Every now and then we stumble across a book which is so brilliant that you wonder how you didn’t know it existed.

This book is one of them – though you could be forgiven knowing nothing about it as it’s only available in the Netherlands  (where it originates from) and Australia & New Zealand (who have an English translation) from what I can gather – a UK release may be due next summer. We only found out about it as H’s nanna in Australia saw a good review, so bought it for us.

Did you love Bagpuss? If so, then you’ll probably love Mouse Mansion. The stories aren’t that similar, but there’s a common feel to them. The Mouse Mansion was created by Karina Schaapman for this book. The mansion is made from cardboard boxes and papier-mache and has over a hundred rooms, corridors and outdoor spaces. Inside the house Karina used fabrics from the 50s, 60s and 70s plus waste material. The mice that live within were also designed by Karina and the stories came about as each different room was being built, with Sam and Julia taking the lead.

It’s a beautiful book. I feel like you only see a fraction of what’s in the house – and looking at this picture it’s likely you do. There’s seventeen short stories on each page (I’m wishing H wasn’t getting this for Christmas as Julia gets chickenpox in one) and beautiful images to go with it all taken from the house.

Here’s a picture of the full house taken from the official Mouse Mansion blog:

The book was originally published in 2011, with the Australia/NZ edition in 2012. Truly, if you love your stories to be cute and sweet and normal classic stories, you’ll almost certainly love this. I have no idea who is bringing the book out over here, but when I do I’ll update. Penguin are bringing it out in the UK in Summer 2013

But now, sadly, I have to wrap it up. H is one lucky girl this Christmas getting a book as lovely as this.

We were sent ‘When I Dream Of Christmas’ a while back, though have only recently started to read it nightly – it’s a perfect book for bedtime, short and silly funny facts about Christmas which make H laugh. Her favourite at the moment is the stockings page – things like smelly socks seem to be extremely funny for a three-year old!

I really like the illustrations – there’s lots going on in every picture, as well as extra bits to count if you fancy staying on a page a bit longer (how many snowflakes? Count the baubles? How many trees? And so on) – and silly facts “Mistletoe is best avoided if your grandad likes eating onions and has a tickly moustache” (which I changed to daddy, so H nearly fell off her chair laughing).

Do you have an iPod, iPad or iPhone? You can currently get the eBook of ‘When I Dream of Christmas’ for free (check before you click in case it is charged again and my link is out of date) at the App Store, so you can even try before you buy!

When I Dream of Christmas is written by Oakley Graham and illustrated by Patricia Yuste. The book costs £5.99 and is available from Amazon or Top That Publishing, plus all good book stores.

I can see this being a book we’ll read every Christmas for a good few years – and H loves announcing each page as we get there. She also loves the cover as “it’s all sparkly!” – a winner in our house!

We were sent this book to review, all opinions are our own.

It is probably no great surprise that our three-year old is a big fan of Justin Fletcher (MBE) given that I have yet to come across an under 5 who isn’t. Given that, the arrival of the annual was met with some (read much) joy in our house.

It’s a good annual as well. Combining decent stories (for younger children) with activities that can be both with parents and without and the ubiquitous stickers that seem to be the gold standard of any pre-schooler these days, the annual has been in play for a few weeks and is far from exhausted as yet. That, to me, tells you all you need to know about the content and quality.

If your children are fans of any of Justin’s many guises they will find something familiar in here. More than that they will find dot to dots that encourage counting and number recognition, tableau for stickers that encourage spatial awareness and compositional skills and a host of colouring in options.

Justin’s Annual 2013 is available now from Amazon and all good booksellers!

Hey, is that the first mention of the dreaded C-word on here? It’s that time of year again, and if you’ve a child around H’s age (3) then these books may be ideal!

Froobles First Words is a nice simple book – and included are a set of magnetic letters – and a little sentence about each Frooble. Now, I’ve heard of the name Froobles though haven’t come across them yet properly – so this is a fun place to start. At the top of each page is a magnetic strip along with the letters greyed out – so if, like H, your little one is starting to learn to read, write and spell, this book is a really good starting point. It’s kept simple, half of the work is done for you, but H still finds it a challenge and enjoys it which to me is a good thing.

She was also quite proud when she’d put together each word – nothing was too difficult and it was perfectly suited for her age and abilities.

Definitely worth looking into –  RRP £5.99, ISBN 978-1-84956-695-7

Fuzzy Christmas is similar to the previous book, though think more along the lines of Fuzzy Felt – you’ve a Christmas story book and a little story about each page – all you have to do is find the matching felt pieces for each page and stick them on – and like Fuzzy Felt it stays.

H enjoys being creative, and this was right up her street. In fact, if she’d had her own way every felt piece would have been on the first picture – but as it was we went through it carefully and added to each scene. Again, she was quite proud of herself for getting it right and putting things in the right place – it’s a good book for the imagination, and really nice graphics too! RRP £7.99, ISBN 976-1-84956-963-7

Both books are published by TopThat! Publishing – and can be bought direct (Froobles First Words & Fuzzy Christmas)or via Amazon,

We were sent the books for review, all opinions are our own

I have to be honest and admit that I don’t read much to my 11 month old. Receiving these lovely little books was a fantastic opportunity to start our reading habit together! The books were small and durable, with thick cardboard pages to withstand a good amount of baby handling(!!). The stories were also nice and short with only about 10 words on each page, enough to hold my little one’s attention and give me a chance to talk about the lovely pictures.

What I really like is that this series of books have a regular set of soft toys that feature, with their names on the back of the book so that you get to know them. I think this is a really nice touch as one becomes familiar with the toys and this in turn gives an extra depth to the stories.

These books are £4.99 each, which I think is a reasonable price to pay, especially as places like Amazon do offers regularly. I would definitely recommend these books as I believe they make the perfect first book to share with your little one.

When We Play Together and When We Go Shopping are both available by Nick Butterworth now!

We received copies of these books for review – all opinions are our own – review by Karen

I’ve said it many times, but I really do have the fear about next September. H will turn 4 at the end of August and a week later will be starting school. I know deep down she’ll be fine, but that doesn’t stop the worry. One way I’m trying to get her (and me) used to it is by reading the right kind of books – where people have school experiences, so she can learn.

Actually, I say all this but every morning when we drive past her potential school she asks if she can go there yet, so maybe this is all about reassuring me. ANYWAY.

These are all books we love – and they’re all based around school… first up, an old favourite which we won when H painted a lovely picture of Martha Bunny, ‘Martha and the Bunny Brothers – I Love School’  by Clara Vulliamy. I’ve reviewed this in the past on one of my other blogs, but in a nutshell Martha is set for her first day at school and wants to get her bag ready – while her brothers stay at home and have their Happy Bunny Club (which you can join over at Clara’s website). It’s a really nice story and beautifully illustrated, and with another book to come in the Martha Bunny series soon, it’s perfect for preschoolers to get them used to the idea of going.

For the second book, it’s an old classic. When I found out that the Topsy & Tim books were being re-done and updated I rushed out and bought whatever I could – Topsy & Tim have done everything you could possibly need to read to your child to help them understand (chicken pox, itchy heads, gone to school…), so we have ‘Topsy & Tim Start School’ by Jean and Gareth Adamson. Topsy and Tim are a little bit modern these days too, with the new illustrations by Belinda Worsley.

Topsy & Tim start school, are a little bit scared but see lots of familiar faces, have some regular everyday things happen to them (as that’s generally what happens in a Topsy & Tim book) and there’s a minor upset which gets put right by the end (Tim couldn’t find his coat peg). That’s what I love the most about the Topsy & Tim books – they’re normal and don’t have crazy things which happen – they’re just like everyone you know. Of course there’s the little puzzle at the back of the book too!

‘Foxy – A Magical Tail’ by Emma Dodd is a lovely little book – Emily is starting school and is tucked up in bed worried she hasn’t got everything she needs. Luckily Foxy comes along with his magical tail, mis-hears everything she says she needs – for example, Emily asks for a pencil, but gets a penguin – a school bag, but gets a pirate flag and so on, until she finally worries about not being clever enough or that nobody will like her. The story has a happy ending, with Foxy letting her know she’ll make lots of friends, and amused H with the mis-hearing of Emily’s requests a lot.

Finally, our last school book is a different kind of school story, but helpful again. ‘Come to School Too Blue Kangaroo!’ by Emma Chichester Clark is about a little girl called Lily who is going to a new school (as are her friends) and they’re all a bit nervous. This is actually the eighth book in the Blue Kangaroo series, and though we’ve not come across them before now it’s not difficult to pick up what’s going on.

She takes along Blue Kangaroo, but accidentally leaves him at school overnight – and has to leave him there as school is closed. I suspect this kind of thing may happen to H at some point, so this is good preparation – and knowing that your toy will be just fine when you go back the following day.

What I like the most about these four books is how traditional they feel – proper classic stories and the kind which H really enjoys. Do you have any school related books you’d recommend? Let us know over at the Mum Friendly Group!

Martha & the Bunny Brothers – I Love School by Clara Vulliamy is published by HarperCollins Children’s books. ISBN 978-0-00-741916-6 RRP £10.99

Topsy & Tim Start School by Jean and Gareth Adamson is published by Ladybird books ISBN 978-1-40931-068-6 RRP £4.99

Foxy – A Magical Tail by Emma Dodd is published by HarperCollins Children’s Books ISBN 978-0-00-745597-3 RRP £6.99

Come to School Too, Blue Kangaroo! by Emma Chichester Clark is published by HarperCollins Children’s books ISBN 978-0-00-725867-3 RRP £10.99

I received a copy of the last book for the purpose of review, all opinions are my own. 

The Book People come to Shaun’s work quite often, and stopped by today – so we picked up the latest Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler book ‘Superworm’ for a really good price – and hardback too!

‘Superworm is super-long, Superworm is super-strong, Watch him wiggle! See him squirm! Hip, hip, hooray for SUPERWORM!’

The basic Superworm story – he helps all the local insects and is a proper superhero (and a worm), until he’s captured by the wicked Wizard Lizard. All his insect friends have a plan to free him and get him back….

Superworm is more of the fabulous rhyming, but a little more complicated than the usual books (this is a good thing, by the way) – H asked lots of questions about what was going on and enjoyed it, while generally on the first read she’ll listen. Yet again there’s fabulous illustrations, the rhymes are fun (though I struggled with Uncle Ant and earwig aunt’ – getting a bit tongue twisted), and of course there’s a happy ending.

If The Book People are due at your work, keep an eye out for this, as it’s at a really good price (better than online) – and with a rrp of £10.99 you’ve got an excellent bargain.

Superworm is published by Alison Green Books, ISBN 978-1-407132-04-4