Scholastic 12 Days of Christmas Gift Guides

Have you spotted the Scholastic 12 days of Christmas gift guides yet? 12 different themes of gift guides packed full of books from the Scholastic Books children's book range. Each day has a different theme and their gift guide contains 12 different book ideas to suit that theme or age range; the guides are packed full of Christmas gift and stocking filler ideas for your little bookworms.

So far, Scholastic have put together gift guides for:-

• Stocking Fillers
• Books for 0-3 years old
• Boredem Busters
• Books for 4-7 year olds
• TV and Film
• Books for 8-11 year olds.

Each gift guide contains 12 gift ideas and you'll get 20% off any of the books in the gift guide that day when you buy from Scholastic Books.  For instance, in the gift guide for 4-7 year olds you'll find a collection of Roald Dahl classics such as George's Marvellous Medicine and the Twits.  You'll also find a festive Enid Blyton Faraway Tree story and a David Walliams collection - all authors that Lara absolutely loves at present.

Every day that scholastic share one of their gift guides on their blog, you'll also find one of the books to be won on Facebook and Twitter - there are plenty of Scholastic prizes to be won.

But that's not all - don't forget that if you buy your festive books from Scholastic Books you'll also be giving back to your school or nursery with their #GiveABook festive campaign. Your nominated school get 20% of the cost of your order back in books. Additionally, Scholastic will be picking their favourite #GiveABook suggestions from Facebook, twitter and Instagram to choose a sack of £50 worth of books for your school or nursery so get sharing!

You can find the full Scholastic Children's Books gift guide here.

30% discount for Letts revision guides & your chance to #win £50 of Letts books

Are you ready for the new school year to start? With school uniforms and shoes to fit and new routines to think about, finding the time to choose the best books to buy may not always be a priority but new books can be a great way of starting off the school year as you mean to go on.

There are lots of great educational books to choose from and Letts has some engaging and motivating learning books to help your child get back into a learning frame of mind after the long summer holiday. All of their books support the national curriculum so that you know they are reinforcing what your child is being taught at school, whether they are in foundation, KS1, KS2 or beyond.

You can visit the Letts website to browse their range of books by age group. What’s more they are offering a 30% discount on all books until 30 September 2016 when you use code BACK30 at www.lettsrevision.co.uk.

Would you like to win a bundle of Letts books tailored to your child age this Back to School? I have £50 worth of books to giveaway.  To enter, all you have to do is to answer the question below and leave me a blog comment before the end of the 4th September.

Question: Give an example of a prime number!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. The promoter is: Mellow Mummy
2. Entry is via a blog comment and a valid email address must be supplied when logging into the commenting mechanism. Entries with only facebook or twitter account details will not be deemed valid.
3. There is no entry fee and no purchase necessary to enter this competition.
4. Route to entry for the competition and details of how to enter are via www.mellowmummy.co.uk
5. Closing date for entry is 4th September 2016. After this date the no further entries to the competition will be permitted.
6. No responsibility can be accepted for entries not received for whatever reason.
7. The rules of the competition and the prize for each winner are as follows: £50 worth of age- appropriate Letts books.
8. The promoter reserves the right to cancel or amend the competition and these terms and conditions without notice in the event of a catastrophe, war, civil or military disturbance, act of God or any actual or anticipated breach of any applicable law or regulation or any other event outside of the promoter’s control. Any changes to the competition will be notified to entrants as soon as possible by the promoter.
9. The promoter is not responsible for inaccurate prize details supplied to any entrant by any third party connected with this competition.
10. No cash alternative to the prizes will be offered. The prizes are not transferable. Prizes are subject to availability and we reserve the right to substitute any prize with another of equivalent value without giving notice.
11. Winners will be drawn at random by Mellow Mummy.
12. The winner will be notified by email within 28 days of the closing date. If the winner cannot be contacted or does not claim the prize within 14 days of notification, we reserve the right to withdraw the prize from the winner and pick a replacement winner.
13. The winner will be asked by the promoter to provide their name, postal address and mobile contact number which will be passed on to the prize supplier.
14. The promoter’s decision in respect of all matters to do with the competition will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.
15. By entering this competition, an entrant is indicating his/her agreement to be bound by these terms and conditions.
16. The competition and these terms and conditions will be governed by English law and any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.
17. Any personal data relating to the winner or any other entrants will be used solely in accordance with current UK data protection legislation and will not be disclosed to a third party without the entrant’s prior consent.

#DisneyBookWeek - Hardback Disney Movie Favourites from Parragon

Disney book week is coming to a close but there's still time to join in the magic. Until the 12th June, look out for special offers on Disney books from Parragon.

Parragon's exclusive Disney Movie Collection of over 20 Disney storybooks offers a wonderful opportunity for you and your family to relive your favourite Disney (and indeed Pixar) classic tales such as Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty and Finding Nemo. You can find the full collection of beautiful story books on this special amazon page.

The special series of Disney storybooks is a set of collectible hard-backs with full-page colour images from each movie.  Each book is dedicated to the tale of a classic Disney movie and they make wonderful bedtime reading stories as you can share a familiar story and pictures - building on the love of a favourite movie is a great way of encouraging reading at Lara and Holly's age.  Lara has also enjoyed reading the books herself - they are full stories and Lara quite happily tucks herself up with one of them to read.

Our collection was started by Parragon with The Jungle Book, the story of Mowgli the man-cub, and Frozen (Holly's absolutely favourite Disney movie).  The books feel and look very special and its no wonder Lara enjoys them so much.

If you check out this Disney microsite, dedicated to Disney Book Week you'll even find a competition to win bedtime reading bundles.

Super Scholastic Savings on Children's Books

This festive season, our house, as always, has been full of wonderful children's books.  If your family also love books of all types then you'll be excited to know that the Scholastic book sale is now on at http://shop.scholastic.co.uk/sale.  You may know Scholastic from their school book clubs and fairs; many of the children's favourite fiction and non-fiction books are on offer now with phenomenal savings of upto 88% off some titles.

Around six times a year Scholastic reveal a brand new Book Club selection of quality children's books at discounted prices. Any school can run a Book Club. There is no obligation to order, but for every £1 that parents spend on a school’s Book Club order Scholastic donate 20p in FREE BOOKS back to the school. Anyone can order from Scholastic even if your school isn’t running a Book Club. Choose to have your books delivered to your home instead (delivery is free over £25) and if you order over £10 then your free rewards can be assigned to a school or nursery of your choice at the checkout.

The Scholastic January sale features discounted books across all sorts of themes.  Prices start from a mind-blowing 75p! There are huge savings on best-selling children's authors such as Jacqueline Wilson, David Walliams and the Wimpy Kid series as well as classics from the likes of Roald Dahl, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. There are also some amazing value book packs to look out for.

Holly is massively into Frozen this year and so we've been on the lookout for Elsa and Anna anywhere we look.  This Frozen book duo is now just £3.99 (a saving of nearly £8!) in the Scholastic sale - it features one Frozen story book with CD, and one secret diary / scrapbook featuring activities and story snippets.  Holly absolutely loves both books and couldn't wait to listen to the CD on her own CD player at bedtime.

At bedtimes, Holly very much looks forward to reading a picture book with us.  Holly really enjoys the rhymes and pictures in Julia Donaldson's picture books with Axel Scheffler (she very much enjoyed watching Stick Man on Christmas day!).  This Christmas Holly received Room on the Broom (and a matching dragon) as well as this excellent hardback copy of The Highway Rat which is down from £10.99 to £2.99 in the Scholastic sale.  The Highway Rat is one of Julia's most clever rhyming stories and it reminds me of the same magic as the Gruffalo.

Of course, Holly isn't the only one in our house who is keen on reading.  Lara is unstoppable when it comes to books at present.  She has around 4 books on the go at any one time.  Lara's favourites are Roald Dahl and so we thought it would be fun to introduce her to the books of David Walliams, who we have heard tends to appeal to Roald Dahl fans.  The Daemon Dentist is a tale of a town where instead of a coin under their pillows from the tooth fairy, the children are getting unpleasant surprises. Lara is a little daunted of starting a new book from an author she hasn't heard from before so we are going to share this with her at bedtime and read it together as a team.  The Daemon Dentist is now £3.99 as are Gangsta Granny, The Boy in the Dress, Mr. Stink and other David Walliams favourites.

The Scholastic book sale doesn't just feature fiction books for Children - Lara has wanted her own picture dictionary for some time and this Oxford Children's Colour Dictionary is now less than half price.  The first word she looked up in it?  Bed!!!  From science to georgraphy and french to cookery skills there are lots of non-fiction and reference books at wonderful prices and don't forget that if you spend over £10 then you can earn 20% back for your school or nursery at Scholastic.

Disclosure: Scholastic sent Lara and Holly some example books from their sale but we are Scholastic fans and regularly order from our school's fair!

#GiveTheGiftOf reading with Miles Kelly this Christmas

Lara is turning into a fountain of knowledge - she just LOVES devouring facts about life, the universe and everything and then sharing her new-found knowledge with us in the evenings. As Lara's reading improves, she becomes even more eager to explore new types of books where she can learn new facts for herself. Lara recently received a Miles Kelly science book as a gift from her Grandma and she just absolutely loved finding out all about the human body, electricity, the solar system and lots more besides.

This Christmas, specialist children's publishers, Miles Kelly, are helping everyone give the gift of reading (or in our case... the gift of knowledge) with their special themed gift sets which bring together a collection of different children's books in a special set which offers phenomenal savings of around 60%.

Miles Kelly sent Lara a very special gift set which they tailored to her interests so that she could experience a little bit of Miles Kelly Christmas magic. Lara had great fun opening up her surprise parcel which was wrapped in colour-me-in Miles Kelly wrapping paper featuring the familiar cartoon characters of Miles Kelly picture books.

Lara's books were all themed around the planet earth; a set of beautiful hardback geography books for children around 7 years upwards. This set of three books is known as The Earth Gift Set and currently costs £20 - a whopping 63% saving off the cover prices of the three books if you buy them individually.

The first book that Lara unwrapped from her surprise bundle was the Children’s Encyclopedia Earth - it is a geographic encyclopedia with over 500 facts and beautiful photographs and illustrations of animals, landscapes and geographic wonders to really whet the appetite for learning all about the world we live in.

Next up was the Children’s Encyclopedia Ocean which is a similar book but all about the underwater world. From coastal geographic phenomena to the mysterious animals of the very deep oceans. From whale migration to polar animals and lifecycles. This is a really amazing book with some fascinating photos that I am absolutely sure Lara will want to show her friends at school. The patterns of animal behaviour that follow the movement of the oceans is something that I've always found amazing and I really hope Lara shares this feeling of wonder when she reads this book.

To complete out this brilliant book set, Lara unwrapped the Earth Book which includes 500 facts covering the most amazing things about the planet - from caves and coral reefs to volcanoes and earthquakes.  This book has the sort of images which children will go back to time and again so that they can get their heads around the magic of the real world. It is such a brilliant foundation in geography basics and touches on all of the topics that I remember from secondary school but presented in a format full of short sound-byte facts that younger children can digest and use as starting points for further investigation if they are interested.

The Earth Gift Set is available for a special price of £20 for a limited period in the run up to Christmas - a super saving for a fantastic selection of children's non-fiction books. If you'd like to find out more about some of the different Miles Kelly Christmas book bundles you can download their Christmas Gift Guide or follow them on Facebook and Twitter where they will be sharing some of their favourite gift sets in the coming days.

Storytime Magazine - Classic Tales to Read, Love and Share

This week sees the launch of a brand new children's magazine, quite unlike anything else currently available on newsagent shelves - Storytime.  Lara is one of the first people to have got their hands on this first issue Storytime and I'm delighted with it - I plan to subscribe (there's a whopping discount when you do!)

Storytime is a thing of beauty - it is filled with classic children's tales and amazing illustrations.  Each issue features around 6-10 stories or poems including fairy tales, myths and legends, folk tales, fables and rhymes from all over the world. Many of the stories are ones you will probably know and love already but for instance, in this first issue there was a beautifully illustrated Irish folk tale about the fairy bride which I had never heard before.

Lara was instantly captured by the magic of Storytime; she begged me to take it in to school to show her friends and teacher.  Lara has enjoyed trying to read some of the stories herself but I think, at present, Storytime is probably more designed for me to read to her.  In fact, there are tips and tricks for parents within the magazine to make storytelling a fabulous experience for everyone in the family.

At the back of the first issue of Storytime magazine there are a few puzzles, a board game and a colouring page - all activities to make your children think about the stories that they have heard; however, it feels like the stories are the main focus of the magazine.

The biggest hit in this first edition of Storytime magazine, within our house, was an extract from the start of Lewis Carroll's "Alices Adventures in Wonderland".  I'd never thought of reading it to Lara before (partly because I thought the turn of phrase was a bit hard-going for a 5 year old) but when I read this passage in Storytime, Lara was totally absorbed and very disappointed when the excerpt was finished!

Storytime prides itself on the fact that it doesn't contain any advertising and it doesn't come with cheap plastic toys or sweets stuck to the front of it - this is a magazine your children will hopefully treasure for a long time.  I really hope my girls do.  I have wonderful memories of a similar magazine from my own childhood (called the StoryTeller) whose stories I still remember fondly.  I would say that there is one thing I think that Storytime is currently lacking if it is going to be a thing of memories and that is a couple of modern, brand new stories mixed in with the family favourites and classics.

Issue one costs £3.99 and Storytime will be issued monthly.

Recipe Book Review :: Easy Indian SuperMeals for babies, toddlers and the family

I am, a rather big fan of Zainab Jagot Ahmed and her simple, tasty recipes for indian-inspired foods suitable for babies, toddlers and the WHOLE family.  Zainab's new book, Easy Indian SuperMeals for babies, toddlers and the family is released next month and I got a sneaky peek - I have to say that if I had to chose one baby and toddler cookery book to recommend to new (or experienced) parents, then this would be it.

In our house, we eat an Indian-inspired meal on two to three evenings a week and have done ever since our girls were teeny and tiny.  Easy Indian SuperMeals (available to pre order now) features recipe ideas packed full of nutrients and exciting textures and flavours suitable from stage 2 of weaning (at around 7 months old).  We love the sweet fish and fruit curry which is suitable for small babies just taking their first foray into the exciting world of food - made with yoghurt, apple, pear and banana as well as white fish fillets and a selection of gentle spices such as ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander and turmeric - it is just as yummy as a grown up!

Later in the book there are recipes for finger foods such as apple french toast with blueberries and cinnamon or minted green beans.  And then for the more adventurous toddler there are some beautiful curried dishes designed to start building a love of healthy, exciting spices - Cardamom Chicken Curry is a tomato based curry with a hint of sweet cardamom and an optional zing of fresh green chilli.  Zainab's own daughter is now school age so the final section of the book features "booster snacks" and quick-to-prepare meals that are great for the post-school rush!

I find it hard to put into words how much Zainab's approach to mellow weaning and family mealtimes aligns with our own family's approach to food.  But, even sharing a love of Indian-inspired healthy food for kids, I still find a lot of new inspiration in Zainab's recipes.  I recognise a lot of the recipes in Easy Indian SuperMeals from Zainab's first electronic book but this new cookery book is packed chock-full of recipe ideas and I think I will be trying new things for many months to come.

If you're wondering what's so "super" about these Easy Indian Superfoods; it's the ingredients.  Each of the recipes features 'SuperSpices' which have been used for many generations for their health properties and antioxidant levels.  Combine these tasty spices with SuperFoods such as whole grains, nutrient-rich fruits and vegetables, a good mix of dairy and protein items as well as oily fish, olive oil and you have SuperMeals!  The first section of this cookery book features a lot of common-sense, scaremonger-free information about food groups and how to make sure your toddler gets a healthy, balanced diet that can set them on the right track from day one of their weaning journey.

It always puts a smile on my face when I see my own daughters enjoying Indian foods as much as I do - just last week Lara, my eldest, came home at the end of the day and asked me what's for dinner.  I told Lara we were having "curry"; she originally seemed a bit disappointed when she found out it was homemade curry and not "ordered curry" (her term for a takeaway) and I felt a bit deflated.  A little while later, as I served her "Classic Keema Curry" made with minced lamb, Lara exclaimed "Oh yay... I LOVE this curry" and demolished an adult-sized serving of it!

You can find out more about Zainab and her cookbooks at www.ZainabJagotAhmed.com and on facebook.

To celebrate the launch of Easy Indian SuperMeals for babies, toddlers and the family, I'm giving away a copy of the book to one lucky Mellow Mummy reader so you will be among the first people to get your hands on this fab new recipe book.  To be in with a chance of winning a copy, all you have to do is to leave me a comment below with the name of one of your tried and tested family-friendly meals that you like to cook.

TERMS and CONDITIONS:

1. There is no cash alternative.
2. The competition is open to UK and Ireland residents only.
3. Only one comment entry per person. Multiple, automated or bulk entries will result in immediate disqualification
4. The winners will be contacted by email.
5. Entries will only be deemed valid if a valid email address is provided when commenting - people who just log into intensedebate with their facebook account will not qualify for entry because it is too difficult for me to contact the winners
6. The winners will be selected at random from all valid comments received by 11:59pm on 8th September 2014.
7. The judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into
8. The winner's names will be published on this site

Spring and Easter Children's Books from Tiger Press

I don't really know how it happened but somehow Easter has become a time for us to share books as a family.  I think it started when Lara was very tiny and we felt it inappropriate to buy her a chocolate egg, so we bought her a book instead.  Now we are on the lookout for this year's Easter books and Tiger Press have come up with some brilliant spring and Easter themed books.

We LOVE these "My First Sticker Activity Book" themed books and I am definitely going to take them with us on our little holiday this Easter.  They are jam-packed full of drawing and colouring pages, easy puzzles and scenes to fill up with stickers.

I loved the fact that there was as much to entertain my nearly 5-year-old in these books as there was to entertain my nearly-2-year-old.  The girls both find it hard to peel of the stickers themselves so they can't really play with the books unaided but there are so many fun activities for them to become absorbed in.

The Baby Animals Sticker Activity book features lots of cute animals - Lara most enjoyed coming up with names for a page full of cute kittens!  The Farm Sticker activity book is particularly relevant as the girls have both visited the local farm this week for spring activities so they were very much inspired to get sticking and colouring.

Also from Tiger Press is this My Little Box of Springtime Stories carry pack which is a set of 4 spring themed stories about rabbits, ducks, chicks and baby bears.  These are all short stories with lots of lovely pictures and a gentle, happy theme suitable for toddlers right up to early readers.

This little box of stories is exactly what we are looking for when searching for Easter books as gifts for the girls - a perfect non-chocolate Easter present.

  

Leapreader Books - Our Progress

Back in August, Lara first reviewed the Leapreader electronic reading aid from Leapfrog. That was shortly before Lara started school - she was eager to explore books but hadn't yet really learned to read. Seven months on, Lara's reading has progressed more than I could ever have imagined and this weekend I saw Lara sit down with one of the Leapreader books that she received in August and, without the aid of the Leapreader, she read the book to me herself.

The Leapreader from Leapfrog is largely designed to encourage a child's interest in books... not so much to teach them how to read. Through interactive page elements and recognisable characters, children are encouraged to engage with a book. On each page your child can touch the page to hear the Leapreader read the words of the story to them but now Lara doesn't NEED the words to be read to her. The stories Lara has for the Leapreader (such as Tangled, and Monsters University) are quite advanced books so she still struggles a little with the more unusual words and today she knew to turn to her gadget to help her when she needed it.

It's interesting to see the way that the inclusion of a favourite film or television character somehow makes a book seem more appealing to Lara. I'm not sure how I feel about that! Last week I felt a bit exasperated at all the activity on Facebook and twitter about dressing-up outfits for World Book Day (or British Book Day as I think it should more correctly be named). Some of my local friends with children at different schools had to dress up and I saw one child going as a character from Monsters University. It frustrated me that the point of World Book Day had been lost in the campaign for an acceptable dressing-up outfit and that movie characters were being chosen over book characters.

But, on reflection, I can see that the inclusion of a film character in a book such as Lara's Leapreader books does wonders for getting children more interested in books. And that's what matters. Growing an enthusiasm for exploring more books. And a movie seems like a sensible starting point. Think of all the people who have gone on to read the Harry Potter stories since first watching one of the movies.

Perhaps even more interestingly, Lara much prefers character stories (mostly with her Disney favourites) when she is looking for a book to read herself.  But, during the evening when we are choosing a bedtime story for us to read to her, Lara often prefers to go for something more traditional - maybe her other books feel a bit less accessible to her at present?

On World Book Day, Lara's school asked the pupils to bring in their favourite book to share with their class-mates and to inspire arts and crafts throughout the day.  Do you want to know what book Lara chose (from her rather enormous stash?)... she chose One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Suess.

Very Hungry Caterpillar Baby and Toddler Book Review

We are very much enjoying being reviewers for the 45th Anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.  Next month the celebrations over on the official website www.eric-carle.com and on Facebook will come to a climax with lots of fun events and activities.

This month my two girls have been reviewing Very Hungry Caterpillar activity books for babies and toddlers.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Touch and Feel Playbook is ABSOLUTELY perfect for Holly right now - this is her favourite kind of book.  It is a large hardback book with lots of colours, shapes and textures for her to explore on every page.  There are words about animals and weather and colours for us to share together and she really likes to sit down and explore each page in detail.  There are a few lift-the-flap surprises too.  It is a good sturdy book which is suitable for older babies, toddlers and preschoolers.  I love this book and at £8.99 I think it is great value and likely to become as much a family classic as our traditional Very Hungry Caterpillar story book.

This is The  Very Hungry Caterpillar's Little Book.  It is a small square board book which contains all of the coloured fruits that the caterpillar munches his way through during the week.  Through the middle there is a big hole and from the back of the book there is a red plush finger puppet which can act as the munching crunching caterpillar as he munches through the book.  Holly really likes finger puppet books and this has been a fun way of her learning the names and colours of the fruits as well as starting to talk about numbers together.  I'd recommend this little board book for babies from birth up to about 3 years old.  It costs £4.99.

Fergus Ferry Children's App Review

Fergus Ferry is a new app for children ages around 2 to 6 years old and as a special festive celebration of the new app it is currently available to download for FREE from the iTunes app store until the end of January, that is a MASSIVE saving because it includes all 24 Fergus Ferry ebooks and the total estimated value of the app is around $89.

Fergus Ferry is a friendly ferry boat whose adventures are recorded in 24 already-popular books which are available in both electronic and paper format.  Fergus has lots of friends who he meets in his stories, some are people, some animals and several are other boats and vehicles.

As well as the complete set of Fergus Ferry stories, the new Fergus Ferry app features a small fun game to play.  In the game you play Fergus and you have to use the boat controls to move around the harbour to save people who have fallen into the water.  For every person you manage to throw a life ring to, you get points.  You have to watch out for other boats as well as fighting off sharks!  The controls are pretty basic so even Holly has some fun moving Fergus left and right and tapping the screen when she sees a person in need of help.

Lara instantly took to the Fergus eBooks (totally unprompted by me!).  Each of the stories has a simple moral behind it - don't play with fire, the value of friendship, it takes time to learn, etc.  While the moral is usually the main theme of the story, the books aren't patronising at all and the stories remain fun and engaging.  Yesterday Lara and I read "Fergus at the Fireworks" together (you can read it yourself or let the app read it aloud for you); the story was really topical as it was based in Seaport Harbour on the night of New Year's Eve but among the fun and fireworks there was someone letting off flares which caused a boat to set alight; I thought the story was a good mix of fun with an important message.

Lara's favourite Fergus story so far has been "Fergus at the Zoo" in which Fergus Ferry is enlisted to help when animals escape from the harbour zoo. Each of the stories is written in a comfortable rhyming pattern which small children love.  The stories on the app are read in a slow, quite deep male voice which is a very interesting change for my girls - I quite like it because so few of our other ebooks are read in a mature male voice.  The stories are set in Australia (Seaport Harbour bridge feels very familiar!) and several of the voices have strong Aussie accents; the stories regularly feature Australian sights and animals so this offers an extra level of learning for the girls.

The final feature of the Fergus Ferry app allows your child to explore Fergus' harbour.  Your child can tap on each of the buildings in the harbour and all of Fergus Ferry's friend to find out more about them.

Next week I will be running a giveaway to win the complete set of printed Fergus Ferry books so stay tuned to Mellow Mummy!

All of the Fergus Ferry ebooks are also available to download for FREE until the end of January from Amazon, iBooks and Barnes and Noble.  The Fergus Ferry app is on offer for a reduced price of 99 cents on Android.  You can find out more about Fergus Ferry at www.fergusferry.com .

Disclosure:  I have an advertising relationship with Fergus Ferry but all words above are my own.

Bébé Gourmet by Jenny Carenco – My Baby Recipe Book Review

I don't know when weaning officially finishes but I've considered Holly to be fully weaned for quite some time but that doesn't mean that I'm not always on the lookout for great ideas of toddler-friendly and family-friendly meals that we can all share together whether we are 1 year old, 4 years old or grown-up.  Jenny Carenco's Bébé Gourmet is a book I wish had been around when I first weaned Lara as it is packed full of gorgeous looking recipes suitable for cooking for your little ones from the very first tastes right through to family dinners.

Jenny Carenco is a working mum of two and the founder of leading French baby-food brand Les Menus Bébé and all of the recipes in her book feel like they embody everything I've read and heard about the food culture in France.  It is well-known that baby and children's mealtimes in France are considered to be a sociable experience where families share great, simple ingredients to nurture an adventurous palette and encourage a love of great ingredients and flavours (although, interestingly Jennys foreword suggests that even in France the supermarket offerings for baby food lack inspiration).

Bébé Gourmet is split into a number of sections from those very first compotes (or purees) through first dinners to family dinners.  The first compotes section features a good range of different first-food ideas for weaning and each describes a simple means of preparation which makes the process of weaning that little less daunting.  Many of the recipes for first lumpy lunches and dinners are ideas that I had never seen before such as sea bass with fennel and green grapes or braised lentils and spinach.  For many UK mums and dads these recipes would never have previously crossed our minds but I've learned through experiences that nothing fazes a baby or toddler on their weaning journey - they love the challenge of trying new textures and flavours, even if they don't always enjoy them!  There are some beautiful recipes in this book which I really believe could encourage a child to be a more adventurous eater because of the wide range of exciting flavours.

Throughout the book Jenny (and her expert nutritionist) stresses that feeding your baby great homemade food doesn't have to be hard work but, and perhaps more importantly, that investing effort in your child's introduction to the great wide world of food pays dividends (and is very rewarding). 

Our favourite section of the book is perhaps the most relevant to us right now - family lunches and dinners that we can all share.  We recently enjoyed trying out our own homemade sweetcorn galettes (mini cheesy sweetcorn fritters) and I've used this book as inspiration for a number of simple family curries recently.  I love the fact that the recipes in this section explain to you, or show you how to prepare a single meal that is suitable however skilled you are with chewing, or with cutlery.

The final section of Bébé Gourmet has some fun ideas for snacks and treats for toddlers upwards. These are recipes for fun fruit kebabs, cakes and muesli crumbles that you can even make with your toddler for a bit of kitchen fun.

I think this book is a brilliant introduction to weaning and it is going to be one of the first gifts I give to my sister for when she becomes a mummy!

Pinkabella Activity Book Review

Lara is 4. There is something built into 4 year old girls that triggers an obsession with the colour pink (I am pretty certain there are few parts of her upbringing by me that have encouraged the pink thing... it just happened!) and so the Pinkabella activity books from Parragon are ideal for fuelling Lara's interest in all things pink.

The Pinkabella books are suitable for girls from 4 upto about 8 years old (or perhaps older?) - they bring together colouring, drawing, dressing up and creative activities into activity books that spark little imaginations. Each book features Pinkabella and her friends. Pinkabella wears pink, dreams pink and even has pink hair. Pinktastic!

Each book comes with a little set of accessories (things stuck to the front of a book always get Lara excited). Accessories include shaped crayons, pink erasers and stick-on gems and bows. When Lara completed her first day at school I gave her Pinkabella's Sticker Activity Book which includes several sets of sticky-notes as well as lots of themed activity stickers inside the book.

Lara isn't yet able to read so I had to explain several of the activities to her and Pinkabella's friendships were a bit lost on her because of this.  However, once I had set Lara down and explained the point of a double-page she wanted to work on, I was able to leave her for over half an hour to get on with her puzzles or drawing... or seemingly random application of stickers to a page!!!

Activity books such as these are EXACTLY Lara's kind of thing and she can absorb herself in and the Pink-ness definitely makes them more appealing.

Lara's next project is the Pinkabella Colours in activity book which features crayons in the shape of a butterfly - Lara finds this is absolutely fascinating.  I think that the second book holds more appeal for her now that she knows who Pinkabella is and what to expect of it.

I think that it is pretty clever that some of the books have carry handles - to me the Pinkabella books would make great holiday activities that your child could take with them in the car or on a plane and the handle would really help here.. Titles in the range include Pinkabella Colours In, Pinkabella’s Playhouse and Pinkabella Loves Drawing.

You can find out more about Pinkabella on her website where there are free colouring sheets and further activities.

  

Annabel Karmel Quick & Easy Toddler Recipes Book Review

Annabel Karmel's latest book is released today - Quick & Easy Toddler Recipes is a book perfect for our family as it features simple tasty recipes suitable for Holly, for Lara and the whole family.

I now own quite an array of Annabel Karmel cookery books - I like her simple approach to food without stressing too much about whether something is officially 'healthy' or officially 'fun'; it means that her recipe books aren't patronising.  Quick & Easy Toddler Recipes is a book for parents of toddlers and preschoolers but the recipes are suitable for all the rest of the family too, in fact there are lots of my own favourites in there such as Nasi Goreng and Sticky Lamb Chops.

The book features ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner and pudding.  None of the recipes take up more than one page so they are very simple to follow.  There are a couple of recipe ideas that I recognise from Annabel's other books for slightly older children but I also find it quite comforting to see some recognisable flavour combinations from her weaning books which build upon baby recipes and turn them into dishes for more grown up children.

Chicken Tagliatelle Ragu

The photography throughout the book is perfect for getting Lara inspired by the food.  She will quite happily browse the book for ideas for her own dinner and will come away with a week's worth of ideas of things she wants to eat.  Recent quick wins have been the Peach and Rasberry Crumbles and Tagliatelle Ragu which we made with chicken mince which was a first for us.

I don't think there are any groundbreaking recipes in Annabel Karmel's Quick & Easy Toddler recipes but several of her oriental style recipes are a little out of the ordinary (Orange and Soy Sole for instance) but for me I like to have this book as a means of mealtime inspiration for the girls.

Quick & Easy Toddler Recipes is available in both hardback and Kindle edition on Amazon.

Little Learners Baby Book Review

Holly loves a good book. Quite often, when I pick her up from nursery in the evening she is sitting quietly in the corner with a book on her lap! At home she is a monster when it comes to paperback books so we've had to hide all of Lara's books out of sight but Holly has a box of board books in the corner that she will often help herself to. Holly's current favourite book is Peek-a-Boo Rainbow which is a Little Learners board book.

Holly loves this book because the rainbow acts as a carrying handle and she can walk around the living room with it easily until she finds the right spot to sit and read. Each page features a colour of the rainbow with some plants and animals of that colour and a little hole through which you can get a sneak peek of the next page...peek-a-boo.

I love the gentle yet bright colours which are perfect for Holly's age. I love the page backgrounds which are prints of textured material so they look like you can touch them and I too think that the layered rainbow carrying handle is a stroke of genius, it means that Holly can get in and open the pages even with her tiny fingers.

Holly loves the peek-a-boo holes and giggles when she turns a page. I also think that she really notices the relationship between the colours on the page and the colours in the rainbow at the top. I think that Peek-a-Boo Rainbow is a great board book for babies and toddlers from birth upwards.

Holly also has another Little Learners board book - Touch and Feel Let's Play. Holly seems to enjoy me reading this to her more than the other; she rarely takes it away to read alone and prefers to plonk herself down on my knees and then place the book in my hand. Let's Play features pages with well known toys such as dolls, building blocks, musical instruments and soft toys. Each page clearly labels the items and throughout the book there are textured areas for your baby to touch and explore. Rough, glittery, soft, bumpy and leathery. The colours of this book are once again bright yet subtle. I would say that the textured areas aren't immediately obvious to Holly and quite often she will miss them altogether and move on so I have to take her hand and help her find them.

The complete Little Learners range of books for babies and preschoolers is available at major retailers such as WH Smith, Early Learning Centre, Tesco and Sainsburys as well as online at Amazon. The range features some brilliant looking finger puppet books.

AudioGO Audio Books Review

Next week we are off on our travels across France. We had the chance to try out an audio book download from AudioGO and I thought this would make the perfect holiday treat for Lara.

AudioGO stock a large range of audio books and series, many of which are available for instant download.  An audio book is ideal for us to take on holiday because it doesn't take up any space in our suitcase!  I downloaded our book direct to my PC and then transferred the files onto my ipod so that Lara will be able to listen to the story from her headphones while we are on the move or once we get to our destination.

We chose to download "A Dinosaur called Minerva" by Tessa Krailing which currently costs £5.49 to download.  I had the files downloaded and ready to play within minutes.  AudioGO also sell a CD version of the story (Lara calls them CDStories... all one word!).

I played Lara the first chapter of the audio book late on Saturday night when she needed some calming down time.  I was really impressed at how quietly and attentively she sat and listened to the story, far more soothing than when I read to her!  The story is narrated by Una Stubbs which offers a different voice and accent than Lara is used to, which I really feel adds some value - it is nice to know it isn't always my voice she associates with story time.

For Lara, this Audio book has proven to be a fascinating change and she is really looking forward to hearing the rest of the chapters when we go on holiday - I think she will enjoy the novelty!

AudioGO have quite a number of audio books for children, many of which are well known characters such as Charley Bear, In the Night Garden and even Henry's Cat!

Three Brand New Books for Toddlers

Every evening when I pick my daughter up from nursery she is engrossed in a book. I find it hard to meet her insatiable appetite for new books and often find myself drawn to the same old classics when we visit the library so I was really happy to be asked to review three brand new books for toddlers that were published at the start of this month.

All of the following books are suitable for children from 2 upwards.

BOOK REVIEW: Not on a School Night by Rebecca Patterson



Not on a School Night is about a pair of boisterous brothers; after their parents switch off the lights each night they get upto all sorts of fun and adventures, much to Mum and Dad's annoyance.

On a school night the boy's fun and games are always cut short but at the weekends... well, what can I say?

Lara liked the pictures of the boys making duvet dinosaurs but I don't think she found the story very compelling (she wouldn't think of playing up on a nursery night, would she??!?!). I found the illustrations a little disappointing and there just wasn't enough magic and mystery for Lara.

Mellow Rating : 2 / 5


BOOK REVIEW: Zoe and Beans : The Magic Hoop by Chloe and Mick Inkpen



This is the first of the Zoe and Beans stories that I've read with Lara and I really enjoyed it and will definitely be looking for more. Zoe and her fun doggy friend Beans discover a magic hoop; every time Beans jumps through it he turns into a different animal. Eventually Beans turns into an animal too big to get through the hoop so Zoe puts him on a diet!

The story is well written and engaging. The illustrations are lovely and have that little element of magical sparkle that gets Lara excited. Lara particularly liked it when Zoe resorted to chocolate bribery!

We have already read this book together numerous times and I can see it being one that Lara goes back to time and time again.

Mellow Rating : 5/5


BOOK REVIEW : DOGS by Emily Gravett



DOGS is a picture board book all about... well, dogs! It is not a new book but had never previously been available as a board book. Because it is board, Lara feels confident reading it alone.

The book has beautiful pencil and watercolour illustrations and each pair of pages features two opposite dogs such as 'stripy' and 'spotty' or 'slow' and 'fast'. I love the simplicity of it and the cute twist at the end of the story (which I shan't give away here).

The book reminds me a lot of 'Happy Dog, Sad Dog' by Sam Lloyd but somehow it just can't quite compete. The illustrations, although gorgeous, are a bit too pale and detailed for a toddler to really appreciate and some of the words such as 'stroppy' and 'soppy' are not ones that a toddler would commonly use elsewhere so Lara struggles to recognise them as opposites.

Mellow Rating : 4/5


All of the above books are now available from Macmillan Children's Books.

  

Little Readers - A Meme

I have found myself looking for ideas for books to buy my pre-schooler Lara for Christmas. We own a lot of books already and we borrow loads more from the local library but every so often we come across a real gem that provides many many hours of entertainment. I'm on the lookout for more of those gems.

And so I decided to start a meme so that I can find out about the books for preschoolers that you've come to love. The books that genuinely bring your family together and which make your children's eyes light up. The books that have shown to offer the best value for money and have helped to inspire your little ones to get involved with books.

For example... my absolute favourite book that we own is called "The Baby Dragon Tamer" by Jan Fearnley. The Baby Dragon Tamer tells the story of a little baby who is rudely awakened by a fierce dragon, causing the baby to cry. The dragon tries to convince the baby to give him his treasure and then the dragon freaks out at all the crying and does everything he can to stop the screaming. Eventually the two make friends and all is well with the world.

There are lots of reasons (listed below) why I love this book and why Lara loves it too but the primary reason is the amount of joy that I get from listening to my husband read it to Lara as her bedtime story. Mr. B. really gets into the story and ever since we first received the book (when Lara was about 9 months old) he has always given 100% when reading it. EVERY SINGLE TIME I hear Mr. B.'s booming voice declaring "GIVE ME YOU TREASURE" it brings an enormous smile to my face because I know, tucked up in bed, it is bringing an enormous smile to Lara's face took. Shortly after that I will hear her little giggle as the baby says "Goo Goo".

The Baby Dragon Tamer:-

• Is a book with a real story but not so much a 'reading book' as some


• Has brightly illustrated images that excite little eyes


• Encourages noises and emphasis on different areas and sounds throughout the story such as "Crash", "Boom", "Woooosh".


• Has a happy ending"

To start the meme rolling I've tagged

Cafebebe
Him, Me & Three
Young & Younger
Brink of Bedlam
Mummy Matters

If you join in the meme you can add your link to the linky below so that I (and everyone else) can come and read your book recommendations. If you would like to use the badge above you can use the code

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