A fabulous day for me today. It was a recipe for success: a day in the city (of Melbourne) including a visit to Metropolis (more on that later), a coffee at Degraves, a little bit of shopping and people-watching, a kids’ book illustration exhibition and a stop on the way home at a friend’s house, filled with talk of kids’ books… I. Heart. Melbourne.

It’s amazing how many ideas can be generated from one day on the town when you don’t get out as much as you used to. But I will stay focused, and the topic of this post is the aforementioned kids’ book illustration exhibition. It was called Hooked on Books, exhibited at Artplay, as posted here by Lou. The exhibition runs til 13 June, and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in children’s book illustration.

The exhibition is of original illustrations from a range of Australian picture books, collected by Albert Ullin. Ullin is most famous for establishing the specialist children’s bookshop, The Little Bookroom, here in Melbourne. Ullin’s collection of original illustrations from Australian children’s books was initially driven by his desire to support young illustrators of picture books who were struggling to make a living. In 1973, he started by buying the works of Ron Brooks (illustrator of John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat – reviewed by Lou here – and of one of my favourites, Fox, by Margaret Wild). Later, he was approached by Peter Pavey, a friend of Brooks, who had not yet found a publisher for his illustrations. (Pavey later went on to publish One Dragon’s Dream which became a Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year.)

Part of the joy of the exhibition was seeing the original artworks for illustrations of books I know well - books by Graeme Base, Bob Graham, Alison Lester, Shaun Tan and Kerry Argent. Seeing the vibrancy of colour in the originals was amazing, as well as the three-dimensional aspect to works which included media such as fabric or paper sculpture. The other part of the joy for me was discovering many books I had not heard of. I took furious notes and have a new long list of books to search for in the library and in second-hand shops… Plenty of inspiration for future posts!

A guest post by Trudy, 30-something-year-old first-time mum to Oscar, 15 months.

Oscar and I go to Nanny’s house every Thursday night as Matt plays tennis and his parents love having us (that is Oscar) for dinner.

I have noticed over the last month or so that within five minutes of arriving, Oscar crawls to the toy box in the back room, and opens the lid. His face just lights up with excitement as he surveys the array of toys that are inside.

Much to our amazement, the first thing he always gets out are three books, all with a musical theme and they keep him (and his cousin Charlie) entertained for ages.  Reader warning: having all three musical books out together can drive you crazy within 5 minutes.

I asked Nanny if we could borrow the books so we could contribute to the weheartbooks.com family.  This post is the first of three guest posts I will make over the next week.

Incy Wincy Spider is bright, it’s fun, it’s interactive and above all else it seems to be entertaining Oscar no end.  The front cover has a hole at the bottom right hand corner, which is also the bottom of the water spout.  When you press the button it plays the tune, Incy Wincy Spider.  Oscar knows exactly where the button is and also knows if he opens the front cover of the book, the music becomes louder.

Once you open the cover of the book there is also another small button with a cartoon spider on it.  You can only press this once the music has finished, Oscar hasn’t quite mastered that element of the book yet!  When you press this button it makes a special sound effect which I just cannot describe in words but is something like “rip-raw”.

As you work your way through the book it tells the story of Incy Wincy Spider and has interactive pull tabs along the way. (Don’t forget the music button can always be pressed again for more singing…)

The “out comes the sunshine” page is one of our favourites.  It’s got the biggest brightest sunshine with a blue bird popping out.  You also get the opportunity to start the Incy journey up the spout again.  There a few other animals along the way too which are as equally bright and happy.  There’s a dog, or as Oscar refers to him, a “woof woof” and there is also a fat pink pig.

The illustrations and pop outs are so clever.  We also like the page (illustrated here) which has Incy climbing across a thin piece of string which represents his web.

By this stage of the book we have hit the song four times and the other rip-raw sound at least twice.  The final page in the book is just too exciting for words and you can see by the photo that Oscar is so intrigued as to how the legs are free and dangly. 

I tell Oscar it’s a special book and we have to take care when reading “Nanny’s special books”.  Nanny says it’s fine (as most Nannys would) but we want poor old Incy to last a few more years yet.  When he saw the books at our house today, his face was one of total surprise and joy.  There may be tears tomorrow night when we take the books back and leave them at Nanny’s house…

Backpacks for kids seem hard to come by if you are not inspired by the licensed character merchandise à la Dora, Wiggles, Bob and Bratz. But I discovered these gorgeous animal-inspired backpacks, made by Little Packrats, and tracked down their Australian distributor. These are three of my favourites:

I ordered the mouse one for Rowan, and it’s now his childcare bag. Made from thick vinyl, it’s durable and easy to clean, and the 3D ears are so cute. It is smaller than the average kids backpack, which makes it ideal for toddlers and preschoolers – small enough that you don’t attempt to overload it to make it too heavy. Having said that, it’s not really big enough to accommodate ALL our books from the library and for anyone who’s seen the back seat of my car lately, that’s just as well cos I couldn’t reasonably expect a toddler to carry that weight…

Rowan’s bag was bought with the intention that he would wear it on our forthcoming overseas trip. We are going to JAPAN! Yippee! But right now, Rowan hasn’t quite got the idea that he is supposed to wear the bag on his back, so invariably it’s me who can be seen carrying it on my shoulder. So now I’m not so sure that this bag will make the cut with all the new rules on carry-on luggage…

More posts on the travel theme coming soon. Meanwhile, Lou is having a sunny break up north, and some guest posts will be appearing shortly.

I found myself emailing a friend the other day, and the subject line of the email was ‘Potty matters’.

What has life come to? I’m writing an email about potties??! So while I’m at it, what the heck, I’m going to write a post about toilet training children’s books.

There are lots of toilet training books for parents, of course, and most toddler parenting books have at least a chapter on toilet training, but what I’m interested in at the moment is children’s books about the potty, to get Rowan thinking about it. Peer-pressure of the positive variety is a wonderful thing in toddlers, I’m finding. And reading about appealing characters who are starting to use the potty seemed like a good part of the preparation for toilet training.

Once I started researching this topic further, I discovered just how many books there are, not to mention the contraversies! Getting the balance between showing enough detail, making it fun, and encouraging success without making the experience stressful and therefore off-putting…. Gee!

And so following my research I too now feel qualified to enter the fray. Why, oh why, do so many potty books picture the use of a potty as a hat? Isn’t this the last thing you want to show a toddler who hasn’t thought of it yet…? And how can you write a potty book without ever showing someone actually sitting on the thing? Many of the books out there are just too coy about the mechanics…

I have to say that the selection of books on the subject of toilet training do not inspire me as much as most of the other books I have reviewed on this site. But nevertheless, these books seem to me to strike the right balance, and they represent my top 5 books to encourage toilet training… We will be reading these books over the next few months. Any further suggestions gratefully received!

1. I Want My Potty (Tony Ross)

Tony Ross has written a great little series of ‘issues-based’ books for toddlers based on the character of the little princess. His illustrations are very witty, and I love the fact that mum and dad, the king and queen, wear normal clothes and do normal things around the house. In this book, the little princess decides that ‘Nappies are YUUECH!’ This is the type of peer pressure I’m looking for! Tony is a very prolific author/illustrator and apparently this book is his personal favourite. I like it too.

2 . Who’s in the Loo? (Jeanne Willis and Adrian Reynolds)

There’s a very long queue for this loo, and we are taken on a zoological rollercoaster as we imagine which animal is taking so long in the loo. ‘A wandering wombat who wanted a widdle? A waddling penguin too frozen to piddle?’ No practicalities, mechanics or toddler issues in this one, but lots of fun, and I could imagine it might be a handy reference when you are stuck in a public toilet queue…

3. Time to Pee! (Mo Willems)

Written by the author of the popular Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Mo is refreshingly uncoy about showing pictures of the toilet, undies around the ankles and toilet paper. It covers lots of the practicalities without seeming heavy-handed. I love the toilet-covered endpapers!

4. A Potty for Me! (Karen Katz)

Australian and other non-US readers will probably need to substitute some of the terminology in this one (lots of references to ‘diapers’ and ‘peeing’). The form of rhyming text in this one is not my favourite style, but this book does canvass many of the real-life issues, and the bright colours and flaps are appealing. It’s pitched at a young audience - so it’s a good one for the under-twos.

5. Everyone Poops! (Taro Gomi)

This book, and the others mentioned by Lou in her previous post, are a good way to bring some fun into the toilet training caper. The humour will appeal to kids as soon as they start to find excretion hilarious… So much too look forward to…

When I did my post on my Owl Obsession fellow blogger Annie from anniesorganics mentioned that her son loves Owl Babies by Martin Waddell and illustrated by Patrick Benson.

Ned also loves Owl Babies especially when I read it aloud and do different voices for owl siblings Sarah, Percy and Bill. When the owlets awake to find their mummy gone, the two older owls decide that she is out hunting and will be back soon. But every time they come up with a reason as to why mum is not there, Bill gets more and more anxious, repeating “I want my mummy”. Bill is great fun to read aloud because you can put on a very sad voice. It really keeps Ned’s attention and he thinks it’s very funny.

Finally mummy arrives back at the nest, swooping through the night for cuddles with the babies. This is a particularly good concept for Ned at present as he is starting to fret a little when I leave him but I want him to know that I am always coming back to get him.

Patrick Benson’s illustrations for this book are amazing, his artwork makes it so you can almost reach out and stroke the tiny fluffy owlets. He gives each owl a personality and their wide little eyes are adorable. Toddlers like Ned can see themselves in the owls with their wonder of the big wide world but also feeling slightly scared of it.

Owl Babies makes a lovely bedtime story too as it explains to children that you will always be there for them, it’s very comforting. Simply written and with not too much text, Owl Babies is perfect for the very young and is even available in board book for them to look at and hold themselves.

Here is a photo of my 20c treasure from Booktown…

Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, Story and Pictures by Virginia Lee Burton.

Mike is an American classic first published in 1939. This copy is a little old Picture Puffin from 1977 that originally cost $1.75. The book ended up in the CFA Nothing Over $5 Sale from Coghill’s Creek Primary School, which is stamped inside the cover.

Mike and his steam shovel Mary Anne are out of work when new petrol and electric machines take over their jobs. Then Mike reads about a town called Popperville that needs a new town hall and they set off to dig the hall a cellar. They promise the town that if they don’t dig the cellar in a day they will not ask for payment. The whole town of Popperville turns out to watch and in the end they come up with an ingenious solution to everyone’s problems. This is a wonderful story about modernisation and how sometimes old is better and still has a place in society. Children who love diggers will really appreciate this picture book and will like the illustrations of the dig dig digging. There is a lot of text in this book though so it would be recommended for 4+.

Virginia Lee Burton also wrote The Little House, which she won the Caldecott Medal for in 1943 and Katy and the Big Snow. Each of these books are similar in theme to Mike Mulligan in that with grit and determination in the face of adversity you can succeed. All three have inanimate objects that have feelings and are befriended by people, which is an interesting concept.

As Katie mentioned in her post yesterday, we had a great time at Booktown and certainly plan to make a weekend of it next year. I too like Katie am envious of all the gorgeous things that other bloggers find at secondhand bookshops, thrift shops and estate sales. But I’m pretty happy with my little copy of Mike Mulligan and I wonder how many littlies have held it and enjoyed it before me.

Lou and I dragged our partners and kids to the Back to Booktown book festival at Clunes on Saturday.

Clunes is situated about 1.5 hours drive from Melbourne, so it’s not really the type of drive you do for only a couple of hours at the other end, but hey, when you’re a busy mum, you take what you can get! And if at least one leg of the car trip is free of a whinging child, you’re pretty happy.

The idea behind a booktown is to create a critical mass of bookshops in order to make a small town a destination, and it’s an idea that is catching on worldwide. The first booktown was in Hay-on-Wye in Wales, and there are now more than 20 booktowns internationally. The Back to Booktown weekend at Clunes is a great way to kick-start the generation of a new booktown.

Clunes is one of those towns that feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere, but from the buildings it’s not hard to imagine it bustling with life in goldrush times. There is evidence of a flush of new life in Clunes, too, which is nice, with lots of brand-spanking newly renovated shops and a couple of swish places to eat and drink. It would be a lovely place for a weekend getaway.

You really need at least a day to explore Back to Booktown properly, and there were plenty of secondhand booksellers to visit, tucked in different buildings around the town. For a bookseller’s view of the festival, check out The Book Grocer’s post – scary stuff.

Unfortunately for Lou and I, there wasn’t a dedicated kids’ section at Clunes, but we each found a treasure at the CFA sale which cost us the grand total of 40 cents! We also bumped into a WeHeartBooks reader, which was lovely!

I’m always envious of those bloggers who show off their thrifting and op-shop finds - so here’s my token effort.

The book is Mandy Moves In by Bodil Selge, originally published in Swedish. I love the idea of the tiny little girl who has installed herself in a corner of the bookshelf with all her furniture. And the production quality of the illustrations is so beautifully of the era.

Speaking of secondhand books, if you haven’t already checked it out, go over and visit the inspiring blog Vintage Kids Books my Kid Loves, there are some beauties there…

The children’s TV series Lochie Leonard last night won Most Outstanding Children’s Program at the TV Week Logie Awards. This gorgeous series based on the award winning Tim Winton books for intermediate readers is a more than deserving winner, with perfect casting, wonderful scripting and stunning Western Australian scenery. This was the best Australian children’s series that I have seen in years and I instantly fell in love with it. The charm like Winton’s books is that it is natural and funny, sometimes a little sad, I did have a little cry in one episode, and always exquisitely Australian without being cliched. The books and the TV series are perfect for boys from about 10 years and up, especially reluctant readers but girls will love Lochie also.

Lochie is a surf mad 12 year old who moves to a new town with his father, ‘Sarge’, the town cop, mum who is beautifully understanding but fighting depression, little brother Phillip who is older than his years and is still wetting the bed and baby sister ‘Blob’ who likes to eat lino.

Season 1 is available on DVD.

Today I have bought myself a copy of Breath, Winton’s newest adult novel the first in seven years. I can’t wait to go on holidays next week, find a nice sunny spot and devour Breath. It also has one on the most gorgeous jackets on a novel I have seen, it makes me want to jump in.

The April edition of Cookie Magazine have done a design feature on bookshelves, One For The Books, perfect shelving units for your child’s tomes and trinkets.

This one was my favorite. See the wallpaper behind, which is pages from the Olivia books by Ian Falconer. What a great idea, although it might be hard getting your head around pulling a book apart.

I wrote a post at Christmas time about Olivia. If you like the Eloise books you will love Olivia, the funkiest, feistiest pig in literature.

If you want something really special, have a look at Teatro Olivia, a play set in which you have six Olivia paper dolls to create your own ballets and theatre. Falconer, whose background is set design, has created a masterpiece with Teatro, stimulating creativity and passion for the arts in his audience.

Katie did a post recently about Eric Carle fabric and there is also Olivia fabric available, I found it here. It’s very gorgeous and it’s about time I bought some.

The very cute toy on the shelf in the picture from Cookie Magazine is made by Mizutamago, a great blog I read regularly.

Apartment Therapy features a tour of Shannon Lamden’s (Aunty Cookie) house this week. All the photo’s are beautiful, she is such a stylish and creative lady. In particular I love the photo’s of her daughters room and the use of flash cards as a frieze.

Shannon has more stunning photos of her house and fabrics on Flickr.

No longer dull and uninteresting and banished to the classroom there are some gorgeously illustrated flash cards available at the moment. For Ned’s birthday from wonderful friends Nigel and Ruth he received Eric Carle animal flash cards. They are packaged in a beautiful box and are a great size for little hands. I was really tempted to use them as a frieze in his nursery but he loves them too much. He picks each one up and examines it intently and often sits on the floor surrounded in the cards.

What he does have is G is for one Gzonk flash cards on his door, they are a bit big for a wall. Taken from the book G is for one Gzonk each card has one of Tony DiTerlizzi’s wacky creatures on it. Ned thinks they are extremely funny and I enjoy looking at them too. DiTerlizzi is the illustrator behind the characters of the Spiderwick chronicles.

Some other funky flash cards I have found…

Black and White is engaging for very young babies, check out the Wee Gallery website for an excellent explanation of babies brain development and the benefit of black and white contrasting artwork. Even as children grow up these cards remain a funky and contemporary decoration.

eeBoo makes ‘Wall Cards’ specifically. Vintage styled illustrations makes these a great option for decoration or framing. The subjects of the cards are kind of quirky too like the hardware store flash cards and the counting birds cards.

From Amazon, Paul Frank flash cards. These are great, they are bright, fun and very trendy.

Also these are very cool! Animal tracks flash cards from doggiepiggie on etsy.

On the serious side of things flash cards are a great tool for visual learning. Karen Cheng wrote a fantastic post here on the accidental effect of flash cards on her son.

Learning can be fun and pretty at the same time.