Who knew cookies were so grouchy? And who knew you could fall head over heels for an angry, snippy chocolate chip cookie? When his roommate won't stop playing her recorder, his favourite toothpaste has run out, and his haircut goes all wrong, Cookie finds his anger tricky to cope with. So he kind of loses it. *Deep breaths* But maybe your little readers can find a way to cheer him up? We all know that just being there for a toddler when they are mid-meltdown is just about all you can manage. So when Cookie realises that you, the reader, are still standing by his side, he finds his clouds of anger lifting. I love this story, it makes me laugh out loud. It reminds me of the whims of toddlers, how the most insignificant things can ruin their whole day! A brilliantly unique book that is inventive and hilarious alongside vibrant illustrations, there's only one way to enjoy this book: with a cookie, of course!

When you have kids, you suddenly find yourself talking about sleep a whole lot. How much you are not getting, how often and for how long babies are napping, do they sleep through the night (of course they don't), they finally nap for more than forty minutes and not on top of you or in a moving vehicle, they slept in their big cot, you are still sleep deprived, they sleep all night (finally - meanwhile you were up every three hours to check on them), they are cutting teeth so no one sleeps, please tell me this cycle of sleep obsession ends sometime?! I have read enough about sleep and sleep patterns to boggle my mind. But I've never enjoyed a book about sleep as much as this one. Sleep is the starring character in this brilliant new bedtime story. A little girl and Sleep visit all wonders of places and have all sorts of nighttime adventures in their happy dreams. But when they encounter a monster in a dream, what will happen? Fortunately, Sleep knows just what to do! This is such an imaginative book, with illustrations that will whisk you off into a magical world, as well as helping settle children's fears around sleep and nightmares, this is the best book on sleep you will read! As I type this, both my bairns are softly sleeping in their beds. Long may it last tonight. Zzzzzzzzz

We adore the formidable and enchanting team of Franklin and Luna. In the first book, we loved seeing them become friends and setting up their 'Flying Bookshop' showing people that dragons are to be treasured not feared. And now they are back on another adventure and this time they are flying even further! Luna and Franklin love stories and want to visit all the places that they have read about in their books, but despite copious research in their books, they just can't quite figure out where dragons come from. And at 605 years old, Franklin is so old he can't remember either. But longing to be reunited with his family, they know they have to find a way. And that sets them off on their biggest adventure yet! With a lyrical story that will enchant you, and illustrations that will bring that magic to life for readers this is a story that you will want to wrap yourself up in! Perfect autumnal storytime!

Surely this is the collaboration of the year? In children's publishing it's hard to believe that there are two bigger icons that Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo and countless other wonderful stories aside, and Helen Oxenbury the talented artist behind We're Going on a Bear Hunt, as well as many other works of picture book art! When Rabbit is confronted by "the giant jumperee" who has taken up home in his burrow, he asks his friends for help. But they are too scared by this mysterious creature to intervene, except for Mummy Frog, of course, who has a sneaking suspicion she has met this 'jumperee' before! With the elements of suspense and a mastery in building anticipation, this is surely a new classic in the making! 

Hope you like this 'quick review' format!

Kim

Disclaimer: We were sent all these books free for review purposes by the publishers. Words and opinions are my own. If you click on the title or image of the book you will be sent to amazon.co.uk using an affiliate link. This means that if you choose to purchase on amazon.co.uk, I will receive a small sum (around 20-70p per book) from amazon at no extra cost to you. I understand that you may not want to use an affiliate link, but if you like reading our blog please just think of it as a small tip for a tip-off to an awesome book. And know that your support means I can buy more books! For more information check out our 'For Our Readers' section.

We are just moving into the best season to curl up and cosy up with a good book! And we have read lots of really great books recently. I have shared our favourite Autumn stories (linked here) if you're looking for a seasonal book, so in this post I'm just sharing our 'Favourites Shelf' books. The books that we have read over and over again in the last couple of months. And as The Wee Page Turner continues to develop his own reading taste (I think he might enjoy books more than his sister as he chooses books over toys so many times a day!), I've included some of the books that he grabs out of the book basket most often alongside BookBairn's favourite books at the moment. 

Here are our most recent favourites and repeat-reads:

The Wee Page Turner is beginning to enjoy books which have more of a story to them than the simple first word/primer/baby books that we had been enjoying up until now. And don't get me wrong, those books have their place and we still read them lots but it's nice to share something that has more of a flow of a story. And these books are a great start for that! In Busy Bear Building Site by Benji Davies, Busy Bear is working on the building site and he does all sorts of things but the best part is that little fingers can use the mechanisms to keep them entertained whilst you read. These books are also super sturdy and have great illustrations (Benji Davies is one of our favourites and he wrote and illustrated The Storm Whale which BookBairn and I also love). We also have Busy Bear Racing Driver from the library at the moment and I think I will put some on his Christmas wish list. A wonderful series.

Ted has long been a favourite in our house - so much so that we have all six of the Ted books. I've written about them several times in the past (you can read the most recent one here) because we read them so often - I'm sure Bedtime with Ted by Sophy Henn was on BookBairn's favourite shelf over and over! The story has a simple premise (don't the best ones always?): it's Ted's bedtime. On each page a speech bubble shouts through "Bedtime, Ted!" and on the reverse page... "Not yet says Ted". I mean, how many parents haven't heard that phrase over and over at bedtime?! Under the full-page size flap you then see the reasons why Ted is too busy for bed: it's bath time with his penguin friends, or he's brushing his teeth with a crocodile or my personal favourite he's "jump jump jumping out the fidgets like a bouncy kangaroo." All parents will be pleased to know that he does eventually get into bed with all his animal friends and drifts off to sleep. The Wee Page Turner loves to lift the flap and reveal Ted making mischief with his friends. And of course, the illustrations are just fabulous! Bright coloured backgrounds with a few simple objects to help you identify which room of the house you are in but most of the detail is in Ted and his friends and their antics allowing little ones to make the connections between the words and the illustrations so easily! Ted is irrestible in his red and yellow wellies with his orange and turquoise bobble hat (I'll be he chose his own outfit that day!) and his animal friends are as cute and cuddly as can be.

We adore the Shifty McGifty (got to be one of my all time favourite character names) and Slippery Sam stories and Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam and the Missing Masterpiece by Tracey Corderoy and Steven Lenton has to be BookBairn's favoruite. It is a truly brilliant rhyming tale of two pooches that foil an art heist with humour galore! Tracey Corderoy has the most brilliant talent at writing rhymes without comprising wonderful storytelling (and I would love to be able to write like she does) and Steven Lenton packs so much humour into the expressions of characters and brings to life scenes that will have your little readers wanting to turn the pages to see what happens next! BookBairn truly adores these books! And finding the hidden little spider on each page - nice touch from the illustrator. Looking forward to exploring the chapter book with her now that she loves the characters so much. Shifty and Sam are a formidable team - much like their creators. If you like a crime caper - your kids will love these!

As it's getting into autumn time and we've been enjoying conker gathering, we have started to cosy up with some autumn reads. BookBairn adores the character in Tidy by Emily Gravett and we have been reading this one most bedtimes at the moment. Personally, I sympathise greatly with Pete, the badger who likes everything neat because anyone who knows me, will know I like things neat. So when all the leaves falls off the trees in Pete's forest, I completely understand why he felt the need to tidy them all away. And then I can understand that the trees look rather scrappy without their leaves on them. So they get tidied too. Until the forest becomes a concrete abyss. Badger has taken it a little bit too far. But is it too late? With humour and delightful illustrations, this is a lovely autumn read. BookBairn just loves this story so much!

Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen is a book we have been raving about since we first read it. When a terrible beast starts roaming the forest in search of tiny creatures to make a big bowl of monster soup, Billy and her Fatcat cannot let him get away with it. He's got boil in a bag bunnies, spicy mice and grated hedgehog all on his list but can Billy outwit this ferocious beast and save the inhabitants of the forest? Packed full of humour, fun illustrations and a heroine who stashes doughnuts in her hair for emergencies this is a brilliant new fable that will empower as well as make you giggle. And BookBairn loves it!

When my parents were in America last year I ordered this gorgeous doll to go with a story that I was itching to share with BookBairn, but at the time it was probably a bit long for her. But now Ada Twist Scientist by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts is not only a great read but it's one of our favourites. Ada is a might little girl with great ambition, intelligence, courage and gumption! Ada’s head is full of questions and she is endlessly curious and her efforts to answer them lead to scientific experiments. Some of which go too far, leading to her parents becoming more and more frazzled and they banish her to the Thinking Chair – what will they do with her? And the wonderful, supportive parents that they are, they join in sorting fact from fiction embracing their little scientist’s fascinations, “because that’s what you do when your kid has a passion and a heart that is true.” (This is perhaps one of my favourite lines from a picture book ever!). Written in rhyming verse, giving brilliant pacing and momentum to the story these books (there are two more picture books and now an early chapter book) really celebrate little heroines that children can look up to. The mixed media illustrations are a delight and capture the magic of what it is like to be little and to imagine and to create. They really are perfect inspirational stories for children about pursuing their own passions.

So those are our most recent favourite reads! What have you been enjoying reading recently? And if you can't wait to see our next quarterly installment of our Favourites Shelf, I always include a book or two in our monthly Little Loves blog posts!

Over the summer months I really enjoyed the beautiful weather and our new garden decking so that I could sit outside and read (it seems strange typing this now that the beautiful autumn sun is coming through the window and the wind swirls the crisp amber leaves - but oh well!). And here's what I read and a short snippet about what I thought:

These three were definitely my favourites in the series (don't ask me to choose an absolute favourite until I've re-read them all) as they had so much more than the films. I can’t believe I waited this long to read them! And now I’m sad it’s over! Maybe I should just start from the beginning again?!

A good old quick read trashy thriller! Not read a thriller in a while and this reminded me why (I don't find them all that thrilling and they can be somewhat predictable and a bit cliche!) but every so often it's fun to read something so fast paced and utter nonsense!

I really enjoyed this and loved the characters (I think Celeste Ng creates really rounded beautifully flawed characters), but it is quite a slow paced book, which I enjoy when I have lots of reading time, which I did in July with my husband working away a lot, but I know other times I would have found that a bit frustrating. I have seen some people saying recently that they just didn't get along with this book and I can see why as it's not very plot-driven. But I liked it.

I heard so many good things about this book but I just couldn’t get into it. I even downloaded the audiobook to help (which I returned - did you know you can return books on audible if you don’t like them?) but it really wasn’t that great in my opinion. It was a bit kooky and not my taste.

September