Touring Picture Book: Storm by Sam Usher

Welcome to my latest touring picture book piece. Each month I collaborate with other brilliant picture book bloggers and we share our thoughts on a hand picked book. We also complete an activity with our children which connects to the read.

Last month we shared our thoughts and crafts on the wonderful book How To Be a Lion.

This months pick is Storm, written and illustrated by Sam Usher and published by Templar publishing.

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Storm is part of a series of fictional books that are based around seasons. The other titles in the series are, Snow, Rain and Sun.

Storm celebrates a loving and respectful relationship between a grandfather and his grandson as shown in the previous books. It’s wonderful to meet the familiar characters again and witness natural conversations between the two of them.

It’s proving to be a windy day in the story and the young boy is excited at the prospect of exploring the outdoors. His granddad suggests flying a kite but they need to find it first. As they search all over the house they each find different items. The various items they find are representative of wonderful memories that will also remind readers of adventures they’ve read about from Sam Usher’s previous books.

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Thankfully the kite is found and off they go on their outdoor adventure. They aren’t the only ones who thought to fly a kite on such a windy day. As the wind becomes stronger they both swoop and fly with the kite but with the weather becoming more intense they, thankfully, land safely and head home.

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Sam Usher does a brilliant job at creating interesting, dramatic illustrations with a sprinkle of magic. His colourful artwork so wonderfully captures the delightful colours found during autumn time and the sense of movement and wind blustering outside is so realistic.

The format of the story is similar to previous books written but the familiarity in its structure will be welcomed by young readers. The simple storyline makes this a great book to be enjoyed by preschoolers and up, who I am sure will also be in awe of the gorgeously detailed illustrations.

After reading this book my girls and I really wanted to fly a kite but we are keeping that for another day and instead we created something that represented autumn. An autumn globe jar!

To make the globe.

As well as superglue and white/blue tack you will need:

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Instructions.

-Chose a twig that best represents a tree and glue it down to the inside of a glass jar lid.

-Allow it to dry and then stick white/blue tack around the base of the twig to make it more secure.

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-Fill the jar with a handful of sequins/glitter that best represents autumn colours.

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-Pour baby oil into the jar until you are about an inch away from the top of the jar.

-Place the lid on the jar and tighten. To make this more secure you could seal the lid using sticky tape.

-Finally, turn the jar upside down and enjoy your globe/jar!

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This was such a fun craft to do and once completed it is  so relaxing to witness all the leaves falling from the trees.

To see what the other bloggers completed do head over to their blogs.

Acorn Books – Autumn sensory basket

Bookbairn – Conker crafts

Along Came Poppy- Sensory playdough for Autumn.

You could also win a copy of Storm! If you head over to Twitter, @KEEccles is hosting the giveaway. We have a lovely picture book organised for the next Touring Picture Book, perfect for the wintery season coming up that represents lovely friendship. Until then, bye for now.

 

 

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I received the book from the publishers. All words and opinions are entirely my own.

6 thoughts

    1. We did have a little leakage now and again yes. I don’t know whether using a glue gun would help in some way perhaps around the lid?

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