Seasons South and North

Launching My New Book - One Fun Week

I am very, very excited and happy to announce the launch of my newest picture book: One Fun Week. It is a simple book that could be read to little ones to help them learn the days of the week , or it could be a first reader for an older child. For each day of the week, a lively little boy dresses in a different costume: superhero, pharaoh, wizard, cowboy, pirate, rock star, knight. Anticipatory symbols of the costume to come please young children as they guess what costume comes next. 

 

A great gift!

 

Buy it now using the Paypal storefront in the panel to the right, on this page.

 

One Fun Week

ISBN: 978-2-9531864-7-5

Binding: paperback

Pages: 36

Weight: 2.7 ounces

Dimensions: 21 x 15 cm

 

 

El Gran Prado

 

I am most pleased to be able to announce before the holidays that "The Big Field : a Child's Year Under the Southern Cross" is now available in Spanish with the title of "El Gran Prado".  The Big Field is a lovely picture book for all children and an important addition to resources for the Early Years curriculum. Patterned after books of hours, it is a month-by-month account of life on a farm at the edge of the Atlantic Rainforest in South America. Birds, flowers, butterflies, and bugs abound in a warm and gentle story of three young children living on their grandmother's farm and learning from her the seasonal changes and simple activities that often mirror those of children in the northern hemisphere. The subtext of the grandmother's determination to reforest the big field of the title gives hope and a way forward to young children as they learn about nature in the modern world. I am most grateful to Celia de Lamo Terry and to the young and brilliant Costa Rican, Erika Moyer, for their translation.

This new edition joins those in French, with the title of "Le Grand Pré" and Portuguese, with the title of "O Grande Campo". 

These can be purchased: 

•  directly from my storefront at Lulu.com
•  from the Paypal store in the panel on the right
• by sending an e-mail to me at:  a.morddel (AT) yahoo (DOT) com

I hope it will make a wonderful gift for your Spanish speaking friends.  Thank you.

 

©2010 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

 

Book Review : Fruits of India

 

How I wish I had had these books sooner! In early years education, it is so important to use the familiar when teaching children words for things. In our school's library, we had a few beautiful picture books of fruits and vegetables, almost none of which grew in the tropical country where we were. Teachers diligently taught and tots diligently learned the words for foods that they almost never saw, imported foods that only the wealthy could afford, thus imparting a subconscious lesson that none desired or intended. 

Now, Tara Books, the publishers of the exquisite book, The Night Life of Trees, have produced a wonderful alternative. Each of these lovely board books, Fruits of India, Vegetables of India, and Flowers of India, is a collection of beautiful photographs by Jill Hartley and Helmut Wolf. Those of the fruits show them cut to reveal the seeds. The photographs are of a very high quality, bright, close, with nicely balanced colour, so that the plants look real and natural, not like advertising images. The last page of each book gives the names of the fruits, vegetables or flowers, in English. I particularly like the choice of a matt as opposed to a glossy surface, making the entire product a much less harsh object for a small child.

These books are not only of value for children living in tropical countries where the plants represented surround them. They are also a wonderful, simple and affordable teaching tool for discussing the seasons of tropical countries. Many of the pictures show plants that can be found elsewhere:

• strawberries are in almost all countries now, including Mexico and Brazil
• mangos grow in Brazil as well as in India
• passion fruit grows in sub-Saharan Africa and much of South America
• jackfruit can be found throughout sub-Saharan Africa as well as the Indian sub-continent
• garlic and onions are global
• bottle brush and hibiscus can be found in many countries
• oh! how wonderful to see the , also called plumeria, and to recall its heavenly odour

Use my chart of Seasons Around the World and these lovely books the better to help children understand how changes in the seasons on the Indian subcontinent are seen in plants and food. Use these books to know what to put on your South-North Seasons Table  or to add greater interest and authenticity to your garden with children. And keep your eye on Tara Books to see what wonders they will give us next.

 
©2010 Anne Morddel
Seasons South and North

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Nature Writing

 

From a fairly early age, I have read books on nature: The Sand County Almanac, The Outermost House (my belovèd favourite) the works of Richard Jeffries. Currently, I am on the more scientific writings of Alexander von Humboldt. I find nature writing to be more than poetry and more than fantasy for the armchair hiker. It is an effort to describe, understand and communicate about the world that surrounds us as well as inhabits us, and dominates us while we humans think we are taming it. At its best, nature writing is philosophy written with a great and beautiful style; it helps us to see the patterns of which our species is a single thread.

In my own work of nature writing for children, I have attempted to use the observation of detail that is inherent in all nature writing as an avenue to the way that small children see things in close-up, as it were. By describing nature as they see it, without condescension,  more with adult collaboration, my books communicate that a love of nature -- in an increasingly unnatural world -- is both normal and healthy.

Ron Harton's website, www.naturewriting.com, is his personal project, a dedication to bringing together those writing about nature in English today. On his website, he discusses nature writing, has many lovely examples of nature journals and essays, poetry, short stories and quotes. He writes his own blog on the subject. He gives connections  and sources for nature writers, ideas, and books.  I am deeply honoured that he has included The Big Field: a Child's Year Under the Southern Cross in his list of books. Please do visit his website to read the wonderful contributions of some of today's best nature writers.

©2010 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Book Review - Weather

Sally Morgan has written an interesting non-fiction book for children. Though it is entitled Weather, it really is more about climate change and its effects on weather Of its headings, the first two:  "Weather and Climate"  and "Food and Climate" explain how ordinary weather affects out lives. Most of the rest: "Changing Climate", "Fossil Fuels", "Rising Sea Levels", "Extreme Weather", explain climate change and its effects on all life on the planet. 

In spite of the misleading title, this is a very good book for a curious child. It answers questions clearly. The layout is clean, with large type for early readers. The photographs  -- showing places around the world -- are honest without being frightening, as is the discussion of the issues. I particularly value the Boxes with "Find out more" information, giving links to government websites on the internet. Even better are boxes on "What can be done?" showing a positive way out of the trouble.

A very good buy.

Weather - (Click on the link in the panel to the right, the last title under Recommended Books for Children)

by Sally Morgan

Published by Evans Brothers Ltd. in 2009

ISBN: 978-0-2375-3650-3

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©2010 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Book Review - The Night Life of Trees

 

Following on from the two previous posts about drawing and painting trees, I cannot recommend highly enough this exquisite, handmade book from Tara Books in India, The Night Life of Trees. Not a new book, it was published in 2006 and is a treasure of magic and inspiration for children and maybe for adults too.

It features art by three artists of the Gond tribe of central India. Seventeen pictures of trees are each linked with a myth or legend about them. The pages are black, with "each page of every book, screen printed on special handmade paper, making every copy an original print. The books are created from a commune of printers from local villages trained in this unique skill." The book is truly a work of art. Please, please go to the website, where you can see some of the inner pages of intricate drawings of creatures hidden and blended within trees.

Activities With "The Night Life of Trees"

Obviously, this book can be used in a number of  activities with children:

• Make up a story of your garden tree's night life
• Draw or paint the nightlife of the tree of your story
• Study other legends from other countries about trees
• Draw or paint the nightlife of one of those trees
• Learn more about the Gond tribe of India and more of their legends about other things
• Do paintings on black paper
• Stay up all night as a class and see what the real nightlife of a tree is

This is one of those heartbreakingly beautiful books that is a true treasure.

©2010 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Just Plain Story Time

 

Years ago, teachers read to children every day. They did not read to teach them to read, nor to teach them grammar or history or anything else. They read to them for the sake of the story. I still read to groups of children who come to the library.

One of the best times of day for reading is just after lunch, when the children have been playing and are tired and fed. This is when they are at their sleepiest and most irascible. This is when story time is most valuable. Choose a book of many chapters, one a tiny bit beyond their years, and read for twenty minutes after lunch every day. Those who are exhausted will sleep, those who are alert will listen, those who are naughty, as always, will be asked to leave the room.

As the story unfolds, the children will become entranced. As they become accustomed to stories, they will want more. As they hear and remember the stories, their lives will be richer. 

Wonderful stories about nature include:

Watership Down by Richard Adams

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

Rikki Tikki Tavi, and other Jungle Book Stories by Rudyard Kipling

©2009 Anne Morddel

 Seasons South and North

"The Big Field" now in French and Portuguese

        

I am most pleased to be able to announce before the holidays that "The Big Field" is now available in French, with the title of "Le Grand Pré" and Portuguese, with the title of "O Grande Campo". I hope to be announcing a Spanish edition in the near future.

These can be purchased:

•  directly from my storefront at Lulu.com
•  from the Paypal store in the panel on the right
• by sending an e-mail to me at:  info (AT) morddeleditions.com

Free Teacher's Guide PDF with Your Purchase

For every purchase of a copy of  "Le Grand Pré" or "O Grande Campo" , and/or for every purchase of three or more copies of "The Big Field", I will send you by e-mail a free download of "A Teachers' Guide to The Big Field. "

"O Grande Campo " for schools and libraries in Brazil

I am seeking funding and cooperation with a charitable organisation to enable me to donate copies of "O Grande Campo" to all primary schools and children's libraries in Brazil. If anyone can advise or help in this, please contact me.

Thank you.

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Le Grand Pré by Anne Morddel

ISBN 978 2 9531864 4 4

Price: €12 / £10 / $16.45

Size: 27.2 cm x 21.4 cm

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O Grande Campo by Anne Morddel

ISBN 978 2 9531864 8 2

Price: €12 / £10 / $16.45

Size: 27.2 cm x 21.4 cm

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©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

 
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Book Review - Garden and Wood

                                                          


Buy Garden                                                                               Buy Wood

Evans has published a series of four books called Sparklers - Out and About, written by Katie Dicker. They are "designed for young children ready to find out more about the world around them. The books are designed to support and extend the early years curriculum." Sounds a bit dull, but the books are just the opposite.

We have two of the four: Garden and Wood, and they are charming. Illustrated with  high quality and colourful photographs to which speech bubbles, flowers for page numbers, and coloured strips for wording have been added. Some pages give facts, while others pose a question:

•  "How tall is your sunflower?", 
• "What time of year do frogs appear?"
• "How many pine cones can you collect?"
• "What different bark textures can you find?"  

Clearly, the emphasis here is on encouraging thinking and enquiry, and not just on the memorization of facts. Unusually for such books, every single one of the children actually looks happy (even though, looking at the photo credits, they seem to have been taken all over the world). The close-up shots of the animals will please young children who so enjoy photographs of real animals.

Both books commendably have a table of contents and an index. In spite of each book being only 24 pages long, it is very helpful to have these to be able to begin to teach children how to use them. 

These are excellent and attractive early non-fiction books.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

Competition Winners

The Prince's Rainforests Project for Schools has completed its Teacher Survey Competition. It won an overwhelming approval with 99% of the respondents saying they found the resources that are offered free on the site to be not only useful but inspirational. If you have not looked at the resources pages, be sure to do so, for more is being added every day.

I am very proud that my book was considered the appropriate prize to offer and  to be a "great complement" to the rainforests teaching resources.  Twenty-five of the teachers who responded to the survey will soon receive their prize copy of The Big Field : a Child's Year Under the Southern Cross and be able to start using it in the classroom to teach children about nature and the seasons as they occur in the Atlantic Rainforest.

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

The drawing to the left is from the month of February in "The Big Field".

Book Review - Dragons Explain It All

The Trouble With Dragons

Debi Gliori is one of the illustrators and authors I most admire, for she seems to write her stories from the heart and to give great whimsy to her drawings. This bright book is true to her style, with its story one of concern to us all and its illustrations full of charm.

Many books warn of the problems of global warming, pollution, and overpopulation, and I have written often about how to help children to cope with this frightening knowledge. Ms. Gliori has chosen to tell the story not with ungrateful people who mindlessly destroy the environment that sustains them. She tells the story with dragons.

In rhyming couplets, she tells of dragons that overproduce, hatching from spotted eggs. It is orange and purple and pink dragons that cover the earth with roads and houses and leave trash in the rivers. She skips round the complicated explanation of the warming of the atmosphere by having it be caused by too many dragons breathing too much fire....and Santa is left in a pink pool where the North Pole once was.

Gradually, all of the colours are sucked out of the illustrations as all of the life is sucked out of the planet, and the dragons are a lonely species. Realizing their fate as the last animals leave, they call out for help. "OK, start by not chopping down trees," they are told, and so start the recommendations -- so simple, really -- that lead to the return of life, colour and health for all.

As a gentle and not frightening way for young children to learn about the subject, this book is among the best, and Bloomsbury is to be commended for publishing it. It will bring discussion, including the most difficult question of all : if we know what we are to do to end the terrible effects of pollution, and we are teaching our children to do it, why are their elders not doing as they recommend?

Indeed, why are we not?

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Book Review - Population Explosion

The Rabbit Problem 

This is a clever book, delightfully illustrated by a Greenaway medal winner. It is a very busy, cluttery book, with pop-up pages, inserted booklets, and its own inner graffiti, across 12 double page spreads of the months of the year.  In the hands of a small child, it will be destroyed in thirty minutes. 

It depicts, humourously, a scenario written by the medieval mathematician, Fibonacci, to illustrate a particular sequence of numbers. If you want a detailed explanation, I suggest the Wikipedia article, Fibonacci Number. In the scenario, Fibonacci began with a pair of rabbits and, with certain rules (a pair of rabbits an produce two more pairs, one per month, and then dies the following month) used the sequence to determine how many pairs would be alive months later.   It seems to us a most bizarre subject for a children's book, one that would truly appeal only to students of pure mathematics who are also parents. 

Why would I review a book that, though charming to look at, is extremely difficult to understand or even make sense of, as well as being too fragile for most children to handle without damaging?  Even more, why would I recommend it, which I most heartily do? Because it gives a very simple and easy to understand imagery of the population explosion.  

Normally, it is difficult for adults to explain this to children in a way that is not disturbing and even frightening. For some children, the explanations have been so dour as to make them feel guilty for having been born. This is neither psychologically healthy nor at all useful. "The Rabbit Problem" enables an adult to walk the child through the concept of exponential population growth in a simple and non-threatening way. Just look at the pictures and discuss the increasing problem without bothering with the mathematics. There is no story written, so you are free to interpret it as you wish. Depending upon the child's maturity, discussion of human population issues can come afterward.

Buy it:

The Rabbit Problem

© 2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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The Prince's Rainforests Project for Schools

                                        

We are very, very pleased and honoured to be working with The Prince's Rainforests Project for Schools in educating children about rainforests and how to preserve and restore them. The PRP has a wonderful site, full of ideas for activities and lessons, as well as, of course, competitions. There are excellent images of rainforest animals and audio clips of the sounds that they make. In a very positive way, every aspect of the site encourages conservation ideals. The PRP has also linked with eco-schools, an internationally admired programme to encourage green goals in schools. 

"The Big Field : a Child's Year Under the Southern Cross"

takes place in the Atlantic Rainforest, where August is cold and grey, and where January is hot, where spring comes in September and autumn in April. It is a charming story that, month by month, shows the native trees, flowers, birds, butterflies and insects as a child discovers them. The grandmother of the story -- with delicacy and understanding and through simple play and activities -- teaches a love of nature and a way to preserve it.

The book can serve "as a supporting resource for any of The Prince's Rainforests Project lesson ideas". 

Please do visit the The Prince's Rainforests Project for Schools  and sign up your school. Also, you may wish to visit the main site of the project and sign up as an individual. 

To purchase a copy of "The Big Field", please read the various options on the panel on the left of this page. Thank you.

What Teachers and Librarians Say about "The Big Field"

"The artwork looks fantastic...It's a lovely book."

                      A.W., school librarian, Yorkshire

"A wonderful resource."

    www.parentsintouch.co.uk.

"...charming. I can see it will work really well in my library classes with the Prep School children as they can enjoy the story and do research projects on all the interesting things in the book!"

    L.M., school librarian, Suffolk

"Great concept for a book...many useful applications for the classroom."

    Deb Troehler, special education teacher

"beautifully illustrated...a wonderful way of introducing....geography, multicultural studies, science and nature."  

                    www.homeschooling-ideas.com

"...our reception teachers...were really keen on your book and plan to use it in a variety of ways."   

                    M.P.,   school librarian, Taunton

©2009 Anne Morddel

Seasons South and North

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Book Review - The Bumper Book of Nature

The Bumper Book of Nature

Random House's blurb calls this hefty book a "gloriously designed treasure trove of nature activities, ideas and information to inspire the whole family to switch off the TV and computer and get outside, whether you live in the deepest inner city, by the sea or on a farm." The author, Stephen Moss, is a naturalist, writer and broadcaster, based at the BBC Natural History Unit, and this book had its beginning as an article about nature deficit disorder in The Guardian. (For a discussion of nature deficit disorder, see our posts entitled "Children and Nature", parts 1 and 2, May 2009.) While the article was raising the alarm about nature deficit disorder,  the book is an effort to provide a solution.

Over 250 pages long, it is no pocket guide. It has dozens of charming sketches of children at play and some lovely coloured drawings of animals and plants. It is divided into five sections of things to do: All Year Long, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. There is nothing new her, just the time-honoured activities of childhood: skipping stones, climbing trees, making daisy chains, observing birds and animals, making snowmen. What is new is that he gives detailed explanations of how to do these things.  

There are also some recipes, animal and plant identification guides, lots of weather lore, and suggestions of places to visit, all of them British. Thus, except for the student of childhood activities worldwide, the book will be of interest only to those based in Britain and Europe. 

The reader audience is of all ages. It is written in such a way that older and younger children can use it on their own, following the instructions; or parents can use it for inspiration when trying to get their children away from the screens. This does, however, give it patches that will not appeal to one reader or another. It is a book to flip through until you find just the right page to interest you, and you will. 

The Bumper Book of Nature is an investment, at £17.99, but it is so good, so attractive, so full of ideas and information, that it is well worth the price. For those in Europe, it may be the only nature book you need, one that will be well thumbed,  and much loved. 

To see more about it and to follow the author's blog, go to :

The Bumper Book of Nature Website

©2009 Anne Morddel

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