Little One by Jo Weaver #bookreview

Book review: First impressions of this are great. It is a big, wide book (27cm by 27cm) with the title on the cover being in gold, whilst the rest of the book is black and white with the same charcoal art used as on the cover throughout. Flicking through there are little details to add to the luxury, like the airborne dandelion seeds on the inside covers. 

I read this with my 6-year-old daughter. The story follows the first year in the life of "Little One" through all four seasons. It makes a comforting bedtime story for little ones as mother bear is always with Little One every step of the way, and they snuggle up to each other at the end, as the cold descends. My daughter says the book is "good and they go on an adventure".

Perhaps if I was being critical I would say it is short, but I like the art and the story and the feel of the book. 

GET YOUR COPY HERE

Claude Going for Gold by Alex T. Smith #bookreview

Book review: First impressions of this book are really good. The cover has shiny gold on it, which goes well with the theme of the book and the title. It's a really well-designed cover and very visually appealing. The art style (apart from the glitzy gold) follows through the rest of the book too with the limited colour palette of red, grey, black and white (so no gold) being used. Claude is also set to have his own TV show on Disney Junior meaning his profile will get even bigger.

This story is of Claude and his friend Sir Bobblysock who go on an adventure together when Claude's owners, Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes, go out to work. So far so similar to the other Claude books. This time though the theme is sports as they take part in the STONKING BIG SPORTS DAY with the "most enormous glitzy gold cup you have ever seen". It's a really fast-paced storyline.

The humour comes through the characters names. For example, Mr Lovelybuns the baker, who has the best buns in town, and Ivanna Hurlit-Farr, the female shot putter, are characters. The humour also comes from Sir Bobblysock doing things you wouldn't expect a sock to be able to do.

One of the quotes at the end of the book from Primary Times says "Perfect for newly developing readers and great to share" and I agree with that.

Buy from Amazon UK HERE.

Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Great Big Story Nickers by John Dougherty and David Tazzyman #bookreview

This is the fifth Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face book ("soon we won't be able to fit all these on the back cover" it says next to the bit where it showcases the previous books) and it is just as silly and funny as the others that I've read. My 10-year-old daughter and I really enjoyed it.

The book starts with the character introductions, characters that have featured in the previous books such as Malcolm the Cat and the shopping trolley. This helps get the reader into the story straight away with no knowledge of the other books being required to read this one. The only difference this time with the character profiles is that they have been graffitied by those "evilest and wickedest" badgers, for reasons that become clear as you read the story.

The story begins similarly to other stories, chapter one "in which some waking up happens" featuring a bird of course, and the badgers safely locked up in jail. Things change when the badgers get a book titled "Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Great Big Story Nickers" with a sticker on it saying "DANGER! Do not open this book unless you have the training of a ninja librarian, or great calamity may befall." Of course, the badgers pay no heed to this warning and great calamity does befall Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face as the badgers write bits of the story and stick in pages from other stories too. 

This results in lots of characters from lots of different stories colliding and, of course, this leads to chaos (accompanied by "comedy saxophone music"). 

My daughter liked the way these stories were incorporated, famous stories such as Treasure Island and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as well as made up ones. She also liked the character Alfred Kendon-Furtado who won a competition to be in the book but seemingly had nothing to do except put up his hand after he'd been ignored for a while to remind people that he won a competition to be in the story.

Luckily Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face rescue the day of course, in yet another adventure full of action, fun and surreal-ness.

Available on Amazon UK: Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Great Big Story Nickers

Night Shift by Debi Gliori #bookreview

Debi Gliori, the writer and illustrator of this book, normally creates books for children. This book, on the other hand, is aimed at an older age group as it covers depression.

The afterword explains that she has been "spending most of [her] adult life living through periods of depressive illness" and that her "hope is that this book will help explain what we are going through."

The rest of the book is a series of small black-and-white drawings with little bits of text which tell the story of a female character and her struggle with depression, the depression being represented by a dragon. Luckily it has a happy ending which I thought was nicely done both in the words and the final picture, the way the dragon has disappeared and become something else. 

The book takes a few minutes to read as it is short but the art is good. The black-and-white illustrations suit it given the subject matter. Perhaps the final picture could have been in full colour to emphasise the "shift" that occurs. Maybe this book will help others with depressive illnesses, or help introduce the topic to youngsters so they can better understand it, and if it does then that is a good thing.

Amazon UK link: Night Shift

Penguins (Animal Families) by Tim Harris #bookreview

Book Review: People love penguins because they are so cute. That's why we have the Penguins of Madagascar, Happy Feet and Pingu. Indeed the first sentence of this book alludes to this - "Penguins are among the most familiar and best loved of any wild birds."

This book contains lots of pictures of cute penguins with some written information about them and is aimed at 6 to 11-year-olds. The language is suitable for this age group being simple, with uncommon terms, e.g. predators, krill, incubate, being explained along the way (although when it gets to the breeding part the words breed and mate are not similarly defined luckily).

There is also a flow to the book. For example, a chapter entitled egg-laying and incubation is followed up by another called bringing up chicks, then another called growing bigger... This follows the life of a young penguin.

On things that could improve this book, it is short at 32 pages so could have been longer (although for the targeted age group you could say it is better to be shorter). Also, pictures of all 17 types of penguin could have been included, and would have been of interest I feel to youngsters (and to me).

But I still found the book interesting, and it would suit readers who prefer to read in bite-size chunks, like young readers. Plus it can be used to introduce penguins as a topic which can then be researched via Wikipedia later.

THIS BOOK IS ON AMAZON UK HERE

Claude All at Sea by Alex T. Smith #bookreview

Book review: I got this for my children. One mentioned that her friend read Claude the dog books so she was familiar with the character already. Claude is also set to shortly have his own TV show on Disney Junior.

This story is of Claude and his friend Sir Bobblysock who always have adventures together when Claude's owners, Mr and Mrs Shinyshoes, go out to work. This time the adventure takes them out to sea.

All through the books are nice illustrations made of a limited colour palette (red, blue, black, grey, white, yellow) which make the book very appealing visually. The story is also fast-moving and succinct. There is a spelling mistake in there where Sir Bobblysock gets called Sir Bobbysock in one place but the children of course love it.

Available on Amazon: CLAUDE ALL AT SEA

Finding Dory - Telling the Time, Ages 5-6 by Disney Learning

Book review: I got this book for my 5-year-old daughter who is currently near the end of her reception year at school and is within the age group stated on the cover of the book (5-6). 

The book provides exercises in reading the time and progresses along quite nicely. My daughter was doing alright up until the part of the book where we had to say what the time would be an hour in the future or half an hour in the past which she found a bit harder. 

There are some good tips in the book for her. Like “don't worry if you make a mistake - everyone does when they are learning!” And there are some Finding Dory stories to break up the exercises. The first story is incorporated into an exercise but the other two are unrelated to the exercises which is not what I was expecting. Also on these stories I would say that a child of 5-6 would struggle to read these independently so I do think adult supervision is required.

We did notice a mistake though as we were going through the book with one of the stickers (saying half past 6 instead of half past 2). This could lead to confusion for a child who might think they have mastered the art of telling the time only to find this mistake and then doubt themselves.  

Disney could have made this book better by providing a mechanical clock face. True at the very end of the book they give you instructions on how to make your own clock face from a paper plate (which would have been useful to have at the beginning of the book, before going through the exercises) but a clock face with arms that moved in tandem would have helped with the exercises telling the time in the future or the past. 

All-in-all then this is ok but could be better.

On AMAZON UK: Finding Dory - Telling the Time

Creature Teacher: Science Shocker by Sam Watkins and illustrated by David O'Connell

Book review: "Mr Hyde wasn't normal - he was extraordinary. Officially the Best Teacher in the Universe. But he did have one teeny, tiny, humungous problem..."

And that is what the Creature Teacher books are all about, Mr Hyde and his problem (you can see that problem on the cover just above the title as Mr Hyde transforms into the Creature).

This is the third in the series but is perfectly fine as a stand-alone, although you might wonder why a character is called Woodstock. Mr Hyde's class are at the Whizz-BANG Science Fair exhibiting their exhibit "Have you got a tissue?" But when Teacher turns into Creature there is all manner of chaos and it is all captured in here.

I read this with my 9-year-old daughter. She enjoyed it and thought it was funny.

Amazon UK link: Creature Teacher: Science Shocker

Pip and the Paw of Friendship by Gill Lewis, illustrated by Sarah Horne

Book Review: "Pip and the Paw of Friendship" is the story of a Labrador pup called Pip who is a pupil at the Sausage Dreams Puppy Academy where he is training to be an assistance dog. His mum and dad were assistance dogs before him so there are huge expectations on him, which, together with his strong desire to play with balls, leads to problems in his quest to qualify to be an assistance dog and to get his "Paw of Friendship" badge.

This is an early reader book suitable for readers around the ages of 6-8 moving on from picture books to a slightly longer read. It has lots of quality black-and-white illustrations throughout.

I read another Puppy Academy before, the story of Star, and it won't surprise you that the plots are similar, both are training for roles their parents did, both meet obstacles along the way etc. This one though is better because of the emotional connection formed between Pip and his human Kayla.

My 9-year-old and 5-year-old daughters both enjoyed it.

AMAZON LINK: PIP AND THE PAW OF FRIENDSHIP

Publication date: 4 Feb 2016

Trickster by Tom Moorhouse

Book Review: I read Tom Moorhouse's The River Singers which was predominantly about water voles, but also featured rats I remember. This book focuses on the rats and their world which revolves around earning a name for themselves by pleasing one of their "gods" as it were, the Hunter, the Taker, the Trickster. Their world is quite expertly built up within this book. The rats live in their separate clans, the Greenhedge, the Damplings and in Notratlan, and within their clans is the hierarchy with the clan leader, the Akla, followed by the bigrats, the ratlings, the flatfoots, with other rats being drudges or the Mothers.

Within that world are Gabble and Ash, two brother rats, living in Greenhedge. They are opposites, one "impetuous, reckless, set on living life to the full", the other "cautious, sensible but determined to protect his brother." And that leads to trouble, a war between the clans, unless the Trickster can skilfully find a peaceful solution.

So that is the book. The rats have funny names (Fo'dur, Ar'bus etc.) and a way of speaking which isn't necessarily the most child friendly reading. And there are no pictures along the way either. But it is good in the creation of the world, which I assume is because it relates to real-life behaviour of rats given the author's day-job is working in a zoology department. 

Amazon UK link (currently £6.29): Trickster

Publication date: 4 Feb 2016

Mr. Baboomski and the Wonder Goat by Richard Joyce and Freya Hartas

Book review: Schoolboy Tom Watkins is forced to move to “somewhere in the depths of Cornwall,” Trefuggle Bay to be precise, famed for the scubbly (a type of fish) found in its bay.

So Tom doesn't like his new school, St. Scubbly's, and he has no friends until he finds a goat, which he then promptly kills – “it was lying at my feet, eyes staring, tongue lolling out, legs sticking up like flag poles" – accidental of course. This is when he meets the goat’s owner Mr. Baboomski, “a crazy looking nutcake with a bonkers moustache”, originally from Escorvia where he was in charge of a circus but now in England.

The goat turns out not to be dead and the three of them go on an adventure bringing to justice a pair of crooks in the town.

The book is full of comedy. Whether that be bad goat puns, wordplay with Mr. Baboomski’s bad English – “My circus days is all in my behind now” – or blues lyrics from “dad’s favourite singer” Throaty Malone.

Mr. Baboomski’s deliberately bad English occasionally makes the book a little harder to read, but in the end you’ll get used to it and probably be speaking like him, saying “is” instead of “am” and “are” for example. And you might even learn some new words – patoof, crazlepops, patonkleberries, skaboonky!

There are some black and white drawings along the way too to add to the text, plus the odd recipe inserted too.

This is a funny book ideal for confident readers or to be read to those younger.

Publication date: 7 Jan 2016

Available on AMAZON.

Star on Stormy Mountain (Puppy Academy) by Gill Lewis

Book review: "Star on Stormy Mountain" is the story of a young collie pup called Star who goes to the Sausage Dreams Puppy Academy where she is training to be a sheepdog. Her mum was a star sheepdog before so there are huge expectations on her, which, together with her over-excitable nature leads to problems. Perhaps she wasn't cut out to be a sheepdog after all?

This is an early reader book suitable for readers around the ages of 6-8 moving on from picture books to a slightly longer read. It had lots of quality black-and-white illustrations throughout, little funny pics, like for example a picture of two sheep wearing glasses sitting on hay bales knitting.

My nearly-9-year-old thought it was really good.

Published: 1 October 2015

Available on AMAZON NOW

Olga da Polga by Michael Bond

Book review: Olga da Polga is a 13-chapter book about a guinea-pig called Olga. The chapters tell the tale of life from a guinea-pig's point of view, from moving to a new home from the pet shop, to meeting the family pets and neighbourhood animals when there, to winning a rosette at a show, to getting lost from her hutch and so on. 

But the best bits are where she holds the other animals in awe as they gather around and listen to her tall tales. whether that be her souping up of her rather mundane adventures, or her telling the stories of the history of the guinea-pig. Plus this being a book by Michael Bond, author of Paddington Bear, there is mention of Peru where Paddington also hailed from.

This edition is a gift edition and as such is rather lavish. Along the way are watercolour and spray painted images of Olga and the other animals. Also it comes with a hard-cover and a dust-jacket with shiny writing on. So it certainly looks the part.

Overall a well-produced book a much loved author.

This edition published: 1 Oct 2015

AVAILABLE ON AMAZON

World War Moo: An Apocalypse Cow Novel by Michael Logan

Book review: “World War Moo” is the second book in the Apocalypse Cow series. If you’ve read the first you know what to expect from this one, zombies, OTT characters taking the mickey out of each other and cows. 

This story begins where it left off in the previous book, the zombie outbreak that started in cows has spread to humans and taken over the whole of Britain which is now cut off from the rest of the world. To bring the virus to an end the rest of the world is considering eliminating Britain, rather than find a cure for the disease, and it is the task of a group of individuals, some zombies who have learnt to control themselves, and some humans, to stop this. 

I got this book through entering a competition for the author to put my namesake in the book. Therefore there is a Tim Roast in this story, and needless to say I was most interested in how this particular character got on. He is the (“sorry excuse for a”) government chief scientist, with a “V-neck pullover, badly knotted tie, and a pair of glasses so ginormous they made his eyes look like snooker balls.” Thankfully he doesn’t get killed so is likely to appear in the next book in the series too. (Authors, I am available for more roles in books.)

Many of the other characters, such as a band of mercenaries that are called upon to infiltrate Britain, in the book are also namesakes of people who entered this competition, and you can tell by the way the author introduces and describes them that he had a lot of fun with it. 

The book is quirky, and has good scenes in it, such as a “bar full of bearded and smirking Noels (as in Noel Edmonds) cavorting in Christmas pullovers so garish they should have carried an epilepsy risk warning, playing pranks on each other and grinning smugly.” The story took a while to get going, what with the character introductions, re-introductions of characters from the first book and where they’d ended up, plus the setting the scene bits, and there are less cows than before, but once the story got going there was plenty of action and plenty of fun. 

Published on 9 June 2015

Available now on AMAZON

My review of the first book in the series: Apocalypse Cow

Dr KittyCat is ready to rescue Daisy the Kitten by Jane Clarke

Book Review: This is a great book for the stated 5-8-year-old group. I read it with my 4 and 8-year-old daughters.

 

First thing that I noticed is the art style. There are pictures on every page in the art style as on the cover. Real photos of animals are used with smiles and clothes and things drawn around and on them. The colours in the book are black, white and orange which works well. Other books in the series use different colour schemes to match their main border colour as on the cover, and it is a clever art style that differentiates these books from the competition.

 

The story follows Dr KittyCat with her assistant Peanut the mouse on "Shiny smiles day" where she checks the other animals' teeth. Whilst doing this little tips are written in to the text to help children understand about how to care about their teeth and what to expect when visiting the dentists. For example one animal is nervous and Dr KittyCat reassures her that there is nothing to worry about. Dr KittyCat also tells another animal the correct way to brush her teeth.

 

After their morning clinic is over Dr KittyCat and Peanut need to go to the Thistletown festival to help Daisy the Kitten, and to judge a cake baking contest. This is related of course because of the effect cakes can have on your teeth. It also gives the opportunity to slip in some tips about staying safe when baking cakes with a hot oven.

 

My girls enjoyed this book and also dressed up in their doctors fancy-dress stuff to play doctors in between reading sessions so a good book.

 

Amazon UK link: Dr KittyCat is ready to rescue Daisy the Kitten

 

Release date: 2 July 2015

The Brave Kitten by Holly Webb

Book Review: My 8-year-old is a ferocious reader. She saw this book in the library, said she'd heard about the author so took the book out. It is a great little book for her to devour.

The story follows Helena who finds a cat on the road “so cold and lifeless” that she “hadn’t thought he could still be alive.” Luckily her cousin Lucy who works at a vet is with her so they take him there. The story then tells the relationship between the girl Helena and the cat through his recovery. 

The way the story is written is clever in that it gives the two way perspective so you can read about the feelings of the cat as well as the girl.

My daughter enjoyed this very much and is likely to read other books in the series now.

Publication date: 2 June 2014

Amazon UK link: The Brave Kitten

The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan

Book review: My version of “The Gracekeepers” is a lovely hardback version with dust jacket. The cover shows the girl North in the arms of her bear as they travel the seas inside their coracle. The stars are silver etched as are the ripples in the sea. The back cover shows the girl Callanish on her little island. The inside covers show maps of the fantasy world and beneath the dust jacket is another cover showing mermaids and mermen beneath the sea.
 

As for the story the first paragraph introduces the fantasy world this novel is set in perfectly. It says “In a world that is almost entirely sea, placing your feet on land was a privilege that must be earned.”
 

There are two types of people in this world, landlockers and damplings. Damplings travel the sea, landlockers stay on the land. And the two don’t really mix.
 

The book follows two young women, North and Callanish, one dampling and one landlocker, and their separate lives. Callanish is a gracekeeper. This means she lives isolated on her own small island where she performs resting ceremonies for dead damplings that are brought to her by passing ships. One day the group that visits is a travelling circus of which North is part of. She is the bear-girl. Her act is dancing with a bear. 
 

They bond but soon are leading their separate lives again, of which more and more is revealed as the story progresses to its thrilling conclusion.
 

A very good book.

 

Publication date: 23 April 2015

 

Amazon UK link: The Gracekeepers

 

 

Fishbowl by Bradley Somer

Book review: “The heartbreaking sweetness of love, the rending hatred, the slippery lust, the sorrow of losing a family member , the pain of loneliness, all thoughts that were ever thought, every word ever said and even those that were not, the joys of birth and the sorrows of death and everything else will be experienced in this one vessel.”

 

That is what is says near the beginning of the book and in many ways this book does do that, although maybe not using every word ever said and maybe excluding some thoughts that were ever thought, yet the quote is not about the book (or is it?) but about the block of flats (or apartments as this is an American setting) where this story is set.

 

The story is essentially about a goldfish making a jump for it out of his fishbowl on his “little corner of the balcony” of a 27th floor apartment. After all “an entire life devoted to a fishbowl will make one die an old fish with not one adventure had.”

 

He then takes four seconds to descend but in those four seconds we learn about some of the residents’ lives within that block as he passes them by in the glint of eye. In many ways they are all living in their own fishbowls although some of their lives/fishbowls connect as the story gets told. And whilst this goes on the book also explores the idea of time, whether that be through Homeschooled Herman and his ability to time travel, or through the slow motion descent of the fish with its “stresses and terrors to last a lifetime”.

 

Through this method we get to see the different points of view of the separate characters, and get to hear the same stories from the different viewpoints.

 

Maybe at the end of the book you’ll want to know what happens next in some of the character stories, but the nature of this book is that it is only following the characters, and the lives they lead within their separate fishbowls, for a particular moment in time and therefore the stories are obviously going to be incomplete as it were. And is it not the sign of a good book that it makes you want more.

 

The only other thing to mention is that my version of the book came with an excellent cover and the pages formed a flipbook of a fish falling from the top of the book to the bottom. This fish aided me in working out my rough progress through the book at any one time and the cover was excellent because the “O” had a hole in it revealing the fish which then appeared beneath on a second cover where he is falling from his bowl. Therefore initial impressions are good just on flicking through the book too.

 

Amazon UK link: Fishbowl

 

Publication date: 6 August 2015

Magic Animal Friends: Lucy Longwhiskers Finds a Friend by Daisy Meadows

Book review: "Lucy Longwhiskers Finds a Friend" is a 2015 World Book Day book and as such is/was available for just one GBP, or in exchange for a World Book Day voucher. It is aimed at 5+ year-olds and is by Daisy Meadows, author of all the Rainbow Fairy books. 

Similar to the Rainbow Fairy series the story has two young girls as its main characters - Lily and Jess - and they have a special secret. Using a hidden door in the Friendship Tree in the middle of Brightley Meadow they are able to access the magical world of Friendship Forest, "an amazing world where animals live in cottages, brightly coloured dens, or even on boats, and everyone of them can talk!"

This time it is Story Day in Friendship Forest, "the day we get new books here in the forest made magically by the Book Tree, which only makes them on Story Day." However there is one person who wants to spoil it for everyone, Grizelda. She hates books, she hates stories and she hates Story Day. Using a spell she wraps vines around Mrs Taptree's library so that no one can get in or out, and no one can access all the stories inside. Of course it falls upon Lily and Jess to sort out the mess, with Lucy Longwhiskers, a shy rabbit, making a new friend along the way.

The series seems to have a Beatrix Potter influence with character names such as Molly Twinkletail and Mrs Featherbill but it is good that Daisy Meadows has branched out into this new series as the fairy books were getting very formulaic. Also it is great that they produced an original story for World Book Day, one that is even themed to the event. Of course it's a little shorter than the other books in the series. Nevertheless my 8-year-old enjoyed this book very much.

Publication date: 26 Feb 2015

Amazon UK link (available for just £1 at time of writing): Magic Animal Friends: Lucy Longwhiskers Finds a Friend 

Elmer's Parade by David McKee book review

Book review: "Elmer's Parade" is a 2015 World Book Day book and as such is/was available for just one GBP, or in exchange for a World Book Day voucher. It is aimed at 2+ year-olds. My 4-year-old used her voucher she received from nursery on it.

The story follows Elmer as he rounds up the other jungle animals for the annual fancy dress parade. It features popular characters who have appeared in previous Elmer books such as his cousin Wilbur, although the story is completely self-contained. Every page is full of colour with little white appearing throughout, except on the cover for some reason, and there are plenty of appealing patterns too on the animals and the surrounding vegetation. As a bonus there is a special activity for all the young readers/listeners to partake in on each page to help keep them engaged with the story if they aren't already.

Maybe this book isn't as long or as big as the other Elmer books, it is a WBD book after all, but my 4-year-old loved it, what with the colours, the patterns and the story. Putting all these elements together it is easy to see why Elmer is so popular.

Publication date: 26 Feb 2015

Amazon UK link (available for just £1 at time of writing): Elmer's Parade