Dotty And Dash’s 1,2,3 – Children’s Book Review

We received Dotty And Dash’s 123 pop-up counting book to review. Illustrated by Craig Shuttlewood, written by Patricia Hegarty and published by Caterpillar books, an imprint of Little Tiger.

Dotty and Dash's 123

Dotty And Dash’s 1,2,3

Dotty and Dash are off on a quest, to discover the number they like the best. Children will love helping Dotty and Dash choose their favourite numbers between 1 and 100 in this colourful pop-up counting book.

Number 1  Dotty and Dash's 1,2,3

This sturdy book is perfect for children learning their numbers. With banners across the bottom edge with numerals up to 100. This will appeal to even the most ambitious of little learners.

Each page is bursting with colourful, cute illustrations by prolific artist Craig Shuttlewood, winner of the Best Children’s Book in the Junior Design Awards for Town and Country. Accompanied by rhyming text written by Patricia Hegarty making counting to 100 an enjoyable experience for young children.

4,5,6

Each page contains at least one pop-up number, so the fun never stops – and that is something you can count on!

Izzy’s Thoughts

Dotty and Dash’s 1,2,3 has quickly become a firm favourite with Izzy. She loves the rhyming and loves to show she knows the numbers by joining in! We think think this book is fantastic!

100

Craig Shuttlewood

Craig lives in Brighton with his family and drams up ideas from a garden studio. With a background in fine art, he has exhibited original work in many galleries from London to New York. More recently he has been focusing on creating engaging children’s books. In his spare time, Craig mountain bikes, plays dinosaurs and draws with his kids.

Patricia Hegarty

Patricia began working in children’s publishing more years ago than she cares to remember and is now editorial Director at Caterpillar Books. As an editor she has worked on titles ranging from atlases to animal pop-ups, craft kids to crazy mazes and sticker books to secret diaries.

My Little World – Unicorn & Flamingo Book Review

My Little World books are absolutely lovely! We received a copy of Flamingo: A Colourful Book of Counting and Unicorn: A Magical Book of Colours to review. Illustrated by Fhiona Galloway and Patricia Hegarty and published by Little Tiger. 

My Little World Books

My Little World

These brightly coloured board books with concentric die cuts are perfect for children aged 0-3. Izzy (almost 5!) absolutely loved them too. The bright artwork immediately caught Izzy’s attention and she wanted to read them straight away! With fingerholes and a cheerful rhyming text, these fun books make learning come alive for inquisitive young children and babies

My little world - Flamingo: Av colourful book of counting

Flamingo: A Colourful Book of Counting

Count the flamingos with your little one with this brightly coloured book. From one pink flamingo to 10 sleeping flamingos, this beautifully rhyming book encourages parents and child interaction. It also teaches numeracy, reading skills and enhances hand-eye coordination.

My Little World Unicorn: A magical book of Colours

Unicorn: A Magical Book of Colours

This sparkly, rhyming book of Unicorns teaches young children and babies the colours of the rainbow. Encouraging parent and child interaction and reading skill too, this lovely book is a great addition to the bookshelf!

Our Thoughts

Izzy really enjoyed the books and has read them several times with all of us repeatedly. With bright colours and fun themes, these books are bound to encourage all babies and children to enjoy learning to read.

Fhiona Galloway

A freelance illustrator for many years, Fhiona has enjoyed illustrating for a wide base of clients including many children’s publishers which she loves. She lives in the wast of Scotland with her husband, daughter an giant schnauzer and when she’s not reading, she enjoys spending time walking, watching films or reading.

Patricia Hegarty

Patricia began working in children’s publishing more years ago than she care to remember and is now Editorial Director at Caterpillar Books. As an editor she has worked on titles ranging from atlases to animal pop-ups, craft kits to crazy mazes and sticker books to secret diaries.

Do you know a little one who would love these books?

Choo-Choo Peekaboo Children’s Book

We were sent Choo-Choo Peekaboo to review, illustrated by Gareth Lucas and published by Little Tiger. Perfect for children aged 1 to 4 years this fun board book with flaps is an engaging adventure story.

Choo-Choo Peekaboo

Choo-Choo Peekaboo

Zebra is trying to paint but his hilarious animal friends are causing chaos! Lift the flaps to discover bouncing baboons, roller-skating rabbits, dirt biking salmations and even space-sheep in a spaceship!

Choo-Choo Peekaboo

Choo-Choo Peekaboo is funny and colourful throughout with fantastic illustrations, alliterative action, creative chaos, and a medley of motion with vehicles with added vroom! Poor Zebra just can’t catch a break and paint in peace. Can he find a solution?

Gareth Lucas

Gareth Lucas is an award-winning illustrator and designer living in his hometown of Essex! Having worked on a variety of projects, Lucas enjoys children’s book illustrating the most. In 2016 Lucas was the winner of the Sainsbury’s Childrens Book Awards for Peekaboo A to Z.

Gareth Lucas - Choo-Choo Peekaboo

Izzy’s Thoughts

Izzy thought Choo-Choo Peekaboo was a really funny book, giggling all the way through and trying to lift the flaps too soon! She has asked to re-read this book several times over the last week or two. Izzy has even taken it to bed to look through herself. Overall we think this a fantastic book.

Have you heard of either of Gareth Lucas’ Peekaboo flap books?

DINO KNIGHTS By Jeff Norton – Book Review

The girls received DINO KNIGHTS by Jeff Norton to review last week, a fun fast-paced middle-grade series. Illustrated by George Ermos throughout with some rather cool Dinosaurs! This fast-paced chapter book series will appeal to fans of How To Train your Dragon and Beast Quest, one of Eva’s favourites! Published by Awesome Reads, DINO KNIGHTS is available to buy now.

DINO KNIGHT by Jeff Norton

Dino Knights

Orphaned stable boy Henry Fairchild stops a vicious T-Rex from attacking his master, Lord Harding. Henry’s selfless act of bravery gains him an invitation to join the brave Knights of Panterra, AKA the DINO KNIGHTS. He finds himself on a daring rescue mission with the DINO KNIGHTS to save Lord Harding in an attempt to prove himself. Lord Harding has been attacked and kidnapped by a flock of pterodactyls though. Henry’s bravery is tested to the limits!

DINO KNIGHT illustrations by George Ermos

Jeff Norton

Jeff Norton is an award-winning Author of Metawars, Memoirs of A Neurotic Zombie, Stomp School and Alienated. He applies his trademark world-building and smart humour throughout each book. We have been lucky enough to meet Jeff Norton and own several of his books and love every one of them. Each one really appeals to the girls sense of humour!

DINO KNIGHT illustrated by George Ermos

Eva’s Thoughts

Eva thinks Harry is really cool and brave and loves how quickly the story moves along. She was astounded by the amount of different dinosaur species throughout the book too. As a big fan of adventure stories she absolutely loved DINO KNIGHTS. She agrees fans of Beast Quest will enjoy DINO KNIGHT too and was over the moon after reading the book to discover it will be a book series and a film. She’s already pestering me to find out release dates! I think it’s safe to say Jeff Norton has written another brilliant children’s book that encourages a love of reading, both girls enjoyed and finished the book so quickly.

Does this sound like a series your child would love too?

The Worry Box Children’s Book Review And Craft

We received The Worry Box to review in time for Empathy Day, a day aimed at reading books to understand one another and to share feelings, thoughts and perspectives highlighting the power and importance of empathy.

The Worry Box Book & Craft

The Worry Box

The Worry Box is a lovely children’s book that encourages children to share their worries to overcome them. Written by Suzanna Chiew and illustrated by Sean Julian, this Little Tiger book is perfect for children aged 3 to 6 years.

The worry box

Mental health is an important topic which thankfully is being discussed more, however, children’s mental health still has a long way to go. Place2Be revealed that 2/3 children worry ‘all the time’. It is important to encourage children to open up and share their feelings, thoughts and worries.

The worry box - empathy day

The Worry Box is perfect for children who may be dealing with anxiety or feeling nervous. Murray bear has lots of worries, his sister invites him to the waterfall but he cant stop worrying! What if the waterfall is too loud?Or what if he’s not very good at climbing? And what if all his friends laugh at him? Milly, Murray’s sister, encourages Murray to make a Worry Box to keep all of his worries in. Can the Worry box really help him?

Murrays Worries`

Creating Our Own Box For Worries

The girls decided after reading the book, that they needed to create their own Worry Box, just like Murray. This is such a lovely simple craft for young children too.

Worry Box Craft

You will need

  • A box
  • Scissors
  • Glue/Sticky Tape
  • Paint/Paper ( We used wrapping paper)
  • Stickers/Labels/Decorations

We taped our box shut and I carefully made a slit along the top for the worry notes to go through. Next, we wrapped our taped box in wrapping paper, ensuring the paper was taped on the sides so the base was flat and the top was clear for cutting the slot. Then I carefully cut through the paper in the same place as the slot for notes. The girls then took over completely adding name labels and stickers! It took us less than 15 minutes to create our own box for worries.

Can you think of any other books for Empathy day?

Miles Kelly Mini Playbooks Review And Giveaway

We were sent Miles Kelly Mini Playbooks range to review this week. Written by Sarah Parkin and Designed by Rob Hale. Each Mini Playbook has a story, playmat, pop-up building and over 20 press out pieces. There are currently 6 books within the Miles Kelly Mini Playbooks and we have 3 books to offer one lucky winner! Read on and enter below.

Miles Kelly Mini Playbooks

Miles Kelly Mini Playbooks

Currently, the six Miles Kelly Mini Playbooks available include Farm, Animal Hospital, Fire Station, Castle, Airport and Garage. These fantastic books encourage reading and learning through play.

Miles Kelly Mini Playbook - Animal Hospital

Mini Playbook Fun

Each storybook follows a character at work, explaining the different tasks they do each day. Once you’ve read the story and learnt the tasks, it’s time to play and act out the different roles! There is a handy guide to setting up and using the book inside too.

Animal Hospital Instructions

Each book turns into a square playmat with a road, pop-up building and relevant scenery. The buildings all have doors that open, allowing your press-out characters to go in and out easily.

Miles Kelly Animal Hospital Mini Playbook

Animal Hospital Playmat - Miles Kelly Mini Playbooks

Inside each pop-up building, there is plenty of space to move characters around. Both girls enjoy setting up these books and playing out the roles. Izzy especially loves animal hospitals and this was definitely her favourite. Reading about Sam the Vet’s adventures at work and then playing Vet kept Izzy busy for hours!

Castle

The Castle Mini Playbook follows Cedric the knights adventures in a medieval castle. The Castle comes with a Dragon, knights on horses, a Lord & Lady, Musician and more, the girls quickly got lost in this Mini Playbook.

Castle Miles Kelly Mini Playbook

Fire Station

We read about Firefighter George’s adventure at work, then we set up all the pieces. The girls had hours of fun playing as firefighters, rescuing cats from buildings and putting out fires. This Playbook comes with a fire engine, fires, barriers and various firefighters.

Fire Station

Airport

Jack is on his first visit to the airport in this storybook on his first family holiday. Learn about what goes on in an airport then fold out the playmat, pop up the building and play! I love how the aeroplanes go together for this playbook making them 3D.

Airport

Farm

Follow Farmer Sam around the farm as he cares for all the animals. Farms are very busy places with lots of jobs to do, press out the pieces and help Sam look after the animals. With cute farm animals and a shiny red tractor this Playbook is amazing.

Farm

Garage

Learn about mechanic Matt’s adventures at work in this storybook before getting busy helping at the Garage. Help wash cars, change tyres, repair engines and become a marvellous mechanic for a few hours.

Garage

The Mini Playbooks fold back down after being played with. This makes the Mini Playbooks easy to store until next time. Simply flatten the press-out pieces and store them inside the building safely too. We are really impressed with the Mini Playbooks as they are so easy to set up and clear away. They certainly kept the girls occupied and having fun for hours at a time and the enjoyed building a few at a time and connecting the roads on the playmats to create their own little town.

Miles Kelly Mini Playbook Giveaway

As promised, we have 3 Miles Kelly Mini Playbooks to giveaway to one lucky winner*! The winner will be able to pick any 3 titles from the 6 available, simply enter the giveaway below and keep an eye on your emails.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Winner will be notified within 24 hours of the giveaway closing and will have 72 hours to respond or a new winner will be picked.

Which 3 Miles Kelly Mini Playbook titles would you pick?

Smudge And Friends Children’s Book Review

We received a copy of Smudge and friends children book to review*. Written and illustrated by Andy Edwards based on an idea by Caroline Groves, this lovely book is full of confidence building stories.

Smudge and friends

Smudge And Friends

To begin you meet Smudge who is 5 years old and very nervous about his first day at school. This gave him butterflies and he really didn’t like it when his mum said it was time to leave for school.

He met his teacher who seemed friendly so he agrees to stay. As the day goes by he chooses to try and say hello to other children. Doing this he slowly feels more confident and notices two friends and heads over to them. One of them rushes over to him first and the 3 quickly becomes good friends. They have fun together and Smudge decides it’s been a brilliant day! He can’t wait to go back the next day.

Overall Thoughts

Chapter One and it’s Smudge’s first day at school. It is just one of a good few challenging situations that Smudge and his Friends face in this book overall. Four short stories tell of how the characters find ways to navigate through their new experiences and how they step-up to other challenges they meet in-school and in their daily lives.

Reading ‘between the lines’ there are messages about learning how to interact socially and to build self-confidence just like Smudge and his Friends.

We absolutely love this book and would definitely recommend it!

Have you heard of Smudge and Friends before?

*Whilst we were kindly send a copy of Smudge and Friends to review, all opinions are our own and an honest review.

The Girls Book Review

We were sent The Girls book to review, a lovely story about friendship. The Girls is written by Lauren Ace and illustrated beautifully by Jenny Lovlie. This is a story of four girls, but also of womankind. A perfect read for children aged 3 to 6 years. We love to review books and often work with Little Tiger and their imprints reviewing books. Whilst we are given copies to review our thoughtsd and opinions are always out own.

The Girls

Once there was a tree that grew little girls…

The Girls – Book Review

Four little girls meet under an apple tree and form an unbreakable bond that grows and grows across the years. The girls share their secrets, dreams, struggles and triumphs in this lovely book as the four girls grow together.

Four Friends

Friendships

This beautifully illustrated shows the girl’s friendship through their ups and downs, laughter and tears. Watch the girls friendship bloom throughout the years as they grow into women.

Empowering And Inspiring

This is a truly lovely story that leaves you feeling positive and empowered. It shows the importance of friendship, the love and support that helps you through every stage of your life. The gorgeous illustrations paired with Lauren Ace’s warm, heartfelt words is an inspiring read for young girls.

Friendships

As a parent you will find this book shows your children there are no limits on their dreams. For children, it is reassuring as well as a rallying cry. This book shows you can be different or the same and relationships will come and go but filling your life with love and friendship will get you through the best and worst times.

This beautiful book is available in paperback and is published by Caterpillar books, an Imprint of Little Tiger Group. It is a fantastic book to introduce to young girls especially as they begin to make friendships through school.

Supporting each other

Izzy’s Thoughts

I read The Girls to Izzy and she thought it was lovely story. She enjoyed it so much she asked Eva to read it to her several times after! Izzy noticed the texture of the book whilst holding it too and really liked the feel of it. This book got us talking about how different and similar we all are and discussing friendships.

Personally I love the fact the book shows that friends do occasionally spend time apart, working on their own lives. Yet they still come together to celebrate and support each other just like we do in real life. True friendships can last a lifetime and this book makes that point so clearly and beautifully!

Do you love empowering books like The Girls?


Animalphabet Book Review

Animalphabet is the latest book by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Sharon King-Chai. This beautifully illustrated book has an animal for each letter of the alphabet.

Animalphabet Book

Bestselling author Julia Donaldson is well known for her fabulous book The Gruffalo. Animalphabet is Julia Donaldson’s latest release and another fantastic book for children. Especially perfect for those aged 3 to 5 years, Animalphabet is a lovely hardback book. You can buy it on Amazon here.

Animalphabet Book Review

As we explored the animal world with this gorgeous book we learnt a lot! With peep-through pages and fold out flaps this glorious gift for animal lovers becomes an interactive guessing game. Find out who is faster than a Caterpillar, who can hug tighter than a nightingale and who can fly better than a pig!

Caterpillar - Animalphabet

With stunningly eye-catching artwork throughout, the Animalphabet book contains an exotic array of animals. They truly are stunnnig and something to marvel over. This is a book to treasure and stand proudly on display. Julia Donaldsons rhythmic words make the book flow beautifully making it lovely to read out loud.

Animalphabet book

With each page we discovered an amazing collection of beautifully coloured animals in their habitats. Comparing animals to each other to learn comparison words and adjectives makes learning fun. Finding out who is bigger, smaller etc makes it such an enjoyable read. Izzy loves guessing which animal is next as we ask each question.

We absolutely adore this stunning book, Animalphabet is fun to read with it’s rhythmic words and gorgeous artwork. Being such an interactive book makes it such a fun reading experience and would make such a lovely gift! We would definitely recommend the Animalphabet book for young animal lovers. We love children’s books, don’t forget to check our our Book Review page to discover more Children’s books we’ve reviewed.

Have you heard of Animalphabet?

One Snowy Night – Book Review

Eva read One Snowy Night, a children’s collection of winter-warmer animal tales by best-loved authors. Illustrated by Alison Edgson, this paperback is aimed at 5-8 years and published by Stripes. 

One Snowy Night

One Snowy Night

A cosy collection of short winter animal stories perfect for bedtime reading. Beautifully and highly illustrated by Alison Edgson makes the book interesting even for younger children.

One Snowy night is a charming collection of stories from authors Holly Webb, Jeanne Willis, Linda Chapman, Swapna Haddow, Leila Rasheed and Micheal Broad. Along with  Liss Norton, Cand Gourley, Katy Cannon and Sita Brahmachari. Together, these fabulous authors and illustrator have created a gorgeous book for children. What’s not to love about a book full of heart-warming winter stories by many much-loved authors.

In The Snowy Mountains – Linda Chapman

One snowy night begins with a girl who ventures off in search of the secretive snow leopards in mountainous Mongolia. Discovering a baby snow leopard leads to a big discovery. This short but heart-warming story is a lovely winter read.

One Snowy Night Animal Anthologies

A Christmas Star – Holly Webb

A heart-warming tale of a young girl desperate to nicely wrap a present for her parents. Written by well-known and loved author Holly Webb, this story shows the true meaning of Christmas. When Lucy’s mischievous kitten Star is making it difficult to wrap the presents she gets grumpy with Star. At bedtime, everyone suddenly realises Star is missing! Lucy gets upset, realising Christmas isn’t Christmas without her loveable mischievous kitten.

A Christmas Star

A Winter Surprise – Swapna Haddow

This lovely story is about a squirrel named Jumbie. He plans a surprise woodland party for his friends. Losing the invitation makes Jumbie really stressed out and just before the party too! I think this story is beyond cute and a good reminder we often worry about little things when the important things are right there! (Guilty!)

Jumbie

These cute winter animal stories make a perfect gift for animal lovers or young readers. With a total of 10 stories, this is a great read throughout December as a family.

Do you love Winter Animal stories too?