And the ghost jumped out!

COMING SOON: The English Family Anderson episode 3!

Giveaway #1 Winner!

Giveaway Number 1: Wibbolywub and the Earthlings

vegan children's book

How many friends could a Bibbolybob make if a Bibbolybob came to Earth? (aka Wibbolywub and the Earthlings) by Edward Benn and Juliet Mahoney, will be our first giveaway of the Honestly Books stash.

You can read our review of this lovely book here, but basically it is just a fun story, with happy, colourful illustrations, about an alien visitor to Earth – Wibbolywub the Bibbolybob – who makes ten different Earthling friends and plays some fun counting games with them.  A great introduction to numbers 1 to 10 for early learners and a little insight into the differences between the Earthlings and their eating habits.

If you would like to win this beautiful book, comment on this post and tell me so 😀

We will put the names of all the entrants in a box and pull out the winner on Friday.

Good Luck 😉

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ps this prize draw is open to everyone, anywhere in the world 🙂

Doing the legwork

And if we object

Venus’s Saturday

Adi’s Saturday

So how can we get good electricity?

Venus #4 starts tomorrow!

Edmund’s Lunch was a peculiar lunch, so everybody said

Don’t Be A Volpar!

Emmeline Rose said ….

Recommended Reading: What’s Good For The Goose Is Not Good For The Panda

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As soon as I saw this I just had to order a copy!  It’s made completely of collage!

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Lavender Laine has written and illustrated the whole book completely by cutting out bits from old magazines, wrapping paper, food packaging, yarn and buttons!  Talk about recycling! Even the copyright page is written in collage!

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Laine’s story is about a panda called Patty who has woken up hungry but doesn’t know what to eat.  She meets lots of people willing to share with her but finds that what they’re eating isn’t necessarily her cup of tea.

story-1 (2)

Each picture is made with different materials so they are all very different, and some are more abstract than others, which will encourage children to make art out of whatever they’ve got lying around.

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The story is rhyming, with one verse per page, and every page is a feast for the eyes.  Children can read it slowly, or have it read to them, while they study the unusual images and try to work out what they are and what they’re made of.

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You really feel like you could pick at the paper and peel off the layers – not that you would.  It just looks so tactile.

The story is absolutely lovely and can be enjoyed again and again.  It makes the point that we are all different, and what’s good for one might not necessarily be good for someone else.  No wonder it is dedicated to the Safer Medicines campaign 🙂

From Honestly Books.  Available on Amazon.

What’s In A Name?

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Once upon a time there were three humans and their names were Dowatiwant, Dowateewants and Dowatheywant.  They did everything together.  Dowatiwant was the one who decided what they would do, Dowateewants would copy him and Dowatheywant would copy them.

One day Dowatiwant went into the cornershop, followed by Dowateewants and Dowatheywant.

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Dowatiwant bought a packet of crisps and a can of fizzy pop.  Then Dowateewants bought a packet of crisps and a can of fizzy pop.  Then Dowatheywant bought a packet of crisps and a can of fizzy pop.  All three left the shop, one after the other, and walked to the park.

Dowatiwant sat down on a bench and opened his packet of crisps and his fizzy pop.  Dowateewants sat down next to him and opened her packet of crisps and her can of fizzy pop, and Dowatheywant sat down next to her and did the same.

There they sat, talking and laughing, eating and drinking, crunching and slurping, until their crisps and their fizzy drinks were all gone.

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Dowatiwant dropped his crisp packet on the ground and tossed his drink can over his shoulder.  Dowateewants laughed, dropped her crisp packet on the ground and threw her drink can at a tree.  Dowatheywant held on to his empty can and his empty crisp packet and picked up those tossed by his friends.

“What are you doing?” asked Dowatiwant.

“Why don’t you do what we did?” asked Dowateewants.

“I’m changing my name,” said their friend as he deposited their rubbish in the bin, “to Sharperthanimaner.”

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 “The connection between chucking bits of plastic on the ground and cute animals dying of starvation is a demonstrable fact.  It’s not even one of those join-the-dots facts like fossil fuel use and homeless polar bears.  It’s a dead-hedgehog-with-its-head-stuck-in-a-plastic-cup fact,” wrote Alex Proud, in ‘If you drop litter, you’re an idiot and must be punished’, The Telegraph, 17 February 2014

“… I’d ramp these [litter fines] up and enforce them with the kind of zeal that would have Dirty Harry gasping with mute admiration.”

Vegan Story Time #6: How many friends could a Bibbolybob make if a Bibbolybob came to Earth?

Recommended Reading: Wibbolywub and the Earthlings

How many friends could a Bibbolybob make if a Bibbolybob came to Earth?

Most enlightened people have become that way only after working hard to un-learn “facts” that they were taught as children, such as ‘humans are omnivores’.  That’s why it is so wonderful to find an early learning book which tells the truth.

How many friends could a Bibbolybob make if a Bibbolybob came to Earth?

How many friends could a Bibbolybob make if a Bibbolybob came to Earth? (aka Wibbolywub and the Earthlings ) is one such book by Edward Benn, illustrated by Juliet Mahoney.

How many friends could a Bibbolybob make if a Bibbolybob came to Earth?

This book is first and foremost an engaging story, full of bright, colourful illustrations, about an alien visitor to Earth who is eager to make friends.  It is secondly a lovely, friendly way to introduce the numbers 1 to 10 to young children.  Numbers (digits) appear throughout the illustrations as Wibbolywub counts his friends and the readers can count with him.  Once he has made ten friends, they play a few counting and measuring games which show how much fun numbers can be.

How many friends could a Bibbolybob make if a Bibbolybob came to Earth?

How many friends could a Bibbolybob make if a Bibbolybob came to Earth?

How many friends could a Bibbolybob make if a Bibbolybob came to Earth?

And thirdly it is an honest and straight-forward illustration of the simple truth that omnivores, carnivores and herbivores have recognisable anatomical attributes appropriate for their particular diet and, as an alien with no previous knowledge of Earthlings would clearly deduce, humans are herbivores.

How many friends could a Bibbolybob make if a Bibbolybob came to Earth?

There is even a fun post script at the end, in the form of a peak inside Wibbolywub’s notebook, which contains three of the charts (those with numbers in) from Dr Milton Mills’ The Comparative Anatomy of Eating – the work which inspired the story.

http://www.vegsource.com/news/2009/11/the-comparative-anatomy-of-eating.html

A lovely big book with a lovely big story that would delight any child and sit proudly on any bookshelf.

How many friends could a Bibbolybob make if a Bibbolybob came to Earth?

Published by Honestly Books

Available from Amazon

Bert! Julius! What are you doing?!

Watch out for the watcher!

Story Time # 5: Oliver’s Vegetables

Recommended Reading: Oliver’s Vegetables

Oliver's Vegetables

This is a brilliant short story by Vivian French with gorgeous, vibrant illustrations by Alison Bartlett.

Oliver's Vegetables

Basically, Oliver’s mum has the common problem of not being able to get Oliver to eat his vegetables.  The only one he will eat is potatoes, in the form of chips.

Oliver's Vegetables

But when he goes to stay with Grandpa and Grandma for a week, everything changes.

Oliver's Vegetables

Grandpa tells him he can have chips if he finds the potatoes in the garden, but while he’s searching, if he finds something else, he has to try it.

Oliver's Vegetables

Highly recommended bedtime (or any other time) reading which will make you hungry.

Borrow it from the library or get your own copy 😀

Sherman & Geynes Episode 2 is here!

And they’re back! Tomorrow.

Sherman & Geynes #2, Coming Soon!

Put your feet up and watch A Turtle’s Tale. Lovely.

Vegan Story Time #2: Where are you going Deidra?

Vegan Story Time #1: “I’m not dinner!”

‘The King’s Three Sons’ is here!

Another New Fairy Tale

Introducing Marcus

New Fairy Tale – Coming Soon!

Sherman & Geynes are here at last!

A few minutes later …

What were you thinking?

What on Earth????

Fading Fast

Can’t Stop

Creak

Here we go

I am Flos

5 minutes later …

Green for ground

Wobbly

I need you.

Everything’s changed.

Venenosa Clades

For the story so far, click here

vegan comic for children

“Venenosa Clades was once a beautiful, flourishing planet on which vast numbers of plant and animal species thrived due to the miraculous, life-sustaining element: water. All the different life-forms, whether they dwelt on land or sea or spent most of their time in the air, had one thing in common: their need for water. Venenosa Clades had so much water, above ground and deep under the surface, that there was never any need to worry about not having enough. And this was the case for millions of years.

“But, tragically, the planet suffered a severe volpar infection. Volpars are nomadic, seeking out vibrant host planets on which to settle and multiply. And they multiply fast, killing native species to make room for themselves and spreading across the whole world. Their propensity to reproduce is equalled only by their belief that they are the superior species and as such have a much greater entitlement to a planet’s natural resources than all native species put together.”

vegan comic for veggie kids

“The infection on Venenosa Clades was typical.  It spread fast and was soon depleting the planet’s resources, to the point where it began to spread underground.  With tremendous force it struck at the ancient clay rocks deep below the planet’s surface and the result was predictably disastrous.  There were earthquakes where previously there had been none, and the pure underground water became contaminated with the gas released from the clay and other noxious substances.  Still, awareness of the results of this activity didn’t halt the infection which continued its violent assaults on the planet.

“Venenosa Clades’ native species’ subconscious cries for help were so loud and so desperate that we heard them, though we were thousands of light years away.  Not knowing if there would be anything we could do, we answered their telepathic calls, travelling as fast as we could.  But we arrived far too late to help anyone.  The planet was devoid of life and had been for several years.  However, the thoughts and memories of its former inhabitants were still floating in the ether so we were able to piece together what had happened.  They called it vis unda protero, which roughly translates to your language as hydraulic fracture.”

vegan comic for children

Oh No!!!!

Out of sight

Keeping Secrets

Fracking?

For the story so far, click here

vegan comic for children

“They create a mixture of mostly fresh water with sand and nasty chemicals added.  Then they inject this fluid at very high pressure, into a gas well, thousands of feet deep into the ground.  Now forget the chemicals for a minute and just picture the fact that they use about 40,000 gallons of water every time they do this!  And each well can be fracked 18 times.  What a criminal waste of water!  Anyway, the fluid is going down the pipe at such pressure that when it reaches the end of the well and hits the shale rock down there, it fractures it, making lots of tiny cracks, kept open with the grains of sand in the fluid, and the natural gas – that is methane – leaks out of these cracks into the well.  So that’s how they get the gas.”

vegan comic for children

“What makes this business really horrifying is that during the process some of the toxic chemicals – and they use hundreds of different nasties in there, like lead, uranium, radium, mercury, hydrochloric acid, the list goes on and on – and the methane gas leach out from the system and contaminate the ground water.  And the ground water is where our drinking water comes from.  They are threatening the health and survival of everyone!  In America they have found that drinking water wells near fracturing sites have 17 times higher concentration of methane in them than normal and some people have even been able to light their taps on fire because of the high level of gas in their water.  Many others have become seriously ill from drinking it.”

vegan comic for children

To be continued …

*****

Information from Dangers of Fracking and Food and Water Watch

Fracking infographic adapted from one found at levellers.org