Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Cheerful ABC pictures

Alexander Lindberg 2007

This book was first published in 1965. The illustration is fantastically retro. I had a hard time deciding, which spread to take a picture, they were all beautiful. But I guess my favourite is "Ä" like äitienpäivä, Mothers' day.

The illustrations are a bit old, nobody knows, what is a oil lamp anymore and I am afraid this book is not politically correct.









By the way, school is ending this week in Finland, so this is the last chance to learn the alphabet. But as I remember the grades were in two weeks before school ended, so we were just playing around.




Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Summer in the city

Kirsi Hutri, Tom Björklund 2002: Kaupungin kesä

Gray Cat is ready for an adventure in summer night. He/she/it meets strange creatures and the reader learns about the plant and animals that can be seen in the city. The cat wonders around, but returns home to sleep at dawn.


A hedgehog is a night animal
All plants and animals have an info box containing details of the subject.


The book includes birches, rabbits, jackdaws, crows,seagulls, pidgeons,bats and hawkmoths.

I guess all cities are beautiful in the summer. Helsinki is no exeption. Although you can see more tourists then natives in the summer, when the locals have their vacation somewhere else.
Linnanmäki lights at night



Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Reino gets wings

Pirkko Vainio 2016: Reino saa siivet

Reino is a small mouse, who dreams of flying. He tries to fly with the flowers of the cow parsley, makes wings out of mable seed cases and  different leaves.

At night he dreams of flying with different types of wings. When he wakes up, he feels happy. With imagination he can fly anywhere he wants.

A nice book about pursuing dreams and then still being happy about what you have.


Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Hobbies of Iisakki and Anselmi

Outi Juurikainen 2009: Iisakki ja Anselmi harrastavat
Characters and illustrations by Tiia Vajanto

Iisakki wants to start a sport as a hobby, while Anselmi wants to do arts. They try to do sports and then they paint and soon they are in an argument. Arguing is dumb and soon the boys are friends again and start cooking.

Today is so many possibilities to do what the heart desires. The lesson here is that firends do not need to do all things together, but they can have interests of their own.

The illustrations are cute photos of knitted stuffed animals.



Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Constable Muddy and the mystery of bunnies

Tapani Bagge 2011: Konstaapeli Mutanen ja kanien arvoitus
Illustrated by Jusa Hämäläinen

Constable Muddy feels a little lonely and his neighbor suggest he gets a bunny. At first everything is fine, but then the bunny seems lonely. Constable Muddy gets another girl bunny, or so he thinks. Soon there are several bunnies more.

Constable Muddy also trained his bunnies to track and they solve many crimes together. I didn't  quite understand the mystery part. Is it how the bunnies breed? Cute story and my son found this very interesting and short enough for him to read.