Allan Ahlberg, a former teacher, postman, plumber's mate and grave digger, is inthe super-league of children's writers. He has published over 100 children'sbooks and, with his late wife Janet, created such award-winning picture booksas EACH PEACH PEAR PLUM and THE JOLLY CHRISTMAS POSTMAN -both winners of the Greenaway Medal. He has also written prize-winning poetryand fiction for older readers.Each Peach Pear PlumBy Allan Ahlberg And Janet AhlbergBefore you load up the family for your next adventure, be sure to pack some reading material worthy enough to last any distance. To separate the good from the ‘It’s bo-oring!’, we asked children's book editor Susan Rich, an Editor-at-Large at Little Brown Books, and the team of experts at bookseller Indigo, for some of their travel favorites to keep you and your little ones happy on the road. Board books (ages 1 to 3)Kids follow the yellow dot as it leads them on a journey, using their fingers and imagination to help guide them. A classic, interactive children’s book (toddlers can poke their fingers through the series of holes that lead them through the pages).
Calling all future web designers! This book teaches basic coding and web concepts (for real!) to mini-me’s in the form of an alphabet.From the beloved author-illustrator comes an interactive book (lift-the-flap, touch-and-feel, magic mirrors) to keep them entertained from door-to-door. Picture books (ages 4 to 6)Kids follow a bike as it takes them on a graphically beautiful, adventure. A book of opposites that conceal — using a number of gatefolds — a surprising game within each page.Winner of the 2015 Caldecott Medal (annual award for the most distinguished American picture book for children), Stantat helps answer this seemingly, annoying question with a beautifully illustrated book that will take your kiddie to Ancient Egypt and beyond.A travel-worthy set of five books that cover the family’s adventures from under the sea to the tooth fairy. Young Readers (ages 6 to 9) A delightful series that follows an amoeba through grade school, and navigating issues like school bullying and detention.
A loveable house cat believes he has a mission to blast off into space and battle aliens. This first book of a 5-part series details him prepping for his mission.A hilarious story about a mean monkey that’s sent into space but instead, crash lands in a friendly forest. Both Ruth and the experts at Indigo love this series that features stories by classic Sunday comic characters like Snoopy, with current graphic-com characters Babymouse and the Lunch Lady. Young ones create faces from templates and bound-in sticker sheets that’ll keep them busy.This New-York Times best-selling author introduces an activity book that allows kids to decorate scenes with Pete and his various friends.Using interactive animation with live video, your budding director can use up to 52 hand-drawn scenes to create their own mini movies ($2.99, iPhone and iPad)Your little ones are put in charge of choosing their mode of transport for Jinja the cat and performing simple tasks like fueling up and washing the car ($2.99, iPhone, iPad, Kindle, Windows)An alphabet of fruits and veggies morph into gorgeous
It’s also creative, allowing your child to draw their own version of various foods. ($.99, iPad and iPhone)A sophisticated marker/paint/pencil set allows kids of all ages (even adults!) to let loose their inner Picasso. ($1.99, iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle)Using basic physic concepts (fall, jump, land, etc), kids choose a character (in the shape of a ball) to roll through a variety of environments and overcome obstacles. ($2.99, iPhone, iPad, Kindle, Android)It’s exactly as it sounds, providing easy-to-understand info on animals, people, and other cool stuff from around the globe. ($4.99, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) Mainly about reading with an accent on intelligent crime fiction from around the world. by L R Wright Felony & Mayhem 2008; first published by Doubleday 1985 The Suspect is an absorbing, short book about the aftermath of a crime, set in Sechelt, a small town on the beautiful-sounding Sunshine Coast of Canada (click on map below to enlarge). In the opening chapter, the elderly George Lomax, we are led to believe, has killed another octogenarian, Carlyle Burke, by hitting him on the head with a shell casing.
Shaken, George goes home, but becomes worried about the fate of the dead man’s parrot, so returns to the house, “discovers” the body and calls the police. Staff Sergeant Karl Ahlberg of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is the senior office in Sechelt and hence in charge of the investigation. He’s a taciturn man, divorced with two daughters who are both at university in Calgary. He is unfulfilled in his unaccustomed solitary state, and so has taken to answering personal ads in an attempt to find female companionship. By this method, he meets Cassandra, the local librarian, an independent, 40-year-old woman who is a friend of George’s. The police investigation forms the framework of the novel, but what brings it to life is the depiction of George, Karl and Cassandra as they all deal with their separate lonelinesses in their different ways. In addition, the book presents a picture of life in this (I am convinced!) beautiful region of Canada which sounds wonderful, not least in its almost year-round warm climate and the enticingly described lush vegetation.
In its treatment of a local community and the effects of a crime on the assumed perpetrator, rather than on the more conventional puzzle of whodunnit, the book is absorbing, partly because the author does not push the concept too far in keeping the whole thing short and focused. The underlying reasons for the crime, some of which reach back far into the past, and others of which are subtly presented and left for the reader to deduce, conspire to create a haunting whole. The psychological insights provided, together with the sharply observed characterisations of Karl and Cassandra, leave the reader eager to read more of the series. I purchased my copy of this book, which was the first Canadian novel to win the Edgar award for best novel, in 1986. Other reviews of The Suspect: Mysteries in Paradise and Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan (the review which made me decide to read this book), About the book at the author’s website. Wikipedia: The nine Karl Ahlberg mystery novels in reading order.