Only in a children's book would a discarded ice cream cone become a magic hat, but that's exactly what happens in Keith the Cat with the Magic Hat. Only, as us adult have all probably worked out, wearing an ice cream cone on your head doesn't actually give you magical powers at all. There are other forces at play here and that's exactly what the delightful illustrations show you. Little Miss C is always thrilled to point out the army of ants that are carrying away the chocolate flake, rather than it moving by magic as the cats in the story think it does. I really like this extra level of ... read more
The Yoga Ogre – Peter Bentley & Simon Rickerty
I always find it funny how at just two years of age Little Miss C very much knows her own mind about things. When I first flicked through the review copy of The Yoga Ogre that I was sent I wasn't too sure about it at all and wasn't convinced that it would appeal to LMC. How wrong I was! We'd picked up the parcel containing it from the sorting office and for the car journey home she was engrossed in it (and the second book in the parcel) and was shouting out all the things that she was spotting in the pictures. Now she regularly asks for it as one of her bedtime books. The story is ... read more
Hand in Hand: Crafting with Kids – Jenny Doh
Some days things just work out right. Little Miss C goes down for her nap without any problems and just as you're about to sit down with your feet up and a cuppa the postman appears with some perfectly timed reading material. That's exactly what happened when my review copy of Hand in Hand arrived. I'd been eying this up on amazon for a while and it was already on my wish list, so being asked to review it was an added bonus. As soon as I opened the book I just knew I was going to love it. The simple reason being that the first section is written by Amanda Blake Soule whose SouleMama blog ... read more
Gin O’Clock – The Queen (of Twitter)
If you're on Twitter and not already following The Queen then there is no doubt that you're missing out big time. In this her Diamond Jubilee year her tweets give you a fantastic background to all the visits and events that are going on around the country. You also get a great insight into what she really thinks of some of the people she meets and the politicians in Westminster. If you've ever wondered how she manages to keep control of her family, run the Commonwealth and manage to look serene on all occassions then the secrets are here. One of Her Majesty's most ... read more
Bookstart 20
I was completely shocked when I today read on twitter say that nearly 60% of families do not own a single baby book. I've seen statistics like this before about things like the average number of books in a UK household being just five, and previously I've never been able to get the facts to back up what I've read. This time though Beachy Books were able to point me in the direction of this article from The Bookseller. According to the research that has been done, 57% of families do not own a single baby book until they receive their Bookstart early reading packs. These packs are ... read more
In A Dry Season – Peter Robinson
The day that I started reading In A Dry Season coincided with my train journey to Yeo Valley. Nothing remarkable there as train journies are an obvious time to read, but what was strange was the conversation in the taxi from Bristol Temple Meads station to Blagdon. One of my fellow bloggers started talking about the two lakes close to Yeo Valley and saying that she had heard that one of them had a submerged village underneath it and that sometimes people could still hear the church bells ringing from underwater. Now, knowing a bit of physics I thought it unlikely that this could ... read more
Calvin Can’t Fly – Jennifer Berne
Calvin Can't Fly really is the perfect book for any little bookworm. Calvin is a starling. One with three brothers, four sisters and sixty-seven thousand four hundred and thirty-two cousins. What sets Calvin apart though is that fact that he's not interested in learning to fly like the rest of them are. Instead he spends all his time in the library with his nose beak inside a book. In exactly the same way as any book loving child does, he discovers a world that contains so much more than just flying and catching insects. The other starlings don't understand ... read more
Topsy and Tim – a complete list?
Since I first wrote about Topsy and Tim books on here I've been amazed at how many people have found my blog post through search engines whilst trying to find out more about Topsy and Tim books. The search terms used suggest that people are looking for a list of all the books published and to find out more about the old ones that they remember from their childhood. It's been a bit of an ongoing project of mine to try to find out more and to also compile a list - so here's a summary of where I've got to so far! In short I've struggled to find a complete list ... read more
Review: Little Learners from Parragon Books
It's well known as to how much Little Miss C loves books and she seems to get excited whenever the postman arrives with a package and has started asking if all parcels that arrive are books for her! We were both very pleased to open one jiffy bag containing a selection of books from the new Little Learners range from Parragon Books. The first thing that strikes you about the Little Learners books is that they are lovely soft muted colours rather than the usual primary colours of baby and toddler books. They are also incredibly tactile books too, more so than many others in our ... read more
E is for Evidence – Sue Grafton
When I said that I need to read something a bit lighthearted next I certainly wasn't kidding. I'm a huge crime fiction fan and love everything from classics like Wilkie Collins and Agatha Christie right through to some of the slightly more "trashy" US crime fiction. I love a good mystery and find that the distraction of trying to figure out who killed who in a crime novel a great way of switching off from day to day worries once I'm in bed. Sue Grafton's E Is For Evidence is part of the Kinsey Millhone "alphabet series" which I have dipped into ... read more