Missus B's Picture Book Reviews: Books Always Everywhere

My Little Moomin helped me out with this review

Text by Jane Blatt

Illustrations by Sarah Massini
Nosy Crow 2013

Reviewed copy: my own.
Photographs in this post are of the hardback edition,book is also available as board-book/paper back.
Back of Book:
For the very young, books can be anything-a chair, a tower, to a hat-but the best thing they can can be...is a book...and it's never too soon to share a good book with your little ones.
Missus B says:
Books Always Everywhere,celebrates books - the real ones that you can hold, carry, flick through (or cuddle and sniff if you're like myself).

Books can be wide, books can be tall, they can be big, they can be small. They can be read in the park or at the book store, they can be read when its rainy or when it's sunny. Stack them to make a chair, pop one on your head as a hat, give a book as a gift, or share a story together.

Each double page spread has simple, descriptive, rhyming text e.g. Book big Book small Book wide Book tall

The book features toddlers, babies and some cute animal characters. While it appeals to the young child, the quirky illustrations and text within the images will interest older children and adults too.

The illustrations include LOTS of books,with their titles and text visible for reading e.g. a little girl relaxes on the beach with her 'Happy Days' book, it's back cover reading:

In sunshine or in rain, every day is a story day.

A monkey swings from a tree with a board book that reads:

What kind of key opens a banana? A monkey!
(if you didn't get that...just go back and read it again...slowly)

A little girl reads a book about animals which says:

Chimpanzee: A gregarious and intelligent anthropod ape, inhabiting forests in central West Africa.

(For added kicks, sometimes you have to turn the book upside down to read the text)

There's a whole range of books within the images: Board Books, Peek-A-Boo books, Buggy Books, Joke Books, Nature Books, Fairy Tales and some classics like Wuthering Heights...there's even a Visitor's Book.

The story opens discussion about size, shape and opposites as well as various book types. The illustrations are deliciously cute and offer much to smile about .....A diverse group of toddler characters are clad in lovely, patterned clothing....A playful mouse can be found in each of the pages.... A flock of sheep gather for a bedtime story (with number sweaters-to make counting them easy of course.) .....And, a group of playful monkeys appear on the 'Book funny' page.

While librarians may cringe at the thoughts of using a book as a hat or a seat, from what I can see, no books were damaged in the illustrating of this book. I'm sure that Nosy Crow , Sarah Massini and Jane Blatt can verify the same! ;p