Piranha's Don't Eat Bananas by Aaron Blabey

This is hands down my favourite picture book at the moment.

In the last few weeks I have read it to large groups of students from Year 2 to Year 6 and even the older kids can't help but laugh out loud...it may have something to do with the bums in the book!

I also love this photo (modest), I took it for my Instagram account but had to use it here, and I think I will use my own photos from now on. Who doesn't love a random pineapple in book photos.  But I am sure piranha's don't eat pineapples either...it's just that pineapple doesn't rhyme with piranha.

Dumplin' by Julie Murphy

I read this amazing books a few weeks ago, and if you read my last post you will already know I am a terrible blogger who can't keep up with the amount of books I read...but I LOVED this book.

I made a comment on Instagram about reading the right book at the right time, and that's what happened with this one.  I have just binge watched the first two seasons of Nashville (This is relevant due to the Dolly connection...) and then there's Friday Night Lights which is one of my all time favourite TV series, so I am a little bit in love with these parts of the world, namely Tennessee in the case of Nashville and Texas in the case of Friday Night Lights and the wonderful Dumplin'.

Here's what the blurb has to say:

Self-proclaimed fat girl Willowdean Dickson (dubbed "Dumplin'" by her former beauty queen mom) has always been at home in her own skin.

Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Put a bikini on your body. 

With her all-American-beauty best friend, Ellen, by her side, things have always worked . . . until Will takes a job at Harpy's, the local fast-food joint. There she meets Private School Bo, a hot former jock. Will isn't surprised to find herself attracted to Bo. But she is surprised when he seems to like her back.

Instead of finding new heights of self-assurance in her relationship with Bo, Will starts to doubt herself. So she sets out to take back her confidence by doing the most horrifying thing she can imagine: entering the Miss Clover City beauty pageant—along with several other unlikely candidates—to show the world that she deserves to be up there as much as any twiggy girl does. Along the way, she'll shock the hell out of Clover City—and maybe herself most of all.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs, and a wildly unforgettable heroine—Dumplin' is guaranteed to steal your heart.

If watching Nashville made me go and download the soundtracks and play on repeat, this book made me download Dolly Parton's Jolene, play it loud and sing it at the top of my voice.  It's a book that makes you want to stand up and cheer for Willowdean.

One of the good things about Willowdean as a character is that while she is at home in her body (something we should all strive to be no matter what size we are) she is still human. While she may not have body issues, she still has to deal with universal issues including boys, friends and family, generally surviving being a teenage girl.

I will admit now that I did not read Julie Murphy's first book Side Effects May Vary, but it now at the top of my TBR pile.

Where I confess to being a bad blogger...but an enthusiastic instagramm-er

I really am a terrible blogger. 

The trouble with blogging about books is that you have to read them...and that takes time...and as a reader, when you have finished one book, you start the next one, it truly doesn't end, and that's not a bad thing, it just turns out I would rather be reading the books rather than writing about them.

I started an Instagram account with the plan that I would write a blog post for every picture I posted. Well that didn't happen, so a new plan is in order.  I will endeavour to post here about books that I LOVE or I feel need a little help to get them out into the hands of readers.  I will post on Instagram more often, so you can follow me there at whats_rebecca_reading or click on the link to the right.  

I love Instagram and the 'bookstagram-ers' I follow give me a insight into what's popular out in the world, and I have been encouraged to read books that I would never have picked up.  Plus so many authors and publishers have really cool accounts, so if you haven't joined the Instagram bandwagon, I highly recommend you think about it.

There's a Bear on My Chair by Ross Collins

There's a Bear on My Chair by Ross Collins
Published June 2015 Nosy Crow
 
Poor Mouse! A bear has decided to settle in his favourite chair, and that chair just isn’t big enough for them to share. Mouse tried all kinds of tactics to move Bear, from glaring at him and scaring him, to luring him with a pear, but nothing works. Eventually, Mouse gives up. Once Mouse has gone, Bear gets up from the chair and walks home. But what’s that? Is that a Mouse in Bear’s house?!

With echoes of Dr Seuss, this joyously illustrated picture book by a multi-award-winning talent is perfect for sharing.

My favourite type of picture books, are those with stories told in rhyme, and this one is a stand out.

The cover of this book sets the scene beautifully…there is the title There’s a Bear on My Chair… and an angry looking mouse, pointing to the very happy bear sitting in a chair, leaving no question as to whose chair that might be! 

The book is full of lovely language and glorious rhyme, and the way illustrations depict the increasingly frustrated and angry mouse are comic gold, especially as nothing seems to affect the bears calm and happy demeanour.

More reasons to like this book…end papers, different front and back (I love endpapers that start the story!)  and an ending with a satisfactory twist.

If you want to have a 'look inside' this book CLICK HERE