This week marks the release of Debra Tidball's new picture book, The Scared Book. Here she shares a few of their first times together in public.
I take my new book out of the packaging in
trembling-with-excitement hands. It's a little part of me that I am about to
share with the world. But how will it behave? And how will others respond to
it?
Well, I'm relieved and thrilled to say that
The Scared Book has behaved very well
indeed!
A friend's child was the first to be
introduced to The Scared Book, and it
didn't have the child screaming in terror or (even worse) yawning with boredom,
much to my relief. Rather, the child was rubbing and flicking and fanning the
pages in a quest to help the poor book feel better. Turns out, the book has
perfect manners, and a charming propensity to entertain and delight its young
reader. The book may have had its tingling spine eased by the child but my
spine was tingling with pure pleasure.
The question then became - how would it
behave in a crowd? I was soon to find out on a KinderFest visit to Western
Sydney. As I read the book in front of three classes of 150 children each, I
scrutinised the faces in each audience - were there any children trembling in
terror in the corner? No! From Kindergarten to year two they were rubbing and
tapping and flicking their hands in the air as though conducting a choir. The
only hair raising moment was when they nearly blow me off my chair when blowing
away the monster butterflies!
As you may have realised, The Scared Book is actually character
itself. It asks the reader to help it not be scared and to chase way the
monsters that start appearing from out of the book's gutter. But shhhh! Don't
tell anyone - The Scared Book is
sneaky too, because while they're having oodles of fun, the children are
learning about their emotions and how to deal with them!
Whilst the book is an event in itself, it
also partners well with other activities to multiply the fun. One of the
activities that I have found complements The
Scared Book is 'Roll the Dice Monster.' It's a game along the lines of one
of my childhood favourites - Creepy Critters. Each number on the dice
corresponds to a body part that allows you to place that part on the outline of
a monster’s body. So rolling a six allows you to place a mouth, rolling a three
allows you to place an eye and so on. If every roll is a three, then the
monster is all eyes! So each time it's played a new and unique monster is
generated. Then the children are asked
to make up something about it, like its name or its favourite activity etc. - a
sneaky way to get children stretching their creative and imaginative muscles.
The Scared Book also lends itself to rhymes
and jingles and adapting classic finger plays for younger children, so 'dicky
birds' and 'little Indians' are given a much needed 21st century make-over -
replaced by monsters.
So now I know I can take The Scared Book
out in public with confidence. I'm so excited about the possibilities that it
has to engage children with books and learning and I'm looking forward to
sharing it with many, many more.
Debra’s first picture book When I see Grandma, was shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Book
of the Year and won the children’s section of the CALEB award. She reviews for
the CBCA Reading Time and was a
reviewer for Creative Kids Tales. She
blogs regularly at Just Write for Kids
and you can find her tweeting @debratidball. Debra is a qualified social worker
with a Master of Arts in Children’s Literature. She is the wife of one, mother
of two and caretaker to a menagerie of furry (and sometimes feathery) friends in
suburban Sydney. Visit Debra’s Website at: http://www.debratidball.com
