The Bub in the Belly

The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss was first published in 1945 and has never gone out of print. It was illustrated by the author's husband, Crockett Johnson (creator of Harold and the Purple Crayon, another fabulous children's book). Unfamiliar with its celebrity status at the time, I picked this up at a bookstore in New York City, attracted by the simplicity of the cover and the colours plus the line, "When you are very young, there are some things that you just know".

Sometimes called "the little book with the big idea", this simple story about faith is about a little boy who plants a carrot seed. While everyone tells him "it won't come up", he continues to tend to it patiently and lovingly with steadfast conviction and unshakeable belief until, one day, a gigantic carrot pops up "just as he knew it would". Little ones will enjoy the lesson that they can be successful if they work hard and believe in something, and not give up even when people are discouraging or skeptical.

The entire book is a testament to minimalism - at 101 carefully chosen words, it was one of the shortest picture book texts when it was first published in 1945. The illustrations are just as sparse and minimal yet nothing is lost - the confidence, hope and grace of the little boy is masterfully depicted. The whole book is done in carrot-like tones and colours, with the brightest colour being the huge orange carrot which appears at the end.

When asked how long it took her to write The Carrot Seed, Krauss always said “her whole life.” She had to pare the story down, again and again, until she got its essence. Johnson, who was himself bald, always drew bald characters or, in the case of The Carrot Seed, a child with a single hair. He maintained that bald heads were easier to draw than ones with hair.

In his essay, "Ruth Krauss and Me", author Maurice Sendak described this book as "that perfect picture book, The Carrot Seed, the granddaddy of all picture books in America, a small revolution of a book that permanently transformed the face of children's book publishing. The Carrot Seed, with not a word or a picture out of place, is dramatic, vivid, precise, concise in every detail. It springs fresh from the real world of children."

Ryan loves this book and sits quietly while we read it. When we get to the end, he always has a smile on his face and he usually lets out a quiet and satisfied "Wow."

We picked up this book at the bookstore because it passed the Ryan test on the first reading - he read the whole book on his own, while we were still at the bookstore! How could we not buy it?

That is really the best review I can give you, so here's a video of Ryan reading the book (at h8ome).

Ryan is into letters and numbers right now - he talks about them all the time. I bought this for him recently and it was an instant favourite.

I saw this in a store in Singapore (Motherworks at Great World City) and recalled reading a positive review about it on the internet, so I snapped it up. I assume you can get it at the usual bookstores too and, interestingly, it is also available at The Metropolitan Museum of Art Store.


The book comes with 11 sturdy foam pieces and a mesh bag to store the pieces in. As the title states, it shows you how to build an A (using the foam pieces). And a B and a C too. Every letter from A to Z in fact.

If I had to recommend a picture book for young children, Freight Train by Donald Crews would be one of my top choices. Whenever Ryan brings it out, he insists on that we read it over and over again at least five times, sometimes up to ten times!

There is no plot or story line. The book merely describes the different cars (in different colours) that make up a cargo train and describes the train's journey from country to city, day to night. There is limited text on each page, which makes it perfect for young children. Although the text does not rhyme, it has the rhythm of a poem when read aloud. The illustrations are simple and colourful. Sometimes the images are clean and sometimes they are blurred and smudged to show movement. On the last page, the train chugs out of view, Ryan loves to read the last word - "gone".

To be honest, I was surprised at how much Ryan loves this sparse book. To an adult (or perhaps just to me) the book seemed quite boring, as it does not actually tell a story. I then realised that that's where the magic of the book lies - it lets the child make up his/her own story, it inspires the child to wander off into his/her imagination where the train gets into all sorts of adventures, it fosters the child's natural creativity. The child's natural curiosity is piqued and they want to learn more about this exciting-looking train. Ryan can stare for a long time at the page where he first sees the entire freight train, who knows what he is imagining! That's when I realised that this book is pure genius.

The book was named one of 1979's Caldecott Honor Books. The popularity of this book led to a sequel in 2001, "Inside Freight Train", also by Donald Crews, which features fold-out panels so your child can see the inner workings of the train.

Donaldson has said that the story is based on a traditional Chinese folk tale of a fox that borrows the terror of a tiger. Donaldson was unable to find rhymes for “tiger” so came up with the “Gruffalo” to rhyme with the word “know”.

The illustrations are equally important to the telling of the tale and are done by the incomparable Axel Scheffler. Ryan loves them, as do I. The forest backdrop is drawn in such detail, it is simply magnificent. After we finish reading, Ryan loves to go through the book again and point out the little details on each page – the woodpecker and the fallen tree, the kingfisher and the dragonfly at the stream where the owl lives, the reeds and the stepping stones in the stream, the snake’s logpile house (the logs are from different trees), the green frogs in the stream, the acorns and the mushrooms lining the mouse’s path, the butterflies and bugs, the pink and blue bluebells, the different types of trees, etc. The power of the illustrations is particularly felt when the mouse is describing the fearsome features of the Gruffalo. Only one part of the Gruffalo is shown at a time, and this effectively builds up the suspense in the story. When it finally appears, the Gruffalo isn’t that scary, it has kind eyes and looks a little goofy (apparently, initial sketches of the Gruffalo were much more menacing) and this endears it to the reader.

While reading it aloud, I use a variety of voices and accents to give each animal a personality and I try to express, through pace and volume, the mood of each scene whether whimsical, scary, funny, suspenseful, victorious or peaceful. You can get an audio version of it (the audio version won the Best Children's Audio award in the Spoken Book Awards) but I couldn’t bear to miss out on the fun!

Published in 1999, this "modern classic" has sold more than 5 million copies, been translated into 40 languages and has been staged in repertory since 2001 – not just in the UK (including London’s West End) but across America (including off-Broadway), Chile, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. The Gruffalo has spawned a sequel, The Gruffalo’s Child, and even has its own website where you can play games and be part of the Gruffalo gang.

The Gruffalo won the gold award (in the 0–5 years category) of the 1999 Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. In 2000, it was UK's bestselling picture book and won the 2000 Nottingham/Experian Children's Book award plus the Blue Peter “Best Book To Read Aloud” award. In November 2009 the book was voted "best bedtime story" by listeners of BBC Radio 2. In a 2010 survey by UK charity Booktime, the book came first in a list of children's favorite books.

It has been adapted into a 30-minute animated film, which was broadcast in the UK on Christmas Day 2009 with an all-star cast including Robbie Coltrane in the title role and Helena Bonham Carter as the narrator. The film was nominated for a BAFTA in 2010 and for an Oscar (Academy Award) for Best Short Film (Animated) in January 2011.