Where would we be without Bookstart / Booktrust? For those who don't know, this is an amazing organisation that aims to put a book in the hands of every child in England and Wales - and C was the lucky recipient of "Splat the Cat" by Rob Scotton as her Bookstart book.

Back in the earliest days of the blog when we relied heavily on our local library for books, C actually having a book of her own was vitally important - there's nothing quite like having a shelf of books which you know are yours, and you can read at any time.

As you can probably imagine, the original "Splat the Cat" got read time and time again as a bedtime book, always turned into something of a performance piece because I could not resist doing a ton of really silly voices for Splat (who came out sounding like Lenny Henry's squeaky brummie accent), his Mum (a softer more understanding voice) and his teacher Miss Wimpydimple (A quavery-voiced old dear with the best intentions).

Splat is about to go to 'big school' for the first time, and his tail is wiggling with worry. He decides to bring along a friend, his long-suffering mousey companion Seymour who ends up tucked into Splat's lunchbox.

Splat isn't keen on school at all until he realises that maybe it's not quite as scary or as bad as he first thought - and perhaps Splat might even be able to teach other cats that mice are NOT food, they're friends!

Rob carried on with the series in a whole collection of books that are hugely popular with young readers, largely thanks to his fantastic illustrations and simple entertaining stories.

We were always a little puzzled by what happened by the time "Splat the Cat: Fishy Tales" came out.

With the books rebranded as "Based on the creation of Rob Scotton", we always wondered if there had been some sort of titanic 'falling out' between Rob and his publisher, as they demanded he serialised Splat stories rather than working on other stuff (Rob also created the Russell the Sheep books, which we never quite got round to reading alas).

"Splat's Fishy Tales" is also in our keepers pile regardless, and still a ticklishly entertaining tale based around Splat's school trip to an aquarium - and Splat's rather coy infatuation with 'the love of his life' - his classmate Kitten - and his rivalry with class bully Spike.

These are still fantastic little books. One or two are a bit hit and miss ("Splat Says Thank You" is a bit too saccharine for us but still has some wonderful illustrations in it). But back to the top of the review and that whole Bookstart thing, we really don't realise how lucky we are in this country to have such a wonderful organisation promoting reading for fun with kids, rather than basing their reading material and curriculum on academic achievement and fronted adverbials (which is just a rubbish way to encourage kids to love books IMHO).

Original Review Links: 

Splat the Cat

Splat the Cat - Fishy Tales Based on the Creation of Rob Scotton (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Splat Says Thank You! by Rob Scotton (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Secret Agent Splat by Rob Scotton (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Love, Splat

Booky Advent Calendar Day 8 - 8th December 2013 - "Merry Christmas Splat" By Rob Scotton (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Three words that strike terror into the hearts of children (and joy into their parents!)

For this week's slightly belated #ReadItMD13 Theme Week we're looking at books designed not only to get your children back into something educational, we're also looking at books that can help children who are nervous about "starting big school" - sitting down with a new teacher, new friends and a whole new school.

So let's kick off by diving back into the archives for some of our favourite school-based books.

"I Want A Friend" by Tony Ross (The Little Princess Series) is a fab little book that sees the normally bombastic and quite mischievous Little Princess slightly on the back foot as she starts big school for the first time. Seeing everyone else seemingly happy and carefree and playing with their friends, The Little Princess realises that even being royalty doesn't mean that things are easy. Soon though she meets someone else in the same boat, a child who also doesn't have a special friend, and then another - and another, until there's a whole gaggle of children who come together and realise that searching hard for a friend is tricky, and often the best friends are right under your nose. A very nice little book for helping children through those anxieties about meeting new people and making new pals at school.

Oh how we love Splat the Cat! Rob Scotton's wiry haired little moggy has been on lots of adventures since his first book but in his very first outing we find out that Splat also had a tricky first day at school.

Read and re-read by us, we loved Splat packing Seymour his trusted mousey sidekick into his lunchbox as he (grudgingly) sets out to learn how to be a cat at cat school, and all the things that cats should and shouldn't do. Chase mice? What a terrible thought!

Soon though Splat teaches his teacher and classmates a few lessons too - that mice aren't food, they're friends - and there's really no need to chase Seymour around when he's such an adorable olive-nosed little fellah.

Splat will soon be popping up again in the next book "Scaredy Cat Splat!" which should be hitting shelves in time for Halloween.

In Emma Chichester-Clark's fabulous "Blue Kangaroo" books we meet the lovely Lily and her rather special 'friend' - a blue kangaroo. Again, a book that deals with the anxieties and worries of that first day at school, Lily decides to take Blue Kangaroo with her on her first day. We loved the way Emma 'voices' Lily's concerns as being Blue's (you'll see what we mean when you read this wonderful book). Lily actually ends up enjoying herself so much that she forgets Blue Kangaroo entirely, leaving him at school to have a lot of fun all on his own overnight!

We always expect the very best from Emma and we get it in spades - and it's a timely reminder for me to hunt out the rest of the Blue Kangaroo series as this one was utterly brill!

During the holidays, one of the hardest things to keep going was Charlotte's interest in self-reading.
With the aid of the Oxford Learning Tree Phonics range, it's easy to get back into the swing of things and in particular the "My Phonics Kit" starter pack is fab for taking children away from the books and onto the computer for some enhanced reading, phonics activities and learning.

There's also a whole host of brilliant exercises, stories and activities on the fantastic Oxford Owl website. Like most parents, we really struggle to marry together reading for learning and reading for pleasure (in fact it's a real concern when Charlotte's confronted with a new Biff Chip and Kipper book and can't actually distance herself from the fact that it's a 'school' book and not a 'home' book - despite the stories being pretty good fun in some of the advanced Stage 4 books). These sites and resources really do help though, so they're worth diving in if you're trying to get your children back into a bit of a learning routine to help ease them back into school without a huge jolt.

There'll be more from us on the subject of getting back to school or starting school for the first time as the week progresses so stay tuned!

It's probably one of the most important days in your child's life. That first step over the threshold of their new school. "Big" school, not Nursery or Preschool. Charlotte's about to take that step and she's understandably nervous (to say nothing of how ' cat on hot bricks' my wife and I are!) So recently we've been piling through several books designed to soothe the nerves, showing how the bookworld's favourite characters got on when they first started school.

Here's a top five of our favourites (in no particular order).

1) "I Want a Friend! (A Little Princess Book)" by Tony Ross

Tony Ross' "Little Princess" has soared in popularity, boosted by the success of the TV show but when we first reviewed this book, we weren't quite prepared for just how sensitively (and cleverly) this book deals with a child's first nerve-racking day at school. The Princess goes incognito, and soon finds it quite hard to make new friends and settle in. But she's not the only child there with the same problem - and soon enough, the Little Princess learns that sometimes you might not find a friend when you're looking really hard - they might find you instead.

Very touching little book, probably the best LP book to date.


2) First Week at Cow School by Andy Cutbill and Russell Ayto

This was a recent addition to our reviews list and we loved its mix of raucous humour and cow in-jokes. Daisy the Chick-Cow is off to school and her nervous mum Marjorie is there to make sure her offspring does OK in her first week at cow school. She struggles, but thanks to some timely intervention by Daisy's chicken chums, things turn out rather well for the cow that emerged from an egg all those books ago.

Funny and colourful. We loved it.




3) Topsy and Tim Start School by Jean Adamson and Belinda Worsley

The Topsy and Tim books are fantastic, serving up life lessons with two of the most enduring and popular characters in children's books. Now the subject of a series of iPhone / Android apps as well as a successful book series, they show no signs of dropping in popularity.

This book shows what happens when the twins have their first day at school. Looking out for each other, and helping each other to take in the flurry of information that comes with their first day at school, Topsy and Tim find out that school is fun and interesting and nothing to be scared of. Of the books we looked at for this list, this is probably one of the books that probably matches most children's actual first school experience and one they can identify with more easily than most.

4) Cactus Annie by Melanie Williamson

It's extremely unlikely that your child will be enrolling in Cowgirl school in September, but just in case, here's a fun book recommendation featuring a cute little cowgirl called Cactus Annie. She's not much use on a horse, she can't rope cattle for toffee and her first few days at school don't go particularly well. With an end-of-term contest looming, can Cactus Annie brush up her skills to save the day? Yep you'll have to read on to find out.

Reading between the lines and dancing between the lovely illustrations from Melanie Williamson, the lessons in this book are exactly the same as the lessons all children will encounter at their proper school. Dressing things up in cowgirl clothes just makes it all more fun.

5) Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton

This book was given to us through the excellent BookTrust programme, and it's become one of our staple favourites at home. The story of Splat, a slightly fuzzy and worrisome cat and his first day at school is a comedic take on the sort of things cats get up to. Learning about chasing mice, drinking milk and being slightly sneaky, Splat soon finds out that having a mouse for a best friend can cause all sorts of problems. Poor Seymour.

Lovely artwork and a great story from Rob.

Love, Splat


Written and Illustrated by Rob Scotton


Amazon Link: £4.99


Published by HarperCollins Children's Books

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Who remembers their first day at school? Most adults probably won't but if you've got preschool kids who are a little worried about their first day in class, Splat the Cat is probably more worried than any of them put together. 
Rating: 4 out of 5