This contest is now closed. The comments will remain open, but comments made after 9:00 P.M. Pacific Time will not be eligible for the giveaway. Thank you.
International readers are welcome to join in. I am mailing this book to the winner myself and I can mail anywhere.
Alright, here’s the thing. Hello, Tilly, written and illustrated by Polly Dunbar, is unbelievably adorable. It is fun to read and is perfect for a young child because it is easy to act out, but more than anything? It is cute.
The story starts out with Tilly, a little girl with blonde curls, reading a book. (I. Love. That.) Then, one by one, her friends are introduced. Together, they all have fun doing what children love to do. They make noise, dance, eat a feast, prance, and make more noise. There is not much of a plot, but I think the simplicity of the tale is part of the appeal. As well, kids will quickly pick up on the fact that each animal makes an appearance before their introduction. For example, Hector peers through a door in the corner on one page and then is brought into the story on the next.
And the illustrations. Oh, the illustrations! Polly Dunbar has truly captured the essence of childhood delight on paper, which is no easy feat. I keep pulling the book from the shelf just to look at the pictures. There is something whimsical, playful, and light-hearted about them, and I think that makes them perfect.
That said, my favorite part of Hello Tilly is this: the yellow book. Not only does the tale begin with Tilly reading a book alone, it ends with her reading the same book to her friends, and the book can be spotted on every page. It is such a small, wonderful tribute to reading.
Pros: Young children will delight in helping you tell the story. Each page is filled with sounds and actions (wiggling, whumping, slurping) that are fun and easy to act out. The illustrations are also ridiculously darling.
Cons: None.
Borrow or Buy: If you want a fun, simple story that your children will have a good time with? Buy.
See what I mean about the illustrations? And the yellow book?
Reading tip of the week: ACT IT OUT! Make faces and sounds and gesture wildly with your hands. Children of all ages will get a kick out of your behavior.
About the publisher: Candlewick is entirely owned and operated by its employees. As a result, it is one of the largest independent publishers in the world. Moreover, it means that the people at Candlewick truly care about publishing wonderful children’s books. And it shows.
What to do: You can enter this giveaway by leaving a comment below telling me something you do or your family does to have fun. All you need is an e-mail address. The giveaway ends Thursday evening at 9 P.M. Pacific Time and the winner will be announced Friday morning. You can leave one entry every day, for a total of up to three entries.
For extra entries: Subscribe to Candlewick’s Twitter stream by clicking here for an extra two entries in this and any other 2010 giveaways for Candlewick Press books. (Even if you forget to enter those giveaways via comment.)
Disclosure: I initiated contact with Candlewick and I received a review copy of Hello, Tilly.
To purchase this book: You can buy Hello, Tilly through Amazon.com (that link uses my affiliate code) or locate a local retailer through Indie Bound.org.
Odin the Owl says: If you have an Odin the Owl button on your website, Etsy shop, Facebook, blog, or anywhere else, please contact me. I am building a page of links (this was Tracy’s idea, GENIUS TRACY!) and I do not want to miss anyone!
UPDATE:
This week’s children’s book (Hello, Tilly by Polly Dunbar) giveaway winner is Beth. Congratulations, Beth! Enjoy reading it to your sweet little girl!
(117) -
Hmmm…had it all ready to “submit” when Peanut hit something on the computer and it all disappeared. Stinker…she is trying it again!
OK…so, besides playing on the computer together…
We all go for a stroll over to the local high school so that our dog can play frisbee. We all get some fresh air and some much needed exercise that way. Well, not too much…we do live pretty close to the school, if I must admit it!
Oh, and Odin lives on my blog page. He seems to like it there alright!
(2)
-
We like to go on walks as a family.
I have decided that perhaps this is not so good for me because it just means I’m going to buy 52 children’s books for Emmy this year. ;)
(3)
-
We love to curl up on the couch and watch movies together. So cozy!
I just started reading your blog and I practically inhaled the content over the last week. It’s so entertaining and honest. Thanks for sharing!
(4)
-
We walk to the library for story time and go swimming on Saturday mornings. Way more fun than I ever thought it would be….the babe loves the heated pool at the gym!
And yes, I agree with Beth - I’ve totally upped my book buying budget. :)
(5)
-
We will snuggle up on the couch to watch movies, we will go for walks and talk about everything and nothing, and we dream together about life with our little bean (10 weeks along today!!) will be like.
This book sounds magical. I have no idea what my natural color is right now (I’ve been having it dyed reddish for the past couple years), but my hair is curly and when I was very little it was very blonde and I was such a bookworm as a kid!! I could be that little girl in the book!! :o)
(6)
-
We have Family Fun Day and we, along with my parents, my siblings and all our kids, get together once a month for fun times! We have done the Richmond Metro Zoo (small zoo with animals you can feed INCLUDING GIRAFFES!), Bass Pro Shop (kids love this place!), the park (picnic and yard games like Bocce). There are 15 of us ...19 if my sister and her family are in town…so the point is to get together in a neutral place. It’s a lot of work for one of us to host everyone. We are going to start doing this with my husbands kids too
(7)
-
oops I meant my husbands FAMILY.
-
We pile Luna in her wagon and head down the street to the park! Luna loves the slides!
(8)
-
Well love to just hang around at home as a family!! We also enjoy getting together with our friends and family when we can.
Odin the Owl lives on our website, he is too cute!
(9)
-
We take our jetski and a picnic lunch and head to the river on summer afternoons. Nothing more fun then sun and water.
(10)
-
My family loves to take our boat to the lake in the summer. So much fun!
(11)
-
We take the doors and top off of the Jeep, pack a picnic lunch, and go for trail rides. We have found some of the prettiest spots just driving on the old fire roads out in the middle of nowhere.
(12)
-
Sundays are the best! It is a big family breakfast (we either go out or make a big one at home), and Sundays are Family Movie Night. We put a pallet on the floor, and cuddle. It is really the highlight of my week.
(13)
-
We love going to the pool! Where we live there are indoor and outdoor waterparks that have many different pools including a toddler pool! It’s a great place to relax with the family!
I agree the pictures are ADORABLE! Our cat is called Tilly so when i saw the title i expected a cat…but the little girl is just as cute! ;)(14)
-
we love to go bike riding to the beach
(15)
-
To have fun: Turn up the music to college-era loud and dance.
(16)
-
My husband and I love to go on hikes. There are a ton of great trails to explore in our area! We are looking forward to taking our Panda along once it arrives (19w3d today)!
(17)
-
Well, things are pretty low key, as Jude is still quite young and easily overstimulated. I read to him, invent new games to make him laugh…and oddly enough, we watch nature programs, Like Blue Realm or BBC Life. I LOVE this type of programming, and am SO glad he seems to share my interest. He particularly enjoys frogs…(they make him laugh) and squid (he wrinkles his forehead at them and waves his arms around…lol). :)
You KNOW I have an Odin. I am the original Odin ninja. I do not, however, have Twitter.
(18)
-
my husband and i like to walk the streets of nyc. it’s like going to the theater.
(19)
-
We love to go to Whole Foods with Shiloh is the baby carrier- we tell her about all the fruits and veggies, and then we all have lunch from the prep foods area. Such fun!
Odin the Owl has a nest at FASS!
(20)
-
We have four children, ages 17, 16, 14, and 6 months, so our family activities vary wildly in age depending on who picks the activity! Right now, though, we all lay on the floor in the living room after dinner or on my bedroom floor around the bed and play with the baby! We roll him around, sit him up, squeak his toys and take turns talking and goofing with him…he is our FAVORITE source of family entertainment!
(21)
-
We love to go to the park together!
I have the Odin the Owl button : )
(22)
-
We just started swimming lessons for fun and we LOVE it! Only one parent in the water with our 9 mo old at a time, but me and my fiance take turns every other week :)
(23)
-
To have fun…. we take a walk and talk about the scenery. We also play throw the baby for hours and hours and hours on end. Rinse and repeat.
(24)
-
I’ve subscribed to Candlewick Press via twitter.
(25)
(26) -
I am also have Odin the Owl on my site:
-
Once a month we all head down to the pub as a family for a Sunday roast. We get to see our old drinking buddies and show off our baby and Eloise gets to meet new people and eat Yorkshire pudding!
Those illustrations are adorable. I love that the elephant wears glasses.
(27)
-
Now that it is getting nicer here we love going for walks and talking about all the new things we see, Cain loves getting fresh air :)
Sarah - I have Odin on my blog and I am now following Candlewick on Twitter!(28)
(29)
(30) -
Something I do for fun is scrapbooking our memories. It gives me a way to release come of my artistic side while preserving memories and momentos.
(31)
-
Every night after my daughter has her bath, we dance for fun. She’s 2 so it’s hilarious how she dances. She gets into one corner of the bathroom, and her father calls out like he’s talking over a megaphone “Standing at almost 3 feet tall, weighing in at almost 30 pounds, the one, the only, Anna Kennedy McDonald!!!“ And we’ve taught her how to wave wildly above her head and yell “Thank you, Fans!“ while her father and I clap wildly. Then we proceed to yell “Go Anna, Go Anna, go, go, go go!“ and she dances around. We each get a turn to dance. The finale is her father “flies” her into the air—he picks her up and tosses her in the air, and she does all kinds of manuevers with her legs-kicks, spread eagles, and even a ‘pencil’ move. It’s so funny to watch, and she truly enjoys this ritual at the end of her day—so do we!
This book looks really cute, and one that Anna would enjoy over and over again.
(32)
-
We do everything together and that makes everything fun.
(33)
-
This book looks absolutely adorable. For fun we walk the dog or play board games, which is not nearly as fun as the fun that you baby-having-people have, but, hey-WE’RE WORKING ON IT.
(34)
-
That book looks adorable! I know my daughter would love those illustrations. For fun? We, well, we read! And we go to the park -there’s always something new to discover there!
(35)
-
We go for walks…my 4 month old Sophie sleeps in my baby trekker and as it is still winterish here my 3 year old son Oliver pokes sticks into the snow, jumps in any puddles and likes to read the house numbers.
(36)
-
What a cute book! My 3 month old, Alex, really enjoys singing the hokey pokey. Ok, so I sing it, but he loves to move his arms and legs to the song.
(37)
-
We like to take our little girl to the park. She enjoys going down the slide with her Daddy (too little to go by herself yet). Thanks for this great chance to win.
(38)
-
We like going shopping together. Something that for someone else is not special. But we really like enjoy it. Playing in the park is another special time for us. Our daughter (2 years old) like to be put on the swing and she also like slides.
(39)
-
We love to go camping. We do tent camping so all of us are crammed in. We visit the lakes or mountains and just enjoy being outside.
(40)
-
My husband and I travel for fun! We leave the cell phone behind and escape the “real world”. We create new memories around the world.
(41)
-
I blog for fun, and recently I joined a book club. That has been fun!
(42)
-
We have a year pass to the local zoo, so I take my little one there. It’s exercise for me, and she loves to watch the monkeys, birds, and fish.
(43)
-
We take playgrounds by storm and devour the swings and the corkscrew slide. We love dancing to all music and taking her doll, Baby, for stroller walks, too.
(44)
-
Looks like a great book!
-FringeGirlt
(45)
-
We love to curl up and watch movies for a whole afternoon.
(46)
-
We hike up our pants and dance around all silly!
(47)
-
I love to go to the theater and have movie marathons!
(48)
-
We like to go for walks together, watch movies, bbq, and read books
(49)
-
We have family fun time every single morning. We have a precious 5 month old named Isabel. Each and every morning since Isabel was born, Daddy sets the alarm clock just a bit early and we have a family snuggle, giggle playtime in our big king size bed where we all sleep. I love this precious time so much. Its such an intimate family time, special family moments that are just for us and so very precious. Daddy plays a learn to crawl game and lays Isabel on his tummy and puts his hands on the bottom of her feet. She giggles and grunts and slowly pushes herself up so that they are nose to nose. They both laugh out loud at this game. I feel like the luckiest girl alive to start each day with this playful, fun family time!!
(50)
-
I’m a nanny of 3 under 3 years of age and lately our favorite thing is taking the quad out on the frozen lake with the trailer behind it. I manage to get giggles out of all 3! Hearing their laughs makes all the stresses and problems of the day disappear! This book looks fantastic. The illustrations look gorgeous!
(51)
-
We love to dance around the house to motown. Seriously. It’s our favorite thing to do!
And I agree with the poster that said, this is bad, meaning we will buy 52 books this year. I am saving each of these to my amazon wish list.
(52)
-
We play board and card games for fun, especially Scrabble, Racko, Rummikub, mancala, gin rummy, and cribbage.
(53)
-
love this book! we have fun as a family playing outside. we throw our dog lily the ball, take walks, hike, anything to be in the fresh air!
(54)
-
WE LOVE EATING ICE CREAMS…....we have made it a point to eat different kind of ice cream once a week.my son enjoy the sweetness and the cool feeling he gets when we feed him ice cream.its a joy to different joyful expressions in his face then.
(55)
-
Our family loves to do crafts together. Most evening my daughter (who is 4) is making pictures with paint and she even makes her own little books with binder paper and tape. Then she reads her books to her daddy, baby brother, and me.
This book you are reviewing looks amazing!
(56)
-
awesome - I would buy that book for the illustrations alone!
(57)
-
My family builds things out of cardboard to have fun :)
Big things ;)
Also, I have Odin on my blog.(58)
-
For fun my daughter and I take time out every day and cuddle up on the couch while taking turns making silly sounds. At 10 months old she thinks it’s the best thing.
(59)
-
hooo everybody has the best fun ways out here !
i absolutely love the illustrations ! they’re adorable and so soft !
to have fun, we usually play some rocknroll very loud in the living room and dance around, pretending baby Alice is our electric guitar. she loves guitar tickles…
(60)
-
We go to our neighborhood park. Every night in the warmer weather after work. Gosh, I can’t wait until it’s warm enough for us to get back out there.
What a cute book!
(61)
-
We love to go hiking in the woods. Since our little ones are still little, 4, 2.5 and another on the way we just go to the easy, mostly flat trails but we all love it!
(62)
-
we like to snuggle in bed together. after four kids, the bed is a bit tight!
I love that you are doing this. I love books, my husband not so much, but we both are making books a priority in our children’s lives.
(63)
-
Does going out to eat count? It’s just my husband and I for now, until June, and we love going to different local restaurants to eat.
(64)
-
We love to watch the sunset!
(65)
-
bike riding to the beach
(66)
-
this week we are on vacation with all of my husband’s family. we went geocaching together. it was lots of fun!
(67)
-
We love to take family walks (dog included) and read books togeher as a family in our bed. Our oldest, Griffin, is almost three and has started “reading” the books to us. it is amazing that he has memorized so many books and adds his own little parts and ideas to the stories. I love that he begs for one more book so many times, I just hate having to end storytime.
(68)
-
We read. Everything. But especially Curious George. Or more accurately, I read and my son gurgles/drools. But he’s only 3 mos., so I’ll give him a pass for now…
(69)
-
we like to go the beach and go walking together, my daughter in the pack :) the best family time!!
(70)
-
2nd entry for day 2.
Another thing we love to do is play frisbee golf. Our park has a great course to follow. You get great exercise and just have fun while doing it.
(71)
-
Each night when I get home from work, we have “play time” on our bed. Lots of hugs, kisses, grins and laughter. It’s my favorite part of the day - a reprieve from doing anything but enjoying our baby girl!
(72)
-
I also follow Candlewick on Twitter (@myronickmusings)
(73)
(74) -
We love to go to the zoo in the springtime. Seeing all the baby animals and enjoying the sunshine after a long winter is so much fun!
(75)
-
We love taking long walks through our neighborhood and admiring people’s gardens (especially now that the season is just beginning to change!).
(76)
-
For fun..hmmm…I would say our biggest joys are the simple walks we have with baby and dog. They only happen about once a week with all four of us, so the happiness I get from having my whole brood together- perfection.
(77)
-
Sometimes we will all cuddle on the couch together and read. That is always fun if for no other reason than Bekah absolutely adores her father.
(78)
-
We often take Nia into the back yard to play with the dogs. She LOVES animals. She flails her little arms around, and squeels, and laughs like crazy. The dogs just love her excitment, and like to sneak in cheek kisses when possible. My husband and I love taking her out there. I can’t wait for the weather to settle down into a more comfortable temp.
(79)
-
would love this book! so cute! can’t wait to spend hours reading with our little person- due in Sept!
(80)
-
2nd entry for day 2
Another thing we like to do for fun is pizza and movie night on friday night. A good way to unwind after a long week.
(81)
-
Ticket to Ride. Best. Game. Ever. My whole family is addicted.
(82)
-
We have Dance Party USA. I turn on iTunes and we rock out. Molly loves it and I love that she loves it. And Jim just thinks the whole thing is hilarious.
(83)
-
My son loves to throw his football. He has been throwing it well since he was about 15 months old, and now he can catch it, too. My husband and I will sit on the floor with him and play football all afternoon, and he loves it!
(84)
-
I thought I would try a second entry on this one :-)
We love to watch good movies together and have popcorn usually on a weekend in our pajamas.
(85)
-
We like to watch movies together and cuddle on the couch!
(86)
-
Well, international reader: in! I’m the director of an English school down Mexico way, and for fun we read lots of simple books in English to the kindergarten classes, hoping to foster a culture of readers like I came from. Usually we’re confined to thrift store/garage sale finds bought when I visit, but I bet Tilly would be a big hit, too!
Cheers!
Another Sara
(87)
-
Walks in the park with the dog or camping, camping, camping! ♥
(88)
-
My husband and I like to go window shopping together. When the weather is nice we like to go to our local parks and go hiking or canoeing. Thankfully, the weather is beautiful here right now, so a trip to the park is definitely in our near future!
(89)
-
We like to take walks with our twins and watch movies.
(90)
-
We love to go to the lake for picnics!
(91)
-
Hadley is still pretty little, so those things are ever evolving. Lately, though, in the evening after dinner and baths when we are all in our jammies, Hadley pretends to feed us imaginary food. We ask her what it is and she tells us “nanas” or “apples” or “cereal.“ Sometimes she pretend to pull the food from our hair, because apparently that’s where we keep food. But, it’s super cute and we all belly laugh until it’s time to wind down for bed.
(92)
-
I love playing games. Scrabble, jenga, rummy, sorry!.... board and card games are definitely my favorite.
(93)
-
Just entereing again. :)
(94)
-
Entry #2… :)
I take Jude on walks around town…to the store…wherever. Sometimes he is in his stroller, and yesterday we broke in the snuggli. He “talks” the whole way there, and sleeps the whole way back.
He always meets new people…or adoring fans, as he would like to think..*grin*
(95)
-
We like to go fishing :) If I dont have a fishing pole in hand, then I have my camera. I love snapping pics of the doggies playing in the pond. And this year we will have Nia to take with us! I bet she will get a kick out of watching the dogs jump off of the dock.
(96)
-
Weird though it may be, Target trips are big in our family. We love cruising the aisles together and it’s just way more fun than going alone!
(97)
-
One of Bekah’s favorite activites that is fun is toss the baby. We toss her back and forth or up into the air and she just laughs like crazy.
(98)
-
We enjoying playing with playdough and cars and blocks as a family. I love to see how creative our little guy can get!
(99)
-
#3 for 3rd day.
We enjoy driving up to the mountains and just cruising around. There’s no cell phone signal, so it’s uninteruppted talking time!!
(100)
-
Alyvia absolutely loves books!! She loves it when we read to her! She’ll grab a book and bring it to us, saying “uh, uh, uh” That’s when she wants us to drop everything and play or read with her! I also love strapping her in the jogging stroller and going for a walk/run! She seems to really love it!! Looking at the great big outdoors and enjoying everything! Our favorite thing to do right now is play with the puppies! Our beagle had 7 puppies and they are so fun to play with right now! Alyvia just has to go and check on them anytime she hears them yelp!! She goes to the door and says, “dog, dog.“ While giving me the most desperate look!!!
(101)
-
We are fairly new to California and we really enjoy experiencing all it has to offer.
(102)
-
Putting in my once a day entry!
(103)
-
A new favorite thing that is loads of fun is balancing Molly on my exercise ball like Superman. She thinks this is super fun. And I’m just glad that the balance ball is being used for _something_.
Oh yes, and I subscribed to Candlewick’s Twitter stream.
(104)
(105)
(106) -
Oooooooh, what a beautiful book…we have to get it so badly…thank you so much for the giveaway Sarah :)
One of the things we more than love to do around here is reading :)
9 months ago, before the pumpkin was here I gobbled up 1-3 books a week…just can´t live without them…it´s not working that way now, as I´m too exhausted from being a mama to do anything else but lay on the couch at night…but reading children´s books to my babygirl now is just as good and satisfying to me…so so many awesome and beautiful illustrated books out there…I could seriously live in a library or bookstore :)I really really love to check out your blog for inspiration and because you have such a talent to find the right words about the love for your beautiful little girl, just the way I feel about my daughter…thank you for that too :)
Jesse xoxoxo
(107)
-
hummm… for fun… we take pictures…. lots and lots of pictures… we also make jewelry for fun :-) believe it or not, i got hubs to join me! he loves it :-)
i think this book looks precious!
(108)
-
My kid’s favorite thing to do for fun? Read. Now, isn’t that convenient… ;)
(109)
-
We love to read and go for walks!
(110)
-
Adorable book, would love it for my nieces!
(111)
-
we love to ski together.
(112)
-
Did I already say I love to take photos and then digiscrap them??
(113)
-
play guitar hero
(114)
-
entry number two…
(115)
-
We go to the city (DC) and walk around and go to the free museums. Love it!!
(116)
-
We love to go to the zoo or the library together.
(117)
-
We like to work in the yard. Yes, we think it’s fun. :)
(118)
-
Entry #3…lol…
Jolly jumper time is everyone’s favorite time. We all crowd around Jude and encourage him…even the dog. That kid is like AstroBoy… :) Great fun is had by all.
(119)
-
You know what…I just like reading. Reading can take you to a whole different world or teach you something about the world you already know…and i LOVE that! :)
(120)
-
Thanks for the mention!
By on March 09, 2010
We go horseback riding for fun. We have four horses and Bekah absolutely loves getting a ride as well.
(1)