BookBairn

Blog collaboration is now live on raisingmom.ca

I cannot say how much I adore this book! It is a truly beautiful masterpiece but as it's aimed at slightly older children than BookBairn I've not managed to share it here yet. I'm delighted that Erin was happy to share it for us! The link is below!

http://raisingmom.ca/feelings-inside-heart-head-libby-walden/

Over the past few months, you will have noticed that I haven't posted with as regular frequency. We've been on holiday, we've had several winter bugs and, being pregnant, I've been using BookBairn's naps to rest up and nap. But we've still been out and having fun! We've still been readin books. So for the next few weeks, until the end of the year, I'm going to do a few flashback posts to share some of our adventures and the stories we read alongside them!

At the end of the summer, BookBairn and I went to the amazing butterfly house at our local botanic gardens. BookBairn had an absolutely wonderful time running around the hothouse (it was tropical) and pointing at all the "butters". She kept pointing to them and was utterly fascinated! Best of all was when a butterfly landed on her shirt and then on her head! She loved her "butter hat" and giggled and squealed with the kind of joy only a nearly-two-year-old can.

I thought it would be fun to read a few butterfly stories at home to relive the experience and reinforce all the words she picked up: "butter" and "cupertea" (caterpillar). We all know the ultimate butterfly book is the marvellous 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' by Eric Carle. I'm not going to say much about this one as I reviewed it some time back in one of our 'Story Book Classic' posts (you can check it out here). BookBairn is dressed as a caterpillar in the photos and was so little, it's super cute, even if I do say so myself!). Now that she is a little older she has started to enjoy the story more and it's a book we often take in the car with us and she 'reads' it as we travel. It's great for this as I know all the words by heart so I can 'read' it and drive at the same time. My favourite thing is that now she says "more more more" every time the caterpillar eats a little more.

After this, I honestly struggled to find many butterfly books and I had to consult the lovely librarians and some of my fellow picture book enthusiast friends on Twitter. Thank goodness we came up with a few but for children's story writers out there: there is a huge gap in the market here.

First we borrowed 'The Crunching Munching Caterpillar' by Sheridan Cain and Jack Tickle from the library and it has been such a brilliant read. It is most certainly a 'very noisy picture book' as the cover suggests and each page has a red and yellow button to press making a noise related to that part of the story. Unlike many noisy books these buttons are printed on the page and the corresponding buttons are tucked in the back cover pages meaning that the book isn't as heavy and cumbersome as other noisy books although it also means you need to have the pages aligned and sometimes BookBairn has found pushing the buttons quite tricky. This book tells the story of a little caterpillar who in between sleeping and munching on leaves he meets fellow beasties and creatures all of whom can fly and he dreams of having wings too. Of course one night he has a very long sleep and more dreams of flying and when he wakes up, like magic, he is a marvellous winged butterfly. I'll be honest, I only borrowed this book because we went to see the butterflies and I wanted to read some stories with BookBairn about butterflies. But this book has become a favourite of BookBairn's. She particularly enjoys pressing the button to hear the birds singing "tweet tweet" - a word that she had not learned before; and she has also picked up the word "munch" when asked "what does a caterpillar do?" she replies with "munch"! It's been a great little learning tool for us which is exactly what I was looking for. I will be looking out for others in the series.

I also picked up 'Butterfly: a book of colour' by Petr Horacek after it was recommended to me by some fellow book bloggers. I had heard lots about Petr's work but never before read any of his books myself so I was particularly intrigued. This book is a delightful story of a little girl who spends one day playing with chasing a butterfly (a bit like BookBairn at the Botanics) and then spends all of the next day searching for the butterfly to play with again, encountering some other creepy crawlies on the way. This is a fab book for introducing little ones to the names of beasties and with it's die-cut-outs its great for little fingers to explore. The illustration in this book is quite unusual, though in some ways it reminds me of the Very Hungry Caterpillar, and uses a bright bold palette of colours with tonnes of layering and detail. It's somewhere between a sketchbook of drawings and a collage of watercolour paintings and for some might be a bit 'manic' in it's style. Personally I find some of the pages a bit too busy and wonder if BookBairn might struggle to focus on any particular element at a time. What she does love is the huge pop-up butterfly on the final pages! It is such a treat! And a spectacular surprise. For me I love the little girl's ladybird dress as it makes me think back to BookBairn dressed as a ladybird for a friend's party

. This is a beautiful book with lovely elements and in some ways the crazy colours remind me of the Botanics with all those butterflies floating around. And of course with a pop-up butterfly at the end this story really does feel like you are surrounded by fluttering butterflies as you read.

If you know of any other great butterfly stories it would be lovely to hear from you!

And if you get a chance I would highly recommend visiting a butterfly house with your little ones. It's seriously magical! I think next year we might get caterpillars and watch them transform into butterflies before setting them free in our garden. Now that would be magic!

Thanks for fluttering by,

Mummy and BookBairn xx

Click on the images above to find these books on amazon.co.uk

*This post contains Affiliate links.

I recently received some awesome books in the post that I'm going to sneakily hide away for Daddy BookBairn's Christmas (Daddy, if you're reading this... stop!) and several people have asked me about them so I though I would do a review of them! Please bear in mind these were not intended for BookBairn and aren't really suitable for her age group so, there won't be any photos of her reading them I'm afraid.

These books are for Star Wars fans! If you have a little one that you are keen to get into Star Wars, it might be worth considering the Star Wars Epic Yarns series by Jack and Holman Wang (you can find them here). I haven't read these myself but I love their Cozy Classic series, which BookBairn and I reviewed earlier this year and if the Star Wars ones are as good they would be great for toddlers and little readers.

The Star Wars series I got for Daddy BookBairn is by Jeffrey Brown and is a series of books that compile comic style cartoons of those heroes that you know and love from the films. But in this re-imagining Dart Vader is the devoted father to young Luke and Leia who, like most children, get up to mountains of mischief whilst their dad (unlike most dads) is trying to take over the galaxy.

I originally got a copy of 'Vader's Little Princess' for Daddy BookBairn as a joke and it is a hilarious book, but it is definitely a book that will appeal to Star Wars Fan Dad's of Little Princesses. So I was surprised to find that the two books included in this box set would appeal to Star Wars fans of (almost) all ages! I only say almost because younger readers will not get all of the jokes and would need a reasonable familiarity with the films and characters to 'get it' but for kids (big and small!) who love Star Wars, these books would make a great Christmas gift! The box set I received is a special edition gift set which included two books - 'Goodnight Darth Vader' and 'Darth Vader and Friends' - as well as two exclusive art prints which are presented inside a lovely illustrated envelope, all inside a beautiful box!

A video posted by BookBairn and Mummy (Kim) (@bookbairn) on Nov 12, 2016 at 4:17am PST

A video posted by BookBairn and Mummy (Kim) (@bookbairn) on Nov 12, 2016 at 4:16am PST

As you can see from the videos above, I thought it would be easier to show you inside these books so you can really get a feel for them, the illustrations are funny, colourful and packed full of details from the Star Wars franchise. I love the cute and quirky take on young Luke and Leia - and little Chewbacca is just adorable! Darth Vader is the doting dad whose children run rings around him, even though he can command the Death Squadron without a second thought. Does this ring bells for anyone else? Daddy can don a suit and commands his office but just can't resist the "one more story" pleas from his little princess!

I also particulary adore the fact that one of the special edition prints is of Darth Vader taking little Luke, Leia, boyfriend Han and Chewbacca to the library! It's a perfect blend of passions from our house! The books in this box set are a larger format, which makes them perfect for sharing with your little jedis!

Simply, a great gift for dads and little jedis alike!

Love Mummy Vader x

Find the Box Set and the rest of the series clicking the image above. *This contains Affliate links.

*DISCLAIMER* I was given our book for free for review purposes, however, all words and opinions are my own.

November marks several celebrations in the bookish world - it's Picture Book Month, Non-Fiction November, and for those writers out there it's NaNoWriMo! As you can imagine, Picture Book Month is the one that has most grasped mine and BookBairn's attention and for those of you who have been following us for over a year, you will know that last year we celebrated with a new picture book every day. Last year I wrote that Picture Books are imprtant because the create a magical worldfilled with words, art and adventure that can be shared from generation to generation (read more here).

And in a year, I have seen the value of these words all the more. BookBairn can now join in with the storytelling: she remembers key words from familiar stories, discusses the illustrations and enjoys choosing books to read. Books really do create a little kind of magic.

And along with a group of fellow picture book enthusiasts I have volunteered to write about some of our favourite books on certain of the themed days. (If you follow us on Twitter you will see I have shared their posts too).

So yesterday was 'Pirate' day and I shared this photo of two great pirate books on our social media. These two books by Jonny Duddle who wrote the popular 'Jolley Rodgers' series which have just been released in board book and they are brilliant!

'The Pirates Next Door' is a hilarious tale of a family of pirates who move into a suburban street, much to the neighbours dismay! They simply don't fit in - on the street, at school, at the dentist! But these pirates are used to this sort of unfriendly reception and when they leave they leave behind a treasure hunt apology for the neighbours. And in the end the neighbours realise that pirates maybe aren't so bad after all.

'The Pirate Cruncher' is not for the faint-hearted! A less-friendly band of pirates take to the high seas in search of treasure (of course) but what they find takes them by surprise. The treasure island is no island at all! It's an evil sea-monster who lures the pirates right on to the tip of it's nose before... well, it's not called 'The Pirate Cruncher' for nothing!

These books are both filled with fantastic and detailed illustrations with multiple illustrations on some pages making them seem more like a comic book than a picture book. There are also many speech bubbles which is a great introduction to little readers following speech throughout the story. As you can imagine, these books are aimed at readers older than BookBairn and whilst she has enjoyed looking through them she has yet to sit through the entire story. So we enlisted a little help from her older (he's six) nearly-cousin to share his review of 'The Pirates Next Door': his favourite part is when the pirates hand out the gold to all the neighbours and his dad finds it funny that the old gets golden headphones! Clearly a book that appeals to many generations! These books are both brilliant for your little pirates but I would recommend 4+ age (ish - I don't really like age brackets on books, after all we like what we like but sometimes it helps) or at least children who are able to sit through a slightly lengthier story and enjoy more detailed illustrations.

As part of the Picture Book Month collaboration, I also intended to share a craft but unfortunately I haven't been able to as BookBairn has been struck down with yet another winter bug. I will update this once she is back on form and capable of gluing and sticking!

What Picture Books are you enjoying this month? I'm also looking for recommendations for Non-Fiction November for really little readers. I find that non-fiction for toddlers is mostly early word primers but would love to hear recommendations of great non-fiction for younger ones.

Happy Reading,

Mummy and BookBairn

*DISCLAIMER* We requested a selection from this series of books from the publisher and received these books in response. All words and opinions are, as always, my own.

Click on the images above to find these books on amazon.co.uk

*This post contains Affiliate links

It's that very spooky time of year again and BookBairn has been enjoying the Halloween fun! We've been embracing pumpkins by playing with miniature pumpkin pots and conkers (chestnuts) counting them as she plays; painting pumpkins, creating Halloween sticker pictures and getting all dressed up for Halloween parties. Just the big night tomorrow to go out guising (trick or treating).

And, of course, we've been reading some spooky books to get in the mood! I bought a bundle of new books for BookBairn this Halloween but I will be completely honest with you: she prefers reading the ones from last year! We've read Spooky House countless times and Boo! just makes her giggle galore! To read our previous reviews click here and here. But that's not to say she hasn't been spooked by her new reads too!

I absolutely adore the BabyLit books by Jennifer Adams and Alison Oliver and when I saw that they had classic dark horror stories I couldn't resist! Unfortunately I couldn't get 'Dracula' in our local bookshop and it was going to be delivered after Halloween if I ordered online so I picked out 'Frankenstein' instead and it has been a brilliant read! Like all the BabyLit books this a vocabulary primer based around a classic text and is as much fun for adults as it is with children! BookBairn has certainly enjoyed this one in particular as she is loving singing "head, shoulders, knees and toes" at the moment. Each page introduces a new part of the body and the opposite page builds it onto the Frankenstein character. Alison Oliver has again done an incredible job of making complicated literary texts accessible to little readers through irresistible illustrations that are less monstrous and appropriately adorable for the young audience! Another fantastic addition to our collection!

Another great Halloween primer book that we have been reading is 'Halloween ABC' by Jannie Ho. An alphabet of all things Halloween: perfect for introducing little readers to the idea of Halloween and the season! BookBairn has enjoyed flipping through these pages and has learned lots of new words like "ghostie", "pumpkin" and "witch". A great little vocabulary-builder. The illustrations in this book are more treat than trick with cute monsters, silly zombies and smiley bats. Perfectly-pitched for toddlers and little ones (or for grown-ups who spook easily). As this is an alphabet book, it is limited in holding BookBairn's attention as she already shows a preference for stories and has moved on from primer books for the moment (not that it stops me from buying them of course!). Instead, I gave her charge of turning the pages and we started a simple game of "can you find ...?" which was great fun!

A video posted by BookBairn and Mummy (Kim) (@bookbairn) on Oct 12, 2016 at 12:39pm PDT

We've also been reading 'The Haunted House' by Kazuno Kohara (who wrote and illustrated 'The Midnight Library' which is one of BookBairn's repeat library borrows!). Illustrated using only orange, black and white, this book is a perfect Halloween tale. A little girl moves into a new house to discover that it is haunted! But this little girl isn't just a little girl, she's a witch and she knows just what to do with the ghosts. First she catches them and wrangles them into the washing machine! Of course, the washing machine - why didn't I think of that?! And then she hangs them out on the washing line. Finally, she puts them to new use as tablecloths, blankets and curtains. What a sweet story! And perfect for putting any little minds to rest about how to deal with ghosts. BookBairn loves counting the ghosties on the page and it would make great inspiration for older ones artwork. I love the strong colour contrasts and bold lines that are typical of Kohara's illustrations and this is just perfect for Halloween!

Finally, a book I couldn't resist but it turns out it was more for me than for BookBairn! 'Boo! Haiku' by Deanna Caswell and Bob Shea is a book filled with Halloween haikus (a style of Japenese poetry) set in the for of riddles. Each page shares a three line poem describing a typical Halloween character and the idea is you guess the solution before turning the page to reveal a cute and colourful illustrated solution. Such a great way to use the page-turn to interact with readers! This is a brilliant book and would make a great teaching resource but, unfortunately, it's not for BookBairn yet. It's a little too complicated for a toddler and perhaps I should have read the description more carefully before ordering. However, I really enjoyed it. And I can save it for future Halloweens!

Hope you all have a spooky Halloween tomorrow night! And I promise to share some pictures of Spook-Bairn all dressed up back here later this week! *UPDATE* BookBairn had a great time as a little witch and she enjoyed the sweeties even more!

Happy haunting!

Mummy and Spook-Bairn xx

One of the best things about writing this blog is that we get lots of lots of book parcels in the post and if you have seen our Instagram account or read our post 'Stalking the Postman' you will know how much BookBairn loves to run to the door and collect the parcels, even the heavy ones, and drag them to open. Today she had a lovely moment as I spotted the postman walking towards the house and we ran to greet him. She took the parcel and politely said "ta" and I really hope that she made his day, because the post definitely brings BookBairn much joy.

But you can share this 'book post' joy with your little ones as there are now some new and fantastic book subscription services available in the UK. I have long been jealous of some of the subscription boxes available in Australia and the US but the postage is just extortionate. But now I'm delighted that we can join the fun in here too!

The Little Reading Club

Now, before we go into saying much about this subscription service, can I just say how amazing the packaging is? What little kid (or big kid) could resist the bright shiny red padded envelope! Anyway, not to be distracted by shiny things...

This service provides a monthly delivery of three books based around a specific theme for the month. I was concerned about joining any subscription services as we have quite a lot of books already and are sometimes sent new books by publishers before their release, which made me concerned about duplication. But of the books we received we only got one doubler and it's so good I'm going to re-gift it anyway. The three books chosen in the 'friendship and kindness' theme are beautiful, funny and sweet.

Firstly, 'Have you Seen Elephant?' by David Barrow is a cute and funny story about an elephant who wants to play hide and seek, but, of course, being an elephant, he's not very good at hiding. The little boy plays along nonetheless. It also has an adorable ending featuring a tortoise who wants to play chase! 'Grandad's Island' by Benji Davis is one that I have had my eye on for a while and it didn't let me down. A magical tale about a little boy who goes on an adventure with his grandad to find a beautiful tropical island, reminiscent of the old man's adventure in the Disney film 'Up!' When Grandad decides to stay, the story beautifully, softly and subtly, shows us that no matter how far away the people we love are, we still hold them close in our hearts. Yes, it's a tear-jerker. And Benji Davis's illustrations are wonderful! Adorable characters, bright and colourful scenery and tropical animals for BookBairn to spot - this is a perfect combination of beautiful storytelling and magical artwork. The final book in the parcel was 'The Smartest Giant in Town' by the dynamic duo Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Written in Julia Donaldson's trademark style mixing fabulous prose and rhyme, the book tells the story of George the giant who wants to be the smartest giant in town. But as it turns out he's not that smart. But he stumbles through and find himself a new, more appropriate title, the kindest giant in town. And paired with Axel Scheffler's illustrations it is a delightful tale!

To add a little sparkle to this book service (as if the envelope wasn't sparkly enough), alongside a list of the book titles and why they were chosen, is a little gift and activity for wee bookworms. As this month's theme was 'friendship' we were given two started friendship bracelets one labelled with BookBairn's name and another to give to a friend. Perhaps not the easiest for little fingers still developing their fine motor skills but I finished the bracelets for her and she can now share with her bestie.

The Little Reading Club have several subscription options available to view on their website here.

The Happy Book Club
The Happy Book Club is more than just a book subscription box - it's a rainy day lifesaver! Each month is themed and includes two books with a huge suggestions of activities included too. We received their 'Imagination' themed box and what an absolute delight it was! You can see BookBairn enjoying collecting it below!

A video posted by BookBairn and Mummy (Kim) (@bookbairn) on Oct 3, 2016 at 7:35am PDT

Firstly, the books: this parcel included two wonderful books - one of which I have wanted for a while, and another of which I hadn't even heard of. 'The Wonder' by Faye Hanson is the magnificent story of inside a little boy's imagination. Simply using a muted colour palette for the 'real world' in contrast to the spectrum of colours used in his imagination, Faye Hanson beautifully crafts a story about what it is like inside the mind of a child. You could pour over these illustrations for hours. Also included in the box was 'Use You Imagination' by Nicola O'Byrne where a wolf and a rabbit make up a truly ridiculous story as they go along. This makes me think of trying to encourage children to write stories at school as they come up with the strangest and most brilliant ideas when telling stories! Bright and colourful with a huge pull-out spread at the end, this is a delightful and imaginative book that will encourage little readers to make up stories of their very own.

Also included in The Happy Book Club parcel was a little brown paper bag packed with crafty bits like pipe cleaners, lollipop sticks, pop poms and feathers to create whatever your heart, or imagination desires. Perfect for a rainy day! The newsletter included as has a long list of activity suggestions to help explore your children's imagination as well as a competition based on the crafts. One of the other lovely things that makes this subscription service stand out is that every month they donate a proportion of every delivered package to a charity, which changes monthly.

The Happy Book Club have several subscription options as well as a special Christmas Book Package that would make a great gift for little bookbairns. You can find their website here.

So a great choice of services for little bookworms! These subscription services would make great gifts for Christmas as the children get to enjoy the magic of a monthly parcel in the post just for them!

BookBairn is certainly awaiting the postman's arrival tomorrow, let's hope there is a parcel in the post for her!

Love Mummy and BookBairn xx

*Disclaimer* We received both of the book subscription services free for one month in exchange for sharing on our social media and writing an honest review. The words and opinions are my own. To read more about my review policy click here.

Our Autumn/Halloween Favourites Shelf

I'm going to start today's post by apologising - I haven't been a very consistent blogger recently and I've missed it. But I have struggled with concentrating to write posts that I'm happy sharing, we have been away on holiday, BookBairn caught Hand Foot and Mouth and was incredibly poorly and then last week I caught tonsillitis and was stuck in my bed. However, we are all on the mend. And we have lovely, happy news to share.

BookBairn is going to be a big sister. I'm thrilled to be expecting another baby BookBairn. And I hope you will forgive me for being a bit preoccupied recently. But I am now feeling better and have my full blogging faculties back! I have tried to keep you up to date on some of our recent bookish moments on our social media pages which can be found here:

So I thought I would start by updating you all on some of the books we've been reading from our Favourites Shelf.

First Stories: Jungle Book by Miriam Bos
This was one of the books that we took away on holiday with us (you have no idea how difficult I found it to take only a small selection!). But this one really captured her imagination and she became quite obsessed with the page featuring a waterfall as we had seen these when out on some walks on holiday. We had also watched some scenes from the film and she really enjoyed seeing the elephants marching so she also liked to find the elephant illustration and stomp her feet. This series of books, by a variety of illustrators, are short but incredibly cleverly constructed so that little ones can really play with the mechanisms and they are super-sturdy. We've had ours for nearly a year and there is no sign of wear and tear at all! To see our full review of the series click here. (Also, at time of writing these books are on a super deal on amazon.co.uk at the moment for only £2.99 so would make a great stocking filler for little ones at Christmas. Sorry, I don't normally advertise but this is such a good deal that I had to share!)

Together by Emma Dodd
If you read the blog regularly you will know that I adore the stories by Emma Dodd (in fact, they are the books that I wish I had written!) and 'Together' is no exception! This is a lovely story about a parent and baby otter who spend all the day together playing, learning, enjoying. It's truly beautiful. BookBairn really enjoyed reading this one a lot whilst we were away and when I picked it out to take a quick snapshot for this post she wanted to read it again and again. She really enjoys the page of the otters swimming and blowing bubbles and chasing each other along the beach. These stories by Emma Dodd make a fantastic gift for new babies and parents will enjoy reading them as much as little ones do! Great for re-reading over and over again! To see some photos from Together click here.

Books Always Everywhere by Jane Blatt and Sarah Massini
You will no doubt be able to tell from the title that this book is sort of a motto for our life! BookBairn really enjoys reading this one and she is beginning to use the rhyming couplets to be able to join in with reading the story. She also likes to revisit the page 'book park' with the swings and 'book sunny' which has a little girl reading on the beach! These are two of her favourite activities so she no doubt enjoys them for that reason. She also joins in with reading the last page "books always everywhere!" which makes me smile! Read our full blog post here.

Boo! by Jonathan Litton and Fhiona Galloway
It's just getting into that spooky season so I thought I should dig out some of the Halloween books that I read with BookBairn last year and she loves them! She has re-named this book "peek boo" when she wants to read it because she enjoys peeking through the die-cuts to see what's coming next. She also likes to poke her fingers back through the holes and thinks it's hilarious if you tickle her from the other side. This is such a cute Halloween book and introduces some of the key words associated with Halloween. To see cute little BookBairn peeking through this one a year ago, click here, and honestly - she's too cute in these photos!

Spooky House by Roger Priddy
Another spooky book we've been enjoying again is 'Spooky House' which is jam-packed with lift-the-flaps on every page. BookBairn loves exploring through the haunted house, lifting all the flaps to discover the spooky goings-on as the characters prepare for their Halloween party. She particularly giggles at finding the gremlin in the toilet! Perhaps slightly spookier and less cute than 'Boo!' this is a great introduction to some of the scarier characters of Halloween without frightening little ones. Read our full review here.

Hope you've enjoyed reading about our favourite books of the moment. I'll aim to update this list once every six weeks or so, so keep an eye out for changes to our favourites list.

Mummy and BookBairn xx

*This post contains Affliate Links.

I know things have been rather quiet here recently. Between sickness bugs (plural) and a holiday I've found that I've not had a huge amount of time to blog. We have still found lots and lots of time to read. And in fact I had to take a library of books with us on our holidays to keep little miss BookBairn happy. If you've missed our blog posts, I apologise - hopefully we are over the bugs and I'll have a bit more time to write again. I have still managed to keep our Instagram account up to speed with our latest book post and some favourites so if you want to see what we've been up to please pop on over and peruse!

Anyway, back to the books...

Last week was 'Banned Books Week' - a concept that I find wholly bizarre. Who's out there banning books? Surely they are there to push boundaries, expose truths, comment on society and challenge our thinking. Last year, BookBairn and I enjoyed reading 'The Family Book' by Todd Parr and reviewed it on the blog. This year, I discovered another controversial family book that I just love!

Celebrating it's tenth year, 'And Tango Makes Three' by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell with illustrations by Henry Cole, is based on the true story of two male penguins who raised a chick in te New York Central Park Zoo. And apparently, even ten years on, this book is still one of America's 'most complained about books'.

Roy and Silo do everything a normal penguin couple do: the bow to each other, they walk together, the sing to each other, and swim alongside each other. They even copy the other penguins and build a nest together. What they can't have is an egg to sit on. Part of the role of male penguins is that they sit of the eggs, often for months, waiting for the female to return with food, but Roy and Silo are denied this role due to the biological restrictions of being a male-male penguin couple. They watch on as the other penguin couples take turn sitting on their eggs and watching them hatch. Roy and Silo sweetly try sitting on a pebble hoping that will do the trick but alas no baby penguin hatches. Having watched all this going on Mr Gramzay, the penguin keeper has an idea: he gives them an abandoned egg to look after. Roy and Silo take turns sitting on the egg until one day they hear a "peep, peep, peep". They have their very own baby whom Mr Gramzay names Tango (after all it takes two to make a Tango!). Roy and Silo sing for her, feed her, snuggle her. Tango is the only penguin in the zoo to have two daddies!

What a delightful story! This is such a heart-warming tale that shows that all you really need to make a family is love. It is a beautiful story made all the sweeter for the fact that it is based on real penguins whose story you can read about in the author's note at the end. The illustrations in this book are delicate, using a simple colour palette featuring mainly blues and browns for the zoo landscape and soft black, white and grey for the penguins. Roy and Silo are such sweetly expressive little penguins it's hard not to fall for them. Given that this book is based on a true story, the penguins featured are Chinstrap Penguins rather than some of the more familiar breeds which makes this book all the more unique.

We all know that life is rarely simplified into black and white, and is more of a fuzzy (fluffy) shades of grey and to simplify this book into 'inappropriate' or 'banned' seems, to me, to be as equally simple-minded.

In my previous post about Banned Books I said that I wanted BookBairn to know that "not all families are the same and that's ok." I couldn't re-write this any better.

Love and Happy Reading from our unique family to yours,

Mummy and BookBairn xx