The Lost Fairy Tales – Fearless Girls Around The World

Eva received The Lost Fairy Tales – Fearless Girls Around The World to review from Little Tiger. Written by Isabel Otter and illustrated beautifully by Ana Senderthroughout, this book is perfect for ages 7 to 11 years.

The Lost Fairy Tales - Fearless Girls Around The World

The Lost Fairy Tales

An enchanting anthology of 20 overlooked and forgotten fairy tales has been collected from different cultures around the world to create this book. Every story features a female heroine, who approaches life with humour, wit, cunning and bravery. None of these heroines need rescuing!

Story Map

Ana Sender’s magical illustrations bring these tales to life, and a handy map shows the origin of the stories from around the world. The Lost Fairy Tales is the perfect gift to inspire and uplift young readers.

Isabel Otter

Isabel is a children’s book editor and writer. She grew up in rural Herefordshire and spent much of her childhood in trees. Isabel loves weaving stories and writing about the world around her. She currently lives in London.

Ana Sender

Ana was born in Terrassa (Barcelona). As a child, she loved to draw, write and imagine all sorts of stories. She studied painting and illustrations in Massana art school in Barcelona. Her work has appeared in newspapers, books and also fashion (as a pattern designer for the Spanish brand La Casita de Wendy). Ana has written and illustrated children’s books The Orchid Hunter and The Cottingley Fairies, her last book Onironiro is a picture book about the adventures or situations she lives in her dreams. She likes werewolves, surrealism and swampy places.

Our Thoughts

We love The Lost Fairy Tales, each story really is unique in showing how women, all around the world are heroines too. The majority of fairy tales often portray prim princesses as damsels in distress but not in this book.

Goddess of the sun

Eva’s favourite story was Goddess of the Sun, set in Mexico. She likes how the message behind the story is that men aren’t always the strongest or bravest and that girls can be the heroine of the story.

Goddess Of The Sun Image

The beautiful illustrations throughout the book help the stories come alive. Fairy tales are often retold of written by men, about men. It’s lovely to discover so many fairy tales where that is simply not the case. I absolutely love this book and so does Eva, the stories really show that girls can be just as brave, strong and clever as men and can save the day too.

Do you enjoy books with strong female characters too?

Star In Your Own Story Personalised Books

Izzy received Star In Your Own Story personalised books from Little Tiger to review this month. Every child loves to be the star in the story and they can with these 4 new fun titles. These fun books let you add multiple names too!

Izzy Personalising 'Saves the day'

Star In Your Own Story

Star in your own story: Saves the day

Saves The Day

Written by Georgiana Deutsch and illustrated by Vicki Gausden, Saves the day is perfect for superhero fans! This book comes with a sheet of stickers for children to add their name to the book. Great for children aged 3 to 6 years.

Star in your own story: Drives a digger

Drives A Digger

Written by Danielle McLean and illustrated by Kathryn Selbert, this book is perfect for little ones who love things that go! This book comes with a sheet of stickers to add their name to the book too. Aimed at children aged 3 to 6 years.

Star In Your Own Story: The Firefighter

The Firefighter

Written by Danielle McLean and illustrated by Sebastien Braun, this book is perfect for firefighter fans everywhere. Simply pull out the slot-in card, write your child’s name on both sides and slot it back in. You can add up to 3 names too. Perfect for children aged 1 to 3 years.

Star In your own story: The Ballerina

The Ballerina

Written by Danielle Mclean and Sebastien Braun, this book will have all little ballerinas twirling in delight. As with The Firefighter, pull out the slot-in card, write your child’s name and slot it back in to enjoy the story. Perfect for little ones aged 1 to 3 years.

Izzy’s Thoughts

As all children do, Izzy loved the idea of starring in her own stories and couldn’t wait to personalise them and get reading! She found she was able to read The Firefighter and The Ballerina mostly by herself making it perfect for younger readers with a short attention span aswell as those beginning to read alone.

Izzy loved adding the stickers to Saves the day and Drives a digger, even more so because she could add emojis! She loves all 4 books and has taken them to bed every night since we got them which says a lot.

Does your child enjoy personalised stories too?

Lets Find The Tiger – Children’s Book Review

We received Let’s Find The Tiger to review, beautifully illustrated by Alex Wilmore. Published by Little Tiger and aimed at children aged 0-3 years, who will love finding the Tiger.

Let's Find The Tiger

Let’s Find The Tiger

This colourful peek through the pages and lift the touchy-feely felt flap book encourages little ones to look for the tiger. Curious children will love exploring the leafy jungle to find the tiger in this stylish touch and feel book.

Inside spread of Let's find the Tiger

This tactile exploratory wonder of a board book will keep children engaged in their search to find the tiger. With little hints of hiding animals on each spread, little ones with love hunting for the tiger. The final reveal includes a satisfying flocked image on the final spread.

With a repeated refrain that encourages the development of word recognition and an introduction to a whole host of jungle animals, little ones will learn whilst having fun. With plenty of colour filling every page and playful illustrations provided by Alex Willmore, this is a fun book for every tiny future explorer!

Lift the flap book

Alex Willmore

Alex Willmore is an illustrator who just loves drawing fun, cute characters. He lives in rural Northamptonshire with his wife, two sons and two cats. When not drawing, Alex can mostly be found eating outrageous amounts of biscuits and enjoying a nice drive or walk around the countryside.

Coming Soon!

Get ready to go searching again with the second title in this series, Let’s Find The Penguin, due for publication in September 2019!

Do you know a little one who would love this book too?

I Love My Llamacorn – Book Review

We received I Love My Llamacorn to review by Prisca Le Tande. Published by Little Tiger and aimed at children aged 2 to 5 years, this gorgeously glittery book is perfect for fans of llamas, unicorns and everything magical!

I Love My Llamacorn

I Love My Llamacorn

A loveable llamacorn will steal your heart in this beautifully sparkly board book. Full of bright, colourful illustrations, fun peep-holes and die-cut concentric hearts penetrating from the cover right through every page, this little book for children proves just how deep love goes.

I Love my Llamacorn

I Love My Llamacorn is a celebration of unconditional love in board book form. With gentle rhyming on each spread, children will stay engaged on their journey through the book. Tiny book lovers who tend to flick forwards, backwards and skip pages when first engaging with board books will still be able to receive the full message regardless of reading order thanks to the self-contained rhymes on each spread.

Inside - I love my Llamacorn

Prisca Le Tandé

Prisca Le Tandé is a child of the disco era – so dancing queens and grooving cats are right up her street. She sees the world of illustration as a dessert trolley laden with your favourite things. Why no taste everything – you can always go to the dentist afterwards. After studying Applied Art at school, she enrolled in a film studio degree and embarked on an adventure in the into the world of animation. She is still living the adventure, as the author and artistic director of the animated series “Grosha and Mr B”. When she was young, Prisca adored the craft craze scoubidou. It’s that same simple creativity that gives her such joy now that she’s creating books for children.

Izzy’s Thoughts

Izzy enjoyed this book so much. She is absolutely obsessed with unicorns, llamas and anything magical so she has been reading this tgo her Llama’s! This is definitely a perfect book for little ones who love the That’s Not My Series which Izzy adores too. Izzy loved the sparkly pages and brightly coloured, cute animations. Eva has been asked to read this several times as Izzy loves the way she reads the rhymes throughout.

Do you know a little reader who would love this too?

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?

I’m Not Grumpy! – Children’s Book Review

We received I’m Not Grumpy! written by Steve Smallman and illustrated by Caroline Pedlar. This children’s book, perfect for ages 3 to 6 years is published by Little Tiger and available in hardback.

I'm Not Grumpy! Book Cover

This is a fantastic book for helping little ones recognise and with their own moods and emotions, as well as challenging them to think about how their behaviour might impact those around them.

I’m Not Grumpy!

Living at the edge of the forest is one grumpy mouse. He is the GRUMBLIEST and GROUCHIEST mouse for miles around until he meets a lost badger who desperately needs his help! The girls thought Mouse was funny, keep shouting ‘I’M NOT GRUMPY! repeatedly throughout the story.

I'm Not Grumpy!

I’m Not Grumpy! is a lovely, touching story about the value of kindness and friendship, both given and received. With repeated refrains that encourage reader participation throughout, little ones will absolutely adore this story.

This story opens up discussions about the transformative power of choosing to be helpful, and kind, as well as how our attitudes are reflected by the people around us.

Beautifully Illustrated

By the talented creators of Scaredy Bear and Don’t Wake the Bear, Hare!, I’m Not Grumpy! is simply stunning. This beautiful book is full of softly-drawn woodland animals with beautifully expressive features.

Steve Smallman has now written over 50 books, many are bestselling and award-winning such as Bear’s Big Bottom, Poo In The Zoo, The Monkey With A Bright Blue Bottom and our favourite, Cock-a-doodle-poo!.

Caroline Pedlar illustrated her first children’s book in 1990 and has since lost count of how many she has illustrated! With an MA in Illustration-Authorial Practice under her belt, she always has something creative going on.

Have you heard of this book before or Steve Smallman and Caroline Pedlar?

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?

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?

The Kiss – Children’s Book Review

We were sent The Kiss to review*, such a heart-warming story of a Kiss brightening up the world with smiles, laughter and dancing. This beautiful book is written by Linda Sunderland and Illustrated Jessica Courtney-Tickle.

The Kiss

The Kiss

This lovely book begins with Grandma heading home from Edwyn’s house. He blows her a kiss which she catches and puts it in her pocket.

Edwyn blows Grandma a kiss

Spreading Happiness

On the way home, Grandma comes across people looking sad such as an old man at the bus stop. She makes the old man smile by taking the kiss from her pocket and showing it to him.

They begin to dance and make the people at the bus stop smile! Grandma blows the old man a kiss which he catches and puts in his pocket. Edwyn’s one grows heavier and bigger while Grandma uses it to spread happiness all the way home. Kindness and happiness make it thrive!

A Stolen Thief!

A man hears all about the kiss and asks to buy it from Grandma but she refuses. He tries all different ways to get hold of it but Grandma refuses. The man sends flowers, letters, even a brass band yet she still refuses. He decides to stal it!

The kiss - Book review

The man cages the kiss and it slowly begins to grow thinner, the skies turn mean and the sun goes to sleep. It withers in front of his eyes which makes the man sad. He eventually decides to return Edwyn’s kiss to Grandma. Thankfully when Grandma releases it from its cage it returns to normal!

The man looked so sad that Grandma blew him a kiss which he caught and smiled sweetly! When Grandma next sees Edwyn he gives her a hug and she puts it safely in her wardrobe for whenever she felt cold and lonely!

The kiss - Edwyns hug

A Beautiful Story

This is such a beautiful story showing how kisses and hugs can spread joy and happiness everywhere! It goes to show just how far a small act of kindness can go. Spreading the message that the act of sharing can be more powerful than taking what we want from the world through a beautifully written children’s book. Such a lovely uplifting story to read to children aged 3 to 6 years. Both girls really enjoyed this sweet story, a perfect bedtime read!

Do you love Children’s books that spread important messages like this too? Can you recommend others like this?

*We were sent this book to review but all thoughts and opinions are our own.