22/09/201521/09/2015 by jo

Maggi Li – Big City Sticker Book

We are big fans of Okido Magazine, and their Art Director Maggie Li – and we were sent the Big City Sticker Book, an accompaniment book to her previous Big City Explorer book which H enjoys reading.

Big City Sticker Book is a wonderful book packed full of stickers. Anyone familiar with Maggie Li’s Big City Explorer will recognise the cities on display. It is often said that one of the best ways to keep a small person amused when you’re travelling is to get them a sticker book – so why not go one better and get one which may even feature the place you’re visiting?

As with Big City Explorer, the Big City Sticker Book has a page for each city, with stickers towards the end of the book. There are over 350 stickers, and within each page you can learn about cities of the world.

There’s also a little 4×4 Sudoko puzzle with stickers on each page – something which I know appeals to H as she recently got into doing the puzzles herself. The stickers can all be found at the back of the book – and once you’ve completed a page you can award yourself a penguin sticker to go inside the front and back covers, which is your passport.

We’ve recently been to Amsterdam, and several of the places we saw feature on the Amsterdam pages – H enjoyed identifying the buildings and placing the stickers on the correct space. I liked that it captures the buildings there perfectly – quite often I was amazed how they managed to fit it all together (some of those buildings are seriously wonky)!

Big City Sticker Book by Maggie Li has a RRP of £9.99 and is available now!

We were sent Big City Sticker Book for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own.

16/09/2015 by jo

The Isle of the Lost – A Descendants Novel

We’re Parragon Book Buddies, and received The Isle of the Lost – A Descendants Novel by Melissa de la Cruz for our book this month.

The Isle of the Lost is a prequel to the Disney Channel film ‘Descendants’ – where all of the evil villains from Disney movies are banished from the Kingdom of Auradon to the Isle of the Lost. Now, by villains, we’re talking Maleficent (which I think the ‘Maleficent’ film itself would disagree she’s a villain, but hey!), Cruella de Vil, the Evil Queen and more.

Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos are their descendants, the children of the Isle’s characters who are now coming of age. They’ve been stripped of their magical powers and now live in total isolation, forgotten by the world.

To escape from The Isle of the Lost the children must find a Dragon’s Eye, hidden in the Forbidden Fortress – but only the cleverest, nastiest villain can find it.

Lots of Disney characters make an appearance in the book, and while H started to read it, I felt the content may be a little bit grown up for her, so we’re holding off for a little bit longer (she has only just turned six). Goodreads says its approximate age guide is around age 9-12 – so while the size of the book isn’t an issue, the content might be – so I’ll be having a read first!

The start of the book was enjoyable for her, and she did read a few chapters, but again, because of her age I’m going to be checking it carefully first.

With The Isle of the Lost being a prequel, it sets up the film well – anyone who is a fan of the movie will enjoy this, and I liked all the Disney cross references too.

The Isle of the Lost is available in all good bookstores now, including Amazon (click the image below to get there – affiliate link)

We were sent this book for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own.

04/09/201504/09/2015 by jo

Carol Vorderman Workbooks

I’m always on the lookout for books which will help H at school. While her literacy and numeracy skills are way above her age, I wanted to make sure we had books on hand for her to practice when she felt like it. We were offered the chance to review some Carol Vorderman Workbooks from DK, so I put H to the test.

Carol Vorderman Workbooks from DK cover literacy and numeracy. We were sent three books to try from the range, ’10 Minutes a Day Spelling Fun’, ’10 Minutes a Day Maths’ and ‘Made Easy Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar’.

I’ve decided to break down what each of the Carol Vorderman Workbooks has inside. English Made Easy aims to boost skills by taking the timed challenges and is written and compiled by experts – award-winning editor Linda Ruggieri and Consultant, Claire White. There are over 60 pages of puzzles to work through, and each ten minute section is across two pages.

Maths Made Easy helps develop strong maths habits – its Consultant is primary school head teacher Sean McArdle who has written maths textbooks and workbooks. Again, it’s two pages per ten minute challenge and covers a wide range of numeracy puzzles with over 60 pages.

The two ’10 Minutes’ books come with a timer attached to the cover. You can pause the timer if you need to, and at ten minutes it beeps to let you know your time is up.

Spelling, Punctuation & Grammar Made Easy comes without a timer – and of the three books H preferred this one. Each challenge is still across two pages, but you get a gold star to stick when they’re completed, which possibly says more about the way she responds to this kind of work! It is fully linked to the new National Curriculum, and helps support classroom learning. I found H works through this one the quickest of the three Carol Vorderman Workbooks.

I found the puzzles were the kinds of things she has been getting for Home Learning each week, so it was familiar territory – plus her punctuation, spelling and grammar is pretty good anyway.

The Carol Vorderman workbooks from DK are a great reinforcement for subjects learnt at school, and support KS1 (and KS2 for the older titles) and are designed to help your child practice schoolwork in a fun way.

Personally, I think all three Carol Vorderman Workbooks are good additions to her learning – and it was interesting to see how seriously she took the timed books, yet how relaxed she was about the other. To find out more about 10 Minutes A Day Spelling Fun and 10 Minutes A Day Vocabulary and further education titles by Carol Vorderman, visit dk.com. You can follow DK Books on Twitter at @dkbooks

We were sent the three Carol Vorderman Workbooks for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own.

29/07/2015 by jo

The Amazing Human Body Detectives by Maggi Li

The Amazing Human Body Detectives is a new book by Maggi Li, the Art Director of the fabulous Okido magazine. We reviewed some of Maggie’s books before, as well as being Okido subscribers, so were delighted to be sent a copy to review.

The Amazing Human Body Detectives is the latest Maggi Li book from Pavilion, and is targeted at children aged 5-8, encouraging them to learn more about the human body.

In H’s case, this has become essential bedtime reading, and she’s telling me facts she has picked up from the book, which says to me she’s enjoying learning from – which is half the battle.

I know that as H is going into Year 2, they’ll be doing a lot more learning about the body, and labelling parts – this book couldn’t have come at a better time. Like Maggie Li’s last book, there is a detachable part on the cover which helps enhance the book, with additional facts. This time it’s a magnifying glass, and you’re able to remove it from the cover (keep the sticky tape to fasten it back, it doesn’t tear the cover). Each page is dedicated to an area of the body, and is packed full of facts.

My particular favourite was the section on bogies. I made H sit and read it, and then asked her lots of questions about what bogies consist of. Once I knew she was listening properly, I asked whether she’ll still be picking her nose… not any more, apparently!

H really enjoyed getting the magnifying glass out and reading the facts. I love the illustrations – we’ve been subscribers to Okido for nearly two years now, and I love their clear, simple illustrations – these books follow the same pattern, and have the same feel. Your child is going to learn by reading this book, and it’s fun (which is what learning should be about). We love it!

The Amazing Human Body Detectives by Maggi Li is available now, and has a RRP of £9.99.

We were sent The Amazing Human Body Detectives by Maggi Li for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own.

22/07/201522/07/2015 by jo

Collins Big Cat Reading Lions Books

Recently we were sent a selection of Collins Big Cat Reading Lions books. I requested Stage 5, which is aimed at 7-8 year olds. This is the independent reading at home level, which H has been for a long time. She’s also a free reader at school, and I know this is a suitable reading level for her.

The biggest issue for me was making sure the books aren’t too grown up – she is still only five. Luckily our school has a mixture of books, from Rigby Star, Oxford Reading Tree and Collins Big Cat – so we were already familiar with the range, and they were ones I preferred of the three, especially for facts. As it is, the books are absolutely perfect for H, and she read them all in an evening – and answered questions about them all when asked too.

I like that it includes Great Expectations. I can’t help wishing some of the books I had to read when I was older had been put into simpler forms then to read the fuller versions later on may have helped my understanding a little better – so was really encouraged to see this included, as I know it will help H.

We’ve done a video review. Sorry about the shade covering half of her face!

We were also sent the Collins Picture Atlas, which is lovely, bright and colourful and breaks down each continent onto several pages, with facts and pictures. With H being half Australian learning about the world is something she’s really interested in. Oh, and she hasn’t really seen millions of kangaroo’s (maybe hundreds?) here’s our video review!

The Collins Big Cat Level 5 books are targeted at Year 4 (age 7-8) and are a six book set, with three fiction books and three factual ones. There is more information on their website over here. They have a rrp of £24.00

The Collins Picture Atlas (affiliate link) is available to buy now – and hopefully you can see a few of the pages on our video, and how lovely and colourful it is. It currently retails at Amazon for £8.99.

In summary, I found both books to be ideal for H. She might only be five, but has the reading ability for the Big Cat books. The Atlas is definitely right for her age range, and had plenty on it which she enjoyed learning about. I highly recommend both!

We were sent all the books for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own.

18/06/2015 by jo

My Book of Bike Activities

B Small Publishing constantly produce books which we love – and their latest addition is another favourite in H’s collection. My Book of Bike Activities is, as the cover says ‘A Wheelie Good Book’ – targeted at older kids and full of fun activities. We were sent a copy to review.

My Book of Bike Activities is lots of fun – and has lots of different things inside. For example, spot the difference, name the bike, know your bicycle, a cycling-related wordsearch and so much more. It’s targeted at children 6 and upwards, and crucially, both boys and girls – it isn’t a gender-specific book.

With the interest in cycling at the moment, and indeed now H has worked out how to ride on two wheels, it’s perfect timing. The Tour de France is set to start again from the 4-26th July, and after last year’s visits to York which we all watched on tv, I know this kind of book will appeal to H.

That isn’t all – there are guides on how to do various cycle-related tricks, and plenty of advice (how to avoid getting a puncture – how I wish I’d had a book like that when I was H’s age).

Towards the back of the book is lots of information about various kinds of bikes from the past (and indeed, these days) – I had no idea an MTB was a mountain bike – so even I’m learning here! (Well, they do say six and upwards)

Author Cath Bruzzone is a keen cyclist, and wanted to share her love of cycling, which is why this book exists. She realised there were plenty of books for adults to read about cycling, but none for kids – so she created My Book of Bike Activities.

The final word is with H, what with it being targeted at her age group. On seeing My Book of Bike Activities she exclaimed “WOW! Is this for me?” and then sat in silence doing several of the puzzles – not completing them all, but just a little bit of each one, or using her finger to trace the bike race, so as not to spoil it a second time. It’s a book she enjoys going back to.

As a parent, I like to think of My Book of Bike Activities as being like an issue of Okido or Anorak magazine – lots of small activities and articles that will keep a child entertained, plus they’ll learn about it too. Highly recommended!

My Book of Bike Activities can be bought from Amazon (affiliate link).
We were sent a copy of My Book of Bike Activities for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own.

26/05/201519/05/2015 by jo

Busy Busy Things That Go

Busy Busy Things That Go is the latest book we’ve received as Parragon Book Buddies – and it’s loads of fun. It has 2000 stickers and activities throughout the book.

Busy Busy Things That Go is a book packed full of stickers and activities to place the stickers on. The book says :

Get ready for the biggest, busiest sticker book EVER, with 2000 stickers.

Put the scoops on the diggers and the tractors in the fields. Get the machines to the construction sitee and the trucks on the road.

Make your own big, busy scenes with all the stickers!

Essentially, this book is your world. Make of it what you will – and if you leave a book like this with a five year old like H, then you get something like this:

It’s a great book when you need your stickers to have a purpose – for me it feels like the sort of book which would have been ideal when we flew to Australia, as you don’t have a set direction to go in, you can do whatever you want with each page – it’s not like you’ll lose what you’re doing.

The stickers too – and there are many – from larger ones to small, so you need plenty of page space to fit them, and there is.

Busy Busy Things That Go is available now with a RRP of £8.00, available from all good bookstores. You can find it on Amazon over here.

We were sent a copy of Busy Busy Things That Go for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own.

19/05/201519/05/2015 by jo

Travel Back Through Time to the Land of the Dinosaurs

Travel Back Through Time to the Land of the Dinosaurs is the latest book we’ve been sent as Parragon Book Buddies, and is part of their Gold Stars range.

Travel Back Through Time to the Land of the Dinosaurs is a book packed full of facts and activities. In fact, had this been available when H started Year 1, it would have been the perfect accompaniment as dinosaurs was their Autumn Term topic. As it was, the book has only come out quite recently – but if you’re looking for something which works alongside learning, this may be your book.

As well as having facts about the dinosaurs, I really like there are sections which show you how to draw them. I have a very defeatist child when she really thinks she can’t do something and doesn’t want to try – Travel Back Through Time to the Land of the Dinosaurs has step by step instructions on how to draw various dinosaurs – exactly what a child like H needs!

Right now H is loving doing mazes and colouring, both of which are in this book – and there are plenty. While the book can’t cover all dinosaurs, it does cover the ones you’re likely to find in the school curriculum – the obvious ones. H enjoyed reading Travel Back Through Time to the Land of the Dinosaurs as she enjoys factual books quite a lot at the moment.

The illustrations are nice and bright – the fonts are clear, and the facts are fun. This book is a winner as far as my five year old goes.

Travel Back Through Time to the Land of the Dinosaurs has a rrp of £7.99 and is available now! Follow this affiliate link to buy a copy of the book here

We were sent a copy of the book for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own.

15/05/201515/05/2015 by jo

Sloth Slept On by Frann Preston-Gannon

As you may guess, we do rather like books by Frann Preston-Gannon a lot. They’re written and beautifully illustrated by the author, and the latest book Sloth Slept On is yet another fabulous book to add to our collection.

Some children find a creature in a tree in their garden, and they have no idea what it is. ‘He wasn’t like any other creature we had ever found in the garden. What was he? And where had he come from?’

The children let their imagination try to work out where this animal could have come from, the pictures are so beautifully illustrated and gave us lots to talk about alongside the story. Eventually they do find out it’s a sloth, where you get a page full of interesting facts. I quite like that a sloth sleeps for up to 20 hours a day – that would suit me nicely. It was also good to talk about what we’ve learnt.

Sloth Slept On is a great story which shows children’s curiosity and imagination – as well as them trying to help. The final seal of approval goes to H who sat reading it in her head giggling away. “this book is really funny mummy” she let me know.

So how do they get the sloth back home to where it belongs? You’ll just have to buy the book to find out – it’s available now via Pavilion Children’s Books with a RRP of £10.99. I think it would make a lovely present too.

We were sent a copy of Sloth Slept On for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own.

Special note – we were sent this book to review ages ago. I mis-placed the book and held the review until I could find it to get some decent photos. Apologies for it being so late!

20/03/2015 by jo

T-Rex Terror – A Dino Supersaurus Story!

As part of our Parragon Book Buddies we get sent a new book every month – I started out having cookery books which were fab, but found that there’s one true bookworm in our house – H. She gets through 200 page paperback books in a couple of days, and loves to read. I was excited when Parragon offered us ‘T-Rex Terror – The Supersaurus Legend Begins’ from their Dino Supersaurus range, as H has recently had dinosaurs as a topic at school and it’s something she enjoys to read about.

T-Rex Terror – The Supersaurus Legend is set out like a comic strip which makes it really appealing and fun to read – and in case you didn’t know, a Supersaurus is a cross between a dinosaur and a superhero. The book has already become one of H’s favourites.

New Dino City is a dinotropolis in dino-danger! The tyrant tyrannosaur T-Rex and his army of ninja raptors are trying to take over the city – and there’s only one thing which can stop them – The Supersaurs!

I really like that the front of the book lists the Supersaurs (and the Sinistaurs) so if you’re new to the series like we are, you get an idea of the main characters. One of H’s best friends loves the Dino Supersaurus series (and dressed as one for World Book Day) – so I know some book swapping will happen soon.

The story itself is fun, H enjoyed it and at £5.99 it’s reasonably priced too. You can buy T-Rex Terror from all good bookstores and Amazon too.

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