The Fly by Petr Horacek

Imagine a picture book where the fly is the main character, and you get a humorous story buzzing with action.  "Two goggly eyes, six hairy legs, two transparent wings...It's me! The House Fly. But people don't like me being in the house." The swish and the sudden  flap of the fly swat moves this unusual but entertaining story along until its witty finale. The reader is taken on a journey of the arduous and dangerous day in the life of a much maligned fly, from his food sources, through his daily exercise regime, to his favourite smells. The book has beautiful paintings overlaid with collage and potentially splattering flaps. The the large crayon speech bubbles which dominate the pages constantly emphasize the fly's tiny presence. The entire book consists of double page spreads which is visually appealing and gives the poor fly a larger landscape on which to eke out his otherwise frugal existence. The end covers add a nice touch. Designed primarily for the infant school market, this book also has great appeal to older children too.

Petr's blog is worth visiting and has a couple of animations on it based on two of his other picture books:
http://www.petrhoracek.co.uk/

The Great Wungle Bungle Aerial Expedition by Jill Arkell, Wayne Talbot and Greg McKee

A great swirling willy willy carries Wendi Wallaby off into the Australian outback skies and thus begins the Wallopa Wallaby's quest to track her down. He enlists the aid of Ranger Bugwatch and together with the talents of Snuffle and Trundle Echidna, Bluey, Bindie and Scribble the Kola Brothers, Wentworth Pelican, Felicity Flossy Fleece the flying doctor, and Ulinga, an indigenous boy, they build a pedal-powered flying machine from recycled materials. This is the first on many  inventions they make in their quest to travel the skies in search of Wendi. There is the giant boomerang, the 18 footer sky boat, an airship, a satellite but all have their own limitations. The detailed and humorous illustrations by Greg McKee and Wayne Talbot are awe inspiring and will keep children poring over them for hours. McKee is a man of many talents with a background in industrial design, zoology, illustration and animation. To read more about him and the illustrations in this book follow the link below; it is well worth your visit..

http://www.mckeewildthings.com/Illustrations.htm

Braithwaite's Original Brass Band by Peter Stevenson

This wacky picture book by Peter Stevenson focuses on Braithwaite's Original Brass Band, which is supposedly the best band in the land. The band is comprised of a very odd looking group of heavily-moustached men who are clones of each other. One day whilst endeavouring to practise for the Oswaldtwhistle International Musical Championship, their instruments malfunction and  their notes float away into the sky. So they adventure into Outer Space to retrieve their music. They find themselves on a planet inhabited by little pink monsters and thus begins the  negotiation with the Maetstro (a conductor who collects the best bands in the universe) to regain their lost music. I really love the twist at the end when Great-Grandfather's old instruments from the attic are given a new lease of life. Author/illustrator Peter Stevenson has quite a number of books under his belt and his website is worth visiting. He has also written his first book in the Welsh language entitled Oes Ben Tylwyth Teg.  http://peterstevensonart.co.uk/books.html

Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes illustrated by Kate Greenaway

This is an enchanting, stitched,  little hardback published by Chancellor Press. The late eighteenth century style illustrations by Kate Greenaway do justice to these traditional nursery rhymes. Greenaways paintings were reproduced by chromoxlography, a process which was popular from the mid nineteenth to the early twentieth century, by which colours were printed from hand-engraved wood blocks. This is a beautiful facsimile of the original 1881 edition filled with over forty famous nursery rhymes. It is a welcome edition to our poetry section in the Little Library of Rescued Books in our classroom.

The contents page  and one of the first rhyme of the book

I Spy Transport in Art selected by Lucy Mickleethwait

An interesting concept and a great way to introduce children to well-known pieces of art, Lucy Micklethwait's selections take the reader on a journey through the modern world of art. Apparently, children helped with the selection of the art works. Art works include Batmobile from DC Comics, Kandinsky's Birds and Salvador Dali's La Table Solaire, along with ten others. All have to do with different forms of transport, hence the title of the book. Whilst finding the different modes of transport is no where near as hard as the challenge thrown out in the Where's Wally series, it is indeed a great vehicle for talking to your children or students about art.

Ben's Dream by Chris Van Allsburg

Ben and Margaret pedal quickly to make it to their respective houses before the rain pelts down. Both have to study for an upcoming geography test on great landmarks of the world. Ben arrives home to an empty house and settles down to study. However, the steady rhythm of the rain lulls him to sleep. Only seconds later, the house shakes violently and his finds himself drifting past some of the great landmarks in the world such as the Statue of Liberty, the Taj Mahal and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, to name just a few. Chris Van Allsburg's book will enthrall and mesmerize with the detailed ink drawings, and after reading the end, many readers will be forced back through the book in order to study the drawings more closely and to look for further clues. Many of Allsburg's books switch between the waking and the sleeping worlds and between reality and fantasy.

His amazing website is well worth visiting where you can incidentally watch an animated form of the book
http://www.chrisvanallsburg.com/home.html

The following website also has some excellent teaching ideas:
http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/thepolarexpress/tg/bensdream.shtml#plot

The Bunyip Cage by Jill Eggleton

The Bunyip Cage by Jill Eggleton, first published in 1993, is all about  three little aussie children who have their sights set on catching a bunyip down at the local billabong so they can take it to the zoo.  They build  a wooden cage and imagine how it is all going to work out. However things don't pan out as they expected. They do indeed catch an animal but it is a far cry from the mythical bunyip of their imaginations.. The cover really doesn't do justice to the beautiful illustrations by Jeff Fowler enclosed within the book. The first page in the book would have made a striking cover. I just love the Kellogs Cornflakes box which sits on the table in the second illustration of the book. Product placement maybe?

Illustration from The Bunyip Cage by Jeff Fowler

Illustration from The Bunyip Cage by Jeff Fowler