Chatterbox No. 6

My best four year old friend (BFYOF) and I were reading The Perfect Monster by Sally Grindley and Erica-Jane Waters when the coversation turned to the nature of reality, epistemology, exceptionalism, popcorn and Tinkerbell dresses.

Me: Do you think the characters are real?

BFYOF: Ummm, yes!

Me: What makes them real? Are they pretend or are they real?

BFYOF: They’re real. Cos, they’re just in the country but the book seems like they’re not real but they’re actually real.

Me: They’re real but they’re not real in the book?

BFYOF: Yes!

Me: OK, hmmm, so how does that work?

BFYOF: Ummm…?

Me: So on the page they’re not real?

BFYOF: Yes because they are real but they just don’t show they’re real.

Me: OK, so … they could walk into the room here?

BFYOF: No!

Me: No?

BFYOF: Because they’re very very very long to their, to their country. It’s very very long.

Me: Aahh. They have their own country?

BFYOF: Yeah! And they don’t come to people’s houses because they don’t know where to go.

Me: OK, and the country they live in is far away.

BFYOF: Yes! Very far away. I think they’re …up (she points vaguely to the sky).

Me: Up in the sky?

BFYOF: Yes, there’s a big man up there who says Bing! Bang! Fo! Fum!

Me: I smell the blood of an Englishman!

BFYOF: …(she looks quizzical…)

Me: Is that how it goes? Well that’s interesting. I didn’t realise the monsters had another country.

BFYOF: Yeah? You didn’t know that?

Me: No, I didn’t know that.

BFYOF: Do you know why I know everything?

Me: Why do you know everything?

BFYOF: Because sometimes my brain just knows everything and it tells me…yeah.

Me: Wow!

BFYOF: Yeah everyday.

Me: You’re lucky! Does that work for everyone? Does everyone’s brain tell them stuff?

BFYOF: No, just me because I’m a special girl.

Me: You’re a special girl?

BFYOF: (whispers in my ear): Because I eat popcorn!

Me: Popcorn? Does that make you special or does that give you special powers?

BFYOF: That gives me special!

Me: Special powers?

BFYOF: No, not special powers. It just makes me special. Want me to wear the Tinkerbell dress?

Me: No, I like what you’re wearing.

BFYOF: OK.

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Mini Pop Up Tots

It’s not yet summertime in Australia, but it is time for some home spun frivolity.
Watching bemused looks on the girls’ faces when presented with miniature cardboard versions of themselves was great fun. I printed, then cut around and assembled the ‘miniatures’ with a stand like a photo frame.

Isadora was initially delighted and perplexed, stating, ‘What on Earth are those? … They look a bit groovy’.

It was entertaining to see them act the puppeteer with their own likenesses*, with both girls talking in exaggerated voices, and this made for very animated play.

Make your own … 1. Take a photograph top to toe, somewhere standing in even light (meaning, fewer shadows or bright sun across the person is good).
2. Print out the full-figure on A4 paper. 3. Glue the paper to a heavier cardboard first, one that is rigid enough to stand upright once cut out. If you want a colour outline like the example, just mount the figure on colour card after you have cut around the outline. 3. Carefully cut around the colour card, mirroring the existing outline, allow a 5-8mm border. 4. Too make a simple stand for the back cut a piece of cardboard approx. 180mm x 75mm wide and then fold at the 20mm point lengthways, in the example, this side was simply secured to the back with a long strip of tape. The remaining 50mm folds back and acts as a basic stand, you don’t see it from the front. And there you have it, your own mini whoever.

* Each of these ‘characters’ were made with three images combined. Heads were made a bit bigger for effect, and shoes were added from separate photo too, this allowed for more detail and brighter colour, but you can still use a single image to great effect.

Disobedience can be fun

Listening to BBC Radio 4 last night in bed, I was reminded of how much fun poetry can be when it is read out loud:

Disobedience by A.A. Milne

James James
Morrison Morrison
Weatherby George Dupree
Took great
Care of his Mother,
Though he was only three.
James James Said to his Mother,
“Mother,” he said, said he;
“You must never go down
to the end of the town,
if you don’t go down with me.”

James James
Morrison’s Mother
Put on a golden gown.
James James Morrison’s Mother
Drove to the end of the town.
James James Morrison’s Mother
Said to herself, said she:
“I can get right down
to the end of the town
and be back in time for tea.”

King John
Put up a notice,
“LOST or STOLEN or STRAYED!
JAMES JAMES MORRISON’S MOTHER
SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN MISLAID.
LAST SEEN
WANDERING VAGUELY:
QUITE OF HER OWN ACCORD,
SHE TRIED TO GET DOWN
TO THE END OF THE TOWN –
FORTY SHILLINGS REWARD!”

James James
Morrison Morrison
(Commonly known as Jim)
Told his
Other relations
Not to go blaming him.
James James
Said to his Mother,
“Mother,” he said, said he:
“You must never go down to the end of the town
without consulting me.”

James James
Morrison’s mother
Hasn’t been heard of since.
King John said he was sorry,
So did the Queen and Prince.
King John
(Somebody told me)
Said to a man he knew:
If people go down to the end of the town, well,
what can anyone do?”

(Now then, very softly)
J.J.
M.M.
W.G.Du P.
Took great
C/O his M*****
Though he was only 3.
J.J. said to his M*****
“M*****,” he said, said he:
“You-must-never-go-down-to-the-end-of-the-town-
if-you-don’t-go-down-with-ME!”

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Chatterbox No.5

CONVERSATION WITH A TWO-YEAR-OLD

Camille: I don’t like girls or boys.

Me: Why not?

Camille: I don’t like boys. I spit them out.

Me: Who do you like?

Camille: I like … umm … my sister!

Me: Your sister is a girl. So you do like girls?

Camille: I love girls!!

Me: But, do you like girls?

Camille: I don’t like girls.

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Tulip Festival Mania

It’s early Spring, and today the girls joined all the other cats and rabbits for a hop and prowl through new tulip rows at Silvan. It must be said, the mood was more ‘skip and stomp’, then ‘tulip tiptoe’, with a large, slightly manic crowd descending on the gentle rows of bulbs at the Annual Photo Snapping-Flower Squashing Tulip Festival. A Golden Age? Nope. Anything like Amsterdam? Nup. Rotterdam? Not even damn close, but this was a fine way to get personal with some stunning fields of colour … and in disguise.
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Chatterbox No.4

CONVERSATION WITH A TWO-YEAR-OLD
Camille: We live in India
Me: No we don’t. We live in Australia.
Camille: No Dad. We live in India.
Me: Sorry sweetie, but we don’t. We live in Australia, not India.
Camille: Oohhh! Pfffft!

A Guilt-free Read

Some years before fancy concepts like bookcrossing entered the scene two boxes of books have sat unassumingly under a tree, by a foreshore path, in the happily underdeveloped seaside town of Merricks. A sign on the tree reads: ‘Free books. Replace cover. Free books. Surplus books from St. Marks Op-Shop, Balnarring’.

Locals, or Sunday strollers passing by the dusty old boxes may pull off the weathered canvas and finger through an ever-changing collection of kids books and old novels. If you see something you like, it’s yours – guilt free. Sitting atop the current crop is Down at the Doctor’s The Sick Book (1987), by the fabulous Michael Rosen and Quentin Blake, it’s a little collection of silly sayings and flights of fancy among other things.

‘Well, Doctor, I’ll tell you what’s wrong with you. You’ve got spollyollydiddlytiddlyitis”.

Sick Book, thank you, I’m feeling better already.
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Peter Rabbit Hops Again

110 years after Beatrix Potter’s original Peter Rabbit book was published, actress Emma Thompson has written a sequel The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit.

In a departure from the original, the tale is set in Scotland rather than the Lake District locale of Beatrix Potter’s stories of Peter, Jemima Puddleduck, Tom Kitten and Samuel Whiskers.

The Thompsons have form in the reworking and rebooting of classic material. Emma’s father Eric wrote the scripts for and narrated the English versions of The Magic Roundabout. He used stop-motion animations created in France adding his own inventive tales of Dougal and Zebedee over the top of the footage.

Listen to this delightful interview with Emma on BBC’s Radio 4 Woman’s Hour as she explains how Peter himself wrote her a letter asking if she would consider writing a sequel.

I’m sure Beatrix Potter would approve.
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Chatterbox No.3

CONVERSATION WITH A FOUR-YEAR-OLD
Isadora: Do spiders cuddle?
Me: Maybe. They’ve got plenty of legs to wrap around each other.
Isadora: What do crocodiles eat?
Me: What do you think they eat?
Isadora: Blueberries
Me: What about lions, what do they eat?
Isadora: Lions eat lions … what about butterflies?
Me: What about them?
Isadora: Do butterflies have bottoms?
Me: Good question, I guess they do.
Isadora: I want to eat butterfly bottoms.
Me: Umm. What about dogs, what do they eat?
Isadora: Breakfast.

Book Champions

2012 is the National Year of Reading in Australia and there have been loads of fun events to get involved in. However, one feature on the calendar every year is Australia’s National Book Week. It’s the longest running children’s festival in the country and recently celebrated its 67th birthday. Every year since 1945, Book Week has had a fun theme, this year it was Champions Read.

I asked two book champions from Moama some questions about their favourite book and the character they dressed up as to go to school.

Emma is five years old and in her first year at primary school.
Bailey is 10 and in Grade 5.

EMMA: The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss

What would you do if the cat visited you?
I would say, can you do all the juggling things for me?

Would your mum like the cat visiting your house?
No way, because Mum wouldn’t like all the mess he makes.

What is your favourite bit in the book?
When they kids met Thing 1 and Thing 2 and they “shaked” hands.

Do you think a cat can really do all that?
No, because cats don’t talk and they don’t juggle and they don’t have Thing 1 and Thing 2.

How many times have you read it?
Eight times because I have it on leap frog.

Would you recommend it to other kids? What age kids do you think would like this book?
Other kids that are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 would like it.

What was the favourite part of the costume you wore?
The bow tie and the hat because the hat has stripes and I like bows.

If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
I would be a dinosaur because they are big and tall and they growl.

BAILEY: Specky Magee by Felice Arena and Garry Lyon

Which one is your favourite Specky Magee book?
I have only read the first book, so that it my favourite so far.

What’s your favourite sport?
AFL Football.

What position do you play in your football team. Would Specky be a good person to have on your team?
I play a mixture of full back and full forward. Yes, because he plays in the forward line and kicks a lot of goals.

Can you take marks like Specky and Screamer?
Yes, I take my best marks in the back line!

Which football team do you barrack for? Do you think it’s strange that Specky supports more than one team? If you supported more than one football team which ones would you support and why?
I barrack for Collingwood. I don’t know why Specky would support more than one team – I go for Collingwood because they are the best!

Who is your favourite character in the Specky Magee books? Robbo, Gobbo, Specky, Screamer, Johnny, Danny?
Specky, because he’s the first character I met and the one that stays in my mind.
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