sunny

I've been reading a bunch of the "weirdness" memes going around, and although I am not particularly interested in divulging a list of my quirks, one that came immediately to mind that isn't too embarrassing is my extreme dislike for shopping. Sure the odd browse through a thrift store or stationary store is enjoyable (in fact I have I great love of stationary shops- all those pens! and notebooks! and folders and binders and day timers and paperclips... okay, maybe this is another weird thing...) but I despise shopping for things that I need, especially clothing. And if it is in a shop that has attentive and helpful salespeople that want to tell me about their product or comment on how great I look in an outfit I'm trying on, well, I'd rather gauge out my eyeballs with a spoon. But one exception to this (besides that aforementioned stationary and thrift shopping) is books. Especially kids books. I can accumulate kids books like nothing else. And though spending 25$ on a shirt is physically painful, this doesn't seem like much for a picture book. So its no wonder that bookshelves factor largely into our home reno plans.

One of my favorite bloggers started doing reviews of kids books recently which I have been enjoying greatly (oh good! more books to covet and long for!) and when I recently picked up this book at my local bookstore I decided I would have to jump in and do a review of it because it is just so great and needs to be known. After doing an internet search I was not surprised to find that I am not the only one who thinks this book is wonderful.

Sunny by Robin Mitchell and Judith Steedman is part of a series of books that uses bendy dolls, simple household objects and wonderful collage to create a hip and magical landscape. Pencils become telephone poles, doodles on black paper are chalk drawings, a ruler and empty wooded spool become a see-saw. I've not read the other titles in the series but this one is decidedly urban, which is a nice change from our usual reads. Sunny wanders around the city enjoying the noises he finds and decides to have a hootenanny with all his friends making their own clanging, rattling stomping music. The book also comes with a ten song CD full of fun upbeat kid songs with one rowdy tune by Veda Hille's kid band Duplex! whose CD we own and love.
Ari and I danced around to the tunes and I dreamed of crafting up some bendy collaging goodness. I look plan to try to track down the rest of the books in this series, Windy, Snowy and Chinook, and Gail.