I’ve had this book buried in my electronic TBR for the longest time and for some strange reason, it called out to me yesterday and I’m truly glad it did. Set in Austria towards the end of WW2, it tells the story of a Jewish boy and Roma girl who risk their lives transporting Lipizzaner…
I’ve been really impressed with this book for girls of Key Stage 2 age, it’s a great example of how picture books can work successfully for an older audience. It’s been written succinctly to ensure that the right amount of information is imparted without being overwhelming or too text-heavy. This means that if girls want…
My daughter and I have been on the road a fair bit recently, so audio books have been keeping us company in the car. Judging by the fact that Anna didn’t speak for an entire 2.5-hour journey (a full-blown miracle), I’d say she was totally captivated by this ghostly time-slip adventure. Evie, a typical teenager…
Did you know that the collective noun for a group of pugs is a grumble, the giant squid has a brain shaped like a doughnut, and that employees in India’s fisheries dept HQ work in a building shaped like a giant fish? If these sorts of interesting facts float your boat, then this book is…
My first book of 2023 and it’s a corker. Like my last read (or ‘listen’, considering it was an audio book 😁), this is a magical, wintery tale, but whereas The Ice Children was based in the present, this is set during the Great Frost of 1683. After losing her twin brother 4 years earlier,…
Well, it’s fair to say that reading has pretty much fallen by the wayside for me this year, for a variety of reasons but mostly because either my head hasn’t been in the right place or time has been short. I have been trying, though, to plug the gap with podcasts and audio stories, with…
With its apt colour scheme and theme, I thought this would be good to share in the run up to Halloween! It’s a brilliant interactive and tactile book, which encourages readers to read intriguing clues and study skeletons before guessing which animal the bones belong to, with the answer given on the following double-page spread.…
Another Saturday morning, another car park, albeit a rather murky multi-storey today so apologies for the dodgy photo! After my woeful attempt at the adult GCHQ puzzle book, I now have my hands on the children’s version, which is really rather good! Like the adult version, there’s lots of information about GCHQ and famous people…
The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding Leonardo da Vinci This is a really fascinating read. I thought I knew a fair bit about Leonardo da Vinci but reading this has proved me wrong! It draws together all the different subjects and areas that da Vinci excelled in – from art to maths and…
I’m back to sitting in the car park on a Saturday morning while my daughter is at drama club, which means an hour of quality reading time in the peace and quiet – hurrah! Today’s story is Polly Pecorino: The Girl Who Rescues Animals, which is both written and illustrated by Emma Chichester Clark. Polly…