Candepop

We are two mums and two toddlers, Cal and Edie, (two dads and new baby Elliott as well) living in Ireland, with a whole world of fun things to see and do.

 

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Kevin Waldron - Pandamonium at Peek Zoo

Born in Dublin but currently living in New York, illustrator Kevin Waldron’s follow up to his 2009 Bologna Ragazzi Opera Prima award winning picture book, Mr Peek and the Misunderstanding at the Zoo, again features Mr Peek and some Pandamonium at Peek Zoo. I am a big fan of his illustration style and the kiddos do love a good animal story so this is definitely one for our wish list. Books available through amazon and prints available here.

The Printorium - Harry Potter Collection

One for the older kiddos who have discovered the world of J K Rowling. Graphic designers Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima spent ten years creating every book cover, newspaper, product package and magical map for the Harry Potter movies and now have a limited edition collection of reproduction prints available to purchase online at The Printorium. Check out the full collection here.

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1000 Things to Draw

From the Amy Ng, the creator of Pikaland, a blog about “living the illustrated life”, comes 1000 Things to Draw. A gift for those of us imaginatively challenged people who when faced with a blank page and a child’s request of ‘draw something!’ have no idea what to do. With inspirational items like ‘a mosquito tracking a ship’ and ‘a farmer morphing into a star’, your doodlers block is a thing of the past.  

Sweet Paul Kids Issue

Purveyor of all things sweet, Sweet Paul magazine’s kids issue is out now. Featuring a plethora of cute and pretty things for kids from toys and room decor to mini meals they’ll love to eat and crafty crafts to keep them busy. Check it out online here. 

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The Dark - Lemony Snicket & Jon Klassen

From Lemony Snicket and Caldecott medal winning illustrator Jon Klassen,  comes a picture book about Laszlo and how he stops being afraid of the dark. It looks perfect. And I want it….for the kids of course…

Flying Eye Books

With a comittment to bring you beautifully designed, cherishable, wonder filled books for children, Flying Eye Books is a very welcome addition to the Nobrow Press publishing platform. Their first book, Viviane Scwarz’ Welcome to Your Awesome Robot, shows you how to create your own robot from everyday bits and bobs. Including, of course, the classic cardboard box. Future releases include the beautifully illustrated Atak’s Topsy Turvy World and Emily Hughes’ Wild. Find out more and sign up for their newsletter updates here.

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Flying Eye illustration by Emily Hughes

The Paper Dolls - Julia Donaldson & Rebecca Cobb

This is a beautiful collaboration between one of our favourite writers Julia Donaldson and illustrator Rebecca Cobb. It is a story of mothers and daughters and of the importance of memory and imagination. It tells of a mother making a set of paper dolls for her daughter, the rhythmically named Ticky and Tacky and Jackie the Backie, Jim with two noses and Jo with the bow. The little girl brings them on lots of imaginative adventures where they survive tigers and crocodiles. Their final adventure doesn’t end so well but we learn how everything lives on in our memories. It is a wonderful story which works as a fun adventure tale while subtly telling us about imagination and loss. It is perfectly illustrated with Rebecca Cobb’s childlike drawings which Edie really related to. Our copy had a set of paper dolls at the back so we could interact with the story too. Highly recommended.

Lemony Snicket - Who Could That Be At This Hour?

There were actual celebrations in our house when we got our copy of Who Could That Be at This Hour? the first in Lemony Snicket’s new series All the Wrong Questions. I have been a huge fan of Snicket since the publication of A Series of Unfortunate Events and was thrilled when I heard that he was returning to tales of his mysterious childhood in a shady organisation. Where the Unfortunate Events series had a gothic Edward Gorey-esque feel to them, the new book is more like a noir, starting with the wonderful sentence “There was a town, and there was a girl, and there was a theft”. The change of illustrator from Brett Helquist to Canadian artist Seth supports this with shady figures and shadowy locations. The book follows twelve year old Lemony Snicket’s induction into a mysterious and unnamed organisation, mentored by the useless S. Theodora Markson. Along the way he travels to a town populated by more useless adults and clever children with classic Snicket names like Moxie Mallahan, Ellington Feint and Dashiell Qwerty. While there he attempts to solve the mysterious theft of the Bombinating Beast (a Maltese falcon for our time!). As with all of Snicket’s work there is lots of wordplay, literary references and hilarious asides. It is a brilliant start to the new series and I can’t wait to read the next volume in October.

World Book Day - Thursday 7th March 2013

Only one more day until World Book Day and your chance to take part in a free online festival featuring Charlie and Lola author Lauren Child, My Naughty Little Sister illustrator Shirley Hughes and many more. Get details of the full program and register here and find out about local events from World Book Day Ireland here.

Cat Doorman’s Little Red Wagon

Guest  post from dad to be, James Kelleher.
Cat Doorman is Julianna Bright, and vice versa. She’s an Oregonian artist/mom/musician who’s collaborated with a bunch of American northwest indie rock heroes (including members of The Decemberists, Golden Bears, Black Prairie and Built to Spill) to make Songbook, a very charming folksy, old-timey album for children. Little Red Wagon is the first companion app to launch alongside the album, it’s developed by top toddler-catnip producers Night & Day Studios, and it’s very lovely indeed.
On launching the app, you’re dropped straight into Bright’s instantly appealing hand-painted world, where you choose whether you’d like a guitar, piano, or full band backing track. Then it’s right into the song adventure, where a girl in an orange dress gathers supplies – all dropped into the red wagon of the title – for a picnic in the forest. The dairy is run by a goat (the chèvre is recommended), the bakery by a cat: my weekly grocery shop now seems sadly mundane by comparison. 
The song itself is great, a blessed relief from the brain-mulching music found in most apps aimed at children, and appears in full notation at the bottom of the screen in case you’d like to play along. All the interaction cues necessary to progress are well signposted, but there are plenty of mischievous hidden surprises for curious tappers too. Trust me when I tell you: those pooping cows are going to be tapped A LOT.
This is another great app from Night & Day, with lashings of their customary attention to detail, plenty of charm and a lot of heart. 
To find out more of James Kelleher’s views on apps and the rest of the world follow him on twitter here.

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