Anorak's fabulous "Happy Colouring Poster" - Just try keeping mummy and daddy away!

Hello, it's me, Charlotte! Do your grown ups often steal your colouring pencils and colour your things in when you're not looking, or are asleep, or are playing with Lego or Playmobil instead? Mine do. Mummy likes colouring animals and scenery while Daddy always scribbles away colouring anything with robots or cars in it. Boys eh?

Recently the lovely folk at Anorak Magazine kindly sent me their fabulous (and huge) Happy Colouring Poster to get to work on. As you can see, it's very busy and full of ace things to colour. Here I am getting cracking on it...!

Teddy Bear pencil toppers are a MUST for intense colouring sessions!

The thing is, I kept coming down in the morning to carry on with it - and finding that things I hadn't coloured had mysteriously coloured themselves in! Mummy and Daddy denied all knowledge but I have my suspicions.

The lovely folk at Pictura (Templar) also sent us a fabulous Shaun Tan scene to colour too...!

Picturaline's Shaun Tan range is just too tempting for daddies!

Daddy emitted a loud "Whoop!" when this arrived, and though he promised to let me share colouring it, he's only let me colour in a little bit. He spends far too much time cuddling it and cooing over it (again, boys!). Pictura have lots of brilliant 'grown up' colouring scenes to choose from but I don't see why daddy has to hog it all to himself (perhaps I'll wait till he's 'resting his eyes' and snoring loudly on a sunday afternoon and help him finish it by sneaking off with it!)

Usborne also have one of my favourite colouring books - which we bought to take on holiday with us.

The Usborne Big Book of Drawing, Doodling and Colouring. It is big and they are very clever, those Usborne folk!

There are so many different things to colour in here - mysteriously the page with monsters on it got coloured in while I was asleep. I'm sure you can guess who the culprit was.

So what can us kids do to stop mummy and daddy pinching our colouring pencils and colouring books? Well, christmas is coming and there's always mothers day or fathers day when mummy always moans about getting chocs that make her bum go big, or daddy always moans that he gets Simpsons socks when he doesn't like The Simpsons, so here are a couple of ideas! It might just work and might just stop their extremely rude behaviour!

We Love Writing, writing is cool. Anorak Issue 28

Anorak Issue 28 dropped through our letterbox recently, and we've been busy delving into an issue devoted entirely to one of our favourite pursuits - Writing! Whether you choose to tap away at a typewriter, wrestle with a word processor or be poised to produce perfect prose with a pen, writing is part of our everyday lives and is vitally important to a child's early years development.

Inside Anorak you'll find some brilliant contributions from writers and artists such as Mike Hollingsworth, Joe Waldron, Anna Lindsten and Evgenia Barinova, tempting you to try out all sorts of writing exercises or just read some fabulously illustrated stories.

Of course, you also can't miss the brilliant Anorak standards and stories, and there are always lots of brilliant shopping ideas tucked away inside too. Best of all, you won't be hoovering up rubbishy plastic gimmicks, the magazine doesn't have them and doesn't need them - it's just fab and fantastic content that will engage your children's imaginations - perfect for the sort of weather we've been having lately when the kids are stuck for something to do.

You can find more details on the current issue, along with subscription details on the Anorak Website below:

Anorak Issue 28

Subscribe today!

Anorak Magazine Issue 27 - "It's Wheely Great!"

The lovely folk at Anorak Magazine have kindly sent us Issue 27 to take a look at, and it's a fabulous journey through the world of science and invention!

For those of you unfamiliar with Anorak, it's the happy mag for kids and it's a refreshing read for folk who are fed up with their house being inundated by plastic tat and truly awful "branded" children's magazines and comics.

So what's inside the issue? How about a look at what goes on behind the scenes of The Science Museum in London? Always a fascinating place and great to hear from resident inventor Mark Champkins about a few of the things he does in his amazing job.

The regular Anorak strips are there and with an extra 8 pages of fun, there's lots to see and do. We particularly liked seeing our favourite local museum The Pitt Rivers Museum (which I can actually see out of my window, well, through the torrential rainstorm!) which is thorougly recommended if you're ever in Oxford and looking for fascinating things to do.

There's a bonus book with the Magazine which got a huge thumbs up from us (not just because of the name). "The Gardens of Mayland" is a fun and colourful look at some truly poetic plants as they muse on their moods. Great for younger children (and it's nice and sturdy though we don't advise toddlers to get into the habit of chewing books, it's much nicer to read them!)

You can obtain Anorak Magazine by subscription from the Anorak Website, buy a single issue, or pick it up at your local independent bookseller, priced at a very reasonable £6 - a bargain for the amount of content and the hours of enjoyment you'll get from this lovely mag.

Charlotte's best bit: Clamouring for us to make her the scrumptious Toffee Cake (we will definitely give it a try this weekend! Nom!)

Daddy's favourite bit: Always, always love the sneaky peeks at my favourite country (New Zealand) in the Horace and Munkie strip. Miss that place V much!

(Very kindly sent to us for review by Anorak Publishing)

Our very good friends at Anorak Magazine are so excited this morning that they have broken their '1' keys on their keyboards by typing in so many exclamation marks! Quite rightly too, as they have just launched Happy TV - a great new fun download from the iTunes App Store featuring giggles, gags and lots of great ideas for children and adults alike. In the style of classic children's TV before merchandising took over, Happy TV is brilliant fun and very attractively priced.

You can grab the first great episode from iTunes via this link: Happy TV from Anorak on iTunes

We've included a preview below. Like everything Anorak do, this is excellent stuff so grab yours today!

As the long hot (and sometimes extremely wet) summer draws to a close, and the television and shops are bombarded by those depressing "Back to School" ads, there's still plenty of fun to be had in the closing weeks of the holidays.

We were lucky enough to be sent Anorak and Ploc magazine to review by Anorak Press. Anorak and Ploc proudly stand apart from the usual 'trashy plastic gift' magazines that infest local supermarket shelves and dipping into the magazines the first thing that hits you like a freight train is the sheer quality of their production.


Printed on really high quality paper, with full colour throughout, both magazines certainly look far different to most printed publications for children. Anorak is published 5 times a year and is aimed at 6-12 year olds. Despite this, there was plenty in the magazine that caught Charlotte's attention (especially the cover art - which is instantly appealing and absolutely begs browsers to take a closer look inside).

With a mix of stories, comic strips and activities, Anorak came with a bonus cover-mounted puzzle magazine called Goober the Goblin which contained a good mix of brain teasers, slapstick hilarity and even some great educational stuff that felt more like fun than learning.

Charlotte fell completely in love with the Munkie and Horace photostory (picture to the right). The story of a bear's move to New Zealand (lucky, lucky bear!) it's a sweet little tale that was beautifully shot and composed.

Elsewhere in Anorak, it was quite surprising to see adverts but don't be put off, the ads are so subtle and well done that you'd swear they were part of the magazine (in fact it was only when my wife pointed them out that I noticed them). The product reviews at the front of the magazine were actually for fun and innovative products that you wouldn't normally see covered in kid's mags so again they were something different and quite eye catching.


Above all though, Anorak absolutely clamours quality mainly because of the artwork. From the surreal picture feature about a rock star, to the comic strips and panel photo spreads, it's the sort of magazine that kids can come back to again and again rather than just sticking stickers all over it and binning it a week later (which has been our experience of most of the mainstream 'TV-Driven' magazines so far). Anorak can be obtained directly from Anorak Press or from leading independent booksellers / WH Smiths. Price: £6.99 every 5 months.

Moving onto Ploc, this magazine is something really special. In keeping with Olympic-mania, the summery edition is given over to sports and pastimes. Lovingly illustrated by legendary children's artist Alain Gree, once again Ploc absolutely screams great quality from the outset. Again with a mix of puzzles and activities, Gree's art style instantly puts a smile on the face of anyone browsing through the magazine and though there's plenty of educational content, once again like Anorak it doesn't feel at all like learning, just really good fun.

Ploc's busy little panels chock full of detail underpin the more traditional magazine mainstays of colouring and drawing - The only drawback I can think of was that we loved the magazine so much we couldn't bear the thought of defacing it by colouring, cutting or scribbling on it (you'll just have to buy two!)

Ad-free and the perfect little magazine for children to browse through at home, in the car or on holiday, it's a superb quality product that deserves to become a collector's classic. Price: £7.00 and available from Anorak direct or good stockists.

Anorak Magazine

Charlotte's best bit: Munkie and Horace. "I Want my own Horace!"

Daddy's favourite bit: Such a great quality product, really rugged and can stand up to the rigours of children manhandling it. Fantastic stories to read at bedtime was a real bonus.

Summary: Don't let the price put you off as the 5-monthly Anorak actually works out far cheaper than the equivalent throwaway magazines, is a collectible classic and will be around a lot longer than your average trashy TV-based mag and its cheesy free gift. Absolutely loads to do with the inclusion of a bonus Goober the Goblin Puzzle Magazine too. 

Ploc Magazine

Charlotte's best bit: The Topsy Turvy Story (Red Riding Hood) - such a great idea!

Daddy's favourite bit: Alain Gree's superb artwork, but Ploc is just such a fantastic quality product throughout.

Summary: We seriously hope some of our independent bookstores start stocking Anorak and Ploc, we'll certainly be getting both again.

At ReadItDaddy we're passionate about children's books but we're equally passionate about children's periodicals, magazines and comics. Yes they do exist, no they don't always have to have a nasty cheap plastic gift attached to the cover or be based around TV or merchandising opportunities, and yes they're enjoying a creative 'golden age' similar to children's picture books.

While old stagers like The Dandy are unfortunately succumbing to low distribution figures, there are a lot of new and exciting publications cutting their teeth in a really difficult marketplace.

We've been following the progress of Anorak Magazine for a while on Twitter, and now Charlotte's at an age where she wants a little more substance and creativity than you can find in those instantly disposable 'TV' mags like the CBeebies magazine (which is, to be fair, the best of a fairly mixed bunch), Anorak really floats her boat.

I mean, c'mon, just look at the cover of the summer special above. Look at it! What kid wouldn't love to pick up, buy, and leaf through a magazine as instantly attractive as that?

With activities, stories, absolutely stupendous artwork and great contributors, it's definitely a more engaging read than most of the more commercial products bunging up your local supermarket's magazine shelves.

There's the problem - you see Anorak is available as a mailout subscription, and from a select few local stockists and that's something you can definitely do something about. If you would like your local bookseller or store to sell Anorak, nudge them in the direction of Anorak's Stockists Page and see if they'd like to work with them.

It doesn't begin and end with Anorak magazine either. PLOC is a more meaty publication from this extremely talented bunch, with guest contributors and 64 pages of fun and activities. The 2nd issue with a sports theme, tying neatly in with the Olympics, has just launched and is available via the website or from selected stockists.

Think you can't contain yourself any longer from dashing out and finding your next copy of Anorak or PLOC? Calm down dear, gadget freaks can get a lovely techy slice of Anorak action from the comfort of their own iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch at the end of August. Anorak TV is coming,  and you can watch a trailer for it below. For the measly price of 69p you'll be able to download the Anorak TV app from iTunes and enjoy 20 minutes of superbly entertaining knockabout fun to watch on your favourite device.