It's a little while now since Master C and I met Oliver and Patch in their first adventure. Back in that book Oliver had just moved to a big city and was lonely until he met Patch. They came together and started having some lovely adventures together whilst they looked for Patch's real owner. In The Lost Penguin, Oliver and Patch (and Ruby, Patch's real owner) are back, but this time they're visiting the zoo together. They growl at the tigers, smile at the meerkats and laugh at the funny penguins. But one little penguin catches their eye. Peep is new to the zoo. He's lonely and misses his ... read more
Angel’s Great Escape – A Christmas Story
Only two weeks to go until the big day and after a couple of weeks of absolute stress and emotional upheaval I'm ready to bunker down with the kids and enjoy the Christmas season properly now. I've great plans for lots of curling up on the sofa with Christmassy books, family film watching marathons and lots of luxurious festive food. The kids books are all in a bit of a muddle between their dad's new house and my flat and so I'm not totally sure which books are where, so I'm really making the most of some of the Christmas titles that I've been sent to review this year. In the muddle of ... read more
Wakey, Wakey, Elephant – Linda Ravin Lodding and Michael Robertson
Master C is so difficult to wake up in a morning these days. Seeing as he shares a room with his sister at my place the pair of them have got into a bit of a bad habit of staying up far too late (especially for a school night) talking and playing in their room. I had been hoping that after this long the novelty of sharing a room would have worn off, but it seems I was wrong. On a weekend it's fine because I can let the pair of them have a bit of a lie in, but on school mornings I need to get them both up so they can be ready and leave on time. Usually Little Miss C just takes a bit of ... read more
Romeo Explores The City – Alain Greé
Hot on the heels (excuse the pun!) of Romeo's Big Book of Clever Ideas is a second title from Button Books featuring this lovable hound. Romeo Explores The City is targeted at a slightly younger audience (roughly 1 - 3 years old) and is a beautiful series of questions to ask children about what they may see in a city, before they turn the page to explore further. With questions like "where do we go when we want to travel by plane?" or "where do we go when we want to buy toys or clothes" it really gets children thinking and talking to the grown up reading the book. A lovely sharing ... read more
Romeo’s Big Book of Clever Ideas – Alain Greé
Master C is a logical thinker. With him the "why?" stage never quite ended, as he just kept asking why questions, but as his understanding of right world around him developed it just meant that the questions developed too. Now that he's five the questions keep coming thick and fast, but they are now punctuated by him thinking in incredibly detail about things and they are often very, very specific questions. There's absolutely no doubt that it's a wonderful skill for him to have, but as a parent at times it can be so incredibly frustrating when all you want to do is get out of the house on ... read more
Paddington Pop-Up London
There's really not long to go now until Paddington 2 opens in cinemas here in the UK and I'm thrilled that other people can finally see the film as I absolutely loved it. I've already written all about what I thought of it, but there's another special part of the story to tell you about - Paddington Pop-Up London. Just as soon as you've seen Paddington 2 you'll understand why Paddington Pop-Up London is such a key part of the film. I don't want to give away any major spoilers, but the Pop-Up is basically the reason Paddington ends up going to prison. It's a beautiful book that shows off ... read more
Maurice the Unbeastly – Amy Dixon
When you think of a beast, what do you imagine? Probably some ugly creature who roars and stomps around, creating havoc wherever he goes. Maurice could not be further from that image if he tried. Maurice instead is gentle and kind. Sings beautifully and looks incredibly photogenic in pictures. He's also a big fan of organic snacks. Maurice's parents are worried that he needs to learn to be less civilised and so enrol him at the Abominable Academy for Brutish Beasts where they try to teach him to behave improperly. Will they succeed though? Or will they see that being different can be a good ... read more
Ginny Moon – Benjamin Ludwig
If I'm honest I don't think I knew that the word "blurb", when describing that bit written on the back of a book, was an official term until my daughter started school and they started learning all about the different things that make up a book. I obviously knew about authors, titles, contents pages, indexes etc etc, but I hadn't realised blurb was an official name. It was always just that "bit on the back cover". The thing you read when browsing in a bookshop and looking for something for a bit of escapism. When someone sent me the blurb for Ginny Moon (purchase here from Amazon UK) there was ... read more
Dinosaur Roar! – the app version
Little Miss C loves dinosaurs, loves books and loves apps on my iPad. It was therefore a bit of a no-brainer that she fell completely and utterly in love with the new Dinosaur Roar! app that has been created based on the best-selling picture book of the same name by Paul and Henrietta Stickland. The classic Dinosaur Roar was originally published 20 years ago and the combination of Paul Stickland's dinosaur artwork and Henrietta Stickland's rhyming text led to it selling over five million books worldwide. A new 20th anniversary edition has now been published by Random House in collaboration ... read more
Before I Go To Sleep – S J Watson
I was rather excited to hear that one of the other mums from school was setting up a book group as so often I want to talk about what I've read with someone and there's just no one to talk to. The last time I was involved in a book group it was an online one before Little Miss C was born, but being someone who likes to talk the idea of doing so in person, possible over a glass of wine, is quite thrilling. The first book chosen for us to read is Before I Go To Sleep by S J Watson. Now this isn't a book I'd heard of before, but I was gripped from the very first chapter. Christine wakes up ... read more