to wash off the grey from Elmer making him , himself again. Thus, Elmer day was declared, where all elephants color themselves in multi colors and Elmer colors himself grey.

A lovely story which is a celebration of being oneself and in taking pride in one's individuality.

Bubble Ink's verdict:
We love the subtle way in which the books bring out the message of "Be who you are, even if you are different from others, be yourself".

We have Elmer, Elmer again, Elmer and the Lost Teddy and Elmer's Weather - all of them bought in book sales.

The story line in each of them show how Elmer is unique in his own way - be it his wit, intelligence or kindness, Elmer is Elmer.  Atleast one book in the Elmer series is a must-read for your child.
We give it 4 bubbles.

Bubbling's verdict:
The bubbling is an elephant - lover and loves the Elmer series. Her favourite is Elmer and the lost teddy. From the Elmer book, she loves to identify the berry-juice-covered-grey-colored-Elmer from the other grey elephants.
It is a bubbling-fab-four.

0 D is for Dig Dig Digging

Part of the A to Z blogging challenge #atozchallenge

The Book:
Dig, Dig, Digging is a book by Margaret Mayo illustrated by Alex Ayliffe about all heavy duty vehicles. 

The Bubble:
The book is about all the heavy duty vehicles like transporters, fire engines, tractors, rollers, dump trucks, bulldozers and the likes. The text in the book rhymes ending with -ing just like the title Dig, Dig, Digging which is great for read-aloud. The illustrations are well detailed showing the caterpillar tracks of the bulldozers, load carrying lorries, the construction scenes and the view of the town resting. The scenes illustrated offer a lot of scope for object identification play with the toddler.
Each vehicle is explained with what it does and the sound it makes.

Sample lines.
Tractors are good at pull, pull, pulling,
Ploughing up the field with a squelch, squelch, squelching.
Round go the wheels, see the mud flying!
They can work all day.

Bubble Ink's verdict
Like the text in the book,

This book is great for read, read, reading.
If your child loves things that go roll, roll, rolling.
This book they'll keep on picking,
And will read this all day.

We give it 3 bubbles.

Bubbling's verdict
The bubbling loves cranes and loves talking about the pictures in the book, pointing to the different things on the illustrations. 
It is a bubbling-tantalizing-three. But this is just my bubbling's view. Am sure this can even be a full-five for other children.
The book also seems to be available along with a toy-set. Check it out.

0 C is for Cave Baby

Part of the A to Z blogging challenge #atozchallenge

The Book:
Cave Baby written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Emily Gravett is a story of baby who lives in a cave and loves to paint and his journey with the woolly mammoth.

The Bubble:
The author-illustrator combo is just absolutely awesome. Emily Gravett makes the cave baby wearing a leafy-nappy look so adorably cute. The illustrations on every page is well detailed and lovely.

It is a story of a baby who lives in a cave with his mom and dad having pictures of tiger, hyena, hare, woolly mammoth and a big brown bear on his wall for company. Cave baby finds his cave boring since his mom and dad are busy. He finds paint and a brush and starts to paint patterns on those animals and has fun. Mum and dad are not happy seeing this and the dad threatens the baby saying
"If you don't take care, 
A mammoth's going to throw you to the big brown bear". 

The story continues on with the cave baby being taken away on a journey by the grey mammoth. Throughout the ride, the baby is dreading the big brown bear. Is the mammoth taking him to throw him to the big brown bear? Is he taking the cave baby on his dream journey? Is the ride on the mammoth a dream? Does the baby get to live his dream?
The effect of small things on the child's mind is brought out well in the book. The dad scares the baby of the big brown bear, it stays on the child's mind, he dreams of it, he dreads it all along. At the end of the story - the illustrations show how the baby no longer fears the bear - by depicting it as a small brown bear! Only Gravett and Donaldson can do that in a picture book.

Bubble Ink verdict:
We love the dreamy effect in the story. While the cave baby is riding on the mammoth, his fearful comments on seeing each animal, how dreadful he is of the big brown bear is delightful with the illustrations and the rhyming text.
"Cackle in the bracken. A hyena is laughing there.
Has he heard a joke about the big brown bear?"

One of those books which will grow with your child - Dreamy story, beautiful illustrations, rhyming text , Julia Donaldson, Emily Gravett - What more do you need for a picture book! That is a complete, sure hit package!

We give it 4 bubbles.
We borrowed our copy from Hippocampus Bangalore.
Watch the author perform the cave baby song here.
Bubbling's verdict:
The bubbling loves the story. She jumps in joy seeing the animals , but still says "Elephant" for the mammoth. Her latest favourite happens me to be little babies, so she took to the Cave Baby immediately. The time this book was the one that she wanted it to be read to her, every single day.
It is a Bubbling-Fab-Four.

0 B is for Blue Chameleon

Part of the A to Z Blogging challenge #atozchallenge

The Book:

Blue Chameleon is a book by Emily Gravett and has got lovely illustrations of Chameleons.

The Bubble:

The book is not just about illustrations of color-changing chameleon but has a story weaved in too. It starts with a Blue Chameleon feeling lonely. Through the pages of the book, this blue chameleons meets a host of things, animals, birds, reptiles and greets them with his witty, cute one-liners. The chameleon not only changes color but also poses in the style and adapts the patterns of whom/what it meets. Just while he is about to give up on seeing the grey rock, he gets to meets another chameleon and they both are multi-colored and multi patterned and dance away to glory.

The book is an absolute visual treat starting from the pink cockatoo, swirly snail, the stripy sock, smart and stylish boot, spotty ball.

Bubble Ink's verdict:

This book is an absolute delight to own. It is one of those books, which you will not be satisfied by just reading once, but would so want to own a copy of your own. 

We love the illustrations on each and every page. It is beautiful, intelligent and done with a lot of attention to detail. We love the one-liners that go with every page, like in the Sock Page with the Chameleon hanging upside down on a cloth line asking the sock "Can I hang out with you?". The smart looking chameleon stylishly saying "Howdy" to the Boot. Intelligence is seen in the pages in which the chameleon meets a fish and doesn't greet, but the illustrations shows bubbles coming out to show the chameleon in water. The impression of the chameleon even when it meets a white page is a lot of attention to detail. 

A must own in every child's library and can start at any age! The illustrations are drool-worthy and in addition can also be used to learn colors, patterns ,objects and animals. 

We give it 5 bubbles.

We bought ours at a sale.

Bubbling's verdict:

My bubbling likes the book, she . However, the book is not something she would pick up on her own to bring to be read. With just that in mind, for now, it stands as a Bubbling-tantalizing-three. 

0 A is for Annabelle : Extra Yarn

Part of the A to Z blogging challenge  #atozchallenge

The Book:
Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett illustrated by Jon Klassen is a story of sharing, good will and magic. It is a 2013 Caldecott Honor.

The Bubble:
The story is of a little girl named Annabelle who lives in a town which seems lifeless with just snow and soot all over. Annabelle finds a box of yarn of all colors and she decides to knit herself a sweater. On finding that she had more yarn left she knit her dog a sweater too. She goes on then to knit everyone in the town a sweater including her friend and his dog, her classmates, her school teacher and all friends and family and neighborhood. She finds that the yarn was never running out. She brings warmth and color to her town by knitting sweaters for even inanimate things like houses, lamp posts etc. The box gets stolen, Does it come back to Annabelle? 

Jon Klassen's illustrations are an absolute delight to see! The illustration of Annabelle weaving with her yarn box is adorable.  

Bubble Ink's verdict:
The sheer joy of sharing what you have got with others, brightening up someone's day or life with a sweet deed and in believing in magic are the things that this book reminds me of. We love the bit where Annabelle knits a hat for a man who dislikes sweaters. We love the humor in the bit where her friend Nate, criticizes her about her sweater. But later, she figured out that it was out of jealously. She knits him and his dog a sweater too. A thoughtful gesture, that. 
We loved the repeated text that goes like this throughout the book
"It seemed that Annabelle would soon run out of yarn.
But it turned out that she didn't"

This book just like this one reminds us
"Love, it's just like a magic penny.
Hold it right and you won't get any.
Lend it, spend it, give it away,
And it comes right back to you"

The stolen yarn box, the curse - Nothing mattered!

We give it 5 bubbles.
We borrowed our copy from Hippocampus, Bangalore. 

Bubbling's verdict:
It seemed that the bubbling @ 2 would be too young for this book. 
But it turned that she wasn't.

Though she did not get the entire essence of the book, she loved the illustrations, she understood the bit about knitting for all friends and family and also the darkness in the robbery. It was one of the books that she kept bringing back to be read to again and again.

It is a bubbling Fab-Four.

0 Day #30 : 30 books in 30 days : My Favourite Book

As part of the 30 books in 30 days challenge, everyday of the challenge we will post a reading prompt to motivate you to read books.

Day #30 : 30 books in 30 days challenge : My Favourite Book.

Being the last day of the challenge , we just want you to read on any theme - your child's favourite book, the one your child wants to be read to again and again or just any book that your child chooses.

0 Day #29 : 30 books in 30 days : Read in your native language

As part of the 30 books in 30 days challenge, everyday of the challenge we will post a reading prompt to motivate you to read books.


Day #29 : Reading prompt : Read in your native language

Thanks to Deeptha Vivekanand who suggested this prompt. The prompt honors each one of your native languages.

We are not doing any book picks today. Read whatever you have in your native language. If you don't have one, you can read any book to stay in the challenge. But, try to read them in your native language to keep with the spirit.

Here is an image putting together some of the Indian languages along with English.