Kirkus Review (USA)*
Bibliophile Lulu has no trouble adjusting to her role as big sister in this warm slice-of-life story about a little girl welcoming her new baby brother. While many new baby books are dominated by an older sibling’s jealousy over an attention-hogging infant, Lulu delights in Zeki’s arrival. Prior titles about this book-loving child (Lulu Loves Stories and Lulu Loves the Library) set the stage for how she engages with Zeki —through books, of course.
She brings him a “soft book for his crib” when she meets him at the hospital, reads to him when he cries “to cheer him up” and shares theme-appropriate titles during nappy changes (a potty book), baths (a duck story) and naptime (a sleepy story).
Although busy adjusting to parenting two children instead of just one, Lulu’s mother and father reward her with a story at the end of each day since she is “the best big sister of all.” It’s refreshing to see this time-worn theme addressed in a story that just happens to be about a family comprised of people of color, as warm, acrylic portraits depict mother, father, Lulu and Zeki as a book-loving, close-knit joyful crew.
A welcome edition about a welcome addition.

* Kirkus is reviewing the USA edition, Lola Reads to Leo but I've changed the names to avoid confusing my UK readers.

Following our recent review mailing, reviews and selections have started appearing. Lulu Reads to Zeki was Book of the Week at Peters Library Services and will be Book of the Week next week at Books for Keeps.

The Parents-in-touch website says this: "Lulu has a new baby brother and she reads him stories when he gets upset. But Lulu still finds plenty of time for her own reading as luckily Zeki sleeps a lot. Lulu is a wonderful advocate for the joy of reading - she absolutely adores books and hopefully will inspire lots of other young children to do the same. We see a loving family and a delightful toddler through the colourful illustrations. Every library and school should have a copy to encourage young readers to love books."

Just been alerted to Picture Book Month - an international initiative to designate November as Picture Book Month, encouraging everyone to celebrate literacy with picture books.

Every day in November, there is be a new post from a picture book champion explaining why he/she thinks picture books are important - check out Suzanne Bloom's post here.

They are doing this because in this digital age where people are predicting the coming death of print books, picture books (the print kind) need love. And the world needs picture books. There’s nothing like the physical page turn of a beautifully crafted picture book.

Join the celebration and party with a picture book!

Tough week this last one... developed a sore throat and cough Saturday night last, had to work hard not to scream during the Guilford v Plymouth game...
We had OFSTEAD inspectors due at the Sure Start project on Wednesday so I didn't feel I could cry off and went in for my usual Tuesday sessions - trying to not use my voice too much - which is quite hard when you lead two singing sessions!
Big day Wednesday - called into the Children's Centre to check in, then off to the library. The Family Group was wonderful as always, then inspector arrived for Baby Club. The Babies were their usual spectacular selves and the inspector was very complimentary and chatted to all the mums. Said my session was very calm.
Went for a coffee, then packed my bags with all the stuff I needed to take home for the Cheltenham Festival on Sunday (including my guitar and picked up my amp at Oaktree Centre). Then lugging my five bags, headed to my car only to find I'd somehow mislaid my keys.
Of course, never had I been to so many venues in one day, so my little sick self spent the next 4 hours walking between library, Oaktree and SACC looking for them - to no avail. (Of course, don't have a spare set since my bag was stolen at Christmas party - what is it with my keys and Sure Start?)

With all my gear, I couldn't take a train, so I had to wait for wonderful Brian to come and collect me after work.
Initially it looked like we'd have to get the car towed but it seems we can get replacement keys and a locksmith - if we pay enough money...
Took it easy, voice wise, Thursday and had to miss the Barefoot party on Friday which was very disappointing. headed off for Cheltenham on Saturday morning. Booked into the Queens Hotel - lovely, looked in at the venue, checked in with the organisers etc - all very helpful and nice (though I was in quite a state of nerves by then as my voice had almost completely packed up).
Got to see an incredible interview with Gareth Pierce and a fun one with Frank Skinner before supper and early bed - except that my hotel thought it was a good idea to rent out their function room to a huge group of young people for a club night. We were right over and the word loud doesn't describe the music - it was excruciating! We asked to move rooms but were told that the hotel was fully booked with people for the Literary Festival - DUH! Which would make it seem pretty dim to me to book the loudest sound system in Christendom to play in the hotel, you would think? We were assured that the music would be over by midnight in a tone that implied that anyone boring enough to want to sleep before midnight shouldn't really be allowed out at all... so we headed back to the festival and hung around the Times hospitality area until we were thrown out.
Sunday morning and I slugged down my latest discovery - Robitussin (a great decongestant) and some panadol and honey and Ricola and headed off to the venue. Great staff set it up exactly as I wanted and I got miked up.

The session went pretty well from what I could tell through my haze of painkillers and decongestants! 50 under 4s and their parents! All the kids made animal hats and 'If You're Happy' pictures and I managed 20 minutes of singing!

Then off to sign some books, listen to Michael Portillo and head for home.
This was my first time going to Cheltenham and I'd HIGHLY recommend it. There was a great line up of speakers for children and adults, literati and politicos. There were music acts and good food... it's already in my diary for next year. I hope they'll have me back to do an event, but I'm going anyway! (And there's still time to go this year - click here for a link: Cheltenham)

Lulu Reads to Zeki came out in the UK on September 13th and has already sold 493 copies! Whe hey!

The kids seemed to really enjoy the session in Edinburgh. My suitcase of Old MacDonald animals was a big hit...
and everyone joined in If you're happy and you know it...

I did my bit towards growing the next generation of story lovers...

Nothing ever compares with getting up close and personal with a guitar though...

Almost ready - have started packing. Have my hairdryer and all my little friends - Piggy and the Ducks are a little concerned they won't fit in, but Cows, Sheep and Dogs are happy. Checklist: glitter - tick, bubbles - tick, stickers - tick, glue - tick... note to self - don't forget clothes. Customs should be fun!

Preparing for a combined end-of-term and Lulu party tomorrow in Acton library. The party is our last Family Book Club session until Autumn and also a chance for us to celebrate the new Lulu CD in which so many parents and colleagues were involved.
The books and CD have been out for a while, but this is the first chance we've had a chance to celebrate and me to say thank you.
The parents translated the story into their home language and we recorded them telling the story - so now you can look at the pictures in the book and listen to any of the 20 languages on the CD,
Check here tomorrow for more pictures.

Click on the link to watch Lisa Tarbuck tell The Sleep Sheep
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b0117d1r/