Until such time we go to the forest (one without mean wolves!!!, only with friendly wolves) to pick up sticks and twigs to make our own witch broom and wand, he runs around the house in complete outfit: our (much smaller and different, imperfect-looking) broom; a big bucket for a cauldron; one of his daddy’s fancy hats, almost invariably covering half his face; and a spatula for a wand It’s cute, albeit a bit anxiety-inducing :))) seeing him ride the broom up and down the living room and struggling to hold everything together, just  like the witch in the story. 

The wonderfully catchy rhyme (one of those that stick inadvertently and definitively onto your cortex) goes about the witch losing some of her items, one after the other. As she does, she repays the animals who help her get them back by taking them on her broom. Until… the broom snaps in two!!! A chase ensues, with a dragon and a terrible four-headed monster involved. But the story has a happy ending! The witch gets to show she can do magic, when all her gratefulness translates into a plane comfortable-like broom. 

A truly engaging read-aloud, it is fast-paced, full of suspense, loud, scary, funny, happy. Little gosling has fun reproducing all the sounds in the book. I love his shrieks and croaks :)). He never lets me forget going in a lower, scary voice for the dragon and gets so excited with the jumping; the one that gets the broom to break and the jumps for joy at seeing the newly refurbished broom. He’s truly fascinated by the cauldron and he uses his most mysterious tone to recite the witch’s spell: iggety ziggety…..

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What a wonderful first encounter with monsters for my little one!! A story about challenging the way in which things are done and accepting there are many different ways in which things can happen. I love this message of keeping an open, flexible mind. A story about going after what you really want, instead of waiting for things to happen to you. And there’s so much emotional richness in Marilyn’s character..

I first heard it on @Julieslibraryshow and thought little gosling too young for it. I feared it would be a bit too long.. But here we are six months later: little gosling absolutely loves it. He asks for it repeatedly, he listens through to the end, he engages with the story, asking questions and identifying details from the storyline in the illustrations. He registered that Marylin’s brother is quite unkind to her (he repeats my words: “what a mean thing to say” when the brother suggests the monster didn’t want to be Marilyn’s friend and went away), but that her parents are empathetic and loving.  

No idea what has him so hooked; maybe the cute monster Marilyn gets in the end with his lovely wings and soft voice; maybe the idea of having a friend just for oneself who is there all the time. One day he told me laughingly: “mummy, you look like a monster!” I took it as a compliment, given how much he loves the book. The monsters come in all shapes and sizes, but the illustrations make them out gentle, loving, protective; the kind to spend all your time with and cuddle close at night. Another day, little gosling was talking to his dad about all kinds of flying beings. Upon hearing that wings help them fly, he told his daddy he also had wings and was a monster :P. So much processing is going on in his little brain!!! 

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Funni is a lonely girl who spends a lot of her spare time in an abandoned rooftop car park next to the airport. Feeling something is missing, she works hard to clean the place, plant and care for a garden, transforming the place into a beautiful and cozy playground for herself. The rooftop garden finds her the perfect friend. Zoo notices the garden from a plane and has to go there. He is also lonely and shares Funni’s passion for music and kite flying. A heartwarming story about friendship, with a lovely message about kids’ autonomy, creativity and enormous work capacity and a touching environmental note. 

I fell in love with the illustrations and the explosion of colours! They’re so stunningly uplifting and cheerful! There’s so much contrast! I badly want a Peruvian hat just like Funni’s, the same dark blue :P. And those old abandoned rusty cars in the car park have such amazing colours; wouldn’t mind having a car like that :))). And the flowers… wooow! I’m a definite Fiona Lumbers’ fan. 

Little gosling liked watching the planes taking off and touching down, so intrigued by the control tower. He loved experimenting with the different sounds transcending the story: the noise from the planes, the recorder and harmonica the two kids play and the church bells chiming. We listened to some nice recorder renditions of “My heart will go on” and Buddy Greene on the harmonica. Ohh and those church bells! :))) He’s going diing-dooong on me when I least expect it. He’s declared his wish to see church bells. So, that’s one more thing on our long to do list together.

He was excited recognising Funni’s little radio which looks a lot like our kitchen radio and the fairy lights in the garden, looking so much like the ones hanging around his bed frame. And he was so very happy when Zoo finally joined Funni in the secret sky garden. He did not like seeing Funni sad. He repeats “I must be dreaming” after Zoo with his little sweet face all lit up :).

He likes to repeat “something was missing” and “definitely”, in some form; it’s a pretty long statement and he’s saying it very sweetly. The most surprising thing to me is little gosling now recognising letter “S” as “secret sky garden”. I can definitely see the link there :).

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It is a different and attractive story about exploration and discovery built around the idea of a lonely kid, yearning for a friend. I love the illustrations, so many details; the choice of colours is fantastic, lots of orange and turquoise; so novel and original. They add so much to the story…However, don’t read it in a dark place, some pages may be hard to decipher without proper lighting. 

Little Otto comes from a family of bird spotters, but he’s more of an outdoor explorer. In one of his adventures, he comes across an unusual little bird that he sneaks into his room and hence befriends. The bird grows up to be huge, but can camouflage itself into the surroundings, which helps them enjoy their friendship without any intrusions or interruptions, until the day when Bird starts missing her family. Otto enlists the help of his expert family to find them. Bird has one more gift: it glows, which is how finally she reunites with her family and in the process, brings Otto closer to his family and turns him into a bird spotter. 

Little gosling loves Otto and “birdie”, as he likes birds and tiny things :). He laughs heartily at the massive pile of poo Otto finds before discovering Bird. He is curious at the idea of Bird growing bigger and observes carefully as she outgrows a shoebox, a birdie house and a tent. He loves it when Otto washes Bird in the sink. So much so that the other day he received the softest hedgehog from his aunt, one that you heat in the microwave and smells like lavender to help baby sleep; first thing he did, after kissing and hugging it, was take it to the bathroom and wash it in the sink….:))) He is sad when Bird is sad; excitedly attempts to say “family” alongside Bird (“fum-ee; faam-ee; faaam-leee; family!”), between giggles and is happy when Bird reunites with her family. He waves goodbye when she leaves (“pa pa Bird, see you ‘morrow, come back again!”). And he now knows what bird spotters and binoculars are. 

There’s a lot for kids to learn from it: beauty of exploration, satisfaction of (even the smallest) discoveries; outdoor adventures; happiness drawn from friendship, even with the smallest creature, and taking care of them; importance of family; importance of taking responsibility and righting a wrong.

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