Newest For Sharing Reviews
Dog on Stilts by James Thorp and Angus Mackinnon
Once you have reached adulthood, never try and understand what is going on with a child’s imagination. Whilst they can sit on the floor and talk to their imaginary friends, from the age of 20+ this is suddenly frowned upon. A child can think of crazy and wonderful things that would not even cross an adult’s mind. That is unless you are an author of children’s books, then you can come up with an idea as strange as a dog who likes to use stilts. Full review...
Twinkle by Katharine Holabird and Sarah Warburton
Pink. Glitter. Magic. Right from the start this book has all the ingredients needed to be a hit with little girls. I hate to stereotype but there’s no denying it with this one. From the author of Angelina Ballerina comes the first in a new, rather magical series. Full review...
One Christmas Night by Christina M Butler and Tina MacNaughton
If you regularly read children’s books about Father Christmas you are probably as amazed as I am that he ever gets the job done. It would appear that almost every year some sort of problem befalls old Santa Claus and he has to ask for help. I can understand getting aid from his elves, his reindeers or even the tooth fairy at a push, but a hedgehog? However, this is not just any hedgehog, but Little Hedgehog and with the aid of friends and a fluffy scarf, Hedgehog may just get the job done in time. Full review...
Monsters Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort
Who loves underpants? EVERYONE loves underpants! We’ve already explored how aliens love them, how cavemen love them, and how pirates love them. Who else could there possibly be? Oh yes, that’s right…. Monsters! Claire Freedman and and Ben Cort are back with yet another tale about pingy pants elastic. Full review...
Do You Speak English, Moon? by Francesca Simon, Ben Cort and Lenny Henry
Night can be a scary time for a child, with shadows playing tricks on the walls and no daylight to make everything seem okay. Do You Speak English, Moon? is a great book for this situation, with a little boy deciding the best thing to do is to talk to the moon. He asks the moon some lovely and magical questions before finally snuggling down and going to sleep. This is an excellent way to try and make the dark just a little less of a fearful place for young children. Full review...
Rattle and Rap by Susan Steggall
Apparently, back in the days of steam, every little boy used to dream of being an engine driver. The trains in Rattle and Rap are all diesel but the allure of travel still wafts strongly from the pages. This is one in a series of vehicle-themed books aimed at pre-schoolers. It’s unusual to find engaging non-fiction for the under fives. With the focus on vehicles, Susan Stegall takes a staple of many a children’s book but, unlike some other authors, she treats the subject with imagination and creativity. It’s enough to make an anthropomorphised tank engine blush. Full review...
Secrets of the Rainforest: A Shine-a-Light Book by Carron Brown and Alyssa Nassner
The rainforest is bustling with life. If we look closely, we will be able to spot the animals living there. Some are hiding in the trees, some under leaves or behind rocks. There are plenty of secrets to discover. And to become a special rainforest explorer, you will need a torch, or a bright light, because that is the key to spotting all of those hidden creatures... Full review...
The Tooth Fairy's Christmas by Peter Bently and Garry Parsons
If I had a choice of being a magical figure I would choose someone like Father Christmas over the Tooth Fairy. Yes, he may be morbidly obese, but at least he only has to work really hard on one day of the year. The Tooth Fairy has to work all year round, including Christmas Day. Thankfully, all these magical folk appear to be in some sort of union, so when the weather is too bad on 24th December you can always rely on St Nick to help you out Full review...
Over the Hills and Far Away by Elizabeth Hammill (Editor)
I’m a bit picky on behalf of my toddler. See the word ‘Treasury’ and I expect him to be treated to a volume he will want to pass on to his own children. Anything less and I am disappointed. I’m relieved to get one thing straight from the start. This one’s a gem - a gorgeous joy of a book that you will just want to keep opening again and again. It’s not a question of whether it is worthy of hypothetical grandchildren, it’s more a question of how well thumbed it will be when they get it. Full review...
What A Wonderful World by Bob Thiele, George David Weiss and Tim Hopgood
What a Wonderful World is a book and accompanying CD set based on the Louis Armstrong song. In fact it is the book and CD of that song as it’s not a new story or a padded out version of the original, it’s simply an illustrated version of the lyrics. Full review...
It's Snow Day by Richard Curtis and Rebecca Cobb
We all remember the best sort of school days, don’t we? Snow days. Waking up in the morning and seeing the glow of white through the curtains, and looking out of the window to see the whole world of our back gardens and rooftops turned white. This is a book all about that, and the only two people who turn up at school on this particular snow day. Full review...
The Crocodile Under the Bed by Judith Kerr
Judith Kerr wrote the classic The Tiger Who Came to Tea, and now she is back with The Crocodile Under the Bed, which I’m fairly certain is going to join it in classic status before too long. This time, Matty is a little boy who wants desperately to go to the party but he gets sick so can’t go. He’s having no fun, but there’s somebody who is pretty sure he can help with that; the crocodile under the bed… Full review...
The Snow Leopard (Mini Edition) by Jackie Morris
You probably haven't heard of Mergichans – although if you pronounce it correctly in your head, in connection with spirits and magic, you will work out what they are. One of them is the totem, if you like, of a hidden Himalayan valley, and she is in the form of a snow leopard, singing existence as she sees fit and protecting the Shangri-La type location. But she cannot protect it from all-comers, least of all when she's trying to sing to find a successor. Mergichans do not have it all their own way… Full review...
What Will I Be? by Richard Sinclair and Jon Lycett-Smith
When your children are very little, it can be incredibly difficult to sum up to them what it is you want for their future. It can also be incredibly difficult to sum up to them just how much you want them to go to sleep of an evening; this book ties up the two nicely, in what I believe to be a really good bedtime story. Full review...
Something About a Bear by Jackie Morris
I'm partial to a book about bears, as I've mentioned in previous reviews, so I jumped at the chance to read this book. I could give you a couple of paragraphs just on the cover art if you like! I'm not fussy about my bears in bear books...I'm not a purist, requiring that they all look like real bears, but in this book the illustrations are really wonderfully done. Mr Bear on the cover is a delightfully serious brown bear. I have a friend who declares picture books for children with artwork like this are wasted on small children, but I'd beg to disagree. I think that it's wonderful to be able to provide your child with a range of artistic styles to enjoy and appreciate. There's a place for the Gruffalo style, or Richard Scarry, but I think there's also a place for these books that are made of beautiful paintings. Full review...
The Cat, the Dog, Little Red, the Exploding Eggs, the Wolf and Grandma's Wardrobe by Diane Fox and Christyan Fox
Have you ever sat down to read a story aloud to someone and found that they interrupt at every given opportunity, asking questions, making comments, and generally fidgeting with anything and everything? I'm sure if you've spent any time with a toddler then this will be a familiar experience. This story plays on that, with a cat trying, very hard, to tell a dog the story of Little Red Riding Hood. But dog can't sit still, and he wants to know what Red's superpower is, because if she has a cape she must be a superhero, and he's pretty sure that Red must have zapped the wolf with her kindness ray when she met him... Full review...
A Day at the Police Station by Richard Scarry
We like Richard Scarry books in our house. My 2 year old son has brought me the Busiest People Ever book to read more times than I'd care to think about, but actually I always enjoy it too because there are so many things to see and discuss and look for. The funny illustrations are usually the key selling point for me but actually, in this particular book, it was the story I liked. Full review...
Jampires by Sarah McIntyre and David O'Connell
Jampires is a great book explaining why some of your doughnuts might not be as jammy as you’d perhaps like. This is a really funny premise for a children’s book and I really did enjoy reading it, on the whole. Full review...
The Further Adventures of the Owl and the Pussy-cat by Julia Donaldson and Charlotte Voake
I was utterly intrigued by the idea of a follow up to the wonderful Edward Lear poem, The Owl and the Pussy-cat. I thought it might have the feel that some follow ups by different authors might have, but I was very pleasantly surprised. If anybody was going to be able to write verse that could live up to the original, Julia Donaldson was, and she did. Full review...
Bears Don't Read! by Emma Chichester Clark
I'm a sucker for bear stories. I find that I am very rarely disappointed by a book with a bear in it. Certainly, this particular bear book is charming, with lots of appeal for both bear-lovers and book-lovers too! George is no common bear, oh no. He's the sort of bear who sits on a bench, thinking about the meaning of life. No longer wanting to do the usual bear sort of things, he feels that he needs more...but what can he do? One day he happens to stumble upon a book and, with it, the new ambition for his life. George needs to learn how to read! Full review...
Line Up, Please! by Tomoko Ohmura
I was intrigued by the beginning of this book, which starts with a sign declaring that 'the line starts here' and below that is a frog, labelled as being a from, and he also has a number 50 beneath him. What is going on? Turning the page we see that there is a queue of animals, and that each animal is named and numbered, with the numbers decreasing from 50 downwards. From the start this is the perfect book for a child obsessed with all the different animal species you can name. There's everything in this queue from moles and guinea pigs to an armadillo, a sloth and a wombat! Full review...
Doughnuts for a Dragon by Adam Guillain, Charlotte Guillain and Lee Wildish
Doughnuts for a Dragon does pretty much what it says on the tin, with George heading off on a mission to find a dragon. In Marshmallows for Martians he built himself a spaceship in order to hunt for extraterrestrial life, but this time his plan requires a time machine - I mean, how else are you going to find a Dragon? Full review...
Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen
Sam and Dave are digging a hole, and they’re sure they’re going to find something spectacular. But the more they dig, the more they keep missing all the spectacular stuff, not that they know it. This is an interesting book which requires a pretty good attention span to fully appreciate it. It has that thing that is so often missing in picture books; it is just that bit different, which I always appreciate. Full review...
Pete the Cat and the New Guy by Kimberly Dean and James Dean
Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons was an instant and complete hit in my household when I reviewed it for The Bookbag a few months ago, and it has continued to be so ever since. So I was very excited to receive Pete’s latest adventure, Pete the Cat and the New Guy. It is a lot longer than the last book, but this is not a bad thing and only serves to back up my opinion that these books are suitable for a wide range of reading ages. Full review...
A Scarf and a Half by Amanda Brandon and Catalina Echeverri
A Scarf and a Half follows the story of Little Lionel, whose Granny just loves to knit. When she knits him a scarf for his birthday, he just can’t help but be disappointed, after all it isn’t a nice bouncy ball. But it isn’t just any old scarf, Granny loves knitting so much that it’s a scarf and a half, and luckily for Lionel his friends are on hand to show him just how many different uses it could have. Full review...
Willy The Wimp by Anthony Browne
Willy is a mild mannered chimp. He apologises even when it is not his fault, which is most of the time. In the mean streets of town, his timid manner, Fair Isle tank top and Oxford brogues mark him out as an easy target for the gorilla gang. That is until the day he spots a mail order advertisement which guarantees a transformation from wimp to loud talking, sand kicking, muscle bulging man. Willy sends off the coupon, some cash and then waits… Full review...
Melissa's Octopus and other Unsuitable Pets by Charlotte Voake
Melissa has a pet octopus. He’s splendid, but not exactly the most suitable of pets. But what other unsuitable pets do Melissa’s friends have, and which is the most unsuitable of all? Full review...
Belle and Boo and the Very Merry Christmas by Mandy Sutcliffe
In the world of children’s literature you have to get your winter solstice books out early if you want to stand out in the crowd. Before you can release a Christmas book though, it would help if all the characters knew what Christmas was. Thankfully, Boo need not worry for too long as Belle is on hand to tell him exactly what to do. Full review...
Jolly Snowmen by Ned Taylor
Snowmen are universally adored. Everyone I know who picked up this book, young and old, went Oooh, snowmen! There’s something so cheerful about this precious, somewhat rare creature, and the likes of Frozen have cemented this in the minds of the latest generation. A book about two balls of icy snow doesn't sound much, but add a scarf, coal eyes and a carrot nose, and the transformation is astonishing. Full review...
Tin by Chris Judge
When Tin agrees to look after Nickel for the afternoon, you can tell he really just wants her to play peacefully while he reads his comic. But little sisters have a habit of not doing what you want, and before he knows it, Tin is up off his sun lounger and racing after Nickel to keep her from danger. As he and Zinc the dog chase after her, they find themselves in an adventure of their own in the big city. Full review...
It's an Orange Aadvark! by Michael Hall
A group of ants decide to drill through their tree stump in order to give themselves a window to the outside world. The more they drill, the more colours they find, and the more whacky and wild ideas they come up with for what they mind find outside the safety of their home. Full review...
Yuck! Said the Yak by Alex English and Emma Levey
Yuck! Said the Yak is a great, fun book for young listeners. Alfie is trying desperately to find something which his hungry Yak friend will want to eat, but he doesn’t really think about what a Yak will want, and so all the Yak can say is Yuck! Full review...
The Twelve Days of Christmas by Britta Teckentrup
You know the song already, but this peep-through book recreates the magic of the Twelve Days of Christmas in a beautiful and special way. Full review...
Surprise by Jonathan Litton and Fhiona Galloway
Pass the Parcel is a timeless classic for any occasion, be it a birthday or, as in this book, Christmas time. But have you ever played it in a book before? No? Keep reading. Full review...
