The Jolly Postman by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

2002, first published 1986   

Inn 1986 the Ahlbergs bring us here a book that interfaces with characters from nursery rhymes and fairy tales. The reader would need to be familiar with Goldilocks and The Three Bears, Hansel and Gretel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs. This is a novelty book and includes envelops with letters to some of these characters. We are given glimpses of real life here. Goldilocks spells badly. The witch who lives in the gingerbread house receives some targeted advertising. Cinderella, having escaped the cruelty of the stepsisters and stepmother is now exposed to the subtleties of the publishing world. Peter Piper is certainly aware of Cinders’ celebrity status and hopes that a book about her will bring in some cash. The wolf receives a solicitor’s letter concerning his behaviour towards Red Riding hood, her grandmother and the three little pigs. There are dark threats as well. Jack’s giant must be aware that there is one bigger and more violent than him around.

Is there a joke for adults there? At each home the postman is offered a beverage. At the palace when he visits Cinderella and the prince he drinks champagne. Is this what makes him jolly?

There are some bright points. The additional material in the pictures offers no threats. The final letter is a birthday card for Goldilocks and everyone enjoys a party at her house.

There are fourteen double spreads. The envelopes containing the letter form one half of some double spreads.

The pictures extend the stories. For instance, we see the cat washing up in the witch’s kitchen. At the palace the prince wears a bright floral shirt and is hoovering. The wolf-grandma is knitting.        

Though this has all of the attributes of a picture book and although it isn’t an emergent reader book it may well be suitable for lower primary school children as they will know these characters and the other types of text may make sense to them.            

   

Under the Same Sky

Some of the concepts in this book may be difficult for the pre-school child: we live under the same sky, we feel the same love, and we dream the same dreams.  Others are much more concrete:  we play the same games, we sing the same songs, and we face the same storms.  The illustrations, of course, help and as usual in books for this readership, the pictures tell more of the story.     

The pictures are a little abstract yet we can easily recognise cats, lions, penguins and many other creatures looking up at the same sky.  The pictures have a charm that will appeal to the caring adult who reads the book to the child. They are concrete enough to hold the child’s attention.  

There are cut-outs on every other page which frame previous pictures and sometimes the words in another way.  

There are in fact very few words. There is every possibility that the child will “read” the text over and over and eventually know it by heart. The “message” may become clearer as the child grows –up.

In many ways this book is conventional: wide portrait, twelve double spreads, serif font, difficult ‘a’s and ‘g’s.  

This was short-listed for the 2018 Kate Greenway medal.      

Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg

2008, first published 1978    

  

There is an “Each Peach Pear Plum” playground rhyme. Janet and Allan Ahlberg have combined this with details about characters from nursery rhymes and fairy tales to form a very rhythmical rhyming text.  It also an I-Spy book.  As the adult reads the child has to find the new character hidden in someone else’s story.      

   

As ever in picture books there is additional story in the pictures. Sometimes this is challenging: Cinderella as well as Goldilocks has broken into the home of the Three Bears, Baby Bear trips over his gun and Baby Bunting has been abandoned like Moses amongst the bulrushes.  However, all turns out well and everybody enjoys some plum pie.

The book comes in several formats including a small one that a young child could actually hold. There are fourteen double spreads. The text is in a simple and large font.      

The Monster Café by Sean Leahy and Mihaly Orodan

2019, pre-school, ages 0-4,  

This delightful picture book is published by innovative publisher Unbound. This works a little like crowd-funding.  Would-be readers pledge a certain amount and receive an appropriate award. More often than not this is a special edition of the book. Obviously friends and family may vote with their cash, hopefully so will fans and followers. There could be some dangers there. Thankfully most books make it to funding because they have merit.    

Indeed, this has many of the usual characteristics of a picture book that a young child who has not yet learned to read would share with a caring adult: it has quirky, stylized pictures that tell more of the story, a limited amount of text, a sophisticated font and reasonably complex language.

The story might be scary – is the café cooking people? Indeed, the final dish to arrive is “Baby food”. “Oh,” thinks our protagonist. We pause for a moment. That might just be food for the baby or it might be food made from the baby. We just need to reflect a little. We’ve seen “Mummygatwany soup”  “father beans” and “nana split” and Mum, Dad and Nana are alive and well.         

  

This is a very attractive book with great attention to detail; even the end papers are amusing.    

Town is Sea by Joanne Schwartz and Sydney Smith

2018, Kate Greenaway  Prize 2018, 

This is a landscape picture book and thus easy for the parent and child to share.  As usual in picture books the story the pictures tell more of the story. The ratio of text to picture is what we would normally expect for this sort of book.

We also have the normal amount of repetition: when (I wake up) it goes like this, my father is digging coal  … 

There is a mixture of double spreads, single spreads and pages that contain multiple pictures. The double spreads generally give a strong sense of place: the family home, the town, the mine where the protagonist’s father digs and the sea. The single spreads and the pages with multiple pictures are more concerned with activities.

In some ways, however, the text may appeal to a more advanced learner. The protagonist’s observations are quite sophisticated. He thinks about his father’s work and realises that one day it will be his turn.   

The author also provides a note at the end of the text explaining what it was like for children who grew up in mining villages.