Baby at the British Museum

When I began writing this blog, Culturebaby was tiny and I was constantly on the look out for high quality, brilliant books for babies and toddlers to introduce them to art and history. Even 6 years ago there was very little on the history side. I gathered rather a lovely collection about art (see here) and began to piece together an Egyptian version (here and here) but with the exception of the gorgeous One Blue Hippo: An Ancient Egyptian Counting Book and quirky Tickle Tut's Toes there was little else for toddling archaeologists. I was therefore delighted to be approached last year to review the stunning progeny of a well matched marriage between The British Museum and publisher Nosy Crow. The resulting exquisite and fascinating books, which unpacked the collections of the museum in a bright and engaging way, really filled a gaping hole in early years provision for miniature museum-goers and their families. 

The first titles I'd like to talk about form part a series called Early Learning at the Museum. These four sumptuous and well designed board books are full of high quality photographs of items from the BM's collections, showcased against colourful backdrops. Covering Colours, Opposites, 123 and ABC (with others being published since), the books aim to develop the essential areas of learning for little people. I also love that these titles draw from a wide spectrum of the museum's collections from prints and drawings and paintings to textiles, jewellery, pottery and archaeological items. These may be objects found in perhaps lesser-visited galleries which encourage us to look beyond the sarcophagi to other intriguing realms. We journey from Japan to America, Africa to Scandinavia on a single page and are encouraged to look at the objects thematically, numerically, for their colourful properties or for their similarities across the ages or geography. Pitt-Rivers-like, we explore collections by theme, or we see wildly different items juxtaposed for their contrasting qualities.

The absolute winner of the pack for the girls who are now 4 and 6 is 123, which works from 1 to 20 items. The numerical element of this book allows for a kaleidoscopic array of items on many of the pages and the girls love working through it and selecting which item they would choose if given the option. We also play 'guess the oldest item'. Pages with selections of dolls, keys, bags, hats, spoons, cups and rings hold endless fascination.

The titles also come with internet codes for parents linking to further information, and are ripe for use with follow-on activities to discover the items in real life on journeys through the galleries. These I-spy activities are so effective and need little preparation (see here for an example with Tate's Matisse exhibition). I simply cannot rave enough about these brilliant and beautiful books.

Accompanying the Early Learning Series is a fabulous playbook, that suits a range of ages. Mixed-up Masterpieces again features a set of high quality photographs of faces from the British Museum's collections. From ceremonial masks to marble busts, Halloween costumes to figurines, again we travel through the collections meeting a range of characters. As babies finish with simple black and white shapes and begin to perceive colour (see here for why), they begin to be fascinated with faces. This book would be perfect for this earliest of stages; but it is also a creative puzzle for older children. The reader is invited to either discover the correct combination of facial features amongst 2000 combinations, or create their own weird and wonderful combinations.

Finally in the early years set is a new Egyptian title to add to our collection: Mummy! by Lerryn Korda. With the simplest of concepts and aimed at the 0-2 range, I thought when it arrived that it might be a little young for almost 4 year old Culturetot, but she's really taken to it. A little Egyptian girl can't find her Mummy and embarks on a journey on the banks of the Nile to locate her. Along the way she encounters a host of different Mummies - from animal to embalmed  - and finally finds her own. The loveliest feature of this little Board book is that it includes hieroglyph translations of a number of the key words, introducing the tiniest of readers to this most intriguing of languages.

For older children (as well as adults) there is also a beautiful set of several creative colouring books. Again inspired by the collections of the museum and with an inspiration guide at the end, these have been one of the most successful activity books for the girls as they loved the idea. Containing greetings cards paired with an envelope to construct, colour and decorate, and a sticker to seal it all, the girls were able to use this resource to make their own birthday and thank you cards for friends. Given the bonkers prices of greetings cards these days, these are also both excellent value and produce a rather more unique offering from the girls to any recipient. They even have a cute little box for them to sign "coloured for you by..."

Disclaimer: Nosy Crow is working with the British Museum in an exclusive partnership to create a broad range of children’s books to sell to the UK trade and beyond. The British Museum is ‘a museum of the world, for the world’. The books draw on the British Museum’s internationally recognised brand, its unparalleled collection of objects and its world-class expertise. We were sent copies of these books for the purposes of a review. All views are very much our own and we only ever review books we love and recommend.

The Saga of Noggin the Nog

We never cease to be impressed by the quality of children's programming at Kingston's Rose Theatre. Celebrating its 10th Anniversary this year, this fabulous, cosy and high quality theatre has provided some real gems in recent months. From West end touring productions to Saturday morning puppetry, we'd recommend a trip for all families. Spring sees a programme including Dahl's George's Marvellous Medicine and The Railway Children and What the Ladybird Heard at the end of May.                                      

Our most recent visit was to a production of the vintage children's classic, The Saga of Noggin the Nog. My mum remembers enjoying these comic characters as a child - the first episode of the British TV series aired in 1959. The loveable characters, inspired by the Lewis Chessmen at the British Museum, are 'Northmen' loosely based on Vikings, with Noggin ruling benevolently, and sometimes competently, as their king. There are however, many fantastical additions - dragons, talking birds, and miniature beings. 

Lewis Chessmen from Wiki Commons © Andrew Dunn

'In the Lands of the North where the black rocks stand guard against the cold sea, the Men of the Northlands sit around their great log fires and they tell a tale...'

 

The production covers two of these adventures. Firstly the attempted theft of Noggin's crown by his wicked Uncle Nogbad the Bad whilst Noggin is off getting married in a far away land.  Then a journey to the land of miniature people and a battle with the 'fearsome' ice dragon.

With an all male cast, the actors were hugely versatile, with imaginative costumes and great puppetry. The production was simple but funny and effective, and you certainly don't need to be acquainted with Noggin to thoroughly enjoy this performance. We weren't previously but we've since bought the DVD. It's also a great way in to discussing the real Vikings.

Jorvik Viking Centre from Wiki Commons

As a child I loved trips across to York, to the Castle Museum and also the immersive sights, sounds, smells, animatronics and all important moving car at the wonderful Jorvik Viking Centre. The museum is housed in the basement of a shopping centre as it remains on the site where a settlement was found. Its a great example of how rescue archaeology and creative thinking about the future of a site can boost tourism and education. Visitors can journey 6 metres underground to discover the remains of a Viking hearth and walls that made up the historic city. I haven't visited since their refurbishment following a devastating flood, but I can't wait to take the girls. Visits there certainly planted a seed for my future choice of reading archaeology at university. Museum Crush has also compiled a great list of museums around Britain where you can learn more about the Vikings - see here.


The Saga of Noggin the Nog is touring and information can be accessed on their Facebook Page.
Rose Theatre Upcoming Shows can be booked here.

Disclaimer: We received tickets to the show in exchange for an honest review. All views are our own. Images of the production used are courtesy of The Rose Theatre. Other images are from WikiCommons.

Into the Labyrinth

I must admit that it came as rather a surprise quite how captivated my three year old has become with the colourful literary world of Greek myths. It began with the chance find of a copy of Usborne's brilliant young reading series' The Minotaur as she browsed the library shelves. Her nursery teachers reported that she had commandeered the Montessori red maze to set up her own Cretan structure, and she drew maze after maze at any opportunity for weeks. When we could renew this book no longer, and following a trip for her jabs when she was promised a treat for being brave, aptly she chose her own copy of this aged tale of courage.

We also discovered rather quickly that there was a host of other well written, captivatingly illustrated, early reader editions of tales from Greek mythology. These have been read and read again in recent months and few other picture books have, at the prospect of being returned to the library, led to such consternation. We've started to spot favourite characters everywhere - perching above fountains, decorating the facades of buildings and nestled between other ornaments in stately homes. I've been reminded what an essential symbolic vocabulary these ancient tales provide, granting access to much of our taken-for-granted but innate understanding of the world. For we are all ultimately the cultural descendents of the ancient Greeks, and no child should be without an understanding of these fascinating tales. With Culturebaby's latest obsession - Narnia - again it is so clear that C.S. Lewis and many of his ingenious literary friends rooted their tales in both biblical and mythical worlds. Her toy Narnian centaur often travels with us...

With perfect timing, we spotted the British Museum's Defining Beauty exhibition was open, and we headed over on a day when extra Greek-themed activities had been put on for pre-schoolers. I wasn't sure whether this sort of (rather quiet and academic) exhibition would work for her, but rather than focus on the theme we chose to go on a hunt for some of our favourite characters and this worked extremely well; keeping her interested and focused throughout. We were delighted to find the holy grails of both Gorgon and Minotaur, met Athena and Zeus (who have numerous cameo appearances in our stories), and spotted centaurs and heroes Theseus and Perseus. We even sat and quietly read one of her favourite stories about the winged horse Pegasus in front of a particularly interesting statue of Athena, the goddess who helped Bellerophon to catch him and go on to defeat the ferocious Chimera. Following the exhibition we joined activities to create a Grecian figure (Culturebaby inevitably made a minotaur instead), and make our own black and red pottery designs. Whilst this exhibition closed last weekend, this sort of character hunt can be done in any good Greek gallery. The Ashmolean and British Museum permanent collections are particularly good, and of course Greek-revival designs are everywhere!

On a recent trip to Hampshire, for instance, we discovered an unexpected little treasure trove of Greek revival imagery at The National Trust's Hinton Ampner. We had a great time meandering through the rooms counting sphinxes, centaurs and greek Gods. Next I think we will try this lovely little activity from ArtHistoryMom  - an I-spy Greek-influenced architecture hunt.

The most loved of Culture-baby's books on the theme to date have been, first from Usborne, The Minotaur by Punter and Cavallini and Perseus and the Gorgon by Sims and Bursi (these are the two absolute favourites), The Story of Pegasus by Susanna Davidson and Simona Bursi, The Wooden Horse by Punter and Pincelli, The Amazing Adventures of Ulysses by Webb and Amery, Jason and the Golden Fleece by Zeff and Cartwright, Stories of Magical Animals by Watson and Price and a very simple edition of King Midas and the Gold by Frith and Sanfillipo. She's also starting to really enjoy the Greek Beasts and Heroes series by Lucy Coats and Anthony Lewis which each follow Atticus the Storyteller who shares an assortment of short tales as he travels across Greece. Likewise Hopscotch Myths' Icarus The Boy Who Flew by Wade and Lopez, Orchard Books First Greek Myths The Secret of Pandora's Box by Pirotta and Lewis, and finally Julia Green's Sephy's Story - a modern telling of Pandora's tale and why (because of naughty Pluto) we have six months of summer and six months of winter - were all great picture books.

I'd also very much recommend Usborne's brilliant Sticker Dressing Series - Greek Myths, which has served as a great joint activity and opportunity for conversation about myth and history. On the theme of the Labyrinth, she's also really enjoyed a quirky wordless book Museum Trip by Barbara Lehman where a boy gets lost in a museum and finds himself in a series of mazes, uncovering secrets and himself becoming part of the, perhaps often ignored, exhibits.

We'd love to hear about your favourite Greek myth editions for little people too, activities to bring them alive and your discoveries of favorite mythical characters lurking in nooks and crannies across the world...