September and October have been great months for us in terms of the books we have been enjoying. We have had lots of trips to the library and we seem to get through a good ten books or so whilst we are there before we choose which ones to bring home. The children are very adept at spotting the new books now at the library and also shouting out ‘look mummy, we have this one at home’. It feels like we have much of the local library stock at home!
We have also been sent some real gems over the past few weeks that I wanted to share here. There have been some separate reviews on our favourites including the beautiful ‘It starts with a seed‘ and Atlas of Animal Adventures.
I wanted to share some more of the lovely books that we have been sent but there are too many to share individually so here are our favourites so far.
Topsy Turvy Animals by Wes Magee and Tracey Tucker (QED) is a great little book. It’s bright and colourful and Mr D and Miss E love it. There is a lot of scope with this book to explore rhyme as well as look at the pictures and get young children to describe what they can see the animals doing. I have an activity in mind for this in the winter months so I am busy gathering pictures of animals from magazines and the such to work with in the coming months.
We have been LOVING a book from Top That called That’s Not Funny Bunny (by Bethany Rose Hines). It’s a wonderfully illustrated book using calm pastels and quirky typography. The children think this book is hilarious and spend their time telling me ‘that’s not funny bunny’. The book has a good moral about learning to be happy in your own skin. It is a real gem of a book that children will adore.
Child’s Play International sent us a few books recently – our favourite of which is the lovely Mayday Mouse by Seb Braun. This is a delightful story about a mouse who sets off in his walnut shell ship, but meet various obstacles along the way. The children have enjoyed reading this with me and the illustrations are lovely to accompany it. There’s a lovely touch at the end of the book that shows you where the mouse did sail and what the perils and obstacles were. A great little book for young children.
Yokki and the Parno Gry is a traditional Romani tale with the aim of inspiring hope and creativity. It’s a nice little traditional story, albeit one that the children are just a tad too little to fully appreciate yet. I think we will be looking at this more next year when we look at different countries and culture. The illustrations are lovely and gentle and have a wonderful feeling to them. Ossiri and the Bala Mengro is also a traditional Romani story and it’s a lovely insight into different cultures. The illustrations are a little more folksy in feel in this book but it certainly a gem for those wanting to explore other cultures and lifestyles.
Baking with Dad by Aurora Cacciapuoti is a great book that Mr D and Miss E have enjoyed immensely. Every year they bake the Christmas cake with their dad so they were able to relate to this book and it is of course refreshing to see non-stereotypical portrayals in books. Great fun and lots of talking points – we like to think how the cake would taste if we used some of the crossed out ingredients!
We have been enjoying an unusual book by Sarah L Smith called Home and Dry. I’m not really sure what I make of this book. It is very atmospheric and it’s moral of what it means to be home and it’s reflections on family are important but I struggle to fully work out what I make of it. The children have enjoyed it a lot and it’s nice to read, with lots of opportunity to explore sound and family. The illustrations are wonderfully detailed and most will notice how the family grows over the pages without it ever being explicitly mentioned.
The final book from Child’s Play is the FABULOUS That’s NOT How You Do It! by Ariane Hofmann-Maniyar. It’s all about a cat, Lucy, who knows how to do everything. She is soon usurped when a Panda, Toshi, arrives. Mr D and Miss E think this book is hilarious and like to scream out ‘that’s not how you do it’ as Lucy watches Toshi do various things. A really lovely book to get across the ideas of different talents and skills and how we can learn to appreciate these.
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Catherine @ Story Snug says
We were sent the same books from Child’s Play. We love Mayday Mouse and the folk tales are just beautifully written and illustrated.
#readwithme
Chantelle Hazelden (@MamaMummyMum) says
All of the covers of these books are so inviting! Great round up. Thanks for sharing with #ReadWithMe