I remember the days when my son spent hours playing in the bath. That was before the teenager years where personal hygiene slipped down the priorities …

Anyway, the lovely Sue Wickstead sent me a proof copy of her forthcoming book, David’s Bathtime Adventure. Like all of her books, it’s a cosy read and beautifully illustrated by Jo Anne Davies. I do wish the illustrator was credited on the cover, particularly since the same illustrator has done all of Sue’s books so it’s a true partnership.

Sue’s books tend to have a far higher word-count than the publishers typically favour – picture books are “supposed” to have 400 to 600 words and 24 pages (according to the ‘rules’). I haven’t counted but I’d guess this is around 1,000 words which makes it ideal to read aloud, obviously either before, during, or after bath time. It would be great if there was a waterproof version of this book!

Whilst on the face of it, this is a simple story of a familiar activity, Sue Wickstead is a teacher, and there is a subtle educational aspect woven in which ties to the ‘learning through play’ activity at the back of the book – finding out about what sinks and floats.

Blurb

Learning through Play (Water) Children love splashing and pouring, spraying and making waves. It enhances their creativity and imagination and provides opportunities for some wonderful investigation and scientific learning. Finding out what sinks, what floats, testing and ideas. Developing awareness of the physical world.

About the author

Sue Wickstead is a teacher and an author and writes children’s picture books.

Sue once worked with a playbus charity based in Crawley. This led her to write the photographic history book about the project. The ‘Bewbush Playbus’ book was published in 2012. Sue then began to write a fictional tale about the bus. ‘Jay-Jay the Supersonic Bus’, his number plate JJK261 gave him his name and has now been followed by more picture books (ten to date) which all indeed have a bus connection as well as links to her teaching journey. Her latest books are less bus focused, although they do sneak in, and cover familiar daily activities.

Sue is a regular visitor to this blog and you can see some of her other books featured here

https://lexirees.co.uk/2021/06/09/not-a-bus-book/

https://lexirees.co.uk/2020/07/20/hop-on-board-another-bus-journey-and-a-giveaway/

https://lexirees.co.uk/2020/02/10/why-sparky-made-me-cry/

https://lexirees.co.uk/2019/04/20/do-you-remember-play-buses-as-a-kid/

Some of Sue’s books have been entered and shortlisted in ‘The Wishing Shelf Book Awards’, her book ‘A Spooky Tale’ was a silver medal winner in 2019. It is a story written with her class in school and is aimed at the younger reader.