Muddypaws’ New Friends – Picture Book Review

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Fiona Martin

Muddypaws is a dog belonging to a young boy called Ben. When Ben attends school he leaves Muddypaws at home, until one day when Ben takes Muddypaws to puppy school for the day. This is a delightful story from Parragon books that teaches about friendship and having fun.

With beautiful lifelike illustrations, the pages are engaging to look at and my children enjoyed looking at was going on as they listened to the story. Muddypaws gets to make new friends at puppy school as well as learning new doggy skills, which with perseverance and encouragement from his friends he finally masters.

This is a cute story of friendship and shows the support and fun of having friends, both new and old. My children both enjoyed listening to this story, Miss M even took a turn of reading it out loud to Mister B. A great story for animal lovers.

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the book in order to write the review.

Orion Children’s Books – Nanny Fox & Do you speak English Moon?

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Fiona Martin

Orion books publish a wide range of books for children, something to appeal to all ages. I’ve always found their books to be of an excellent quality so was delighted to try a couple of their picture books with my young children, aged 5 and 3.

Nanny Fox is a delightful picture book about a fox who befriends some chickens and ends up looking after them and protecting them from other foxes including his own family who he goes against. The book is a nice length without being too long making it ideal to read to young children. My two enjoying looking at the pictures as I read the story helping them to engage with the storyline and understand what was going on. My little boy enjoyed pointing at things in the pictures and telling me what they were and they were both so pleased that the chicken’s didn’t get caught and eaten in the end. The book displays lots of good messages about looking after others and caring for them and shows that friends can come from any background but still enjoy each others company.

Do You Speak English Moon? is a hardback picture story book written by Francesca Simon (also author of the Horrid Henry books) and illustrated by Ben Cort. This book is about a little boy asking questions to the moon to see if it does normal everyday things like he does. It’s simplistic but has plenty to engage with. For me the illustrations really make the book as they really encourage little minds to expand on the simple questions being asked to the moon. There are lots of images that 3 yr old Mister B spotted that lit up his eyes like dinosaurs, pirates, big swirly ice creams giving us lots to talk about. This book is written in a calming way so doesn’t over excite, making this an ideal bedtime reading book. Perfect for my three year old – he loves it!

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.