#ReadItMD13 Theme Week - "Holiday Books - perfect reading and activity books for your busy little bees!"

Play dress-up with the extensive Usborne "Sticker Dolly Dressing" range (including "On Holiday!")

While the sun still blazes away in the sky (and the inevitable mumbles about 'it being the rainy season soon' rumble around like gathering grey clouds) it's the perfect opportunity to kick off our next #ReadItMD13 Theme Week - Holidays!

The long school summer holiday is here for most of us (we've actually been 'in it' for the last two weeks but a lot of kids broke up last friday) and there's always time to cram in a stack of summer reading and activity books for children.

Let's start with the Usborne sticker range, particularly the "Sticker Dolly Dressing" books. These are staple fodder at home, and with hundreds of stickers and brilliant illustrations, they're great for keeping kids occupied for a while. We recently looked at the fabulous "History" range with the Edwardian Costume book, and we've also been enjoying "Sticker Dolly Dressing - On Holiday" too.

The Usborne Holiday Activity Book - Makes, puzzles and stickers ahoy!

Usborne do quite an extensive range of activity books including the above holiday-themed one, and our recently reviewed "Summer things to make and do". They're very reasonably priced so stop by your fab local indie and pick up one or two.

Reading wise, we're aiming to tackle a few lengthier books over the summer as well as our usual picture book fare.


The Strolling Mum and Charlotte have recently been thrilling to the antics of those fabulous Rescue Princesses. Written by the wonderful Paula Harrison and published by Nosy Crow, the 2nd adventure "The Wishing Pearl" has been very well received at home with Mummy and Charlotte chipping away at it a chapter a night, which is a great way to supplement short and sweet picture books with early chapter reading for children who are just beginning to shrug off the need for illustrations with their text. Paula's Rescue Princesses, and her new range of Faerie Tribes books are hugely popular and thrilling so we're always ready for a new Princess or Faerie adventure.

Faerie Tribes by Paula Harrison - Edge-of-the-seat fairy-based stuff, awesome!

Our early chapter-based book list is rapidly growing and also on our stack is Mo O'Hara's latest giggle-a-thon "My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish 2 - The Sea-Quel" serves up a tasty seaside batter-covered duo of stories that are sure to tickle the funny bones and the tastebuds of your discerning mighty mites.

My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish - The Sea-Quel by Mo O-Hara. Do NOT look into his eyes!!

It's great fun and the bonus horrifying flip-book corner is ace!

We'll be back later on in the theme week with more summer book recommendations to tide things over during the holiday. In the meantime, please drop your favourite holiday or summer-based book recommendations into the comments below, tell us what YOU'RE reading!