Children’s Books

A Bed of Your own – Miji Kelly

The book uses rhyming couplets to give the story more of a sense of rhythm, it also uses bold text and takes advantage of text size to paint more of a picture for the children reading. The book also makes personifies the toys of the child in the book which gives the children who are reading, or hearing, the story can make a relation with giving them a heightened sense of imagination when they are in this situation themselves.The book also includes a phonetic spelling “please, please leb go ob by nose” which adds a small amount of humor for the child as if their parents are reading it to them most of the time they will play along with the story, the same occurs with most younger children who will read the book.This book is most probably aimed at parents reading the book as appose to just children themselves reading it. This is because of the odd and misplaced words throughout the book this also gives a more exciting appearance for children looking at the book as it suits what is happening in the book at the time.This is a quote from Miji Kelly who wrote the book.“What could be more beautiful than the laughter of children? That's why I write” -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mij-Kelly/e/B001HMQWKW/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0This quote explains the reason for some of the odd quotes, phrasing and premise of this book such as “Yappity-yap” and “leb go ob by nose”. Kelly has been writing children’s books ever since she won an award in 1993, she also reads the books to her granddaughter before she is happy with a book.The book also breaks the fourth wall at the very end by speaking directly at the reader with “You should be too” this is also included as most stories are read to children before they go to sleep.

Elephant Joe is a Knight! – David Wojtowycz

This book uses a very generic storyline of knights saving a stolen crown, the simplicity helps children be able to understand the story as the names are very literal: Elephant Joe is literally an elephant and Zebra Pete is a Zebra.There is also a frog in the corner of each page that represents the reader and echoes their thoughts with statements such as “Does someone need help?” “How will they ever tame the beast?” this gives the children a sense of connection with the book as this frog is basically confirming the Child’s thoughts to add to the simplicity of the book, when compared to books aimed at an older audience this is not needed, as at an older age people are aware that books will make you have these thoughts and make you paint a picture mentally.The book also uses a simple art style, which is quite common in books aimed at these age groups as the more cartoon and odd look appeals more to children as something new. This also adds to the genre this book is aiming for, as stated on the cover “Guaranteed 100% Funny” meaning that the book is not intended to be taken seriously and therefore opted for a more silly look as appose to realistic.

There are also a few phonetic phrases added into the book each for different effects. The first is “Roar” (as seen left) which is added which shows the sinister side of the dragon as his facial expressions appear as quite friendly, he also appears on the cover with the heroes so his status whether good or bad is unknown at this stage. Of the book the word “roar” also has the backdrop of a real life picture of fire to establish his evilness.David Wojtowycz has wrote a few other books with the character Elephant Joe doing other activities “Elephant Joe is a Spaceman”, “Elephant Joe is a Pirate” etc. the Elephant Joe series has a very different illustration style than what he formerly illustrated for Giles Andreae.

We’re Going To a Party – Jeanne Willis

This is a pop up/interactive story, which is most probably aimed at a younger audience of 3-5 years, as there isn’t much of a story behind the book. The story also uses rhyming couplets like A Bed of Your Own. We’re Going To a Party follows different animals dressing up for a party and has the reader try and guess who’s dressed as who by using rhymes to predict what comes next “I’m not a piece of fruit...Yellow zip-up suit” the book uses simple animals that small children can identify e.g. Penguins, Cats, Dogs, etc. and also uses them in simple colour schemes to help smaller children identify the animals. All except two pages in this book are flip pages showing us that the book is aimed at far younger children as they are not able to take on a long story like Elephant Joe is a Knight despite it being very generic younger children have not had the mental development needed to understand stories.

Jeanne Willis wrote the book and Tony Ross illustrated it. Willis has wrote around 150 books in total and not all of those are children’s books, she has wrote from Poetry to Teen Novels, she has also worked in media for 20 years writing TV scripts and advertisements. Tony Ross has illustrated many books but most well know are the Little Princess and Horrid Henry series which are now both children’s TV shows, the art style in We’re Going To a Party is very similar to that of Rosses over work, as seen left compared to Horrid Henry.