Believe it or not but I have been looking forward to the school run since starting listening audiobooks while driving. My latest find is Legacy of Spies by John le Carré, a bestselling author for more than half a century, published by Penguin in unabridged, audiobook CD edition which can be a good Christmas gift for a mum who is spending an hour in the car every day taking children to…
London Mums’ picture book of the week is Boogie Bear by David Walliams and funnily illustrated by Tony Ross. We enjoyed it because it has a lot more words than ordinary picture books and is hilarious. What increases the fun factor is the use of invented words and expressions by Walliams in the same style of Roald Dahl. Walliams is in fact considered Dahl’s successor.
Boogie Bear is the…
There’s something about spacecrafts and trains that fascinates children and parents alike. There’s a new beautiful book series called Legendary Journeys dedicated to those engineering wonders that we will never stop admiring.
Legendary Journeys: Space tells the history of space through interactive features. In time for Christmas this book is excellent for those wanting to…
The Statue of Liberty is the star of a new children’s picture book called Her Right Foot written by Dave Eggers and illustrated by Shawn Harris.
Undoubtedly The Statue of Liberty is the most famous statue of all time. In fact if you ask anybody to name any statue, the odds are good they’d mention the Statue of Liberty. I have seen her (yes, for me it is a she, a real lady) already a…
Christmas stories belong only at Christmas time with two exceptions: Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Bah! Humbug! by Michael Rosen (with drawings by “Horrid Henry” illustrator, Tony Ross), which is a magical retelling of Dickens’ famous festive story.
Without giving away many spoilers, I can reveal that Michael Rosen has successfully framed A Christmas Carol with a modern…
As a parent of a secondary school child who has tons of homework every day, I am always after books that can help instil passion for the subjects studied at school and help support his learning. I have found an amazing manual for basic chemistry that does exactly this. It’s The Periodic Table: A Visual Guide to the Elements by Tom Jackson recently published by Aurum…
An unseen work written by the celebrated novelist Vita Sackville-West for the miniature library of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House has been published today (16 October 2017) for the first time by Royal Collection Trust.
A Note of Explanation was originally written in Vita Sackville-West’s own hand on pages no larger than postage stamps. It has remained unpublished since the…
Just when I had a hate moment against all technology, I came across an interesting book called IRRESISTIBLE: WHY YOU ARE ADDICTED TO TECHNOLOGY AND HOW TO SET YOURSELF FREE recently published by VINTAGE paperback (Penguin UK). I enjoyed reading it due to the focus on technology and childhood.
As psychologist Adam Alter says:
‘Kids aren’t born craving tech, but they come to see…
I love books about London and London things. The Rusty Old Postbox is my picture book of the week and has a London theme as well as a Christmas theme so it will be of particular appeal in the search for gifts for children aged between 5 and 8, and their parents who will read the story to them. It is also a book gift idea for those grandparents who would buy the title for the illustrations and…
I read and review a lot of books every year. I reckon in the region of 100 between novels, manuals and picture books. The book market is growing at an exponential level particularly children’s titles. There’s a book with a very unique interactive content and approach that has particularly struck a chord with me, and that is Good night stories for rebel girls. So much so that I have voted it…