Thursday, September 26, 2019
I have finally found them! The books I have been looking for for ages but I didn't know what they looked like or who wrote them or p...
I have finally found them! The books I have been looking for for ages but I didn't know what they looked like or who wrote them or published them or illustrated them - they existed only on my dream shelf. And after four years of searching I've found them!!
Monday, September 16, 2019
Oh my goodness I haven't written many posts since the last KLTR link-up! Where has the time gone? To be honest I've been really ...
Oh my goodness I haven't written many posts since the last KLTR link-up! Where has the time gone? To be honest I've been really focussed on Instagram to get caught up on my reviews of books we were sent over the summer and to top that off we have received over 30 books in the last two weeks alone so I haven't even made a dent! But I'll get there and maybe I'll learn to prioritise what to review better. And I aim to find more time to write actual blog posts - that's my mission for September.
If you share or review children's books or are raising a reader whilst writing a blog then our co-hosted monthly linky with
Laura's Lovely Blog and
Acorn Books (who is currently taking some maternity leaves so it's just Laura and I this month) is perfect for you!
Kids Love to Read is a link-up to share blog posts written by other bloggers that star wonderful children's books. It's a great way to find new blogs to read and new book recommendations too, as well as invite people to come and read your own blog. Also last month we had a few people linking up posts from Instagram sharing their reviews too which is wonderful!
So if you write about your favourite children's books I would love it if you link-up your post! And I'm looking forward to reading them all!
Last Month's Favourites
Linky Rules:
– Write about reading with children, share your love and your children’s love of books, what do you love to read together, how do you encouraging reading and books with your little or not so little ones? Books you love or book reviews.
– This Linky is open every 3rd Monday of the month for one week.
– Grab the Kids Love to Read badge and pop it in your post. It's linked at the end of the post for you.
– Use the #KLTR hashtag on Twitter and Instagram.
– Share the love – try and read & comment the host’s posts and on 2 other blogs listed on the Linky.
We look forward to reading your posts! And don't forget to enter the competition below!
Kim and the #KLTR team x
Giveaway
Each month, to encourage reading with kids and to go along with our #KLTR Linky, we host a Book Giveaway.
We have a fabulous giveaway this month of I Love You Brighter than the Stars by Owen Hart & Sean Julian.
*Terms and conditions: Entries are open to UK and Ireland residents. The competition closes on the the 10th October 2019. Winners will be announced on social media and contacted via email. If the winner does not respond to the email in two weeks, a new winner will be randomly chosen.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Grab the Button:
Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML
Thursday, September 12, 2019
I realise that it has been a little time since I shared some reviews on here - the summer holidays have left me with more than a bit o...
I realise that it has been a little time since I shared some reviews on here - the summer holidays have left me with more than a bit of a backlog of books to review but in actual fact it's a precariously balanced tower (ok two towers) which now requires structural support. In short, I have too many to review and not enough time but I am determined to do them justice. So I thought I would pop together a post of books which I have reviewed recently on social media that all fit loosely together under the theme of teaching us a little life lesson. Picture books are a great way to instil our values and share messages with our children showing them the world as we want to see it and helping them to build this sort of world by becoming like the characters that they admire. So without further waffling from me here are six new picture books that will help little ones learn to be super people and to create that better world.
This is such a wonderful inspirational book packed full of messages of empowerment, encouragement and daring to be the best person you can be. The whole thing is such a beautiful poem with lines starting “dare to...” followed by a positive affirmation. I could quote the whole book as it's so good but that would be unfair to do here so just take my word for it that this poem will have you uplifted and feeling awesome by the end! The illustrations feature children of all different backgrounds, all different colours, as well as more subtle messages of inclusion like a boy in a tutu and a character with a noticeable blue hearing aid. And I say subtle because it’s so brilliant to see these children in the illustrations without it being the explicit message of the story (i.e.they aren’t just depicted because the story is about a child getting a hearing aid, or a boy choosing to do ballet.) They are just there. Just like they are just there in the real world too. This is the sort of messages of empowerment and inclusion that we need to see in books too. To tell children that we see them. And allow them to see themselves in a story. It’s such a wonderful message for children, young readers and adults alike! My plan is to pop this one out regularly with breakfast so that BookBairn and The Wee Page Turner hear it’s wonderful message before they pop off to nursery in the mornings!
You might be familiar with the story of Stone Soup: it’s a story that I love for it’s message of generosity and kindness and one I have used in my classrooms often. However, I’m going to have to change that because the African version of the story which has been beautifully put together in this new picture book is so much better! Noko the porcupine has travelled far and wide, he’s tired and very hungry and seeking support and refuge. But not one of the other creatures in the jungle village are willing to share their food. So Noko hatches a plan to help them to help him. He puts thrill quills from his porcupine back into a soup pot with some water and tells them the story of how he cooked this special quill soup for the king so that they want to taste it too. But if only he had some carrots, wait… rabbit has carrots, and mealies and beans and potatoes and spinach and then as if by magic… they have a pot of delicious soup. What a powerful message: if we all share our resources we can create something delicious, something wonderful and perhaps overcome our fears of strangers and become more understanding and make new friends too. The beauty of this story is through the vibrant and powerful illustrations. Where the animals say they have no food to spare, the illustrations show them hoarding, which little readers instantly notice and see the injustice in that. The colour palette is striking and the images are full of movement, energy and life!
I think children are naturally kind. They are intrinsically programmed to show kindness to others. But it’s something that we need to foster, to encourage to model for them to continue to be kind and grow into kind adults. And this lovely new book does just that: it shows them simple acts of kindness can create moments of magic for people. And that kindness grows and spreads. The more kindness we share, the more kindness there will be in the world. From warm simple smiles to gentle words to a hug to larger acts of kindness whatever we do will take wings and fly and grow into more and more kindness in the world. This book also has a focus on being kind to yourself too - to take time along, to sing a song out loud - that self-kindness is important too. With some truly beautiful phrasing that will gently carry you through the pages, and illustrations that glow and illuminate, this is a wonderfully woven tale about the beauty of kindness.
This is one that has a great message for grown-up readers as well as children as you may find yourself relating to the main character more than you would like to believe you do! When Bear sees an advert for a brand new bed, he starts to doubt that his current bed is good enough. Is his bath bubbly enough? His cereal crunchy enough? Little by little Sneak Beak the sales bird provides all the gadgets, gizmos and thingummies to improve and upgrade Bear’s life. But do all these new purchases actually make Bear feel any happier? This is a laugh out loud caper about learning to be satisfied with what you have in our consumerist driven world. And no doubt children will see through Sneaky Beak quicker than the adults do! This hilarious book has come at just the right time to remind me to cut back on unnecessary spending (though I’m not generally worried about FOMO or driven to buy things we don’t need - unless it’s books and children’s toys which are apparently my big weakness, according to the accountant husband anyway) and a reminder to appreciate all that we already have and making each new purchase a considered rather than an impulse buy. This book is such a perfect reminder of that, but in a riotous and laugh-out-loud way, with illustrations that demonstrate all the sneakiness and ridiculousness of Sneaky Bird and his products. As well as the realisation on Bear’s face that things won’t make him happy as much as relationships and friendships do! A fun story for kids and grown ups alike!
There are lots of things that I want for my children as they grow older. But I think one of the things I want above all the others is that they have good friends and that they are good friends to others. I don’t know where I would be without the love and support of my wonderful networks of friends over the years and I want my children to have that too! So when I first read this wonderful picture book about friendship, about being a good friend, about valuing others and ourselves I just knew it would go straight onto BookBairn’s bedtime bookshelf! Written in the perfect rhyming prose it’s a joy to read aloud and the illustrations are utterly joyous also! Packed full of bright and bold colours and characters it shows children forming friendships, displaying kindness and enjoying togetherness. Such a happy book! And it would make a great gift for anyone about to start a new school or nursery who is nervous about making friends as not only does it show you ways to be a good friend it also shows that others want to make friends with you too. Another wonderful book from this fabulous author and illustrator pairing!
“A stone sat still
with the water, grass, and dirt
and it was as it was
where it was in the world.
Sometimes a stone is more than a simple stone. This incredibly powerful new picture book tells the story of a humble and seemingly ordinary stone. But a stone can be more than a stone: it can be a pebble to some and a mountain to others, a resting place, a safe haven, a kitchen. It just depends on perspective. With beautiful illustrations accompanying the soothing rhythms, this a glorious exploration of perception as well as a timely discussion about the passing of time and changing environments. A poignant and moving story. About a simple stone.
Happy little life lessons!
Disclaimer: We were sent some of 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.
Monday, August 19, 2019
What a busy month August is for us with back to nursery and trying to pack as much into the last couple of weeks of holidays as we can as...
What a busy month August is for us with back to nursery and trying to pack as much into the last couple of weeks of holidays as we can as well as August being the month of the Edinburgh Book Festival! But I wouldn't miss the chance to link-up with you all and read all the fabulous posts shared for #KidsLoveToRead
If you share or review children's books or are raising a reader whilst writing a blog then our co-hosted monthly linky with
Laura's Lovely Blog and
Acorn Books (who is currently taking some maternity leaves so it's just Laura and I think month) is perfect for you!
Kids Love to Read is a link-up to share blog posts written by other bloggers that star wonderful children's books. It's a great way to find new blogs to read and new book recommendations too, as well as invite people to come and read your own blog. Also last month we had a few people linking up posts from Instagram sharing their reviews too which is wonderful!
So if you write about your favourite children's books I would love it if you link-up your post! And I'm looking forward to reading them all!
Last Month's Favourites
Last month my favourite post came from Rosie's Library over on Instagram who shared a lovely photo and review of one of our favourite books - The Day the Crayons Quit.
Laura's favourite came from the always fabulous Jenni from over at The Bear and the Fox who shared a superb Kids Book Bingo Summer Challenge to keep kids busy and reading over the summer holidays.
Linky Rules:
– Write about reading with children, share your love and your children’s love of books, what do you love to read together, how do you encouraging reading and books with your little or not so little ones? Books you love or book reviews.
– This Linky is open every 3rd Monday of the month for one week.
– Grab the Kids Love to Read badge and pop it in your post. It's linked at the end of the post for you.
– Use the #KLTR hashtag on Twitter and Instagram.
– Share the love – try and read & comment the host’s posts and on 2 other blogs listed on the Linky.
We look forward to reading your posts! And don't forget to enter the competition below!
Kim and the #KLTR team x
Giveaway
Each month, to encourage reading with kids and to go along with our #KLTR Linky, we host a Book Giveaway.
We have a fabulous giveaway this month of The 13 Storey Treehouse by Andy Griffiths and Terry Denton.
*Terms and conditions: Entries are open to UK and Ireland residents. The competition closes on the the 10th September 2019. Winners will be announced on social media and contacted via email. If the winner does not respond to the email in two weeks, a new winner will be randomly chosen.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Grab the Button:
Instructions: Select all code above, copy it and paste it inside your blog post as HTML
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Collaborative Post. I wanted to share our experiences of going to the Edinburgh Book Festival before it's over for another year...
Collaborative Post.
I wanted to share our experiences of going to the Edinburgh Book Festival before it's over for another year so that if you are on the fence about booking something you might be persuaded as to how much fun it can be for a family day out! There's still over a week left to go of fun book events for kids and grown ups alike. You can find a full list of events over on the Edinburgh Book Festival website but I also made a handy list of all the events that I thought look fabulous (basically we would go to them all if our budget, time and kids allowed!) that all still had tickets available when I last checked - it also had lots of tips for planning a trip to the festival.
But less about that and more about what we got up to in the last week of events!
Firstly we went down on the opening day of the festival, and much to everyone's surprise (including the Met Office) it was brilliantly sunny! As we arrived just in time for our ticketed event we pretty much joined the queue straight away and got settled in our seats to see the incomparable Julia Donaldson and the wonderfully talented Catherine Rayner share a dramatisation of their new book The Go Away Bird. Both my kids were completely captivated! But the star of the show was when Julia and her team acted out (complete with puppets and costumes) her most fabulous book The Gruffalo (which is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year). It was brilliant! And The Wee Page Turner has been truly hypnotised by the magic of it. As proof, since we saw the show last Saturday, we have downloaded the Gruffalo audiobook and listened to it countless times as well as read our now signed copy at least three times a day. So much so that he knows many of the words and BookBairn can recite the whole thing by heart! We have also watched The Gruffalo short film daily of Netflix. He has acquired my old classroom Gruffalo toy, some Gruffalo wellies and clothing, and he carries the Gruffalo everywhere with him. This to me demonstrates the power of seeing a book performed, meeting an author or illustrator or if you are really lucky (and we were but alas not close enough to get a photo) meeting a character!
For our second visit BookBairn and I went down just the two of us for a girls day, meeting Gma BookBairn too. Unfortunately the weather was not on our side and it was lashing with rain but BookBairn still had so much fun. Again we arrived just in time for our first event of the day with the wonderful Sophy Henn (if you don't know BookBairn and I are Sophy's biggest fans and you can find some of our previous posts fangirling over her books here) and heard her talk about her new book Super Duper You as well as some old favourites, including Pass it On and then we got to do some great crafts and activities as well as meet Sophy afterwards and get our new book signed to add to our collection.
We then browsed the new children's bookshop book tent. In previous years they had a separate tent for children and grown-up bookshops but this year it has been opened up with one large tent comprising both and a small cafe in the middle. We perused the shelves and selected a new Isadora Moon book to immediately start reading (more on Isadora shortly). And we popped to the children's play area and craft tent to take part in some of the Very Hungry Caterpillar crafts that were happening that day - this craft tent has different activities every day (sometimes the same thing runs over two days) and is completely free! So if you live locally and just want to pop in and soak up the atmosphere without attending a booked event there is plenty of opportunity to do so.
We popped back after a lunch date in McDonalds (which is just around the corner) and a trip to Ever Ever After Disney Shop (not so close by but well worth a visit) to settle in for another event with Ross Collins who shared his newest title This is a Dog as well as one of our favourites I am a Tiger. Packed full of giggles and humour and a bit of a drawing lesson, this one was also great fun.
I then went down to a couple of grown-up events about the power of illustration and picture books as pathways into literacy both of which were very interesting and I enjoyed hearing the authors and illustrators speak on the topic. I also enjoyed some child-free browsing in the bookshop tent and was very restrained with my book purchases (so far!). I also got to meet the brilliant Harriet Muncaster who writes the Isadora Moon books and brings to life for children the magic of that world when they meet her. As I mentioned before meeting an author or illustrator can add an extra bit of magic for children, and although BookBairn wasn't with me when I met her, she still has some lovely signed books that we have read cover to cover already! I got the chance to meet up with fellow KidsBookstagrammer @thepicturebookbox and talk all things books. In fact, I told her that the Edinburgh Book Festival is my Glastonbury! Which is so true!
There's still time to get tickets for lots of events or pop into to some of the free drop-in activities in the craft tent - BookBairn and I still have tickets booked for two more events and will be going to the Elmer craft session as well as the Going on a Bear Hunt one. And as I said in my Instagram post linked above the bookshop book tent is one of the best independent bookshops in the country and has lots and lots of signed books to pick up too so it's well worth a visit on it's own merit!
Happy Book Festival!!
Kim and the bairns xx
Disclaimer: we have been gifted tickets to three events at the Edinburgh Book Festival in collaboration for sharing this post and sharing all the fun we get up to on our days out. We have also bought several tickets for events ourselves.
Thursday, August 15, 2019
What do you do with a wriggling toddler during story time? Give them a wriggling book of course! We are delighted to have the very wrig...
What do you do with a wriggling toddler during story time? Give them a wriggling book of course! We are delighted to have the very wriggly Ada May on the blog today as part of the Save the Day for Ada May blog tour running across several blogs over the next two weeks (you can find the banner at the bottom to see who else is babysitting Ada!) and we are also extremely excited to have five copies of this marvellous book to give away (more on that later!).
In this new and wonderful interactive book for tots - Save the Day for Ada May by Elizabeth Dale and Patrick Corrigan - we meet Max and his baby sister Ada May who love to go out for a walk with the buggy to feed the ducks. A lovely little trip out. Except Max gets distracted when feeding the ducks and accidentally knocks Ada May's buggy sending it heading straight for the river! This is when your little wriggling reader can join in the fun and become the hero of the story - by tipping the book so that Ada May's buggy takes a whole new path. But of course the story doesn't end there with the buggy heading straight for a dog, or towards a busy road, or Ada flying into the air and landing in the farmer's tractor trailer or the worst of all when Ada May ends up stuck in the field with the angry bull!
But as long as your little reader is there to help avert a catastrophe by tilting, shaking, flicking, shouting and blowing on the pages of the book, they can become the real hero of the story.The illustrations in this story are a huge part of the fun - the characters are truly adorable and the lovely soft colour palette is really inviting. But the real magic is that they portray the moment of peril as well as the moment that your little one (and you!) save Ada May from danger. It's such a visual and interactive story that you will feel like storytime really has come to life!
If you know a toddler who likes to make some noise or get up to some wriggling and shaking then this one is for them! This book is an invitation to have some fun! Toddlers just love these sorts of books where they feel like they are influencing the story.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the post this is a really special one as we have FIVE specially signed copies of Save the Day for Ada May to give away to five of our lucky readers/followers/your wonderful book loving bairns over on our social media - check out any of our social media feeds at 8pm this evening to find out how!
Thanks for reading,
Kim and the bairns x
Disclaimer: We were sent a copy of Save the Day for Ada May from the publisher prior to our joining the blog tour and when we were offered the chance to join in the tour we were offered the opportunity to give copies away in a competition - and very generously the publishers have provided five copies. Please read our Review Policy if you want to know more. If you click on the image of the book below you will be sent to Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com using an affiliate link. This means that if you choose to purchase on Amazon, I will receive a small sum 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.
Tuesday, August 06, 2019
I think one of the best presents to give a child is the gift of reading. So it's always my go-to for new baby gifts. It's har...
I think one of the best presents to give a child is the gift of reading. So it's always my go-to for new baby gifts. It's hard to go wrong with a book. There are so many wonderful ones to choose from! You could go for classics like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Guess How Much I Love You and Dear Zoo (amongst so many others) or you might want to get some books which are a little off-the-beaten-track to make sure that you don't end up duplicating (having said that duplicates of baby books is no bad thing as they do tend to get a lot of wear and tear, chewing and rough play). One of my very favourite and loveliest friends had a new baby recently so I put together a little bundle of books that I thought would be a great start to his collection so I thought I'd share them here too just in case you have a new baby to buy for too!
Babies are never too young to be read to. In fact Science tells us that babies develop best when and connect with the worlds and people around them when they are spoken to. And this book is the perfect first start. When babies are too little to be able to focus on the world around them (especially when their eyesight is still developing) it's a lovely way to read to them through nursery rhymes and songs. This book makes the perfect gift for that as it has many of the rhymes and songs that we are all familiar with from our own childhood (even if we have actually forgotten the words). A perfect prompt to read aloud. But it makes such a beautiful gift due to the magical way it has been illustrated - with original freehand embroidery. It's completely unique from any other book I have seen and it's utterly charming. Such a lovely collection to introduce little ones to a world of sounds!
This series is one of The Wee Page Turner's favourites and the bear version is one of the books that he loved first and is one of the books that we have read over and over again! So I wanted to include these two new versions (though there is a whole series so you can pick out the animal that you like best) in the new baby gift basket. In the books, each page repeats the phrase “I thought I saw a...” and then using the slider you can reveal the hidden animal. There is also a loose theme to each book to build vocabulary - the monkey is shopping so you can share lots of town vocabulary and the penguin is at the beach so again lots of vocabulary opportunities too. These are very simple, very clever little books that are great for entertaining little readers and perfect for popping in your bag for out and about stories. And they make a great new baby gift!
Enchanting non-fiction stories for the littlest readers, this new series of wildlife books are the perfect introduction to nature books for little ones. Packed full of windows and flaps, children will be excited to explore this bright and colourful series of books. Told in a narrative non-fiction means that the facts are blended in with a story-like reading is perfect for little ones who want the lilt of the story but are fascinated by learning more about the world around them. Both books (and you can also find Bird and Rabbit from the same series) give little ones a taste of nature non-fiction at a level they can enjoy and appreciate. I love the soft pastel colour palette!
There are lots of great 'primer' books for babies helping them to build their vocabulary that have been designed with little fingers who want to explore in mind. But this series is such a beautiful update as the are full of bright colourful images, baby-friendly text and lots of interesting textures to touch and feel so that little ones can begin to learn all those new skills. But they are also incredibly stylish and with cheerful illustrations that will appeal to grown-ups as well as little ones. I particularly love the 'Animals' version with the tabbed edges of the pages being shaped like the animals - how fun! There are others in this series due out later this month too!
These books arriv
ed just after I had given the gift basket to my friend but I will be adding these to his little haul when I next see them. In the first few months of your baby's life their eyesight is still developing and their ability to see subtle contrasts develops later. So you see a lot of black and white books for baby, and whilst these are great - they don't have the same longevity as other books (in my opinion) as babies grow out of them quickly - wanting more story-based books instead. So I was delighted to discover this series of books - Little White Fish - which have high contrast (and often black and white dotted with colour) illustrations that little ones will be able to see clearly. However they also have an adorable main character on some sort of adventure and a fun storyline too! They also have other sea creatures which will help build vocabulary, bright colours which will also help them learn colour words, and a specific vocabulary target for each book (colours, opposites, prepositions) so these books are definitely going to see them past the baby stages.
I hope you found something there for the very littlest readers in your life and perhaps next time you are giving a new baby gift or going to a baby shower you'll think about picking up a book! If you are looking for more recommendations for babies check out my UK Amazon shop or my US Amazon.com shop and click on the section for Books for Babies.
Happy reading with your little ones
Disclaimer: We were sent some of 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.
