The Smeds and the Smoos

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I also continued to write “grown-up” songs and perform them in folk clubs and on the radio, and have recently released two CDs of these songs. Make up a new story about two people, animals or aliens who want to be friends but are not allowed. Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol. The story uses phonetically decodable words and rhymes throughout which would give children the opportunity to read the story for themselves and recognise word patterns. Make a list of the ways that the Smeds and the Smoos are similar / different. Is being different from others a bad thing?

One of my television songs, A SQUASH AND A SQUEEZE, was made into a book in 1993, with illustrations by the wonderful Axel Scheffler. It was great to hold the book in my hand without it vanishing in the air the way the songs did. This prompted me to unearth some plays I’d written for a school reading group, and since then I’ve had 20 plays published. Most children love acting and it’s a tremendous way to improve their reading. This book has been in our house for one evening and it’s already been the subject of numerous requests to “read that again, please” which is pretty much the highest praise a children’s book can get. The Smeds and the Smoos visit other planets to find Janet and Bill. Can you imagine a new planet that they might explore? My real breakthrough was THE GRUFFALO, again illustrated by Axel. We work separately - he’s in London and I’m in Glasgow - but he sends me letters with lovely funny pictures on the envelopes. There are lots of made-up words in this book. Can you make a glossary to explain what they all mean? Could you make up some of your own words and write definitions?Make a list of all the rhyming words in the book. Can you think of other words that rhyme with those? While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. 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.

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. I feel conflicted about The Smeds and the Smoos. A Smed and a Smoo fall in love despite multiple warnings from their grandparents about why they should be avoiding each other, but unlike Romeo and Juliet this love story has a happy ending. Op ‘n verre planeet woon daar Smooie en Smoue. Smooie is rooi, slaap in beddens, speel graag in water, drink pienk melk en eet brood. Smoue is blou, slaap in gate wat hulle self gawe, speel graag op hulle heuwel, drink tee en eet groen bredie. Fleur, ‘n mooie jong Smooi, se oupa het haar nog altyd teen Smoue gewaarsku soos wat Fanie, ‘n knap jong Smou, se ouma hom nog altyd teen Smooie gewaarsku het. Maar eendag ontmoet Fleur en Fanie en begin skelm saam speel totdat hulle, jare later, besluit om te trou. Maar o wee, die familie…… Dit dwing Fleur en Fanie om ‘n plan te beraam om hulle families anders te oortuig.

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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). 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. 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. Design your own alien and create a character profile for it. Where does it live? Does it have any special abilities? Write a sequel to this book? What might happen to the Smeds and the Smoos (and their new baby) next?