The Smeds and the Smoos

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I grew up in a tall Victorian London house with my parents, grandmother, aunt, uncle, younger sister Mary and cat Geoffrey (who was really a prince in disguise. Mary and I would argue about which of us would marry him). My current Y1 class are massive Julia Donaldson fans and so naturally, I have been working my way through her many books!

Smeds and The Smoos - Blackheath Halls The Smeds and The Smoos - Blackheath Halls

Music, laughs and interplanetary adventures for everyone aged 3 and up, from Tall Stories – the company that brought you The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom live on stage. Write a sequel to this book? What might happen to the Smeds and the Smoos (and their new baby) next? The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools. Look at the other plants and creatures in the illustrations and think about how they might be adapted to living on the alien planet. I really enjoy writing verse, even though it can be fiendishly difficult. I used to memorise poems as a child and it means a lot to me when parents tell me their child can recite one of my books.Write a diary entry for Janet or Bill from a time when they crept off to play in the Wurpular Wood together. I think the story carries some good messages of tolerance and acceptance whilst appealing to a younger audience. It shows generational differences and views, demonstrating how the views of the younger generation are important and can help to open older generations to changing their views and beliefs. I think I read somewhere that this is like a modern-day Seuss and that seems so appropriate because of the wonderfully nonsensical but great rhyme, and the odd and outlandish characters. It's fun and the crazy wordplay is fabulous, and it's a book about learning to appreciate and love those who are "other." And since I so love The Gruffalo, I'm predisposed to like most anything this author writes. The Smeds and the Smoos visit other planets to find Janet and Bill. Can you imagine a new planet that they might explore?

BBC iPlayer - The Smeds and the Smoos BBC iPlayer - The Smeds and the Smoos

The jargon and rhymes also massively lend themselves to phonics work - especially when looking at nonsense/alien words! This story feels hyper relevant when you look at everything that's going on in the world at the moment. Republicans vs. Democrats, Conservatives vs. Labour, everywhere you look it's a red vs. blue world and for little ones who have no understanding of politics and no idea why everyone is so angry at each other it must be quite scary. It feels like The Smeds and the Smoos has arrived at exactly the right time, bursting onto the scene to remind children that underneath we are all the same. It doesn't matter what colour you are, and oftentimes the people warning you to stay away from others have no idea what they're really talking about. Toivoin tältä Julia Donaldsonin Romeon ja Julian uudelleenkerronnalta hieman enemmän kuin mitä todellisuudessa sain. Erilaisuuden vieroksunta ja toisen suvun mustamaalaaminen ja totaalinen kanssakäynnin kieltäminen toki on ominaista myös alkuperäiselle tarinalle, mutta lastenkirjassa olisin toivonut hieman miedompia sanakäänteitä toisen puolen mustamaalauksessa.The Smeds and the Smoos follows two young aliens. A Smed, named Janet and a Smoo named Bill. The Smeds and the Smoos are rival. Janet and Bills’ families tell them stories to warn them of the others. But Janet and Bill fall in love. Music, laughs and interplanetary adventures for everyone aged 3 and up, from Tall Stories – the company that brought you The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom live on stage. The newest rhyming picture book from the stellar pairing of Donaldson and Scheffler provides all their usual invention, quirkiness and read-aloud expertise in a story about tolerance and accepting difference. Julia Donaldson is one of today's most popular writers. Her bestselling titles include The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo's Child and Room on the Broom. Although she is best-known for her picture books, Julia also writes longer novels, plays and songs. She lives in Glasgow and spends a lot of time on stage performing her brilliant sell-out singalong shows! Funnily enough, I find it harder to write not in verse, though I feel I am now getting the hang of it! My novel THE GIANTS AND THE JONESES is going to be made into a film by the same team who made the Harry Potter movies, and I have written three books of stories about the anarchic PRINCESS MIRROR-BELLE who appears from the mirror and disrupts the life of an otherwise ordinary eight-year-old. I have just finished writing a novel for teenagers.