Children's Book Review :: Happy Hooves Oh! Oh! Oh!

We are really beginning to get into the festive spirit here in the Mellow Household as all the shops are now suddenly full of Christmassyness and we made our Christmas cake together at the weekend.  We've lifted out a few Christmas themed books to start getting into the mood and Happy Hooves Oh! Oh! Oh! is another fun addition to our festive bookshelf.

Earlier this autumn, Happy Hooves Ta dah! was released by Fat Fox Books which introduced Anna Bogie's farmyard friends.  Happy Hooves Oh! Oh! Oh! is the next in the series and features a cow, sheep, horse, pig and a donkey who really want to get into the festive spirit but each begins to worry when they realise that they don't have a chimney in their part of the farmyard for Santa to bring them presents.

Happy Hooves Oh! Oh! Oh! is a smiley, fun book with a subtle message about teamwork in it but which also explains that it doesn't matter where you live... Father Christmas will always find a way.

The book benefits from lovely illustrations, each with a wintery, snowy theme, by Rebecca Elliott.  The animals are very stylised and we love their Christmas hats and outfits!  Lara really got into the whole panic about how on earth Father Christmas was going to deliver all the presents (she had a backup plan just in case... the magic key would have done it).  Happy Hooves Oh! Oh! Oh! is a fun little Christmas picture book.

I would recommend Happy Hooves Oh! Oh! Oh! for children from age 2 to 7 years old.

The Wiggly Jiggly Worm Children's Book Review

The Wiggly Jiggly Worm is a lovely children's story book from first time author Cassandra Kelvin and illustrator Jason Kelvin. Both of my girls (aged 1 and aged 4) enjoyed The Wiggly Jiggly Worm... so much so that Holly stole the book and sat and "read" it alone in her bedroom with a big smile on her face.

The Wiggly Jiggly Worm

The Wiggly worm wants to be like his friends the butterfly, the mouse and the frog but I guess the moral of the story is that it is OK to be different from others and that we are all individuals who have our own qualities that we should be proud of. It is a clear moral that my girls both understood from the first day that we read the story, but it isn't patronising or preachy! The story reads very well - I always prefer a rhyming story book that I enjoy reading as much as the girls love listening too. I found that the words and the text flowed well and the rhyme wasn't strained.

The illustrations are fun, bright and engaging. I loved the painted style of the images and the purple worm really stood out so that both girls recognise the worm the minute that I lift The Wiggly Jiggly Worm out of the bookcase.

The Wiggly Jiggly Worm is aimed at preschoolers but I think the book is just as suitable for me to read to my younger daughter as my older one and I can see that they both enjoy it. I also think that it has several years worth of interest in it.  It is a short book, in a small paperback format but I think it is a bargain at £4.99.

The Wiggly Jiggly Worm is available from Waterstones.com and online from the Wiggly House website in both paperback and audio format.  It is also currently available on Amazon.

You can follow Wiggly House on twitter.

Children's Book Review :: Talk to the Paw Cos the Cat's Not Listening

Talk to the Paw Cos the Cat's Not Listening is a new children's rhyming story book by Loreta D'Souza and Neil Seddon.

The story appealed to me because of the feline theme and I thought that, given Lara and Holly became proud owners of a little black cat, Bella, late last year, I thought it would particularly appeal to them.  Talk to the Paw Cos the Cat's Not Listening is about a black cat with attitude and our tiny Bella cat certainly has lots of that!

From the words of the story, It sounds like author Loretta's cat is also a bit of a handful like ours.  The story is written using a rhyme and each double page has the repeated text "Talk to the Paw Cos the Cat's Not Listening" written across the bottom.  Both of my girls appreciated the repeating pattern of the story but I'm not sure that the rhyme stands out enough and I found it quite tricky to read out loud to them.

Silly cat antics are something any cat owner will understand and I've seen many a poem and comedy sketch in the past which has built on this shared understanding of cat-owners everywhere but there were a couple of parts of this story book that I found to be a little abstract... almost as if they were a very personal observation of a cat that I didn't understand and I don't think my two girls really bonded with the cat in the story either.

Saying that, Lara (age 4) did recognise the naughtiness of the cat and she particularly enjoyed the illustrations by Ewa Poklewska because she was able to follow the iconic motif of the black cat who featured several times on each double-page.

Talk to the Paw Cos the Cat's Not Listening is available from Amazon in both paperback and Kindle editions.

Children's Book Review :: Everybody Loves Butterflies

Everybody Loves Butterflies is a beautiful story of a rather apprehensive caterpillar who doesn't really fancy turning into a butterfly.  Everybody he turns to tells him how much they love butterflies and all the groovy things they get up to but it still doesn't really cheer him up.

Everybody Loves Butterfield is written by Tanis Taylor and the brilliant brightly coloured illustrations are by Masumi Furukawa.  Every page has a basic colour theme and each picture uses a range of different colouring techniques to make the pictures look fun yet perfectly crafted.  I love the bright sunny pages best - who wouldn't want to be a butterfly when the world looks this fab?

Of course, once the caterpillar does finally change, he is perfectly happy and didn't know what all the fuss was about!

I think that this picture book is great for me to read to both of my girls (currently 1.5 years and 4.5 years).  I don't think it will be long before Lara can read it herself.  At the back of the book there is a page which explains all of the amazing stages in the cycle of a butterfly's life and Lara thought this was particularly fascinating and went back through the book to spot the pictures of the different stages.

Everybody Loves Butterflies is released next week in paperback and will cost around £5.99.

Dog Loves Counting : Children's Book Review

Lara was sent a copy of Dog Loves Counting by Louise Yates which I thought would make a perfect bedtime story.  In the book, the little white dog is having trouble drifting off to sleep and his attempts to count sheep don't seem to have helped so he sets out in search of other things to count.

Dog is a bit of a bookworm so he starts exploring his books to look for animals to count and soon finds a lone dodo (that makes one) plus himself (two) and a very cute and cuddly three-toed sloth (three). He carries on with his new friends and eventually finds ten creatures, each of whom is in some way related to the number they represent.

I loved the simple sketches on each page but I particularly liked the fact that each animal was annotated with the numbers; the armadillo for instance has each of his bands numbered.  With Lara sat next to me, she finds it hard to resist counting along and spotting all the numbers.

Lara has enjoyed finding out about the different animals in the story; I'll admit that we had never talked about armadillos or three-toed sloths together before reading this book!

At the end of Dog Loves Counting all of the animals look up to the sky to count the stars.  I think this is slightly lost on Lara because it is immediately preceeded by all of the animals searching frantically for their friends.  While I find the star-spotting a beautifully poetic ending to the story (and I love the illustrations to go with it), all that Lara remembers about the end of the story is that they finally found their friend!

You can find out more about Louise Yates on her website.

The Paper Dolls Children's Book Review

The Paper Dolls is written by children's author Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Rebecca Cobb.

The Paper Dolls is largely, a rhyming story as is Julia Donaldson's style.  It tells the tale of a little girl whose mother helps her make a set of paper dolls and those dolls go on adventures dreamed up through the imagination of the little girl.  It may look like a toy dinosaur on a bed cover but in fact it is a towering, terrifying t-rex in the vast open rainforest.  It may look like a pair of fluffy slippers but in fact it is... well, that kind of thing anyway!

I like the gentle rhyme and find it easy to read to Lara in a way that lets me add my own emphasis on the exciting or dramatic parts.  The names of the paper dolls are repeated frequently and Lara already knows them all and says them along with me.  I think the book is beautifully illustrated in a scruffy, hand-drawn style that really goes well with the content of the story.  The Paper Dolls would probably (although not exclusively) be most appropriate read to a little girl and I would be happy to have read this to Lara from about 1 year upwards and I'm sure she will read it herself when she can.

At the end of the book we see the little girl all grown up and making paper dolls for her own daughter.  It goes full circle.  When I first read The Paper Dolls to Lara, this last bit bought a lump to my throat. I actually had to stop reading and compose myself. It isn't a scary, upsetting or particularly sad. It just really hit a note with me - it felt very close to home.  Maybe one day Lara will be sat on a beanbag next to her daughter reading The Paper Dolls?

Hello Baby Mirror Board Book Review

Priddy books have just launched a new range of books designed specifically for very young babies from newborn upwards - they asked me and Holly to review the Hello Baby high contrast mirror book which is a board book.

I was fascinated to find out what a book for newborns would be like and I was really impressed - to me it is really important to get books in front of babies from a young age even if they can't read or don't even want to know what the story is about. Books are tactile things, engaging things, things of beauty and fun.

Hello Baby is a range of really high contrast books. The Mirror board book features lots of black, white, red, yellow and blue abstract images on pages with a die-cut hole cut right through the middle of the book. No words. I found the lack of words ever so slightly disappointing actually and have found myself playing with the book with Holly and saying things like "stripes", "spots", "cross cross", "triangles" to try and communicate with her as we play. I think the book would benefit from some words to encourage adults to engage with their children too.

Holly is certainly very interested in the book. She doesn't smile when she is using it but she concentrates REALLY hard as if it is a puzzle that needs solving. The hole through the middle allows her to grab the book and shake it about a bit herself and on the very last page there is a mirror that she can see throughout the book - this occasionally brings a smile!

I would say that now at nearly 5 months old, Holly is getting to the point where the entertainment value in a purely abstract image book won't last long - she tends to now get more excited about books with animals or people in them but for a very young baby this would be perfect.

The Hello Baby Mirror Board Book costs £4.99.

Happy Birthday Dear Zoo

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday Dear Zoo,
Happy Birthday to you.

Dear Zoo is celebrating its 30th birthday. Woweeee, that's nearly as ancient as me!

Dear Zoo has been a favourite picture book in our house for nearly three years now. Our slightly battered and scribbled-on copy has an interesting story behind it. We found our copy of Dear Zoo underneath the sofa of our room on our first ever stay at Center Parcs with Lara when she was six months old. Quite what we were doing scrabbling under the sofa, I don't know; but I do know that Lara instantly fell in love with the book. I'm sure there is a very sad child or desperate parent somewhere that was searching for their copy of Dear Zoo but there is no way Lara would have let us hand it in to lost property!

Dear Zoo is a wonderful collection of bright illustrations of zoo animals with lift-the-flap fun too. The story is simple, repetitive and brings a smile to children's faces.  Three years on, Lara can recite it with her eyes closed.

Last week Holly discovered Dear Zoo for the first time when we attended a birthday party in honour of the book. Lara met a zoo keeper who told the tale of Dear Zoo in a fabulous way with animals galore! We also got a chance to meet Rod Campbell who made the book.

I was really impressed with Rod who seemed totally unfazed by the room full of crazed toddlers. Rod likes to use the term "make" a book rather than to write or to illustrate and I think you can see that in all of his books. The latest touchy-feely version of Dear Zoo has interactive parts on each page and is much more than just a picture book. When asked which of his books was his favourite, Rod replied that making a book is very much like having a child... you love them all for their differences and what makes them, them!

There are lots of new and exciting Dear Zoo products out to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first publication of the book and we love the look of all of them!