Category / We Love Books

by jo

New Miffy Books? Almost… but yet they are!

Simon and Schuster are the new publishers of Miffy books. We’re long-term fans – they’re books I read when I was little and now H loves them too.

Miffy was first brought to life by Dick Bruna way back in 1955 by the Dutch artist Dick Bruna. We have a mighty fine collection and one of the things I’ve found the most charming is the not-quite-right translations of the books. Words that would never rhyme being used in the stories. I’m sure I didn’t care when I was young, I just read and got on with it.

So I have a sense of loyalty – and was a little wary when it was announced the books would be getting a bit of a revamp for modern times. I’m not a fan of change unless it’s for a good reason.

Fortunately, there is a good reason. The Miffy illustrations stay the same, and most of the rhymes stay the same or similar, but have a better structure. For example – there is a picture of a pear and some peapods, the original book mentions a cauliflower (probably to make the words flow better) yet it isn’t pictured. The new version of the book is much simpler and sticks to what you can see. See the two pictures for more examples.

Miffy

I quite like them too. I bought ‘Miffy’ and ‘Miffy at the Zoo’ today and have compared both versions we own. But yet it says the translations date back to the 1990’s – so what did we have before this? What did I read in the seventies? Would it be unreasonable to buy a third version of the books purely for my own curiosity?

If, like me, you weren’t sure what was going to be done with the books, rest assured, it’s fine. It’s a job done well and very faithfully. Would I buy all the books again? I’m unsure – as we own them all already it could prove quite costly. Fortunately they’re being made available in small batches (Miffy at the Gallery is the third in the series – which was published via the Tate Bookstore not that long ago) so won’t break the bank. I’m hoping that the last book, Njintje is Stout (Miffy is Naughty) will get a translation, as I’m fairly sure that’s the only book that hasn’t been.

Miffy at the Zoo

October is a bit of a cop-out with Miffy’s Dream getting republished! The only one without words – maybe new translator Tony Mitton needed a break 🙂 We like and have read a few of Tony Mitton’s books – though only own ‘The Somethingosaur’ which we reviewed a while back.

I can see there are also activity books available too, though didn’t buy those. It looks like Miffy is going to be well stocked in bookstores again which is quite frankly, a fabulous thing. You can find all the books over here  – Miffy – the New Books (contains an affiliate link).

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by jo

Love Our Library – The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems

The Pigeon Wants A Puppy by Mo Willems is another in the wonderful Pigeon series, and one which we picked up from the library last week.

H’s reading is really coming on, so as an experiment (as we’re working quite hard on expression at the moment) I had her read the book and sound out any words she wasn’t sure about. There aren’t many words, but there’s a good story to be read.

The pigeon wants a puppy. He really does. He’d really love a puppy and he’ll tell you why, repeatedly. He’s SO in love with the idea of wanting a puppy that when he actually does get one he realises he didn’t actually want it at all.

Pigeon Wants a Puppy

Within the book there are plenty of exclamation marks, it’s funny, the pictures work well alongside the text, and for a four year old who is moving gradually into regular books it was lovely to hear her read it, not struggle with any words and giggle at the funny bits.

Pigeon Wants a Puppy

We only own ‘Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus’ plus another one of his books, though I spotted there’s a new pigeon book due in April which is VERY exciting indeed. In fact, there’s a whole website of goodness over here.

We love Mo Willems’ books, we really do. REALLY.

by jo

Baking With Fruit

Baking With Fruit is the latest book we were sent as a Parragon Book Buddy. With a tagline of ‘Delicious cakes, pastries and desserts’ we were won over immediately!

Baking With Fruit

Baking With Fruit comes from Parragon Books Love Food range, and is a collection of classic and new recipes using fresh fruit in all seasons. Actually, the best thing about the book was getting it out at the table with Shaun and H and watching them both coo over it, they look delicious!

We did a spot of foraging last year, and this year I want us to do some Pick Your Own from local farms. There are plenty of recipes in here which will cover the various fruits we can get too – from the complicated looking to ones which look quite simple.

We haven’t had a chance to try any recipes yet, but on the list is the Lemon Sponge Roll (although it includes gelatine so I need to find a vegetarian option), the Mandarin Cheesecake looks especially good, and I know it’s almost time, we need to buy a ring tin as the Cherry Marble Cake looks divine!

Oh and don’t get me started on the Lime and Raspberry Tart… yum!

As we head out of the post-Christmas slump, we’ve been inspired by the Great British Bake Off. H loves it too thanks to them repeating it over Christmas and the Comic Relief version in the new year. I think H fancies herself as a bit of a Mary Berry, and this book features the kind of recipes I know H will like to do too. There’ll be no soggy bottoms around here!

Baking With Fruit will sit perfectly alongside the Higgidy Cookbook which we bought and reviewed last year. While we’re still being very weight-conscious, I’d like to think these recipes aren’t going to be too fattening – plus it’s all down to portion size!

Baking With Fruit is available now, published by Parragon Books and has a rrp of £8.

We were sent the book for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own. The book image at the bottom contains an affiliate link.

by jo

Never Talk to Strangers by Irma Joyce

First published in 1967, ‘Never Talk to Strangers’ by Irma Joyce is as relevant these days as it was back then. The title says it all really.

‘Never Talk to Strangers’ tackles stranger danger in a way a four year old won’t find scary. With simple rhymes to show the difference between knowing someone and how to behave, versus not knowing someone that a four year old would understand, this is a good place to start when the subject arises.

If you are swimming in a pool
and a crocodile begins to drool,
Paddle away and repeat this rule –
Never talk to strangers.

Each rhyme is based around a character (usually an animal) and always finishes with ‘Never Talk to Strangers’. It introduces someone who isn’t a stranger by being someone that someone else knows, with the book finishing in a positive way.

The illustrations are nice, bright and colourful and most importantly of all, H enjoyed reading it (and joined in with me).

Our version of the book was published by Random House Children’s Books in 2009 and bought via The Book Depository for £2.49 via Amazon.

(this post contains an affiliate link)

by jo

Christmas Gift Ideas – Dick Bruna’s Christmas Book

Dick Bruna’s Christmas book has been republished as a golden anniversary edition by Simon and Schuster. We received a copy to review and love it – read on for more!

Dick Bruna's Christmas

Dick Bruna’s Christmas book was first published in 1963 and is a classic Bruna book – he being the creator of Miffy, having his distinctive style of drawing.

Right now the book is perfect for us – H is learning about the nativity at school, and this book tells the story in an uncomplicated way. As she isn’t reading properly yet I read it to her, and she now understands a little better what it’s all about. They’re doing a school Christmas service soon and she’s quite enjoyed knowing what happened when Jesus was born. I’d say this book is ideal for youngsters in explaining the story and why Christmas exists.

A cute little addition is a bookmark in the shape of an angel – as unlike other Bruna books this is a long one so may need bookmarking. It’s also worth noting, this is the first edition by Simon & Schuster who announced they’d be re-translating the Miffy books for a big relaunch next year – the text in here is the english translation from 1995.

Dick Bruna's Christmas

I asked H what she liked the best about the book – she says the best thing was finding out Jesus’ mummy and daddy’s name, aw! For me, we’ve sat and really gone into the story, and I’m still not able to answer her why Jesus was given myrrh! It’s nice to sit and read the story together, we’re not religious and haven’t really done much along these lines, so it’s helping me too.

Dick Bruna’s Christmas book is available now with a rrp of £10. It’s currently £5.75 at Amazon, so worth getting while it’s at that price!

We were sent a copy of the book for review, all opinions are our own. This post contains an affiliate link.

by jo

Richard Scarry’s Biggest Word Book Ever!

It’s back and as big as ever! says the back of Richard Scarry’s Biggest Word Book Ever – and it’s not wrong.

Imagine your biggest book. Now double it. Double it again. You may now be close in size to Richard Scarry’s Biggest Word Book Ever. It is HUGE.

Richard Scarry's Biggest Ever Word Book

We’ve mentioned before about our love of Richard Scarry’s books – memories from my childhood have flooded back on opening them – pictures showing the lives of the creatures who live in Busytown. There are so many activities you can do on each page – spot things, spell things, learn to read some words, play i-spy – the list is endless. We can happily cuddle up and read through several pages of the book while getting some serious learnng in there too. The fonts in the book are good, and the pictures a delight. You can let your imagination do a lot of the work, the scenes from lots of everyday events, from airports to shops, homes, to buildings with everything labelled in that Richard Scarry way.

Oh, and Richard Scarry’s Biggest Word Book Ever is the biggest book I’ve ever seen. Don’t let me understate this fact. The product dimensions (according to Amazon) are 60 x 39.8 x 1.2 cm

At £24.99 it doesn’t come cheap, but as a classic I’d get it – with Christmas coming it’s the kind of thing I’d think of as a special present – and actually you can get it on Amazon at the moment for £16.49 which I think is a pretty good price. There are only fourteen pages, so if your child is a confident reader they’ll get some use of it, but it may be more suitable for a younger child. Personally I think we’ve so much to get through with H it’s going to last us a long time, and I’m sure I was seven or eight when I stopped looking at my Richard Scarry books as much, so potentially H will be the same.

Anyway, for me, a book I can hide behind and sit with H talking about the contents is a winner.

Richard Scarry's Biggest Word Book Ever

We were sent a copy of Richard Scarry’s Biggest Word Book Ever! for the purpose of review. All opinions are our own – H brings out the book to show all her friends when they come to play, which I think shows how much she loves it! 

by jo

How To Lose A Lemur by Frann Preston-Gannon

How To Lose a Lemur is a new book by Frann Preston-Gannon, published by Pavilion Books. ‘Everyone knows that once a lemur takes a fancy to you there is not much that can be done about it’. So Very True.

How To Lose A Lemur

How To Lose A Lemur is a fun book – the story of a boy who is followed by lemurs, who desperately tries to escape them; but they’re everywhere. He hides up a tree, disguises himself, rows off in a boat, takes the train, climbs a mountain and takes to the air in a hot air balloon (as well as a few more things), but STILL those pesky lemurs won’t leave him alone. Then he gets lost. Fortunately the lemurs are there who help guide him back home via all the places he’d been to escape them.

We’ve already read the book several times. The language is nice and simple and she’s able to work out words in it; the font is clear too. The illustrations are lovely – a mixture of hand and computer painted artwork. Add to that a story with a message about the value of friendship aimed at 2-5 year olds and really this is the kind of book most children will enjoy.

Reading How to Lose A Lemur

It’s quirky like an Oliver Jeffers book, with elements of ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’ at the end retracing their steps – with a happy positive message at the end.

How to Lose A Lemur is out today, 10th October 2013 and available in all good bookstores (I saw it well stocked in Waterstones earlier today).

We’ll be checking out more of Frann Preston-Gannon’s work now as I feel like these books could be our cup of tea – her previous two books are The Journey Home and Dinosaur Farm. Add to that there’s more Lemur books to come – ‘How To Love Your Lemur’ and ‘When Lemurs Come To Christmas’ – we can’t wait!

We were provided with a copy of the book for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own. The link above is an affiliate link.

by jo

Educational Books That Are Fun

I’m always on the look out for books which will help H with her reading, educational books that will work with her learning at school. Recently I’ve come across two which I’m sharing with you today.

Educational BooksWe were sent a copy of Bud and Roo’s Spectacular Adventures – The Beach by Jessica Valentine and Suzy Jones Biggar. This is a new book about two dogs, Bud and Roo and what they discover. It’s designed as an early reading book, with words that aren’t difficult to work out so you’re building your child’s confidence in reading on their own.

With Bud and Roo’s Spectacular Adventures – The Beach you have a short story with lovely illustrations in simple colours and plenty of things to spot and talk about on each picture. The books are targeted at the 0-5 age range, and I’m hoping fairly soon H may be able to read most of it without too much help.

Bud and Roo’s Spectacular Adventures – The Beach is available now at Amazon (affiliate link) with a rrp of £5.99.

Curious Cat’s Way Out Bunch – Which Endangered Animal Lives in Northern Canada? by Jenny Tulip and Dawn Smith is a new series for us – I discovered these books at the recent Carshalton Environmental Fair and bought a book (and was given this one for free) when we got chatting.

The Curious Cat series are educational, they base the series on animals which are rare, exotic and endangered. The books have facts about the creature’s appearance, habits and environment and it’s left to the child to guess which animal it’s about. H really enjoys identifying the animals, and with her limited reading abilities can work out which is which when faced with a page of them.

Add to that you’ve facts at the end, plus a world map – and with H having dual nationality I need her to understand how big the world is, these books help her learn about other countries and animals. There are no  Australian books available yet, but that could happen in the not-too-distant future! The books are self-published at Green Art Creations and I can see a selection of the books are available at Amazon too.

I like that the book is written in rhyme which makes identifying the animal fun, and there’s plenty to talk about on each page.

Right now these educational books are fitting perfectly into H’s learning to read and discovering more about the world. I’d recommend both, as they have to be fun for the parents to read too – and these definitely are!

by Karen

Animal Noises/ Animal Opposites by Nicola Killen

Animal Noises and Animal Opposites are delightful ‘lift the flap’ board books by author Nicola Killen. They were released on the 29th August by Egmont.

Animal Noises and Animal Oposites by Nicola Killen

After a shaky start  Jacob, now 23 months, is beginning to really enjoy being read to. It wasn’t always easy, only until a couple of months ago he’d throw his soft toys at me whilst I was trying to read to him. But persistence has truly paid off! He now likes a multitude of flap, touch and feel and slightly longer books. In fact, I am always on the lookout for something new!

Animal Noises gives clues to the animal hiding under the flap by giving said animals typical characteristic and noise (‘this wise bird goes TWIT TWOO’). Animal Opposites does exactly what it says on the cover showing big and small, on the ground and in the tree etc. These books are beautifully illustrated with a subtle use of colour.

After a hectic week on my behalf it was actually hubby that got the pleasure of a first read of these books with Jacob. Matt is normally the first to complain if he doesn’t like something, so I was pleasantly surprised that he had nothing but good things to say! On reading the books with Jacob myself I found them to be interactive, encouraging little one to make the noises, Jacob had lots of fun joining in. I also loved that the pictures were clear and simple, helping him to focus on the animal in question.

The other day I left the books downstairs, whilst going to get something, and was thrilled to find Jacob having a good look. He was very entertained with what was going on and enjoyed lifting the flaps.

Animal Noises and Animal Oposites by Nicola Killen

These books are on sale for an RRP on £5.99, which I think is reasonable price. These books are educational, aimed at 2 years plus, and a pleasure to read. To see more books by Nicola Killen, please click here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

by jo

Underpants Wonderpants by Peter Bently and Deborah Melmon

Is it an eagle? Is it a plane? No – it’s Underpants Wonderpants to the rescue again!

Underpants Wonderpants

Underpants Wonderpants is a dog with amazing underpants, who helps people out when they’re in trouble.

We’ve never read the previous book , Underpants Thunderpants so it’s a new one for us – and is quite similar in style to Julia Donaldson’s ‘Superworm’ – a book which H really enjoys.

I asked H what her favourite thing about the book is, and she tells me it’s “when they do the rescues” – she does like to help people out, so it’s good that appeals to her.

I like that it’s an easy read – now she’s at school and we’re learning how to read in reception I know books like this will be fun for her once more words are recognised, plus it’s silly. Silly books are good books and are fun to read.

The text in the book is by Peter Bently (an award winning author who has written over 30 books for children) , with colourful illustrations by Deborah Melmon(who has illustrated many books for kids). It gets a big thumbs-up from us!

Underpants Wonderpants is available now, published by Parragon Books. It’s currently available at Amazon (affiliate link) for £4.44, and has a rrp of £5.99. I think it’d be a good one for Christmas if you’re looking for fun book ideas!

We received this book as we are Parragon Book Buddies – all opinions are our own and honest!