Category / Review

by jo

The Good Dinosaur – Our Review

Disney Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur is in cinemas – and we went to see it a couple of weeks ago.

the good dinosaur

The Good Dinosaur is the latest Disney Pixar animation, and one H was desperate to see – her love of dinosaurs and our love of Pixar films meant we went, of course.

So what happens when several million years ago, that asteroid hurtling towards earth misses? Fast forward several million years later, and dinosaurs rule the earth, and we get to meet Arlo the Apatosaurus, born to parents Henry and Ida, as well as his two siblings Libby and Buck. Arlo is shy, unconfident and timid. He’s given a task of setting up traps to protect their silo – and eventually comes across Spot, a young feral caveboy who has been stealing their corn. Arlo captures Spot but sets him free.

In the meantime, the classic Pixar ‘thing’ happens, death. Arlo then sees Spot, who he blames for the death, chases him, hits his head on a rock and ends up being saved by him. Both then try to make their way home, meeting several characters along the way and becoming friends in the process.

How scary is The Good Dinosaur? It has its moments – but as with all Pixar films, it’s family friendly – just think of the relationship between Arlo and Spot as a person and their family pet – except Arlo is the human and Spot is the dog. I found it charming and enjoyable.

Watch the trailer here –

The Disney Store have recently launched some toys from The Good Dinosaur – we were sent a Spot Small Toy (rrp £12.95) and a Tin Art Case Set (rrp £12.95) to review. H loves the Spot toy – he’s quite small but has the characteristics of the caveboy – and I would say Spot probably steals the film, so H was happy. The Tin Art Case Set has everything you’ll need for any colouring or writing you might need to do – pens, pencils, crayons, paints, felt tips, ruler and rubber plus a notebook, and a pair of young-child friendly scissors (i.e. without blades).

We think it’s a fine selection of The Good Dinosaur merchandise, and it’s available in store and online now – see the slideshow below for what’s on offer!

by jo

Star Wars – The Force Awakens with a Six Year Old

Star Wars is in cinemas now, but is it appropriate to go to  The Force Awakens with a six year old?

Star Wars The Force Awakens Logo

Seeing Star Force – The Force Awakens with a six year old might sound like a challenge – after all, the film is certified a 12A, but that doesn’t mean your child can’t go, it just means they need to be accompanied by an adult.

I had a look at other films which had a 12A rating, which include James Bond. H has only watched the very start of Skyfall (she likes Adele) which made me feel quite nervous about what The Force Awakens might have in it content-wise.

To be safe I had to check spoilers, and ask friends for advice who had seen the film before me. This link is really helpful – WARNING – it does have a major spoiler in it which you can’t avoid (it doesn’t name the character), so don’t say I didn’t warn you. Once I’d read the info on this page I felt fairly comfortable that H would cope fine with the plot.

The Force Awakens with a Six Year Old

One thing which we didn’t think about were the trailers beforehand. Obviously, being a 12A means the films being trailed aren’t sweet films like Charlie Brown, you’re getting violent content. We had around 30 minutes of trailers before the film started, so it may be worth checking how long they are before you go. They were the scariest part of it all. I kind of wished the trailers were PG, as they must know younger kids will be going (example – one film was about London being destroyed and was quite graphic).

There was one part H was left uncomfortable with, when two major characters meet in a forest and there’s conflict. Other than that everything seemed fairly standard Star Wars stuff – the violence was more implied than seen. It was LOUD. Really loud. It was possibly at my limit without earplugs – so if your child doesn’t like noise then it might be worth having some earplugs or headphones handy when you go. A lot of the film reminded me of the spirit of the first film (Episode IV these days).

In fact, on coming out of The Force Awakens with a six year old she decided to play ‘Star Wars’ with her friend. She was Rey, the most kick-ass female lead in a movie in a while. I approve. Rey put up a good fight in the film and strikes me as a good confident role model.

In fact, Disney have just released a whole new load of merchandise bits for The Force Awakens, including plenty of Rey figures included. I suspect we’ll be getting H a Rey costume at some point in the next year… All the items below are available now from the Disney Store!

by jo

The Book of Everyone – A Personalised Book

We were given the opportunity to create our own book from The Book of Everyone – a unique book personalised to suit the recipient. In our case, it had to be H – so what does the book hold for a six year old, and how easy is it to create?

The Book Of Everyone - Book of H

The Book of Everyone is a unique personalised book which you create using the recipient’s name and date of birth, gender and name. Because I don’t use H’s name on here I’ve edited it out on the pictures, but rest assured her full name is used! You have an option to produce a book based on current age or the one coming up as well.

How easy is it to create? Very! Because the book is facts-based rather than the kind you would add photos to, it knows important stuff like star signs (we’ve never really known as she’s on the cusp, though I’m happy I’m right and she is a Virgo) and the number one record when you’re born (which I wish I could edit as at the moment she sees the word ‘bitch’ as a swear word, it’d be nice to censor it with an asterisk in the book – but that’s not a fault of the book, it’s a fault of the potty mouthed David Guetta ft Akon).

The Book of Everyone - tv and number 1

We were given a code to order a hardback book, which arrived a week later (not bad, as we’re in Christmas post times). I also opted for the Christmas book which includes a Rodeo Santa dedication page (Here’s a treat that’s special, unique the whole book through, and although Christmas shouldn’t be, this is all about you!), a festive cover and various Christmas bits throughout.

You get to choose your colour scheme, so knowing H loves blue I opted for this. The book has ‘The Book of H’ on the cover and spine, and my name (as I created it) on the spine as well.

The Book of Everyone - Ant stamps

The Book of Everyone is bright and colourful with loads of facts and things which relate to H’s life so far. It’s funny having the Ant Farm page, where you can follow H the ant – although the camera isn’t working at the moment. I know that’s something she’ll find funny! There are pages you can edit which helps customise it – you get this icon when you’re previewing it.

The Book of Everyone edit page

The Book of Everyone has things I know H will be able to relate to. The personalisation aspect is something which makes her feel like it’s for HER, than a general book. For that alone it gets a thumbs up!

The Book of Everyone Quotes

Now, the important stuff. How eco-friendly are the books? From their website – We picked our printers because of their exemplary approach to minimising the environmental impacts of printing. Our UK print partners Pureprint were the first CarbonNeutral® printer in the world. Also, do you need to be in when the book is delivered? Our book fitted through the letterbox fine, so you don’t need to worry about that either!

The Book of Everyone Christmas version costs £29.50 – though there are other options available. You can create a digital version for £7.50, and a softcover for £19.50. You can view your book online once it is created too, and once you’ve bought a physical edition you have access to a free download version by using a unique code. Their website is here

The Book of Everyone personalised snowflake

It’s also worth mentioning, you can create your own personalised snowflake on their website for free – I’ve enjoyed playing around with it. You can find that here. You can order a print of your snowflake which goes towards helping conserve polar bears at http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/

The Book of Everyone logo

We received a code to review this book, all opinions are our own! 

by jo

4000 Stickers Christmas Book

As Parragon Book Buddies, we’re sent a new book every month to review. This month is the very apt 4000 Stickers Christmas Book – guaranteed to keep H busy (which is a good thing).

4000 Stickers Christmas Book

The 4000 Stickers Christmas Book from Parragon isn’t just a sticker book, mind. There are loads of activities – and when I say loads I mean LOADS. From puzzles to mazes, to spot the difference to just adding stickers to scenes to make them your own. There’s a lot of choice.

Right now H is loving Spot the Difference puzzles, and indeed appears to find the one pictured “easy peasy lemon squeezy”  – in fact, my main problem is reminding her not to mark the puzzles so she can go back to them in a week or two from doing them, forgetting what the solutions are!

4000 Stickers Christmas Book Spot the difference

The 4000 Stickers Christmas Book has a fine selection of stickers – everything you would expect is in there, and oh my, there’s so many. Add to that all the puzzles and activities inside and you’ve got a great addition to any stocking for a child – this is the kind of book that would keep them busy for a while!

The stickers aren’t big, but then with 4000 of them you wouldn’t expect it to be. There are just lots of them – but that means there’s plenty of places you need to find to stick them!

4000 Stickers Christmas Book stickers

At £10.00 it isn’t cheap, but there are so many pages full of activities, with bright fun illustrations, I would say it’s worth getting. This isn’t a book which will be used once or twice – it’s one your child would keep going back to. Also, I’ve spotted The Book People are selling it for £2.99 at the moment – so worth considering.

We received this book for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own.

by jo

Blue Peter Book Awards 2016 Shortlist

Woah. Can you believe it has been a year since the last Blue Peter Book Awards – and now on tonight’s CBBC show, the Blue Peter Book Awards 2016 shortlist will be announced!

Blue Peter Book Awards 2016

 

The Blue Peter Book Awards 2016 Shortlist is full of fun and interesting books – and I love it as a new way of discovering authors we might not know about. Since last year H has become a huge fan of Pamela Butchart and we’ve got her new book preordered in time for its release next year.

Here’s the press release:

The latest hilarious, heartbreaking book from Frank Cottrell-Boyce – the beloved writer of the London Olympics opening ceremony and award-winning author – is among six children’s books shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Awards 2016.

His book, The Astounding Broccoli Boy, which is illustrated by Steven Lenton, is competing for the Best Story Award along with The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair by Lara Williamson and The Nowhere Emporium by Ross MacKenzie.

Blue Peter Book Awards 2015 Shortlist Best Story

All three books are humorous but also tackle powerful issues, including bullying, being different, dealing with a parent’s death and living in a children’s home.

Shortlisted in the Best Book with Facts category is Penny Arlon’s FactFeed, a book of lists reinvented for the YouTube and BuzzFeed generation with its publisher, Scholastic, describing it as ‘great for reading on the loo’.

It is up against The Epic Book of Epicness, written and illustrated by Adam Frost, and The Silly Book of Weird and Wacky Words written by Andy Seed and illustrated by Scott Garrett.

Andy and Scott won the Best Book with Facts category in 2015 with their book The Silly Book of Side-Splitting Stuff.

Blue Peter Book Awards 2015 Shortlist Facts

The shortlist was announced today (Thursday 3 December) live on Blue Peter.

The four judges – Angellica Bell, Pamela Butchart, Jim Sells and non-voting chair Ewan Vinnicombe – cited the challenging topics in the books vying for Best Story and said many of the books made them cry with laughter but also with sadness.

TV presenter, Angellica Bell, described the judging experience as, ‘no mean feat reading 40 books cover to cover’ but claims it’s ignited a passion for reading.

She said: “When I was young, I didn’t read all that much and felt I had missed out on a fun imaginative part of the growing up process. Reading from a young age allows people to escape and be whoever they want to be and being part of this judging process has allowed me to experience those feelings now. As a mother, I want my children to love books and feel that they can be transported to different worlds and experiences anytime, anywhere!”

Also taking part in the judging was National Literacy Trust programme manager, Jim Sells, who said: “Choosing the shortlist was great fun but pretty tough. I’m particularly happy because these books have huge potential to engage children who don’t think that there is anything out there that they would like to read. The story books explore powerful themes but are written in a way which is easy to understand, while the fact books are really interesting.”

The winners will be decided by more than 200 schoolchildren from ten schools across the UK, who will read the shortlisted books and vote for their favourites in each category. The two winning books will be announced on the Blue Peter programme scheduled for World Book Day on 3 March 2016 and will be announced by Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell.

The celebrated Blue Peter Book Awards, which are managed by children’s reading charity BookTrust, celebrate the best authors, most creative illustrators and the greatest reads for children.

The shortlist:

Best Story

The Astounding Broccoli Boy written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce and illustrated by Steven Lenton (Pan Macmillan)

The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair written by Lara Williamson (Usborne)

The Nowhere Emporium written by Ross MacKenzie(Kelpies)

Best Book with Facts

The Epic Book of Epicness written and illustrated by Adam Frost (Bloomsbury)

The Silly Book of Weird and Wacky Words written by Andy Seed and illustrated by Scott Garrett (Bloomsbury)

FactFeed written by Penny Arlon (Scholastic)

The judges for this year’s Awards are:

Angellica Bell – TV presenter, mum and blogger

Ewan Vinnicombe – (non-voting chair) Editor, Blue Peter

Jim Sells – National Literacy Trust Programme Manager

Pamela Butchart – winner of the Blue Peter Best Story 2015

by jo

Annie the Musical UK Tour

I’ve always loved musicals, and I’m more than delighted that H has inherited my love of people randomly bursting into song for no apparent reason too. While The Sound of Music might not be her favourite (yet), there’s several musicals we love, and recently we bought tickets for Annie the Musical when it arrived at the New Wimbledon Theatre on its UK tour.

Annie the Musical logo

Annie the Musical was born in 1977 and was one which fell onto my radar properly with the 1982 film. I was hooked, the songs were catchy and I seem to remember us renting a video copy of the film many times – I knew all the songs off by heart (and I didn’t own the soundtrack until recently).

So what’s to say about Annie? You probably know the story, so I won’t go into it in detail, other than to say this production follows the original stageplay. Songs like ‘We’d Like to Thank You Herbert Hoover’ make a welcome reappearance, a sarcastic song to the former US President from the residents of Hooverville (a shantytown built during the Great Depression where homeless people live – the US had hundreds of these Hoovervilles in the 1930s)  “you made us what we are today….“.

Annie the Musical NYC

‘NYC’ is the centrepiece of the musical, lots of bright colourful trips as Annie, Grace and Daddy Warbucks decide to walk to the movies through NYC, and done so well.

For our performance the role of Miss Hannigan was played by Lesley Joseph and she was great – although I did wonder where her NY accent was – it was definitely more her own voice (which is fine, I’m not complaining) – she was excellent! It made no difference to H, mind.

Annie the Musical Hard Knock Life

The children playing the orphans were brilliant – the character of Annie is in pretty much every scene, that’s a lot of work such young children, and ours was fantastic. The orphans made a great team alongside her too.

The sets were simple but you knew where you were – H found it really exciting that the orphans all were “asleep” in their beds with the main curtains up, so we saw them there on stage before the play started, with an old thirties style radio playing music in the background.

Annie the Musical You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile

As with most musicals, the songs keep coming, and what I like the most about Annie the Musical is how clearly it tells the story of New York in poverty and how President Roosevelt was set to do something about it. With the context of the rich and poor alongside Annie’s positivity “the sun’ll come out, tomorrow…” you’re given a more complete story of New York at the end of the Great Depression and how things were set to change for the better. Which of course went way over H’s head, she just likes the songs!

Annie the Musical

Annie the Musical is on tour now, and throughout 2016 – I’d highly recommend going – and they have a well-stocked merch table too with plenty of things to choose (H went for a photo book taken from the stage show, pictures of which accompany this review – it costs £7 so not too bad at all!). Tickets can be booked here.

by jo

BookTrust Digital Advent Calendar!

BookTrust, Britain’s largest reading charity has launched the BookTrust Digital Advent Calendar featuring the very best children’s books that families might want to share this Christmas.

BookTrust Digital Advent Calendar

The BookTrust Digital Advent Calendar is launching very soon, and visitors will also get the chance to win all 24 books featured, and have them delivered in time for Christmas!

The BookTrust team chose the books that they feel children would most love to find under their Christmas tree or in their stocking. The selection, which is aimed at children up to the age of 12, features both classics and new stories and picture books from the very best authors and illustrators.

Each day leading up to Christmas Day, a picture of a specially selected book will appear behind a calendar window, along with the reasons it was chosen.

BookTrust Chief Executive, Diana Gerald, said: “This is good festive fun with a serious edge to it, we know that developing a love of reading brings enormous benefits and is linked to children doing very well at school and living balanced lives.

“Exposing children to fantastic authors and illustrators at a young age will encourage them to enjoy reading so we want to help parents by pointing them in the direction of books their kids will love.”

Included is Matt Haig’s fantastic new story, A Boy Called Christmas, [Canongate] illustrated by Chris Mould. Matt brings his signature wit and warmth to this seasonal chapter-book, which is sure to delight young readers.

A Boy Called Christmas

Another title, this time for younger readers, is Judith Kerr’s picture book, Mog’s Christmas [HarperCollins]. This classic picture book celebrates the joys of preparing for Christmas, although it all seems rather strange from a cat’s point of view!

Also hiding behind one of the windows is a beautiful non-fiction title, Shackleton’s Journey by William Grill [Flying Eye Books]. This marks the 100th anniversary of Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition, with informative text and a wealth of beautifully detailed coloured pencil drawings.

The calendar also features the nation’s favourite storyteller, Michael Morpurgo, with his new book, An Eagle in the Snow [HarperCollins]. Michael, who is also the BookTrust President, teams up with illustrator Michael Foreman for this short but immersive novel. Based on a true story of a highly decorated World War I soldier, children will love this thought-provoking tale. Another inclusion is the The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton [Walker Books] about Princess Pinecone who wants a warrior horse for her birthday but gets a short, fat, farting pony instead. This is a hilarious book with a feminist message that shows girls can be strong and creative.

The calendar goes live on December 1st, and will be found here:

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/advent-calendar or on Twitter #BookTrustAdvent

by jo

How to be a Cowboy Activity Book by Alice V. Lickens

There comes a time in a little girl’s life when she needs some help. Sometimes it’s help that mummies and daddies can’t give, even though we try. Sometimes she likes to think she’s independent and doesn’t need us parents. When it comes to being a Cowboy, well, she’s going to need a bit of help, and this wonderful book from Alice V. Lickens is a very good place to start.

How to be a Cowboy by Alice Lickens

How to be a Cowboy is packed with fun illustrations and activities – and is ideal for any aspiring cowboys or girls. Inside you can find a map of Cowboy States, information about what is On The Ranch, and most importantly of all, information about Cowboy Boots.

As the book says, “A cowboy needs a ranch name to be shouted across the prairie. What would yours be?” – and there are plenty to choose from!

How to be a Cowboy by Alice Lickens

How to be a Cowboy also has a page on stetsons, so you know one from another. Add to that a page of stickers and at the back, a dress up cowboy doll, and it’s a fun book packed with information – and one H is really enjoying reading.

how to be a cowboy doll by Alice Lickens

I love the illustrations by Alice V. Lickens – they’re all very clear and bright. We’re familiar with her work, as we have her ‘Can You Dance to the Boogaloo’ book. There are maps (H LOVES maps) and trails, including some Cattle Trails marked out too. Have you ever wondered what each cowboy has job-wise when they’re on the trail? You can find that out in How to be a Cowboy too!

how to be a cowboy stickers

Of course, no cowboy is truly complete without being taught how to speak like a cowboy. Fortunately this book has plenty of phrases, including ‘Jackaroo’ which Shaun says is an Australian Cowboy. See! I’ve learnt something too.

Finally, when you’re at home on the range you need to have some basic meals to cook – and luckily, How to be a Cowboy has four of them you can try. I’m not convinced about Sock Coffee though!

how to be a cowboy food

All in all, the How to be a Cowboy activity book is lots of fun. Published by Pavilion Books, and with a RRP of £9.99, it’s available on 12th November – perfectly timed for any Cowboys who need something to read this Christmas!

Alice V. Lickens is a freelance illustrator, author and designer based in London. She has worked with Lonely Planet, National Trust, Random House, Pavilion Books, Walker Books and The Guardian. Alice is also one of the first illustrators in the UK who was chosen for the Sendak Fellowship, and went to work at Maurice Sendak’s residence in Connecticut in 2012. Her website is here. We also love that her site links to Maggie Li and Frann Preston Gannon – both are favourites of ours here!

We were sent the book for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own. 

by jo

Professor Murphy Metal Puzzle Set

As Parragon Book Buddies we’re sent a different book every month, targeted at older readers. This month’s book is the Professor Murphy Metal Puzzle Set.

Professor Murphy Metal Puzzle Set box

The Professor Murphy Metal Puzzle Set consists of the kind of puzzles you occasionally find in Christmas Crackers – you know the ones. You have two pieces of metal and you have an objective – to get them to link together in a certain way.

The set also comes with a 16 page booklet explaining how the puzzles are solved, as well as 30 Insanely Baffling Puzzles – and they are too! Some are obvious, and some take a bit of thinking about. Try this one – ‘A man sits by a window reading. No light is switched on in the room, there is no moon outside and he has no torch, lamp or candle, yet he can still see to read – how is this possible? I got this one straight away (phew, I’m not losing my common sense just yet then!).

Professor Murphy Metal Puzzle Set open box

I like that this isn’t just for kids – the puzzles can be just as tricky for an adult, and I have to be honest, I’m the kind of person who ends up going to the solution when it comes to the metal puzzles – and the Professor Murphy Metal Puzzle Set has six of them!

I know this is the kind of activity book I’ll be getting out when I want to make sure H stays off the Wii U or her tablet – I like that it makes you think about things, and that you can recreate some of the puzzles too (the kind where a shape is built from toothpicks, and you have to remove two to create another shape, sort of thing). Definitely one which will be living on the games shelves and will be getting a lot of use!

Professor Murphy Metal Puzzle Set book and shapes

The Professor Murphy Metal Puzzle Set has a RRP of £6.99 and is suitable for age 6 and upwards.

We were sent a copy of the book for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own.

by jo

My Big Book of Monster Fun

My Big Book of Monster Fun is the latest Parragon Book Buddies book, which we received recently.

My Big Book of Monster Fun

My Big Book of Monster Fun is timed well for Halloween – with lots of monster themed activities such as ‘finish drawing zombies in the graveyard then colour them in’ – H enjoyed that one (she always enjoyed watching me play Plants Vs Zombies, so she knew which colours to do) – and as well as that there are plenty of colouring in pages.

The book is broken up into chapters – Scaredy Boo! which is a 25 page poem – I like it as it’s fun, and H likes it as she enjoys reading poems, so this was a good one for her. After that we have Monster Activities (where the previously mentioned Zombies live), followed by Monster Colouring.

After that, there’s a dinosaur section – T-Rex Terror, a cartoon style story strip, Dinosaur Activities and Dinosaur Colouring. At the end there are answers to the various questions throughout the book.

I did say Halloween, but actually, if your child likes monsters and finds the kinds of activities inside fun, this is definitely the book for them. The poem and comic strip make this targeted for older kids (definitely ones that are reading), whereas the puzzles would definitely work for younger kids.

H loves My Big Book of Monster Fun because she can dip in and out of it, and doesn’t have to do it in order.

I like it because there are word search puzzles and a maze, which are two of H’s favourite things to do puzzle-wise. As the back of the book says, it’s a bumper collection of monster fun!

My Big Book of Monster Fun is available now from all good bookstores, with a RRP of £7.99 – and is available from Amazon here.

We were sent the book for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own!