ROOM ON THE BROOM

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Halloween is coming and I want to share with you a book that I love reading with my girls at this time of year: Room on the Broom. Julia Donaldson is the author behind The Gruffalo and The Stick Man (among other great books) and Axel Scheffler brings her stories to life with his fabulous illustrations.

What’s it about?

A witch and her cat are flying in the sky on a broomstick when it gets very windy and the witch loses her hat and some other objects. Luckily, three helpful animals find the missing items but will she find room (space) on her broom for all of them to have a ride and what happens when the witch meets a scary dragon?

Language

The language in this story is not basic at times but this won’t stop you or your little bookworm from enjoying it. Just make sure you check the meaning and pronunciation of some of the vocabulary before you read it together. Remember that you can listen to a native speaker reading the story first on YouTube. The story rhymes and there is a lot of repetition – a great way for you to work on pronunciation and also to memorise the story together with your little one. What’s more, if you have Amazon Prime Video, you can watch the film based on the book. It is 25 minutes long and fun listening practice for you both!

Message of the story

I would recommend this story to children aged 3–6 . It is a great introduction to the topic of kindness – what it means to be kind and how we can show kindness. It is also a good way to show children that they shouldn’t judge someone by their appearance alone or, as we commonly say in English, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”. Not all witches are bad witches – there are some very kind ones around! 😊

Happy Halloween! 🎃

THE KOALA WHO COULD

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One of my students told me recently how “clingy” her child had become in the pandemic and I totally understood how she felt.

To be clingy[kling-i:] (adj.) = to be emotionally dependent, insecure, staying very close to someone
To cling/clung/clung to someone = to stay very close to someone/something

Examples:
1. My daughter has become so clingy. She follows me everywhere.
2. She has just broken up with her boyfriend as he was too clingy. He never gave her any space.

If your young child has become clingy and you are worried about the return to school or nursery and the changes that there will be, I totally recommend The Koala Who Could. Kevin the Koala 🐨 clings to his tree and refuses to move, but when he eventually does, he discovers a new and exciting world! 🤩🌎

The message of the story is so positive – we can’t control change but we can control how we manage it – and the rhyming in the story feels totally natural and not at all forced. In fact, if you want to read it in English to your child, it’s a great way to practise your pronunciation and intonation skills! You can even listen to a native speaker reading the story on YouTube first: The Koala Who Could. Try it. My clingy koala 🐨 loves it! 😊