FlapHappy Books - Colours / Shapes by Sophie Pelham (Tango Books)

As we're finally getting some glorious sunshine in this country, here's a delicious duo of beautiful and colourful books to tempt your tots with.

Let's take a look at the Flaphappy 'Colours' book first:

All the colours of the rainbow! Yummy!

Sophie's eye for design comes to the fore in a book that takes your titchies through each colour of the rainbow in turn, as the book gently unfolds. Lift-the-flap books are normally fairly unimaginative (In some cases I compare them to advent calendars - once the flap's lifted, the surprise is gone and so has the book's appeal) but 'Colours' is awesome, in the way it builds a final image with each turn of the page. With accompanying text, this was actually a huge hit with Charlotte because it was a book she "didn't need daddy's help on!" (charming!)

And so what do you get at the end? You've already guessed it!

Blue is the colour, Rainbow is the aim!

It's beautifully demonstrated in this book clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BOMiXdwInM&feature=player_embedded (Embedded video is disabled for this clip but it's well worth checking out!)

Now let's take a look at Flap Happy Shapes!

How many shapes can you see in the cover?

Again, beautifully colourful, brilliantly designed and with a slow reveal of a final flappy image as you reach the end. They're both utterly awesome books but this was the one Charlotte preferred because (I suspect) she has an affinity with cheeky little monkeys!

Ooh Ooh Ooh! Triangle!

 Once again, have a look at the book trailer and demonstration for this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=2m8xGQDL7eo&feature=endscreen

Overall, I thought these might be a bit 'young' for Charlotte but her initial delight and reaction was brilliant (I hadn't actually told her what the books were going to do or how they were going to work, I let her discover them herself). What did surprise me was how often she'd sneak back to these. They are lovely, and engaging so it's easy to see why they are so attractive to her, but I think it has a huge amount to do with the fact that these are books she can quietly sit down with and read (they're great for early readers) and interact with all on her own without any guidance or hand holding.

Flap Happy Colours / Shapes are available from great indie stockists (which we're championing this week, by the way!). You can check out the other Tango books on their fab website

Check out Sophie Pelham's Facebook page for regular updates on her books and projects

(Flap Happy Colours / Shapes were kindly sent to us for review by Sophie Pelham)