Pete's Magic Pants - Pirate Peril by Paddy Kempshall & Chris Chatterton

"In a wobbly old wardrobe, in the attic of Crooked Carrot farm, a special suitcase lay hidden for many years." And so begins the story of Pete's Magic Pants - Pirate Peril. Hero Pete puts on the pirate style pants from the suitcase and goes on a pirate adventure helping the crew of the Flying Fowl to find Long John Silverside's secret cave in an attempt to retrieve their treasure that has been stolen. The story then ends back in the attic, like the whole adventure could have been a dream.

This is a nice picture book with nice colourful and clear pictures. First thing I noticed is that is doesn't rhyme like a lot of picture books similar to this do. The author does put a lot of alliteration into it though. And the idea may not be original, putting on magic clothing taking you on an adventure associated with it, but it gives the opportunity for a whole load of "Pete's Magic Pants" stories to be written. 

There are also some stickers which are more pirate-related than pants-related thankfully, although there are still some pants stickers that you'll have to explain away to visitors who notice them on your walls. 

Overall then, the book is decent enough.

AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON

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

Marvel Rocket and Groot: Stranded on Planet Shopping Mall by Tom Angleberger

Book review: I loved this book because it was fast-paced, had plenty of humour – including lots of surreal stuff such as toilets that try to eat you and a talking tape dispenser – and the layout was great too.

Prior to getting the book, I had not seen the film from which Rocket and Groot come from, but I still got into this book right from the off. Originally I got the book because of the Marvel logo on the front cover. That meant I expected it to be more of a comic book format than it is in but the format here works equally as well.

The book is the transcript of a recording (or an audio-log) of Rocket and Groot’s adventures after they find themselves stranded with "no ship, no guns, no money, no food and no water" on a planet that is totally covered by one big shopping mall where the shops are manned by robots (maybe a vision of Earth’s future?). The recording is done by a tape dispenser (with a recording facility) hence the tape dispenser is often referred to through the book as the “totally awesome tape dispenser”.

Pretty much the whole book is dialogue, just with descriptions of sounds in between, e.g. “sound of moment of silence”, “sound of 5.5 feet of tape dispensing”, “sound of large tree man wrapping a small woodland creature’s head with 5.5 feet of tape”. The tape dispenser also has a touchscreen so that Rocket can doodle their adventures too, these doodles being dotted throughout, as well as one doodle by Groot too.

The dialogue format works because Rocket uses the tape dispenser’s recorder to deliver captain’s logs which allows the story to be told, in parts, as a monologue. This is a similar approach that was taken in ‘Allo ‘Allo episodes where René Artois would start the episode by addressing the camera as to the plot so far.

Also, in this book, every character’s dialogue is in a different format so it is obvious who is talking at each moment. For example Groot’s text looks wooden (and he only says “I am Groot” anyway), the sound effects are in text which appears over a soundwave graphic, the tape dispenser’s speech is on tape and always starts with (Bing) and so on.

This is aimed at 8-12 year-olds. For that age group, the book works well and should appeal even to reluctant readers with its readable format, pictures and humour. But 36-year-olds can, and do, enjoy it too. Now I will share it with my 10-year-old daughter.

Available on AMAZON HERE for just £4.

My Friends (Our Special World) by Liz Lennon #bookreview

Book review: My 6-year-old daughter has read this to me. She is an early reader who this book is aimed at and she was able to read this well. As we were going along there were questions on most pages giving her the chance to talk about her friends. This is a good way of touching on subjects with her, in an unobtrusive way, that you otherwise might not do.

The blurb on the back says these books are "non-fiction books for young children which helps them find out about diversity in the world around them, The books feature questions to promote speaking and listening skills and are perfect for early years learning."

There is a contents page at the beginning so she started off with a section about painting pictures together. I liked that there was a section called "Falling out" about how friends might fall out with each other, a good lesson for the young ones. Apparently, my daughter's best friend will walk away when she gets annoyed with her.

Each page also has big, colour photographs of children playing. This is where the diversity aspect of the blurb comes in as the text doesn't really pick up on it but there are images of children in wheelchairs and from different ethnicities.

Overall then it hit the mark.

Available to buy on AMAZON HERE.

Teletubbies: The Tubby Custard Ride #bookreview

Book review: I got this for my 2-year-old (plus 7-months) boy to enjoy. He saw me take it out of the package and said straight away, “Please can I have it?” He then took to it immediately saying, “Daddy look, Noo-Noo”, “Daddy look, Teletubbies” and “Daddy, what’s this, what’s this, daddy, what’s this?” as he flicked through the pages.

The cover contains a slide section and needless to say it is these bits in the book that he finds most interesting, the slide bits and the picture wheels.

It is a hard board book so he can easily turn the pages on his own (although he won’t always wait for you to read the text first before doing so). It is reasonably durable too, although he has managed to rip it a little when he thought there was a page inside a page (the problem of having a slide section in between making the pages thicker tricking him into thinking there is a page in-between).

Each page is bright, glossy and colourful and features the Teletubbies on them. The story he won’t let me read because he wants to turn the page, or play with the feature, but with Teletubbies the story doesn’t matter too much.

But the book is certainly keeping him happy at the moment as he sits with it in his hand watching TV, occasionally turning to it instead.

It's available on Amazon to buy 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

Gory Gladiators, Savage Centurions and Caesar's Sticky End (Awfully Ancient) #bookreview

Book review: History was never cool when I went to school. Nowadays, though, thanks to Horrible Histories, it is the epitome of cool. This book has clearly been influenced by the Horrible History series of books - look at the alliteration in the title for one, Awfully Ancient, Gory Gladiators. But that is no bad thing. If it makes the subject more interesting by focusing on the "oodles of blood and gore and horribly nasty deaths" and it grabs the attention of the reading kids then maybe they will maintain that interest. 

This book focuses on the time of the Roman Empire. "What did they ever do for us?" I hear you ask. Well, this book tells you. It covers "Ceasar's sticky end" and many similar ends of other Roman emperors, it tells you what a vomitorium was, and it covers what a Roman's usual eating habits were during a time before fridges in a chapter called "Peacock Brains and Flamingo Tongues." There are some interesting facts here too. Like how the average slave "cost less than a horse or a cow". And how only emperors were allowed to wear purple, anyone else being killed.

The layout is appealing too. There are 32 full-colour pages of text with pictures following the same fun art style as seen on the cover. At the end, there are also some books and websites listed as suggested further reading, although all the books are by the same publisher. There are also some places listed to visit, all in Britain, which might be worth looking at.

On things that could improve this book, it is short at 32 pages so could have been longer (although to maintain interest for the age group and possibly reluctant readers you could say it is better to be shorter). 

All-in-all then this is a book that introduces the topic of the Romans and their empire in a fun way that may lead to a maintained interest in history.

GORY GLADIATORS, SAVAGE CENTURIONS AND CAESAR'S STICKY END (AWFULLY ANCIENT)

World War II (Explore!) by Jane Bingham #bookreview

Book review: World War II is such an important part of our history and as such is a mainstay of our schools' history education. This book, aimed at children, provides an introduction to the topic.

What we have are 32 full-colour pages of bite-size chunks of text giving the important information around World War II like why it started, who was involved, the major events and so on. There are plenty of pictures along the way too, like paintings done during the War, posters, photographs and more. The subject matter could upset some, e.g. the Holocaust and people dying, but children tend to be rather resilient and the text is in a  matter-of-fact manner so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.

There are a couple of suggested exercises along the way too. These are an exercise to write a letter from the point-of-view of a child experiencing the war using info from the book and other sources and to create a “cipher wheel” for creating secret coded messages. (I was tempted to write this review using a code generated by this wheel but decided against it at the last minute.)

At the end, there are also some books and websites listed as suggested further reading, although nearly all the books are by the same publisher. 

All-in-all then this is a book that introduces the topic of World War II which should be easy for children to read as the text is in bite-size chunks and there are plenty of pics to bring it to life. Further research can then be carried out afterwards if required.

Amazon UK link: World War II (Explore)

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

Electrigirl and the Deadly Swarm by Jo Cotterill and Cathy Brett #bookreview

Book review: I got this for my nearly 10-year-old daughter. She read the first book in the series about a year ago and absolutely loved it so getting this was a no-brainer.

This book brings back some of the same characters from the previous, including of course the evil Professor Macavity, and includes some new characters too, with useful introductory profiles at the beginning of the book. 

This time Holly, the main character aka Electrigirl, goes on vacation only to discover that Professor Macavity has hatched a new scheme hiding a deadly swarm of robotic insects that sting you and give you a love for danger. Holly sets out to destroy them all, but there are too many. Will she succeed?

My daughter liked the story, the pictures - which included comic style parts for some of the dramatic parts of the story just like in the first book, and that the hero is a girl. Indeed most of the characters are female - this book has some true girl power!

AMAZON UK LINK: ELECTRIGIRL AND THE DEADLY SWARM

The Secret Railway and the Crystal Caves by Wendy Meddour #bookreview

Book review: I got this for my nearly 10-year-old daughter to read. She says:

The story follows Ella and Leo as they attempt to return the incredible Crystallator (which is needed to open up the crystal caves again so they so they can be mined for fairy dust) to the High Chief of the Hob Goblins, Gripendulum, the leader of the Kingdom of Izzambard. 

When I was reading it I liked how the only way to get into Izzambard was if the time was 11.61. I didn't like Griselda, the evil character. I laughed when Leo tried to wake up the sleeping key and failed, and I was sad when Griselda's mechanical moles came to stop Ella and Leo. Also, it was a little hard to follow at first because I had not read the first book in the series.

I think this book is good for children the same age as me (nearly-10).

Amazon link: The Secret Railway and the Crystal Caves

King Flashypants and the Evil Emperor by Andy Riley #bookreview

Book review: "Edwin wasn't an ordinary nine-year-old... Edwin was the ruler of the kingdom of Edwinland." It's a nice kingdom until... "Your Majesty? The money's all gone."

Meanwhile in neighbouring Nurbisonia Emperor Nurbison has his eye on "Edwinland! Ruled by that moon-faced boy with that ridiculous shining crown he loves so much. He's a proper little king flashypants." Seeing the trouble caused in Edwinland by all the money disappearing Emperor Nurbison sees his chance and strikes.

The story has plenty of humour which is enhanced by the drawings throughout which are also done by the author. And, of course, King Flashypants comes out on top at the end. Looking forward to the next one. 

Available on AMAZON 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

How to Draw Mr. Men by Roger Hargreaves #bookreview

Book review: I got this for my 5 and 9-year-old daughters. It is a nice package with a hard-back cover that opens to reveal a "How to Draw Book" on the left and a "Sketch Book" on the right.

The "How to Draw Book" contains step-by-step instructions on how to draw: Mr Happy, Mr Grumpy, Mr Greedy, Mr Tall, Little Miss Sunshine, Mr Cool, Little Miss Naughty, Mr Strong, Mr Bump, Little Miss Giggles, Mr Tickle, Mr Bounce, Little Miss Princess, Mr Messy, plus a page that contains pictures of all the other Mr Men and Little Misses so you can have a go at them. You can do these in the enclosed sketchbook if you want or elsewhere.

In addition to providing some blank pages to draw on the sketchbook also contains some Mr Men stencils and stickers, plus some fun exercises.

My girls loved creating Mr Men and tested me to see if I could recognise who they'd drawn. And there is still more fun to come.

Available to pre-order on AMAZON here (released 06/Oct/2016): HOW TO DRAW MR MEN 

Frozen: Back-to-School Kit by Disney Learning #bookreview

Book review: This little kit contains five A5 full-colour 16-page booklets. There are books for: 

• Adding
• Subtracting
• Reading and Comprehension
• Words to Read and Learn
• Sticker Book

My daughter is between Reception and Year 1. She has been doing these books today. She gives them 5 stars. They hold the interest. This is because they have variety to them, not only across the books but also within the books with the activities being different. Also she hasn't found the books too difficult which is another thing that can turn her off these sort of things. These workbooks seem the correct difficulty for her (age 5-6 as stated on the product) and contain concepts she has come across at school, like the number line. Another good point is the reward element with one of the books being the sticker book, which she can't wait for although she has to wait until the other books are done first (each with a certificate page at the end that she can put her name on once she has completed them). Lastly these are Frozen themed and the theme doesn't seem to be just tacked on as it sometimes can be - the tasks include the Frozen characters. 

So although short and likely to be completed within a day these are still worth it for my 5-year-old daughter as she prepares to go back to school in September.

These are available on Amazon for £6.99 HERE.

Charlie and Lola: One Thing by Lauren Child #bookreview

Charlie and Lola: One Thing by Lauren Child #bookreview: I've just read this with my five-year-old daughter. She said, "that was a funny story." Indeed that's what you'd expect from a Charlie and Lola book right from the start with the familiar opening refrain of "I have this sister Lola. She is small and very funny."

Lola spends the book getting distracted by the world around her as she counts the dots on her dress or the leaves on the tree whilst Charlie is helping her learn her numbers. This is whilst they go to the shop with their mum so they can choose "one thing", 

The book is done in the normal art style of the Charlie and Lola books with a few real life images enhancing the pictures. The text is all over the place. It makes it interesting to look at even if you can't read. And with numeracy at the core of the story, it makes maths fun, whether that be adding, taking away, multiplying, telling the time, or counting to a squillion.

You expect a lot from Charlie and Lola books and this one delivers.

Available on Amazon HERE.

Inside Out - Handwriting practice by Disney Learning

INSIDE OUT: HANDWRITING PRACTICE 

BOOK REVIEW: I got this book for my nearly-6-year-old daughter but after only doing a few pages she has not done anymore saying that it isn't fun.

She has another handwriting book that she prefers. I note that the other one starts with her having to draw squiggles and outlines of shapes before moving onto letters. This one however has only letters. Also this book has a lot of white space compared to the other which is more colourful. Also both have stickers but whereas the other gives a reward sticker after every double-page spread is completed this one doesn't and loads of pages go by with no stickers being used as the sticker pages are very concentrated and few. So there is not the incentive there for my daughter.

There are a few story pages, and these could easily have been more incorporated into the exercises more, for example getting my daughter to trace in missing words.

So overall this hasn't been fun for my daughter.

Available on AMAZON

Teletubbies: A Rainy Day

Teletubbies: A Rainy Day 

Book review: I got this for my 2-year-old boy to enjoy. He took to it immediately saying “Teletubbies” over and over. Since then he has also taken it to bed with him and flicked through it many times (his favourite bit is where Noo-noo is there so he can say "Noo-noo" over and over. (Admittedly he doesn't have a massive book collection so that may be a factor in him cherishing it so much.)

It is a hard board book so he can easily turn the pages on his own (although he won’t always wait for you to read the text first before doing so). Each page is bright, glossy and colourful and features the Teletubbies on them.The cover looks better than the image here because the rain drops are obscuring the Teletubbies too much here.

The story is what you'd expect from the Teletubbies. A lot of "uh-oh"s when the rain arrives, a big hug, some tubby toast and so on. So for my 2-year-old it is perfect.

Teletubbies: A Rainy Day

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