Brambly Hedge

The Four Seasons of Brambly Hedge, Jill Barklem.

Enchanting.

The reason I wanted to go through the Great Read-Alouds list: To discover new treasures. The Four Seasons of Brambly Hedge is an absolute treasure. Reminiscent of Beatrix Potter, this series is a delight to read aloud, with charming and detailed illustrations. The collection as a single volume was not in at my branch library, but three of these wonderful stories were available, so we checked them out to read and fell in love. The stories are quiet and sweet, with an old-fashioned charm. The mice drink blackberry tea and roast crabapples and dance on the ice. My fine young gents were captivated. Six-year-old gent enjoyed poring over the details of the illustrations, and kept these books on the shelf by his bed for quite some time before reluctantly surrendering them so that the rest of us could read them too.

Summer Story.
It's a lovely warm summer, and there's a wedding in the air. Brambly Hedge prepares for the festivities, and celebrates the wedding on a raft.



Autumn Story.
The town is preparing their stores for winter-- picking berries, harvesting grain. Young Primrose dreams her way through the cornfield, meets some new friends, gets lost and then found.

Winter Story.
The snow falls on Brambly Hedge, and the mice celebrate winter by creating an ice ballroom and holding a Snow Ball.



Spring Story.
This story was not on the shelf, but I suspect that if I forget to look for it on our next visit, I'll be reminded by the gents.I can't wait to read it.




Visit the world of Brambly Hedge here to learn more about Brambly Hedge, author Jill Barklem, and how it all began. There are even activities for children in Wilfred's Playroom, with coloring sheets, videos to view, a nature book, and more!

If you have a little girl (or boy!) who likes Brambly Hedge stories and enjoys paper dolls, Victorian Mouse Paper Dolls are lovely and sweet. With flower names like Hollyhock, Columbine, and Pansy, the mouse sisters go on wonderful outings and adventures with lovely outfits for each. They were a favorite with one of the lovely ladies. As a matter of fact, she's still got them as a keepsake in an envelope in her closet, too dear to give up.

Great Read-Alouds, Ages 3-5

I've come up with a personal reading challenge. Every library visit, while the lovely ladies and fine young gents play with the puppets and the doll house, I browse the book flyers. "Ooo, that looks good," I think. "I should look for these books sometime," I tell myself.

Finally I decided I'd better just get on the stick and actually read some of the books I've been "Ooo"-ing over, starting with Great Read-Alouds, Ages 3-5. A few books on the list we've already read together: The Mitten by Jan Brett (I wrote a review of The Mitten here); Corduroy by Don Freeman; a Poohsticks favorite, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats; The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Crockett Johnson who wrote and illustrated the Harold and the Purple Crayon books; and one of my very favorite read-alouds, Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel.

Our first new-to-us book from the Great Read-Alouds list:

The Lion and the Little Red Bird, Elisa Kleven. I fell in love with this story the first time I read it to the fine young gents, and they love it too. A little red bird follows the lion trying to discover why the lion's tail changes to a different color every day. The mystery of the lion's tail has a simple reason that isn't completely predictable. Absolutely charming, The Lion and the Little Red Bird has beautiful artwork-- lovely collage illustrations-- and the story is wonderfully written.

The Paper Princess, also by Elisa Kleven was on the shelf next to The Lion and the Little Red Bird, so this book came home with us too. A little girl colors and cuts out a paper princess and they become fast friends. As the little girl tries to decide what to use for hair for her princess the wind blows the paper doll away. The paper princess finds her own hair and has other adventures as she tries to find her way back to her girl. Another sweet story with a charming conclusion. As in the story of the lion and the bird, the illustrations for The Paper Princess are perfect. The gents pulled both books off the shelf nearly every night. I've enjoyed reading these stories so much that I renewed them both so that we can read them for a couple more weeks.

I'm looking forward to checking out more of Elisa Kleven's books. In addition to being lovely read-alouds, they'd make perfect reading and looking for an art unit on paper art and collage. More about Elisa Kleven, including teaching activities and information about her art and stories at her website: http://www.elisakleven.com/