Marti Follows the Road to Egypt by Michele Carter-Buxton

A mum-of-two from Wedmore was yesterday celebrating the launch of her first children’s book that she claims could transform the way some children learn to read.

Michele Carter-Buxton, 43, has developed a number of interactive, kinesthetic learning aids working with the phonics system which has been shown to ‘significantly improve’ youngsters’ literacy skills.

Official figures show that one in five 11-year-olds leaves primary school without having attained the literacy skills expected for their age.

Michele believes that for many of these children, the damage is done in the early years. Speaking yesterday, she explained that the secret could be in simply reading with your child from day one.

Michele was advised herself as a young mum, to lie with your newborn and share stories.  She took this advice to heart and believes that is the reason why her son is such a good reader now.

“Even if it’s only a black-and white cloth book, it can still have the power to encourage the love of books from the start of life.”

Speaking of her concept, she added: “Many children, especially boys, are not suited to rigid learning but benefit from a more ‘play-oriented’, physical approach.”

In response to this, Michele launched the “Letter Roads” concept in 2002 as a method to help her own son, now 11, learn the alphabet.

Through her company Happy Pegs Ltd, she designed and manufactured sets of 26 large floor mats, on which the letters of the alphabet are drawn as roads, surrounded by pictures with the correct phonic association.

Using these, young children drive toy cars around the letters which encourages play and physical movement making learning the alphabet and letter-sounds fun.

The Letter Roads sets and the companion product Number Roads, have gone on to become Happy Pegs Ltd’s biggest selling educational products and are now in use in over 1000 nurseries and schools nationwide.

Their success led to the creation of the range of illustrated Letter Roads books, the first of which – “Marti Follows the Road to Egypt” – was published by Happy Pegs Ltd in September.

The book tells the story of Marti, an alien who has come to Earth in search of his lost friend. Children can follow the road page-by-page as the story unfolds, maintaining the original Letter Roads concept.

Michele’s books have proven to aid the development of literacy skills, hand-eye co-ordination and letter recognition, as well as introducing a geographic and cultural element.

Sheila George, a teacher, said: “I have just read Marti Follows the Road to Egypt. Great book, full of information about Egypt too! Let us know when Marti has come back from France!”

“After the great success of the Letter Roads sets, I was eager to move the idea forward and introduce the product in book form” Michele said.

“To know that these products helped my family so much made me want to share them with anyone else who may be struggling out there.”

Marti Follows the Road to Egypt is now available priced £4.99. Orders can be placed on the website: www.letterroads.com

For interviews, complimentary sample copies and high-res images, contact Laura Mackie on 0117 9084630 or email laura.mackie@palamedespr.com

The Mudhogs by Dalton James

AshBooks Review for The Mudhogs by Dalton James:

A book written by a charming an intelligent 8 year old boy (and this is already his third book!) that tells the tale of 3 little pigs who love mud and tried everything  to get it back when it ran dry. A good moral lesson awaits at the end.

For information: http://outskirtspress.com/mudhogs

User Submitted Reviews:

What a lovely book! . Learning life is worth waiting for is priceless.

The NY Times have just released their own list of  10 best illustrated children’s books for 2009 today, quite a short nifty list, with about 10 titles shortlisted. We thought that was great, but wasn’t good enough so we’ve came up with our own slightly better version of 15 of the best illustrated childrens books for 2009.
It’s a list comprising of illustrated childrens books for 2009 not from 2009, so there is a nice mix of old and new books here. All are still relevant today.

Enjoy!

(from top left to right)

The Giant Play And Learn Book illustrated by Pascale Estellon

An Awesome Book! illustrated by Dallas Clayton

Cinderella And The Hot Air Balloon by Ann Jungman and illustrated Russell Ayto

The Turnip by Walter de La Mare, illustrated Kevin Hawkes

Winnie The Pooh illustrated by EH Shepard

The Wizard of Oz illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger

Pinocchio illustrated by Sara Fanelli

Wicked Nursery Rhymes illustrated by Gris Grimly

Boo Hoo Bird illustrated by Jeremy Tankard

Hansel & Gretel illustrated by Majd Soudi

A Book of Sleep illustrated by Il Sung Na

I’m A Little Bit Scared Of… illustrated by Madi

Lost And Found illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

Three Little Pigs illustrated by Aaron Blecha

Little Red Hen illustrated by Jago

Brand New Baby Blues illustrated by Kelly Murphy

Last week, I went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox at the cinema; a film based on one of my favourite children’s books by Roald Dahl. Having thoroughly enjoyed the book, I was pleased to find myself enjoying the film as well – although the differences in plotline did catch my attention. For the sake of nostalgia and to be appropriate to modern cinema, I thought I’d recap on Roald Dahl’s book. So here is a quick review of Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl.

Every family needs to eat and, being that foxes are carnivorous beats, Mr. Fox is forced to steal chickens and geese from local farmers to support his wife and children. These aren’t ordinary famers either; these are the three meanest farmers around – Boggis, Bunce and Bean (one fat, one short, one lean). As time goes by, these farmers get so frustrated with Mr. Fox stealing their livestock that they set out to slay him – waiting outside his foxhole one night, determined to shoot him down.

Luckily for our hero, he manages to escape the trap, but loses his beloved tail in the crossfire. Infuriated by their failure, the three farmers pursue Mr. Fox, using shovels, bulldozers and teams of men to hunt him down –trapping the fox family underground. Stuck and starving, the foxes find themselves in a sticky situation for three longs days, with neither food nor water. Eventually Mr. Fox hatches a plan and, using their exceptional digging skills, the family digs a tunnel underneath the farmers and into Boggis’ chicken house!

Meeting the other animals along the way, Fantastic Mr. Fox recruits his friends and together they dig a system of underground tunnels into all three farms; creating an easy way to steal chickens, geese, turkeys and cider from the nasty farmers. Outside the foxhole, however, Boggis, Bunce and Bean never stop waiting for Mr. Fox to show up.