 Hi everyone, my name is Steph, this is Little Bookish Teacher, and today I want to share some picture books that I have recently acquired with you. So this video really started with the fact that I received a copy of Charlie's Whale by Libby Gleason and illustrated by Hannah Somerville for review. This is an absolutely gorgeous children's picture book. So thank you very much to Heshet for sending this to me. This is about Charlie who is a young boy who is absolutely obsessed with whales. He reads all the books about them, he knows all the facts, and his ultimate dream is to one day see a real live whale in the wild. He never gives up on this dream to see this whale despite the fact that, you know, people tell him, you know, don't get your hopes up, don't expect to see a whale. Even if you're at the beach, you know, we're too far away from where they would be. And he just, he never gives up. And it is a story about being passionate about something. It is about believing in your dreams and about not giving up is gorgeous. It is beautifully illustrated. And this will delight any young reader who absolutely loves sea creatures. Then there's Colourous by Anna McGregor. This is an absolutely gorgeous picture book. I've actually read this one before, but I've never owned a copy of it myself. This is about three mobs of kangaroos, the yellow mob, the red mob and the blue mob, who all come from different parts of Australia. And the first part of this book as we're introduced to the mob really deals with colours. So we see everything, all the illustrations are in the colour of the mob. But then they all end up meeting at a watering hole and they stay there for a while. And you get to see eventually that, you know, suddenly you have green kangaroos and orange kangaroos and purple kangaroos as the mobs begin to mix and interact and create new families. This obviously brings very different dynamics to the families, which makes this book part colour picture book dealing with colours and teaching colours to young children, but also part commentary on breaking down the barriers between being different or being similar to another person or another group of people. It's just an all around absolutely gorgeous picture book. Well worth checking out if you haven't seen it. I mean, it's beautiful, especially if you want to see some really iconic Australian imagery as well. Then there's the newest instalment in the Bear series by Nick Bland. This is the very clever bear. And in this one, Bear and his friends find a circus that has just recently come to the jungle and they're all very eager to try out for rolls within the circus. But while all his friends have these amazing tricks that have them quickly snapped up by the circus bear is less successful and he goes off to try and become better at a skill. And by the time he comes back to the circus, he realises that his friends are maybe not so happy and they're not being treated as well in the circus as they all first thought. And so he rescues all of them. On the surface, this is just another really fun story about Bear and his friends in the jungle. But as an adult we know that this would probably be a really good discussion for how animals are treated within circuses or other performing groups or performing acts like that. So it would be a great discussion opener, particularly with older children. I think this would work really well with. As always, it does have Nick Bland's very fun signature rhyming style bright coloured illustrations, just dealing with a heavier topic this time. I also read The Speedy Sloth by Rebecca Young and Heath McKenzie. This book is the 2023 National Simultaneous Storytime book here in Australia. So that means there is one day in the year where Kinders and Primary Schools and Libraries will be reading this book for storytime to children at the same time. This one is super cute. I love the illustrations in it. It is about Spike who is a sloth and she is so excited because it's finally race day and she is going to be running in this race against all of these other animals despite the fact that her family thinks she's pretty silly for attempting to enter it. But the day comes, she starts and she just runs her little heart out and no, she doesn't come first. It's not one of those stories. She does come last because she is a sloth. But the beautiful message in this book is that she didn't give up on her dream. She still did it and she was happy that she had just even participated and she's so proud of herself for that at the end of it. So it's a really great way to talk about the fact that you don't always have to win to be successful and it's just absolutely gorgeous. Another new to me picture book is Thank You Rain by Sally Morgan and Johnny Wukata Malibar and this is a story about rain arriving in the desert of Australia and the sounds and the life that rain brings to usually quite a dry country and it's absolutely beautiful. It's got Sally Morgan's beautiful writing style. The illustrations are just absolutely gorgeous and very engaging to look at. It's a beautiful, beautiful book. Another new to me book is Come Over to My House. This is by Liza Hull and Sally Rippon and it's been illustrated by Daniel Gray Barnett who I've now got a few books by him so I was very excited to see this illustrative style and this is a beautiful book that showcases people living with disabilities and the fact that they live normal lives just like anyone else and that when you come over to their place you might see different things that aid them in their daily life but that doesn't stop them from having people over and that it doesn't stop them from interacting with other people but modifications might need to be made. So it's a beautiful story that introduces a lot of different disabilities or different needs in the community. You have one character who has cerebral palsy and another who has autism. There is dwarfism representation. There are people living with intellectual disabilities. There are people who are deaf or blind in the story and it's not just the children but it's also the adults and sometimes it's both the parent and the child in the story who have that disability but it's about celebrating the amazing uniqueness of every family while also breaking down the barriers of people who don't understand what it is like to live with a disability. There are two authors notes at the back of the book. Eliza Hull does live with a disability and Sally Rippon is a close friend and so the two worked very closely together to make sure that this representation was authentic and genuine. It was just absolutely gorgeous to read. I absolutely love this one. I think this needs to be on every classroom, shelf, every library and in the hands of kids everywhere because that's how we start to break down those barriers. And then the last book is The Magic Kiss by Bonbeleu. This is a gorgeous coloured book. All of the illustrations in this are in the blues and orange that very complementary tones with the white and this is a story about a magic kiss that begins the bedtime routine. So this is really a book about helping children who are learning bedtime routines and who need that reassurance that everything is okay when they go to sleep. Once the kiss is initiated all of these things happen to eventually culminate in sleep and it's just gorgeous. I mean the illustrations are so cute and I just had a really wonderful time reading this book. So those are some recent picture books that I have read and absolutely loved. In the comments I'd love to know if you have read any of these books or if you're planning on picking them up or feel free to share some children's titles that you have recently acquired and absolutely loved because I'm always on the lookout for new books. If you want to let me know that you're here but you don't want to leave a comment feel free to leave a whale emoji down below otherwise I hope that wherever you're on the world you're staying safe and healthy and I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching. Bye everyone.