Two by Two: Two Children's Books for a Good Night's Sleep

Two by Two is an exciting children literature project. Its purpose is to bring more or less known children books in the attention of teachers, parents and children around the world, paired on specific themes such as death, communication, self esteem, anger management, friendship or unconditional love. A lot of these books were brought to my attention by a very dear friend, with whom I share  the passion for child literature. Almost all of these books are in my personal library, carefully chosen to fulfill some of the criteria described here, and have been used during my teaching classes. The children I work with had wonderful reactions to them, and this has inspired me to write this Two by Two series.


Two by Two: Two Children's Books for Good Night's Sleep

1. Silly Billy, Anthony Browne

Anthony Browne is an amazing British artist! I really love both his illustrations and his stories. The stories are original, profound and insightful and deal with different facets of childhood. His illustrations are brilliant! They are often full of hidden meanings which children can discover gradually. Browne  uses different characters from famous classical paintings to educate children on the history of art or to express certain feelings in an unconventional way. He also uses gorillas as characters, being inspired by real stories and the contrast between their strength and their humanity and gentleness.  


Silly Billy is a book that can help children deal with anxiety and some of the fears they face when they go to bed. Browne leaves nothing to chance. If you carefully analyze the cover you will see something that looks like a doll, with a sad face, and a boy walking towards the future with a happy face. These two clues make you curious from the start to discover Billy's story and why he's called silly in the title. 

From the very fist pages we find out Billy was a boy who would worry about a lot of things. Not to give children ideas of real things to worry about, the author had Billy worry about hats and shoes, clouds and rain and giant birds, fears that are not at all common among children. The use of black and white for the illustrations of Billy's fears are very compelling. Browne also makes references to the work of Magritte by using his style of drawing the hats.

Of course his parents tried to talk to him, and reassure him they are there to protect him. But for Billy this was not enough. One night, he had to sleep at his grandmother's house.  He got particularly worried when he slept in other places, and and his anxiety grew, he felt a bit ridiculous and went into his grandma's room. 

His grandma reassured him that he wasn't silly at all! She then came with a solution for his worries, some worry dolls for him to tell all his worry to, and put them under his pillow. They would take his worries for him, and he could sleep in peace. Billy tried the worrying dolls and for three days he slept very well. 


But soon, Billy got worried again! He felt bad for the worry dolls, to carry all the weight of his worries for him, so he decided do to some crafty work and make some worry dolls for his worry dolls!

And that was the end of Billy's worries. At the end of the book we get a short explanation. These worry dolls actually come from Guatemala, where children would make them from wood, colorful pieces of cloth and thread. They have proven to be quite useful for children, and today they are even used in certain hospitals to help children deal with their fears. 

Many teachers accompany this books with discussions about fears or with practical activities. The dolls are easy to make. Here is an example of a doll making activity inspired by the book. Another example of activity is this animation made by the children of Columbia Primary School for the London's Children Film Festival (2009).  You can find many articles and interviews with Anthony Browne on the internet. Here is a series of 6 clips from a conference where he spoke about his inspiration and the stories behind his books and illustrations!


2. The Little Giant, Philippe Dumas

For the second book I choose one a little bit easier and with no negative emotional charge. Philippe Dumas's story is perfect for a warm, cosy, full of fantasy bedtime read.

The book has a witty start as the author presents the two main characters: a boy and a girl who broke anything and never spoke bad words. The little readers are reassured as they flip the page and discover the boy and the girl were two plastic dolls!

The owner of the dolls, a little giant girl, was happy to play and sleep with them. During the day, she was a giant, but at night, she would lessen into their size and they would tip toe out of their room and eventually out of the house. They would travel on the dog and roam the fields at night. Run through the wind, watch the stars, the animals of the night, the sounds of the nature. They would swim with the ducks and make fire for the butterflies. They would then stop at the rabbits den, where they would be awaited with tea or warm onion soup, listen to stories, then sit on trees with the crows and pass by the cows in the field on their way back. As the night grew shorter they would hurry back home. The little girl would regain her normal size. And as soon as they jumped back into bed the morning light would come trough the window, and together with it, the biggest giants would come into the room to say good morning! 

For me this story is more than just a simple tale. With the help of beautiful, colored illustrations, it proposes an exercise of imagination, empathy and a lesson for both children and adults on how the world is scaled and the magic of childhood. As a montessorian, this book is perfect not only for children but for all the adults who yet need to understand the relevance of child sized environments for their children's proper development!

Two by Two: Two Children's Books that deal with Loss

Two by Two is a new exciting children literature project. Its purpose is to bring more or less known children books in the attention of teachers, parents and children around the world, paired on specific themes such as death, communication, self esteem, anger management, friendship, learning about colors or numbers, unconditional love, etc. All of these books are in my personal library, carefully chosen to fulfill some of the criteria described here, and have been used during my teaching classes. The children I work with had wonderful reactions to them, and this has inspired me to write this Two by Two series. 

Two Children's Books that deal with Loss

1. Rabbityness, Jo Empson

During one of my trips to Waterstones one book popped into my eyes. Its cover looked like one of Pollock's colorful explosions with the smiling face of a black, rather silly looking rabbit in the middle. I picked it up, then noticed it had a "Waterstones Children's Book Prize" Sticker on it, which I suppose further determined me to poke my nose into it. Then once I opened it, I couldn't stop reading until the end. 

Rabbityness tells the story of a rather unusual rabbit, who, beside being a normal rabbit with normal rabbit habits, also had some unrabbity artistic passions: painting and making music. His passions made him so happy that he became an inspiration for all the other rabbits, who joined him in filling the woods with color and music. 

One day, Rabbit disappears and the other rabbits were very sad. The woods were quiet and grey and all that was left of Rabbit was a deep dark hole. But in that hole, rabbit left some gifts for them: things to make colors and music! And once again, with the gifts from rabbit, the forest was filled with wonderful joy, with music and drawings and paintings made by very happy rabbits, who discovered that they too loved doing unrabbity things!

I very much loved how the author combined bits of reality with fantasy, how she made it so simple for children to identify themselves with the rabbits. I also loved the metaphors: the big dark hole is the void the loss of someone dear leaves behind, but in it, the author shows, we can always find the gifts those dear ones leave behind, colors and music for our wounded souls. This is an excellent writing about loss, inspiration and creativity! Last but not least, the illustrations are amazing!

2. The heart and the bottle, Oliver Jeffers

Oliver Jeffers is one of my favorite authors and illustrators. His work is simple but very meaningful, warm and subtle and his art is often made with a combination of drawings, paintings and real photography collage. 

The Heart and the Bottle teaches us about the beauty of childhood and ways to deal with loss. The story goes like this:

Once there was a little girl whose head was filled with all the curiosities of the world. She loved to read, draw and explore the world together with a special someone, with whom she shared all her findings and her wonders. 

Until a day when all she discovered was an empty chair. She then decided to put her heart away in a safe bottle which she wore around her neck, until she grew bigger and bigger and the heart became heavier and heavier. 

It took meeting a little girl whose head was still filled with all the curiosities of the world to make her want to put her heart back. Once she did, she was again sensitive to all the wonders of the world. And the chair was not so empty anymore.

Dealing with loss is part of life, and I believe it is important to start talking to children about it even before they are faced with such events. Although we may never really be prepared for death, reading and talking about it helps both children and parents deal with some of their most powerful fears in a warm, positive way. These reading moments also strengthen the parent - child relationship, develop the child's vocabulary and reading or listening skills. There are many more children's book on this theme. You can find some of them in LH Johnsons's List. 

Enjoy the readings and the peace they may bring!

With love,

Alexandra

Children's Books: Which Ones Should We Choose?

Either you are a teacher or parent, if you are educated enough to read this post, it is likely you understand the role of books in a child's education. This post is not going to be about that, but about choosing the right kind of books, according to your child's/ children's needs and interests. And speaking of good books, it is impossible not to give you some clues of some of my favorite authors and illustrators.

Fist of all, here are 3 non-exhaustive criteria parents and educators should have in mind when choosing books for their children:

1. Correlation to age / development level - it's not bad to buy books in advance, but some children may get frustrated for not understanding the story or the meaning, not being able to read, etc. Choosing books for the right age and development level of the child can facilitate certain sensitive periods (Montessori ) and stimulate his/her quest for knowledge;

2. Message - many of the traditional, well known stories for children were a mirror of the society and its development back then, a couple of centuries ago. Stories of murders and revenge, deceit and violence were normally told in an age parents were advised to beat their own children and child development was not on top of the agenda - at home or in the scientific community. 21st century research has given us a few clues on the do's and dont's of child education and development. Today's books should reflect some of the things children need to hear about as they grow up: how to positively express their feelings, how to take care of themselves, how to socialize, or how to deal with loss or other traumatic experiences. So before buying a book double check if the messages of the book are aligned to your beliefs as a parent / educator and if they help your child develop in a positive way.

3. The illustrations - I always give an equal importance to the illustrations, because they can enhance or alter the message of the book. Beautifully illustrated books scream: "Pick me", they have live colors, out of the ordinary characters, they make use of more visual art techniques: drawing, sculpting, collage or painting, mixing real - life photography in fictional stories, mixing different painting styles and periods and providing different sensorial stimulation. These books have breath-taking, out-of-the-box, vivid imagery, unexpected surprises folding or unfolding, beautiful fonts in line with the story and the characters.


 You can find some of my favorite books and authors in the collage underneath! Can you guess the authors and the titles? Enjoy the quest for character-building books!