If you liked Bad Nanna then you’ll love Pizazz: the first in a fab new series (for readers aged around 7+), written and illustrated by Sophy Henn. It has bold illustrations and creative, mixed typefaces, coupled with comic-strip layouts interspersed throughout, which make it a real feast for the eyes – brilliant for those readers…
I really like these Barrington Stoke middle grade (UK Key Stage 2+) novellas: written by an array of superb children’s authors, they have a dyslexia-friendly paper stock and typeface, a length of circa 100 pages and are edited to a reading age of 8 with an interest age of up to 12, so they can…
With the ongoing election in the USA, the impact that COVID is having on the UK economy, BREXIT and the fact my kids seem to think we have an invisible money forest growing in our postage stamp of a garden, there have been lots of questions about politics, the economy and money recently. These books…
It’s been another slow reading week. I have no idea where the time goes at this time of year – I seem to rush from one thing to the next without actually achieving anything. I have, though, finally managed to read A Chase In Time, which was originally published in 2018, but has been re-released…
It’s been a slow reading week as, like many people in England, I’ve been rushing around trying to get lots of stuff done before Lockdown 2 came into force. I hope you are all keeping well. I read this story by Tom Palmer a few weeks ago, and it’s one of those books that I…
Very pleased to be back with one of our favourite heroines this Halloween: Molly Thompson, the tenacious, curious and brave historian. I loved last year’s The Ghouls of Howlfair and this latest story is even better. Just the right amount of spooky to give you all the chills without inciting nightmares, this is a cracking,…
My 7-year-old son increasingly declines a traditional bedtime story, but still enjoys 1-on-1 time before bed. I try and keep books involved in the process, though, so we often dive into non fiction as he loves finding out new facts and then talking about them. A lot of time recently has been spent researching gemstones…
While we are obviously not seeing that many flying around now, bees fascinate my children and so this fabulous hardback book is often in use. It’s BIG – a whopping 28 by 37 cms – which makes the bold, distinctive and quirky illustrations really stand out (unfortunately its size makes it difficult for me to…
A year ago, my son came home from school complaining that he was having to base his creative writing stories on Cinderella: “Why do I have to write about a girl who’s rescued by a prince? Why can’t she rescue herself?”. I thought this was quite interesting, because here was my (then) 6-year-old son making…
Our Half Term holiday starts today, which will look very different this year due to the various lockdown restrictions. My kids are off for a fortnight and so today is all about amassing bookish and crafty activities to keep them amused (and with the vain hope of keeping screen time down). I bought this set…