December has been in some ways a wonderful month and in others it was... hard. All four of us had stomach bugs at one time or another this month, and our beloved pet bunny passed away so by the end of the month I was glad it was 2019 and we could start afresh. But Christmas eve, day and boxing day were absolutely magical. The build of excitement for BookBairn was a delight to watch and when she woke up on Christmas morning and enjoyed her presents it filled me with a kind of happiness I never expected. And The Wee Page Turner loved all the presents but when shy around everyone when they came for a marvellous Christmas meal that my husband cooked. It really was the best day of the year.

A lot of singing of The Greatest Showman track - A Million Dreams - by BookBairn. She loves it and honestly I well up just about every time she sings along.

I hope you are very excited for the New Year, as I mentioned at the beginning we are very much looking forward to it - and particularly our trip to Disneyworld in March. If you want to see what books we are looking forward to check out our Most Anticipated Picture Books of 2019 blog post. 

I hope you had a lovely festive season!
And are enjoying 2019.

Mummy and the bairns xx

I was recently talking to a friend about some issues she had encountered around gender stereotypes. Surely it doesn't matter if a girl likes superheroes and a boy likes princess dressing up. Let children be children. And let books be books. So I thought that I would share some of our favourite books with main characters that happen to be girls, not stories about historical women who have done fantastic things, or books that push a female/feminist agenda or mighty girl persona. Not that there's anything wrong with those sort of books but I just thought it would be nice to share some stories where it's incidental to the story that the main character is a girl. Stories where traditionally it would have been assumed that the main character was male. Even today male characters are twice as likely to take leading roles in children’s picture books according to recent research by the Observer newspaper. Not only that male characters were given more speaking parts, were portrayed in more masculine roles and, shockingly, in a fifth of books (of the top 100 sellers in 2017) there were no female characters at all.  And since I let the Little Feminist Book Club series of blog posts fall by the wayside - I had great intentions for the first six months of 2018 but I found I couldn't keep up with the monthly requirement! Anyway, I'm here today to share six wonderful books that have a female character at the centre of the story but where that character would have perhaps been more traditionally written as a male. And they are great role models for girls and boys alike!

Odd Dog Out by Rob Biddulph tells the story of one small dog who doesn't fit in, she dances to a difference beat. She looks different, plays differently, she doesn't fit in. So she leaves her city behind in search of new adventures and discovers a new city full of dogs just like her! Great, right? She finally fits in! Except... she meets another odd dog out who tells her to stand tall, be proud: "that dog is right. It's plain to see there's nothing wrong with being me." And on returning home she finds that all her city slicker doggy friends have missed her terribly and maybe they have learned something from her! This lovely book is written in rhyme which makes it a delight to read! And Rob Biddulph is fast-becoming one of my all-time favourite illustrators. His pictures are bold, crisp, sharp and packed full of humour that grown ups will love! His sausage dogs are fabulous! With a flick of his pen he changes their expressions. The attention to detail is truly wonderful. Like in Blown Away (which we reviewed here) his characters are truly irresistible, the settings are vibrant with life. He really is an author-illustrator extraordinaire. 

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!

Ruby is worried. She has a worry that follows her around everywhere. She tries to ignore it but everyday it gets bigger. No one else can see Ruby's worry so Ruby tried pretend that she can't see it either. But the Worry is always there - stopping her from doing the things that she loves. Ruby worries about the Worry. which only makes it worse. Until one day Ruby notices a boy sitting alone who looks exactly like she feels - sad. And then she notices something hovering next to him. Could it be that he has a Worry too? And maybe they can find a way to shrink their worries together. Ruby's Worry by Tom Percival is a reassuring and sensitive book to open a conversation with children about worries. But it's also a lovely story about about friendship. Beautifully illustrated and with very clever use of colours, this is a great read to enjoy together.

Unplugged by Steve Antony is the story of Blip, a little robot who spends all her days plugged into a computer learning new things, exploring new places... online. When one day there is a power cut and her world is thrown upside down, down the stairs and out the front door. Into the great outdoors. Where she makes new friends, explores new places, learns new things and plays. Outside. Unplugged. Such a wonderful story about finding joy in the little things, about putting technology aside and looking at the world around you. And the illustrations are wonderful too. It's hard to imagine how a computer could be cute but she is! So yay for Blip fighting the norm of male robots and technology being for boys!

Spyder by Matt Carr

BookBairn and The Wee Page Turner and I all love Spyder by Matt Carr for different reasons! BookBairn loves it because it is a hilarious spy thriller for little readers starring 008 the Spyder whose mission is to keep the evil bluebottle fly from landing on the birthday cake. The Wee Page Turner loves spotting Spyder and the family dog and obviously enjoys the high contrast bright colour palette. And I adore the puns that are scattered throughout which are their to give adults a wry smile as they read. So clever of the author to create a book which appeals on so many levels. And not only that but it stars a female spider who takes the mission at hand and despite several potential mishaps along the way, still succeeds to "mission complete".

Molly's Moon Mission by Duncan Beedie

Ok so perhaps a bit cheeky of me to include this one as it's not actually released until 7th February (2019) but it's so good I didn't want to miss it off the list. (Also we will be taking part in the blog tour just after the release so watch out for that!). In Molly's Moon Mission by Duncan Beedie, Molly the moth (have you ever heard of a book with a moth as the main character - just one of the many reasons to love it!) has always been told that someone as small as her can never make it to the moon. Yearning for adventure, she helps her mother look after her siblings (larvae) during the day and trains hard for her space mission by night. And soon she is ready to blast off. But perhaps the moon is further than even Molly believed. First she gets as far as a lightbulb, but that's not the moon.  Then she makes it as high as a street lamp, but that's not the moon. Then she gets confused but a lighthouse, that's not the moon either. Along the way she is belittled and made to feel too small for such a feat. Will she ever make it? And show everyone that size doesn't matter when you have a big dream? I think you can probably guess! With adorable illustrations and the underlying message of reaching for your dreams, this is a wonderfully heart-warming and gently encouraging story.

So there you have it! Six great books that star girls doing wonderful things and learning (and teaching) valuable lessons where perhaps traditionally it might have been a male character - astronauts, spies and robots in particular! But it really doesn't matter that they are girls because the story works just as well and it's evident through these stories that girls can do anything that boys can do!

And boys can do anything that girls can do. So now I'm looking for some great books for sensitive boys to balance out all the mighty girl books that we have shared recently.

There's also now a dedicated category in my Amazon Shop for Little Feminist/Mighty Girl picture books so you can find them all here:

Happy Reading!

Kim and the bairns xx

So I managed to achieve my revised target of reading 100 books this year! And I'm planning to a round-up of my favourite books later this month, sharing my reading stats (I love stats) and favourite reads but I wanted to complete the last of my quarterly round-ups first! So here are my reads for October, November and December.

Amongst this stack of books that I read this month is my favourite book of the year! 

What a fascinating and yet troubling read. As I learn more about feminism I realise, that whilst I have perhaps suffered by living in a patriarchy, I have been very fortunate to not have been subject to even minor incidences of sexism. What some people suffer on a daily and regular basis is infuriating (and worse!) and wanting to create a fairer society for our little girls (and boys) has made me want to educate and empower myself (and the bairns) further.

Thanks everyone who recommended this to me. I really enjoyed it. And found the characters interesting and well-rounded. And I'm glad that the plot didn't (well.... no spoilers). But I don't think I will be reading the further books in the series as I felt the story was complete by the end of this novel.

I basically wanted to read this because of the recent film. It was fine. Predictable (thanks to well-placed breadcrumbs) and a bit unfriendly to bloggers which I didn't like so much for obvious reasons.

The final book in the trilogy. This was better than the previous book and I was happy to see the characters through to the end of their stories.

This is the best book I’ve read this year. I adored every page. There were so many beautiful passages about the wonder of books, book lovers and libraries/bookshops. As well as scenes from a bookworm’s dream. Anna James has truly created a world of wonder. Tilly Pages is just discovering there’s more to books than between the covers. Her favourite characters greet her in her family’s bookshop. She book wanders inside her favourite stories. And travels to the underlibrary - the organisation that manages it all. And of course there’s a mystery to solve and a suspicious character who takes an instant dislike to Tilly. What an adventure! It might be a children's book but it's a wonderful read for a book-loving grown-up too!

Disclaimer: If you click on the image of the book below 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 20-90p 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 post 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 Readers Section.

I spy with my little eye something that rhymes with BOOK. How many words can you come up with? LOOK, COOK, HOOK, TOOK...

During December the @kidlitpicks book club was on the hunt for the best rhyming reads to share with our kiddos! We all know that reading WITH our children is one of the greatest gifts we can give them, as it opens up their world to so many different ideas and perspective, BUT did you know reading rhyming books is one of the best ways to help your child develop phonological awareness and rhythmic language?

The more rhyming books we read with our children the better they become at recognizing, identifying, matching and eventually substituting, manipulating and producing rhymes themselves. This assists them greatly with language development and on the road of learning to read. Plus rhyming reads are just so much fun and an excellent way to get the whole family engaged in read aloud moments that everyone will enjoy!

Thanks to Teri from Petit Book Corner for rounding out a year of wonderful kidlitpicks themes!




As We Grow, by Libby Walden and Richard Jones

OUR JANUARY THEME IS: