Fairyland Dot-to-dot Adventure by Carrie Knights and Sally Hopgood (Top That! Publishing)

Activity books are always a good way of ensuring your children are totally absorbed in something for a couple of hours, well away from the TV or the iPad.

Charlotte became quite obsessed with this book to the point where she couldn't wait to get on with joining the dots as soon as she got home from school, colouring in and enjoying the Fairyland tale in this novel mix of fun and storytelling.

Two young children - Max and Molly - set out on an adventure through a magical forest meeting enchanting characters along the way. There's a fairy kingdom hidden away in the forest, with a beautiful fairy princess to play with.

Naturally this is the sort of thing that Charlotte really loves, but the dot-to-dot theme running through the book was a novel twist. At first she took some convincing that she was actually 'allowed' to draw in a book (we've done too good a job of convincing her that she should look after her books and not scribble in them! She got the idea in the end though!)

Some designs are quite intricate, and if your child has difficulty counting up to higher numbers, these books are actually quite useful for getting them used to number sequences while they have fun.

There are several books in the "Dot-to-dot Adventures" range including this fairy-tale-themed one - each designed around the idea of 'completing' the story as you go along. You can find the rest of the range here on Top That Publishing's website.

Once the dot-to-dot puzzles are completed, children can add colour to the panels and help Max and Molly find out exactly what lies hidden in the magical forest.

This definitely got a big thumbs up from Charlotte, so we'll be hunting down the rest of the range (including dot to dot dinosaurs, space adventures, rainforest and ocean books) which look great fun as well as informative and educational.







Charlotte's best bit: Joining the dots and colouring in the fairy princess

Daddy's favourite bit: Joining in and helping Charlotte join the dots when designs got a bit complicated.

(Kindly sent to us for review by the lovely folk at Top That! Publishing)