REVIEW: Hedgehugs: Horace and Hattiepillar

#bookreview #picturebooks 

Horace and Hattie are back! These adventures of the two loving hedgehogs are wonderfully illustrated and the story is simple yet beautifully written.

The Hedgehugs find a caterpillar who they lovingly feed until it is ready to enter its cocoon. On seeing the beautiful butterfly that it transforms into, the two best friends wonder if they can do the same?

Lucy Tapper's technique of using scans of real textures is really effective, giving a cosy feel and the characters have a timeless feel. This is a truly calming book for your bedtime preschooler, showing your little one that with a bit of effort, you can be whoever you want to be!

Check out more reviews here

REVIEW: A Gold Star for George

#bookreview #picturebooks

This book is amazingly cute! George the smart giraffe is a great friend to all his animal buddies in the zoo. When it is announced that there is to be awards for tidiest, smartest and best trick (and more), he does his best to get one, but he is gracious in defeat. His friends however have a surprise for him! This is a great bed time book for preschoolers which shows the merits of helping and showing your appreciation of your friends.

The pictures are wonderful and funny and had the children I read it to laughing out loud. The animal's faces portray so much character. The text is simple and fun, with a heart at its core. Highly recommended. For more reviews, click here: 

Gold Star for George (George the Giraffe and Friends)

REVIEW: Pirates Don't Drive Diggers!

#bookreview #picturebooks

Another hit from Alex English, the writer of Yuk, Said the Yak! Brad is a mad-keen digger fan but his father insists he become a pirate. He joins a crew, but is no good at all the pirate-y things they get up to. He's given one last chance to dig up a treasure chest, but can he prove his worth when it comes to driving diggers? Can he show Captain Blood that he can be both a pirate and a digger?

The pictures are funny and have a great amount of detail in there for children to spot. The text is rhyming and rhythmic and full of great couplets ('You're gutless, Brad/Don't hide behind your cutlass, Lad!'). I had the opportunity to read this to a class of 4 and 5 year olds who really connected with it (especially the boys). When asked if they wanted to be a pirate or a digger driver, they cleverly realised that they could be both!

Click here for more reviews: 

Pirates Don't Drive Diggers

Review: Amazon Fire HD 7

Who's the daddy of the e-readers? It's a subject I've avoided for many years, but I can heartily put my weight behind the gorgeous Amazon Fire HD 7.

Click to buy!

While I've tried many e-readers so far in my reading career, I have yet to come across one which so easily gives the user a thrill to use.


The size is perfect, as is the simple to use software. The Amazon Fire HD 7 is a joy to use, like a fine-tuned BMW!

REVIEW: Game Changer by Tim Bowler

#bookreview #ukya

Tim Bowler certainly knows how to write a thriller that fills you with a sense of creeping fear! With Game Changer, he perfectly crafts the character of Mikey, an agoraphobic adolescent who thinks that some unnamed people are out to get him. Typical paranoia? Not quite, as the people in question really do want him. The book explores the feelings of the mentally ill teenager to great effect; if you immerse yourself in this novel you’ll begin to get a sense of how Mikey is feeling, how he trusts the dark and hates the light. His little sister Meggie is his saviour – always kind, always caring (too caring? I sometimes wondered if their relationship was too close to be realistic). When the unknown figures that have been following him make contact and put Meggie in danger, the game changes and Mikey is forced to push through his fears to face his assailants. Another fast-paced, psychological page-turner from Mr Bowler, who is never afraid to delve into the violent side of teenage life.

Click the image to buy!

REVIEW: Asus Eeebook X205TA

#asus

I haven't posted much about resources lately, but it occured to me that one such resource is the very thing I'm typing on now. When I was in need of another laptop, I found myself with less funds than was healthy, and so I began to trawl around for a cheaper netbook. I looked at chromebooks but was nervy of how I would feel trusting in Google completely for storage and such: a bit too much of all the eggs in one basket for me.

I ended up plumping for the Asus Eeebook X205TA, which is light, has good specs, and over 500gb of online storage which backs up immediately.  

It has become my right hand man, my workmate and collegue and I would highly recommend it.

Click on the pic to buy!

REVIEW: Robopop by Alice Hemming and James Lent

#picturebooks #review 

Robopop is a great book for demonstrating to children that we are all different and that the cookie-cutter alternative to personalities is not always the most attractive. Written by Alice Hemming and illustrated by James Lent, it tells the story of Dylan and Daisy, embarrassed by their dad's inability to fall into one of the 'Dad' archetypes. He's an inventor and so seeks to show his offspring that 'Dads don't come in a box' by showing them the most extreme version of the alternative: Robopop – a metal rhyming automaton with no sense of social rules or limits. Daisy and Dylan soon realise that the dad that they already had was the best. The illustrations are humorous and the details are fun to pick out; the real Dad has his eye on Daisy and Dylan the whole time, but can your little ones spot him in the crowds? A great fun bedtime book, one which made my four year old ask if we can build a robot to play football with tomorrow. Oh dear...

REVIEW: Preposterous Rhinocerous!

#picturebook #bookreview 

Tracy Gunaratnam has created a wonderful story about...well, stories. Check out the blurb:

Disaster! King Lion has lost his voice and cannot read the animals their bedtime story. Luckily Preposterous Rhinoceros wants to give it a go… but how do you go about reading a book?

 Preposterous Rhinoceros (which is a great title) sets about working out how to read a book. What do you do? Open it? Shake it? This will capture the attention of little ones who are just beginning to really engage with storytime and wanting to take over storytelling duties themselves. The characters are super fun and Marta Costa's illustrations are great, managing to make even a rhino as cute as a button. A bedtime book for bibliophiles!

REVIEW: The Four Little Pigs.

#review #picturebooks 

This charming picture book from Kimara Nye performs the old switcherooney on the familiar tale of the Three Little Pigs. Here's the blurb:

Tom’s granny is a witch and whenever he goes to stay he has exciting adventures.
When Tom says that the Three Little Pigs story is boring, Granny uses a spell to send him into the book.  Tom must be clever to avoid being eaten by the big bad wolf!

The mechanic of sending the protagonist into the story is a nice one and one that really gripped my four year old! He knew the traditional tale well and really engaged with the plot. Knowing what came next really helped him concentrate on the story, but he still wanted to know how it turned out with Tom being in the story too. There are fabulous illustrations from Marcin Bruchnaiski and I have every confidence that this will be a firm bedtime favourite.

Pick up your copy of The Four Little Pigs HERE

REVIEW: A Boy And A Bear In A Boat

#review #books #ukmg

Let's face it, there is nothing more exciting in the world than opening up a book and finding a voice, a character or a story that you instantly connect with. For me, B&ABIAB was such a book. The plot (if there is one) is negligible. I loved spending time with the nameless Boy and Bear, and their aimless journey across a never-ending ocean. This is a real exercise in how a writer can create a whole world just using character, and how to populate their story with two (yes, just two) people you instantly want to read more of. 




The story and the style bring to mind writers such as Flann O'Brien , Samuel Beckett, and Tom Stoppard, but accessible to all ages. If I've any complaint, it is that the book was too short. I could have easily kept reading this book about nothing! The illustration by the author Dave Shelton are perfect also, capturing the innocence and absurdity of the story. More please!

 

REVIEW: Yuck Said the Yak

 

#picturebooks #bookreview 

Picture books hold a special place in my heart, not least because they provide me with many special moments that I share with my two children. The bedtime story is sacrosanct; no matter how tired, how challenging my sons have been, or how late it is, they always get one or two stories each night. (I believe it is important for their education, but if I'm honest, I just like the stories and cuddles).

I was delighted when I got to introduce Yuck! Said the Yak to the family. The illustrations are the kind I love the best; funny, colourful and exciting. The story is a treat too, and tells the tale of a Yak (yes, Yak) who comes to stay. Alfie is the perfect host, and offers all manner of refreshments, to which the Yak says YUCK!

It's instantly quotable, and the repetition mean the chuildren can join in on the first read. Loved it, and so did the kids. Highly recommended, and Alex English and Emma Levey are ones to watch. 

Review: I Wish I'd Been Born a Unicorn

 

#picturebooks #childrensbooks

This tale of a smelly horse who dreams of becoming a beautiful unicorn to gain friends seemed to me to be a delightful book with catchy rhyming verses and sweet and funny illustrations. But what do I know, I'm a grown up, right? So I put it to the hardest test I could find; my fickle four-year-old at bedtime!

Intrigued by the title and the drawings, little'un settled down and remained quiet for most of the story and gave it the highest praise at the end when I asked what he thought. "Really cool!" he enthused and asked if we could see a unicorn tomorrow after school. Oh dear.

But the real surprise came the two nights later when he asked, unprompted to read 'that unicorn book' again! To stay in a four-year-old's memory for that long is a true test indeed. So we read it again and it got a big thumbs up again. 

Rachel Lyon's verses are great to read aloud and the story is inspiring and funny, a comment on being yourself and learning who true friends are. The art is perfectly matched, Andrea Ringli's funny and touching illustration telling the story wonderfully.

Available from Amazon, good book shops and direct from Maverick Arts Publishing.

REVIEW: Zines: Sally Jane Thompson

#zines #comics #minicomic

I love finding a new artist/comic creator! I bought the minicomic Candy Bag from etsy on a whim, and fell in love with Sally Jane Thompson's style straight away. The images remind me of Craig Thompson (Blankets, Habibi) while the story is a delightful tale of the innocence of childhood. Check out Sally's other work here. 

UPDATE: And see her work in Offlife here

REVIEW: Zine - Kristyna Baczynski

#zines #comics

Kristyna Baczynski is a graphic artist and comic book maker from Leeds, UK. You'll have seen her stuff in magazines, advertising and books, and she was named Thought Bubble's first Artist in Residence.

Nine Lives is a concertina mini-zine which recounts in pictures the lives of a particularly unlucky cat. It's like the Bunny Suicides, but with a brilliantly designed and economical pictures. The art is in just a few carefully chosen colours, and printed on 300gsm matte recycled natural board. It's been constructed with love and care, and I'm proud to say I own it and treat it as a work of art. Kristyna also adds a personal touch by including a quick sketch and doodling artfully on the envelopes she send them in.

You can find Nine Live on Etsy, and more about Kristyna here.

REVIEW: Zine - Don Picton

#comics #zines 

I had the good fortune to come across the beautiful mini-comic/zine entitled Best Dream Ever by Don Picton. Rendered pen and ink and nicely reproduced on great quality paper, it tells the story of a chance find in a thrift store.

I loved Don's art and storytelling, and BDE has gone on my mini-shelf of mini-comics with pride.

You can find BDE and more of Don's stuff on Etsy, and follow him on twitter.

REVIEW: Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green

Lighter Than My Shadow by Katie Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely sublime. Katie Green is unflinchingly honest about her struggle and recovery, and the beautiful artwork fits perfectly with the story. Don't be put off by the staggering page-count; I got through it in two sittings. Inspiring

View all my reviews