As I've mentioned before there seems to be a bit of a thing about books featuring dinosaurs at the moment and Dino-Mummy clearly fits into that category too. Dino-Mummy is actually a follow on from Dino-Baby, which somehow passed me by when it was released, and it sets out to show just how amazing us mums are and how we all have multi-tasking down as a fine art! As I know only too well life in a house with two small children (an older girl and a baby boy) is pretty chaotic and it seems that Dino-Mummy has exactly the same challenges as I do. She amazingly keeps on top of ... read more

Teaching our children that there is absolutely nothing wrong with being different is one of those lessons that many children's books have tried to cover and it's the main theme in Marmaduke the Very Different Dragon.  Marmaduke is different from the other dragons. His ears are too big and he's noticed that his wings aren't the same as the ones on the other dragons so he's too scared to try to fly with them. He just wants to be like the others and protect a princess like they do and he feels so very very lonely. Princess Meg also isn't like the other ... read more

I think there must be a bit of thing going on for dinosaurs at the moment as I seem to have been sent loads of books with them in to review. Little Miss C and I certainly aren't complaining though - we love a good dinosaur tale. The first one we're reviewing is There's a Dinosaur in My Bathtub. Just the title of this one made LMC laugh out loud. This particular dinosaur is French, has a very slick moustache and calls himself Pierre - obviously. Pierre has come to live in Amelia's bathtub and he's so good at hiding that only Amelia has seen him. Together the two of ... read more

When I was expecting Master C I turned to books to tryto explain everything to Little Miss C. I found some great stories to help explain the practical side of it all, but with her being only just two I found that she wasn't yet asking questions about the emotional side. When they find out that a new baby is joining the family some slightly older children can really get themselves quite in a tizz about it all and they worry that once the new baby is there Mummy or Daddy won't want or love them any more. I Love You, Alfie Cub is the perfect book to explain those changing ... read more

I was actually strangely excited when I opened the envelope from Simon and Schuster containing a copy of Meet the Parents to review. We've been going through a bit of a difficult patch with Little Miss C of late where she quiet simply won't listen when we tell her to do things and she's very much of the attitude that her parents are only there to make life difficult for her. You'd think she was 13 rather than three at times! This beautifully illustrated book sets out to show pre-schoolers that their mums and dads do a huge number of things that they may not realise ... read more

I do like books that go against the gender stereotypes and that's exactly what happens in The Carrot Cake Catastrophe. It's Jenny's Mummy's birthday, so Jenny and her Grandad decide to bake her a carrot cake as a surprise. Only, it seems that Grandad should have gone to Specsavers and watched a few more editions of the Great British Bake Off as his interpretation of the recipe is far from correct! Instead of butter a bar of soap is added. He makes the common episode one of Bake Off mistake of adding salt instead of sugar (when will they ever label those Kilner jars they ... read more

When we were sent a copy of Crayon by Simon Rickerty I wasn't really sure what to expect as we hadn't really enjoyed his previous book Monkey Nut all that much. But, that had gone on to win the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, which goes to show just how much book reviews really depend on what type of thing you like and just because we enjoy or dislike something doesn't necessarily mean that everyone else will think the same - life would be dull if that was the case! The idea in Crayon is relatively simple - red "blog" has a blue crayon and blue has a red one. Both are ... read more

"My favourite dinosaur book ever mummy!" That's exactly how Little Miss C described Yikes, Stinkysaurus! after a couple of days of reading it, and for a child that's going through a bit of a dinosaur obsession at the moment that's pretty high praise indeed! The fact that this is apparently going to be the first in a series of dinosaur themed books makes it even more exciting. Stinkysaurus is the smelliest dinosaur there is. He refuses to take a bath and as a result all the other dinosaurs can smell him wherever he goes. He soon becomes the scariest dinosaur ... read more

Babar the Elephant is one of those characters from children's fiction who I think everyone knows of, but how many of us have actually read the first book that introduced him to us? I know I certainly hadn't until very recently. The Story of Babar was the first story of the orphaned elephant and tells of how he escaped hunters in the jungle and went to the city for the first time. It's amazing to think that it's over 80 years since this title was first published in French and then a couple of years later translated into English.  This version of the book is ... read more