Thursday, 31 May 2012
What's the time, Grandma Wolf? by Ken Brown (Andersen Press)
Mashing together classic stories can go one of two ways. You can end up with something that's alright, but doesn't quite match up to the original stories it derives from, or you can end up with something like Ken Brown's "What's the time, Grandma Wolf?" which feels fresh,...
CREAK! Said the Bed by Phyllis Root and Regan Dunnick (Walker Books)
Labels:
CREAK said the bed,
Phyllis Root,
Regan Dunnick,
Walker Books
I'm sure this is an all-too familiar occurrence in most households with young children. It's saturday morning, you've got nothing to get up early for - but bang on the nail of 6 am (or probably earlier), your beloved offspring decide that it's time to get up, wake up,...
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
10 of the best books for summer reading
Labels:
summer books,
top tens
The sun is out, the sky is blue, there's no air, and your neighbours are happily filling your house with the stink of their barbecue so what better time is there to escape somewhere quiet and countrified to read your child a fantastic summery book! Slap on the sun cream, throw together...
Friday, 25 May 2012
Angelina at the Palace by Katharine Holabird and Helen Craig (Puffin Books)
Before Angelina Ballerina got her CGI TV makeover, she was the star of a set of whimsical ballet-based books by Katharine Holabird and Helen Craig.
The TV show drives me absolutely potty. Though Charlotte doesn't watch a lot of TV (and we watch even less), it's often...
We're Going on a Picnic by Pat Hutchins (Red Fox Picture Books)
Pat Hutchins' book "Rosie's Walk" is one of those books mentioned in hushed tones of reverence in the same breath as books like "We're going on a Bear Hunt" and "The Gruffalo". Quite rightly so too, as it's beautifully illustrated and beautifully told.
This book "We're...
Sausages! by Jessica Souhami (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)
If we were to ask Charlotte what her favourite meal was, she'd instantly reply "Sausages and Mash!" so it's probably quite fortunate that she never gets granted three wishes by grateful elves, like the couple in this retelling of the classic fables of yore.
When a man...
Thursday, 24 May 2012
The Rhyming Rabbit by Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks (Macmillan Children's Books)
Here's the second of the rabbity books that found their way into our library stack this week. Poor Lydia Monks must've gone slightly rabbit-crazy last year as both this book and Babbit were published in the same year.
Lydia Monks has teamed up with Julia ("Gruffalo")...
Babbit by Lydia Monks (Egmont Books ltd)
Labels:
Babbit,
Egmont Books,
Lydia Monks
"Silly daddy! It's Rabbit!"
"No it's Babbit, look, that's a B there!"
"No Daddy it's Rabbit! It's a rabbit!"
Or so went the conversation when we picked up the first of Lydia Monks' rabbit adventures from last year. This one she wrote and illustrated, the other one (following...
When Martha's Away by Bruce Ingman (Walker Books)
Labels:
Bruce Ingman,
Walker Books,
When Martha's Away
Though this is a golden oldie, it's a classic book that doesn't get nearly as much hype and love as Bruce Ingman's other titles. But this tale of the secret life of a cat and what he gets up to when his owner goes to school is hilarious and timeless in equal measure (though...
The Naughiest Fairy's Naughty New Friend by Nick Ward (Meadowside Children's Books)
Labels:
book of the week,
Meadowside Children's Books,
Nick Ward,
The Naughtiest Fairy's Naughty New Friend
With a wave of her wand, and a few magic ingredients, the Naughtiest Fairy creates complete and utter chaos in this amusing and beautifully illustrated book by Nick Ward. Feeling a little lonely and bored, the Naughtiest Fairy has trouble making friends until she consults...
Friday, 18 May 2012
The Ballet Class by Adele Geras and Shelagh McNicholas (Orchard Press)
At home, Charlotte is amazingly heavy-footed for a 4 year old girl who weighs less than an oak leaf, but when she had a stint at ballet classes she was amazingly fleet of foot and absolutely loves anything to do with Ballet (including, obviously, wearing those pink tutus...
Thursday, 17 May 2012
Ghost by Luk Depondt and Guido Van Genechten (Meadowside Children's Books)
What a relief to find that this book doesn't feature Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze and a potter's wheel. No instead it features a lovely chirpy little ghost chappy, a child's imaginings of what life would be like as a ghost. Haunting, flying, swooping, woohing a lot, and...
Little Bo Peep's Library Book by Cressida Cowell (Hodder Children's Books)
(Apologies for the blurred book cover pic on this, Amazon are slacking!)
It's always a bit sad when we encounter books in the library that have been mercilessly abused but it's part and parcel of the kid's book section and our local Library staff are absolutely brilliant...
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
The Big Book of Magical Mix-Ups by Hilary Robinson and Nick Sharratt (Scholastic Children's Books)
We've had a few different books in this format before. Pages are divided up into strips and hilarity ensues when you mix and match different page 'strips' together to make crazy combinations. At least that's the idea behind The Big Book of Magical Mix-Ups, but Charlotte's...
Welcome to West Wallaby Street (Aardman / Simon and Schuster Children's Books)
Labels:
Aardman Animations,
Simon and Schuster Children's Books,
Wallace and Gromit,
Welcome to West Wallaby Street
As long-time devotees of Aardman Animations, and of course Wallace and Gromit, this was an interesting find in the local library. It's a fairly rare book now (take your chances on ebay or Amazon resellers if you want a copy) but it's an essential purchase for anyone completely...
Monday, 14 May 2012
Jennifer Jones won't leave me alone by Frieda Wishinsky and Neal Layton (Doubleday Children's Books)
Labels:
Doubleday Children's Books,
Frieda Wishinsky,
Jennifer Jones Won't Leave Me Alone,
Neal Layton
Oh my aching memory. I know we've had this book before from the library and I was SURE we'd reviewed it but nope, somehow this absolutely fantastic (and quite hilarious) little tale managed to get through the "ReadItDaddy" weekly reading pile without being covered.
So...
Friday, 11 May 2012
Hugless Douglas by David Melling (Hodder Children's Books)
I'm not really sure how David Melling's books have managed to pass us by for so long. He's a bit of a Twitter star at the moment and seeing his tweeted drawings made me want to search out this book in particular. Hugless Douglas is the tale of a slightly dozy but extremely...
Pig in Love by Vivian French and Tim Archbold (Evans Brothers ltd)
Labels:
Evans Brothers LTD,
Pig In Love,
Tim Archbold,
Vivian French
Here's a quirky and charming little book that's the perfect length for those bedtimes where your little one is practically asleep in your arms (or those bedtimes after preschool when they're so tired they're hyper and driving you up the wall and back again!)
Pig is in...
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Harper and Row)
It's an eerie coincidence that this very week saw the death of Maurice Sendak, the same time as we'd pulled this book out of the library stacks to review. Sendak's death has prompted many many journalists, writers and illustrators to express an outpouring of love for Sendak...
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Dogs Don't Do Ballet by Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)
I'm a cat person. My lovely wife is a cat person but Charlotte? Ahhh I think if it came down to a straight choice between dogs and cats she'd choose dogs. Why? Well secretly because Dogs can do ballet while cats would probably turn their nose up at a tutu.
In Anna Kemp...
Pumpkin Moon by Tim Preston and Simon Bartram (Templar Publishing)
Labels:
Pumpkin Moon,
Simon Bartram,
Templar Publishing,
Tim Preston
An odd book this, and it's one of those rare cases where I wish I could split the scores for illustration and text into two categories.
Simon Bartram's illustrations are utterly sublime. We've previously reviewed 'Dougal's Deep Sea Diary' here at ReadItDaddy and enthused...
UUGGHH! by Claudia Boldt (Child's Play International)
Labels:
Child's Play International,
Claudia Boldt,
UUGGHH
I can't remember who sung that really cheesy song "Everything is beautiful in it's own way" but that's the message behind Claudia Boldt's "Uugghh!" (That's two u's, two g's and two h's if you're using Amazon's search, which completely ignores this book for some reason,...
Friday, 4 May 2012
Doctor Ted by Andrea Beaty and Pascal Lemaitre (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)
So the conversation went something like this...
"Charlotte, what's your book of the we..."
"Doctor Ted! Doctor Ted! DOCTOR TED!"
"But we've already reviewed Doctor Ted last year, and it got Book of the Week then honey, can you choose another boo.."
"DOCTOR TED! DOCTOR...
You Can Do It, Sam! by Amy Hest and Anita Jeram (Walker Books)
Sam the Bear (who looks a little bit like the Walker Books bear) is the star of a series of gentle bedtime books that are snuggly warm and cosy and the perfect antidote on a cold rainy night. In this tale Sam accompanies his mother on a bake run. They carefully make cakes...
Fragoline and the Midnight Dream by Clemency Pearce and Rebecca Elliott (Chicken House Books)
Chicken House Books seem to have a knack for picking up children's books that are slightly out of the ordinary. Fragoline (The name of a strawberry, to match her hair - and how exactly do you pronounce that? Fray-Go-Line is what we picked but I guess it could easily be...
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Twinkles, Arthur and Puss by Judith Kerr (HarperCollins Children's Books)
Judith Kerr knows cats. We've read and loved (most of) the Mog books and this is the first non-Mog moggy book (not counting "The Tiger Who Came to Tea") that we've seen in the library.
This simple tale of Twinkles, Arthur and Puss seems fairly straightforward at first...
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury (Walker Books)
With Walker Books running a 'Buy one, Get One Free' promotion at the moment, we finally got round to buying "We're going on a Bear Hunt!" and rooting through the blog I couldn't actually believe that we've mentioned this book but never reviewed it.
It goes without saying...
The Troll by Julia Donaldson and David Roberts (Macmillan Children's Books)
Whenever myself, CanIWalkMummy and Charlotte are out and about covering great countryside walks for CIWM's blog, we find it absolutely impossible to cross any sort of bridge without shouting "WHO'S THAT TRIP-TRAPPING OVER MY BRIDGE!"
So of course it's a delight to find...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
