Picture Story Books from Parragon – Review

Parragon Books have a delightful selection of children’s books and we were lucky to be sent a couple to try.

The first is called The Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat, a familiar title based on the classic Edward Lear poem that I remember from my childhood.  Although, this little tale follows two children dressed up as an owl and a pussycat who go on an adventure in their living room, travelling in a cardboard box.  They see many things on the way until they return home and fall asleep.

My children both thoroughly enjoyed hearing me read this book to them, it’s fast paced with rhyming text, making you eager to turn the page to hear the next line.  The story is accompanied by beautifully illustrated pages that my children love to look at and point out things on.  It’s not too long and this makes it the perfect reading book for 3 year old Mister B.  He likes books with good pictures that he can understand and that aren’t too long as he prefers to have several books read at a time.  This is written in a modern way but still has a classic feel to it.  A lovely story that we all enjoyed.

The second book we tried was Wakey Wakey Big Brown Bear, a delightful tale about a group of animal friends.  The story centres around Big Brown Bear who is due for his long winter sleep but is worried about missing all the delightful things that happen during Autumn and Winter like crunchy leaves and puddles of rain.  Not wanting him to miss out his friends put together a mock Autumn and Winter when he wakes up.

This book has an enchanting storyline showing how friends come together and do nice things for each other.  This book also has lovely illustrations with plenty of detail giving my children lots to talk about. They loved the part of the story when Big Brown Bear’s friends were trying to wake him up and started shouting themselves for him to wake up!  They also enjoyed the pretend Autumn and Winter scenes as it’s all things they enjoy – walking through big piles of crunchy leaves, jumping in puddles and snow.

Both these books have been a great success with my children and I think they are both excellent books.  I’d definitely recommend them as ideal picture story books for pre school children.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.