Spaghetti with the Yeti – Children’s Book Review

Posted on September 28, 2013 by Fiona Martin

Spaghetti with the Yeti is a fun, new children’s picture book from Egmont. The story follows a young boy George who is on a mission to find a yeti, taking along with him a tin of spaghetti to see if the yeti likes it.

The Spaghetti and the Yeti book is perfect to read to little ones with bright, interesting illustrations covering each page and a couple of rhyming storylines to go with it. The rhyming makes it easy to read and fun for the children to listen to. As George sets off to find a yeti, he comes across various other creatures along the way – each of which 5 yr old Miss M thought were hilarious and had her in fits of giggles looking at the illustrations. She even attempted to read the book to herself which was really good and then read it to her little brother.

We really enjoyed this book and it had a lovely ending with George finally finding a very friendly yeti and they sit down together to share his tin of spaghetti. Spaghetti and the Yeti is great entertainment for young children either during the day or at bedtime – this one has been picked for the bedtime story pile every night so far!

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.

Underpants Wonderpants – Children’s Book Review

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Fiona Martin

Underpants Wonderpants from Parragon books is a wonderfully fun story by Peter Bently and illustrated by Deborah Melmon. It’s a brightly coloured picture book about Underpants Wonderpants, a super hero dog who always comes to the rescue of people and animals wherever they may be.

I read this with 5 yr old Miss M and 2 yr old Mister B. They loved the illustrations and found plenty of things to point out. The story is quite short so kept their attention and with it’s rhyming lines it was easy to read. They found the pants on every page amusing as Underpants Wonderpants the dog used them as a “pantachute” to help the queen to the ground, as a scoop to gather water to put a fire out and as a sling to zap the aliens back to space.

This book is a fun, amusing read with full colour pages to keep children visually entertained as well as listening to the story. Mister B liked counting various objects on pages such as mice, fish and ants as well as telling me the colour of the various pairs of pants on each page! We’ve had lots of fun and giggles with it and it has become one of the bedtime stories every night this week. A great little story that’s sure to entertain any young child.

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.

#WIN – The Anagranimals and the Wishing Tree – Children’s Book

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Fiona Martin

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Following on from our review of The Anagranimals and the Wishing Tree earlier in the week, I’m delighted to offer you a signed first edition of this delightful book featuring six very ordinary animals – Heidi the Hippo, Pedro the Pig, Lancelot the Lion, Ebenezer the Elephant, George the Giraffe and Rocky the Rhino.

Their amazing adventure takes them on a journey that ends up with them exchanging parts of their body for their favourite animals body parts, transforming them into weird and wonderful new creatures.

To win your own signed copy, simply fill in the form below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway
UK entrants only

The Girl with a Brave Heart – Barefoot Children’s Book Review

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Fiona Martin

The Girl with a Brave Heart by Rita Jahanforuz is a hardback book from Barefoot Books that is set in Tehran. Illustrated throughout, this is a lovely quality book with a fairly lengthy story aimed at children aged 4-10 years. My daughter is 5 and I felt this as a lovely length to read to her but not too long that she got bored.

If I’m really honest I’m not sure I would have given the book a second look from the front cover but I sat down with Miss M to read it one evening and I have to say I was very surprised by the story inside and how much we both enjoyed it. It’s about a young girl Shiraz who lives with her stepmum and stepsister and is made to do all the housework. Then one day she drops a ball of wool over the terrace into the neighbour’s garden. After knocking on the door, an old lady asks her to do a number of jobs before returning the wool. Shiraz sees through the old lady’s requests and does the job she feels is right rather than exactly what she asks. As a reward for this she gets to jump in a pool that makes her look as beautiful on the outside as she feels on the inside.

Her stepsister tries for the same results without success and the moral of the story is ‘When people are sad, they do not always know how to ask for what they need’

I found this story totally enchanting and both 5yr old Miss M and myself really enjoyed it. We have read it several times and found the storyline to be fast moving which really helped maintain interest and eagerness to find out what happened next. With it’s traditional feel and values to be learnt, I think this is a great book for young girls to read.

We loved the storyline of The Girl with a Brave Heart and it’s a book that we’ll read again and again.

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.

Barefoot Books – childrens CD story books

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Fiona Martin

When we were sent a selection of books from Barefoot Books I knew my children would be really pleased as they both love reading and are constantly bringing a pile of books to my lap saying “Please read some books mummy”. The first thing that stood out about the books were the brightly coloured covers along with the high quality shiny pages. These books definitely looked inviting so I couldn’t wait to take a look inside. The three large picture story books are a lovely size with lots of bright, detailed illustrations throughout with the added bonus that they each include a CD tucked into a little pocket at the back of the book.

The first book we read was Little Red Riding Hood, the classic tale we all know and love from our childhood. Miss M loved this story and it is a firm favourite that she has selected each night for her bedtime stories. It’s easy to read, she roughly knew the story anyway but it is story that never fails to please. We then listened to the CD which retells the story from the book. This has proved really successful with Miss M who loves to listen to the CD when I’ve finished reading to help her drift off to sleep.

The Kite Princess is a story about Princess Cinnamon Stitch, a tomboy who doesn’t enjoy sewing and all the other usual ladylike princess activities. Instead she would rather be outdoors cart wheeling in the puddles and running around in the fresh air. But eventually she puts the sewing skills she has learnt to use and sews together lots of fabric to create a kite and goes flying off freely outside the castle. She is so happy. The story reminds me of my daughter Miss M who isn’t as girly as I thought she would be and would much prefer to be scooting down the street with the boys!! She really enjoyed reading and looking through the pictures of Princess Cinnamon. She also liked the instructions to make a kite at the end of the book and I have promised that it will be a future craft project one weekend. The CD went down very well with Miss M and this also has made it’s way to the bedtime CD pile.

Driving My Tractor immediately caught the eye of Mister B – with his love of all things on wheels, a transport theme to this book was sure to be a hit. With it’s brightly coloured pages and lots of farm animals in the pictures, it has been great to read and spot things in the pictures. Again the CD has been a hit and has been happily playing on short car journeys around town for the last few weeks. Mister B loves jigging away in his car seat to the tunes and has enjoyed reading the book when being at home.

We have all really enjoyed the selection of books we received from Barefoot Books, they are all made to a high standard and look like good quality books. The added bonus of a CD in the picture story books adds great value to the stories and takes them from just being a story book to something a child can enjoy independently. The CD’s will also be great in the car for both long and short journeys to keep the children entertained. These books would make lovely gifts for children and I know my two will enjoy the books they received for a long time yet.

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.

Sylvester and the New Year – children’s book review

Posted on November 28, 2012 by Fiona Martin

New Year is always a hard concept to get across to little ones, particularly Miss M who’s birthday falls on New Year’s day. She finds it hard to grasp the concept that her birthday is next year when it is only a few weeks away. So when I was offered to review the updated version of a traditional German tale by poet Eduard Mörike about the magical journey of Sylvester as he travels by moon horses to Earth to deliver the New Year and return the Old Year back to be rejuvenated by the River of Life, I thought it’d be a great opportunity to talk about the change from one year to another with Miss M as well as enjoying a story with lots of lovely colour illustrations.

The book is a lovely size with many more pages in it than I expected. The pages are strong and of high quality, with each one beautifully illustrated. The story is a good length too, being aimed at a child of 5+, it is neither too short or too long with just a couple of lines of text on each page ensuring the child stays focussed and interested in the story.

I enjoyed sitting down with Miss M in the evenings to read this magical tale, it is perfect for this time of year, with a festive feel to it – although Miss M did ask if Sylvester was Santa at one point with his long white beard!! It has given Miss M a better understanding of the concept that as one year goes, a new year comes in and she did enjoy the magical tale that went with it.

I think this is a really enjoyable story to sit down to read especially in the run up to New Year and has a traditional feel to it without being dated. I look forward to reading this many more times with Miss M on the run up to her 5^th Birthday at New Year!!

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Sylvester and the New Year is published by independent publishers Far Far Away. You can follow them on Facebook or Twitter.

And if you wish to purchase a hard back copy of this book for £9.99 it can be found here on Amazon.

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.

Barefoot Books for Children – Review

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Fiona Martin

When Barefoot Books sent me some books to review, I have to admit that is wasn’t a book publisher I was aware of before but after having a glance over their website, the books all appeared to be vibrant, brightly coloured and enticing so I was intrigued to see what the stories were like and how well received they would be by my two children. The Barefoot Books company was set up in 1992 by two mums, with four children between them who were looking for meaningful, creative careers hence the Barefoot Books brand was born.

The first book Clare Beaton’s Nursery Rhymes was perfectly aged for Mister B. It is a board book with really smooth, high quality finished pages containing seven well illustrated nursery rhymes.

Having read the book several times throughout the last couple of days to Mister B, he really enjoyed looking at the illustrations as we sang the rhymes to him. To try to encourage his speech and vocabulary, after each rhyme we look at the pictures and point out the various objects. He has enjoyed listening to the nursery rhymes, making the relevant animal noises as we come across them in the pictures and is happy to sit looking through the pages on his own. All in all a good little first nursery rhyme book.

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The next book Ruby’s School Walk was perfect for Miss M who is due to start school in September, although let’s hope her imagination isn’t quite as vivid as Ruby’s who sees witches and various beasts on her walk to school. This book had lovely rhyming verse throughout as well as the repeated phrase “I must be brave, I must be strong” appearing at the end of each section.

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The final book we reviewed is The Real Princess – A Mathemagical Tale. This was a very interesting and different style of book to the usual princess tales out there. The story included many number references, e.g. The king and queen had 1 butler, 2 footmen, 3 maids, 4 horses, 5 grooms, 6 dogs, 7 gardeners, 8 chimney sweeps etc. The story is about the king and queen’s 3 sons who are on the look out for a genuine princess to marry. They go about this by the queen getting them to sleep on a huge pile of mattresses with a number of peas underneath – in a similar fashion to the classic Princess and the Pea fairytale but written in a modern & quirky style.

This book was a good grown up book for Miss M, which she needs to move forward from the simple Peppa Pig style short stories she has loved over the last couple of years. She enjoyed the brightly coloured illustrations and loved counting and pointing out the references to numbered items that appeared through the book. I love the educational aspect to the book as Miss M is totally oblivious to the learning side of the book, and if she is too tired then we can just concentrate on the story.

There is an unusual little twist at the end of the book with a double ending which Miss M was fascinated by and a Test Your Counting Skills page of questions at the end where you have to go back and find number related answers to questions throughout the book – a great little extra.

But the best surprise which I hadn’t noticed on first picking up the book was that there is a story CD included with the book. This was perfect as Miss M loves listening to her story CD’s when mummy and daddy have finished the bedtime reading. The story can either be listened to alone or you can follow the words on the pages in the book.

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The Barefoot Books website is not only an online shop to purchase books but contains some excellent digital content to entertain your children. These include storytime podcasts and animated videos featuring some of the best of Barefoot Books. There are also activity pages to print out containing puzzles, colouring sheets, children’s recipes and even themed party ideas!

I hope you get to read a Barefoot Book soon and enjoy them as much as my family have. Their bright, colourful illustrations are a winner with children and keep them entertained why you read the stories. There are a huge variety of titles on offer at Barefoot Books covering all ages and subjects as well as puzzles, finger puppets and more… Be sure to check them out soon.

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.