Letting in the Stars of Children's Poetry at Wellfield Infant and Nursey School Book Club Group

MOONSHINE

The sun lights the moon to make it shine
Moonshine,
Moonshine,
Moonshine shine.

A mouse ate the moon,
It made it fat
Moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine shine

Werewolves come out and howl at the night
Moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine shine.

Spirits creep through dark midnight
Moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine shine.

You go blind if you stare at it
Moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine shine.

Moonshine sets and the sun is bright
Moonshine
Moonshine
Moonshine shine.

By Wellfield Infant and Nursery School Book Club Group


***


THIS IS THE END 
This is the end,
Where horses gallop
And poetry sings,
Where mountains blow
To the rhythm of oceans,
Heartbeats thunder,
Flowers drift
Midnight stops.
This is the end.

By Wellfield Infant and Nursery School Book Club Group

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Fairytales

By Rachel Formby, age 12

Happily ever after. Isn’t this the most common ending in English Literature? Yet what does it do to our younger generation, does it make them believe a fairytale is real life? Fairytales give children a magical place to believe in, a beautiful character to cherish and a perfect ending, but what are fairytales teaching our children about life? That everything in life is going to be easy. That everything ends with a ‘happily ever after’. That everything is safe. Children aged 2 - 6 years old are the most vulnerable category to be targeted for crime, yet they are also the most unaware of the dangers around them.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - We all know the story but have we ever thought what moral message it gives our children? That it is OK to wander off with men you have never met before? You try to protect your children but you are still handing them content that could make them a target. 

Not only are the moral lessons of our fairytales disturbing, the content of fairytales can be quite scary for the young mind and could create nightmares. Little Red Riding Hood is well known to everyone and adults may think it is just a story, but for a young mind it is worrying. It tells children that wolves could eat their grandma’s, then eat them too. What effect could this have on an early child’s learning and to their mental health? 

We might think that this is a silly issue, however when a child’s mind can’t tell what’s real and what’s fantasy, we need to be concerned. Imagination is wonderful yet when it gets mixed with reality it could create mountains of problems for a child in later. We all want our child to succeed in life so when fairytales are holding them back, why do we continue reading them? 

Some may say that if you analyse the themes of most fairytales, you will find that it usually has a good vs evil theme in which good usually triumphs therefore fairytales provide a useful metaphor for children to learn about values. However do you really think that 5 year olds are going to recognize values when they can’t separate fantasy from reality? No. All they see is the scary world of fairytales plus the dangerous moral lessons taught in them. So if you want your child to have the best chance in life, don’t read them fairytales. 25% of parents already don’t, so why not join them by not doing so?

Once upon a time there lived a boy who had never read a fairytale yet he blossomed beautifully. He got married, had a highly paid job and a happy life, full of imagination… 

And so he lived…

Happily Ever After.

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, event and book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Pigs Can't Fly Or Can They?

Pigs Can’t Fly is a exciting new picture book, written by Anand S and illustrated by Izzy Bean. It is a heart warming tale about a a little pig, named Zig. Zig wants to fly more than anything. But Zig is repeatedly told, “Pigs can walk, pigs can run, but pigs can’t fly.” The question is: ‘Will Zig prove the doubters wrong?’

Anand S tells us,

“I am excited about the release of book as it conveys an important message in an entertaining manner. The message is that dreams can come true if you put the effort in. I hope that it will help children see their abilities as something that can be developed through effort. I would like to thank my family, my friends, the writers’ club and the illustrator for helping me to create this book.”

Anand S was born in India, in 1985. He moved to England aged 10. Anand S studied Medicine at the University of Cambridge. While training to be a surgeon, he discovered a passion for writing so he exchanged the scalpel for the pen.

“For me, making the learning experience enjoyable is important. I believe that children are more likely to learn, if they are having fun. This is why, I try to create stories that are funny, humorous and imaginative.”

Pigs Can't Fly is available for purchase from the Amazon bookstore. For more information on the author and/or activities inspired by the book characters visit www.storytime.website.

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Ciara Reads Her Favourite Book

Here's a video of Ciara reading her favourite book The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids - an oldie but a classic!

Ciara is 8 years old and has started to enjoy reading for pleasure. She particularly likes to read to her little brother.

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Joss Reviews the RNCM Musical Family Fun Day

By Joss Abbs-Brown, age 11

On Sunday 28th of June 2015 the RNCM held a great event linked with the Manchester Children's Book Festival, consisting of various different workshops and activities. It was a wonderful day for families of all ages and races. 

My Mum and I enjoyed one of the hilarious high-lights of the day as Nick Sharratt (a famous illustrator for over 50 Jacqueline Wilson books and many Julia Donaldson stories) took to the stage to entertain. 

There were many jokes and laughs as we sang, danced, and drew with him on our special journey. On the way we met honking elephants, cool koalas and animals playing instruments; listened to music performed by a small but talented band of players and sang with Nick Sharratt. We met a rocking caterpillar and some very funny sheep and found some very peculiar pants!

At the end we managed to get some books signed and got some friendly advice about becoming an illustrator. The overall event was interactive and a great start to the Manchester Children's Book Festival; a huge thank you to everyone who organised this event!

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, event and book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Fairy Cloaks

 

By Alicia Wright

Do you read fairy tales? I do. For one thing, they are often quite silly and thus great parody fodder. But another reason is that they are an interesting window into the cultures of the past.

It is particularly fascinating to me when the same tale crops up in different times and different countries. One such tale involves a fairy cloak. The basic version goes like this;

A man is walking in the woods when he comes across some fairy women bathing in a pool. The fairies' cloaks are hung up on a tree nearby. He steals one and hides it. He's a jerk like that.

The fairies get out and get dressed, but one is left behind, searching for her missing cloak. The man approaches her and asks her to marry him. She has little choice but to accept.

(Most versions do not tell you this but if you take a fairy's cloak they have to do as you say. This was probably such a basic fact to the original storytellers that they did not include it, as one would not bother saying why a vampire would be stopped by a barrier of garlic today.)

Years later, the fairy woman figures out where her cloak is hidden from the songs of her children. She takes it and flies back home.

This legend exists in many forms all over the world. In Britain we have tales of selkies and swan maidens who have cloaks made of seal skin and swan feathers respectively. In Scandinavia there are valkyries with cloaks made of raven feathers. In Japan, there is the tennyo or 'heavenly maiden' and her hagoromo or 'feather mantle'. In African tales, it is an elephant skin cloak.

As fairy tales and folklore are the basis for much of my work I have several cloak-using characters. One of them is Erlina, a fairy princess from my book Miss Prince. I have made a replica of her cloak as a raffle prize for the Manchester Children's Book Festival Family Fun Day this Saturday! Come along to my stall to buy tickets, Miss Prince and other goodies.

Alicia L. Wright is the author of YA comic fantasies Eggs, Butter, Sugar and Disaster, published in 2011 and Miss Prince, published in 2014. You can download free samples of both books from her publisher's website. In her spare time Alicia also draws a webcomic based on Miss Prince and its sequels called Vampires Don't Belong in Fairytales. You can find her on: Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, deviantART and Tumblr.

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Meet Astro Fred!

This is the story
of Astronaut Fred,
who travels the stars
in his spaceship bed.

Meet Astro Fred, a daring young adventurer who travels through space meeting mysterious monsters and exploring exciting new worlds. Join his first escapade as he reaches the moon – but who does he meet and what dangers will they face?

Designed to be read at nighttime and educate during the day, Astro Fred is an innovate story that has been created to spark the imagination and inspire young minds. Furthermore, with literacy rates consistently lower for boys, it is hoped that Astro Fred can help to address the balance and get more boys interested in reading.

Author Paul Tildesley says that the key inspiration for writing Astro Fred was his children: “My kids are always running around with these wonderful ideas and creating imaginative games. I wanted to make something to feed this imagination and give back some of the fun they’ve given to me.”

With the act of reading aloud to his children being a key part of Paul’s day, he wanted Astro Fred to be a book that the whole family can enjoy. With illustrations inspired by 1980s graphics and retro toys adorning the pages, the book will appeal to parents as much as their children.

Paul has also created Fred to be a good role model that children can relate and aspire to. Given how much the behaviour of young children is influenced by the world around them, watching Fred help others in need and his good deeds will show children the importance of kindness. 

Astro Fred is running on Kickstarter throughout June 2015. To buy your copy and discover the fun pledge rewards, visit the page here. Astro Fred is also on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.

Book of Acts by Tashi

Six year old Tashi van Ommen shares a short picture book that talks about the Book of Acts. 

Tashi's dad tells us, "He enjoys making picture story books based on the Bible. He loves the stories in the Bible very much."

If you have a story you would like to share please get in touch!

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.

Hello I Am Yeshi

Yeshi and Tashi enjoying the sunshine.

Yeshi, four, shares a video of him telling his big brother Tashi a story about Pocoyo. This video was taken on our their way home in Manila. They are traveling on a rickshaw known as a 'pedicab.'

Yeshi and Tashi's dad tells us, "In Manila it actually more common to have the motorized ones - they are called tricycles. In Tashi and Yeshi's neighborhood motorized tricycles are not allowed as they are noisy and are good sources of pollution - so it's rather unique we have these pedicabs in our area."

Yeshi and Tashi on the footbridge near their home.

If you have a story you would like to share please get in touch!

The MCBF2015 team are looking for your blogs, stories, book reviews, photos, poems - simply anything and everything to do with your favourite children’s books! Email mcbf@mmu.ac.uk to get involved.