Posts tagged books
No-Bot The Robot With No Bottom and Jack’s Mega Machines: The Dinosaur Digger – Book Reviews
5 months ago
Every time a parcel arrives from the lovely people at Simon and Schuster it brings a smile to my face. We can never have enough books in this house 
Today I’ve got two of their latest releases to review Unfortunately they won’t be published until January so a little late for Christmas this year but definitely worth keeping an eye out for in the new year
Jack’s Mega Machines – The Dinosaur Digger, Alison Ritchie and Mike Byrne
Jack’s Mega Machines is a fabulous new series of books which sees Jack the mechanic go on amazing adventures. Whenever he drives through the doors of his workshop something special happens. We loved the first book in the series The Rocket Racing Car and this book is his second adventure.
In The Dinosaur Digger, Jack has to fix a digger, but when he takes it for a test drive he is transported into a land of dangerous dinosaurs. Jack is faced with a stampede of baby dinosaurs being chased by a massive T-Rex! Can Jack help the baby dinosaurs and defeat the nasty T-Rex? Well you’ll just have to read it to find out 
All the books in this series come with a vehicle to play with, MissB loves playing along with the real Dinosaur Digger as we tell the story and it really does help to being the story to life
The Dinosaur Digger will be published on the 17th January 2013 with an RRP of £6.99 so keep an eye out for it if your child loves diggers and dinosaurs then it really is the perfect story for them
No-Bot The Robot With No Bottom – Sue Hendra
We are HUGE fans of Sue Hendra in this household, we’ve reviewed a few of her books such as Keith the Cat with The Magic Hat and Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell and now and they are firm favourites with MissB and MasterB. Her latest offering wasn’t a disappointment, in fact I think it’s my favourite book of hers to date
“Bernard the Robot loses his bottom on a park swing, and sets off to find it. Every time he gets close, it disappears again! Bird was using as a nest, but it was too heavy; Bear used it in a drum kit, but it was too tinny; the Squirrels built sand castles with it… and now it looks as if they’re sailing away in it. Will Bernard EVER get his bottom back?”
As always the book is beautifully illustrated and the story is guaranteed to have you and your child laughing, MissB has been marching around the house chanting “No-Bot, No-Bot” for the last couple of days as she finds it hysterical
I can’t recommend any of the Sue Hendra books highly enough, seriously if you’ve never read any of her books then you MUST!
No-Bot The Robot With No Bottom will be published on the 3rd of January 2013 with an RRP of £6.99.
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9 months ago
I love seeing him looking at books nowadays, he never showed any interest in them before he got glasses
Seven Stories – Newcastle
9 months ago
We recently spent a really enjoyable day out at Seven Stories in Newcastle. This isn’t a paid review, we were fully expecting to pay an entrance fee on the day we visited but it just so happened that there was a local festival on that day and so entry was free anyway
Seven Stories is the national home of children’s books in Britain. There are seven fun packed floors full of creativity, books, dressing up, story telling and displays which bring children’s books to life. As a book loving family we thought it was well worth a day out, especially as they had a large gruffalo display and MissB loves him
Our first stop on arriving had to be the Gruffalo MasterB was all smiles when he saw him but MissB burst into tears and refused to go near him. It took quite a bit of explaining that he was really just a very big teddy but I guess when you are only two, an 8ft Gruffalo can be a little intimidating
There are dressing up boxes positioned near most of the displays so you can dress up as the characters in the books and loads of fun, interactive things for the kids to do. We sat for ages entertaining them both with glove puppets
For lunch we popped down to their cafe (we went early at 12 whilst it wasn’t too busy) and had some lovely sandwiches and cake, before heading up to the top floor to listen to some story telling. MissB sat with daddy listening to stories read by entertaining staff whilst I kept MasterB out of trouble. There were more dressing up clothes up on that floor and MissB enjoyed dressing up as a butterfly
After stories, we headed down to the bottom floor where crafting sessions are held. The day we went had an elephant theme so MissB and I sat and made some rather lovely elephant ears together whilst daddy kept MasterB entertained playing on the train set they had down there.
We had the single pushchair with us and the museum is pushchair friendly, you can opt to leave it in the buggy park if you wish or keep it with you. There is a lift but we did find this was sometimes busy.
We had a lovely day at Seven Stories, both kids really enjoyed themselves and there is loads to do. We will definitely be going back soon even if we have to pay It’s currently £6.50 per adult and under 4s are free. You can also buy an annual pass for £26.
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10 months ago
I love seeing MasterB getting interested in books It still amazes me how much he has changed since getting his glasses.
Leapfrog Tag Junior Review
12 months ago
I’ve always been a fan of Leapfrog products so when they sent us the Leapfrog Tag Junior and a couple of books to try out I was very happy Tag Junior is a reading system for toddlers from age 2-4, designed for young explorers Tag Junior magically brings classic board books to life with playful sounds and activities! The different books feature many of your childs favourite characters such as Sesame Street, Thomas the Tank Engine, Dora the Explorer, Winnie The Pooh and Dr Seuss. We were sent the Tag junior with If I Were, Dr Suess’s Mr Brown Can Moo and Dora 1-2-3.
Firstly, a little warning – if you buy this for your child then make sure you open it and set the product up by connecting it to your computer and downloading any extra books etc onto it BEFORE your child sees it. You can also personalise the tag junior so that it says your childs name. The If I were book which comes with the tag junior is already pre-loaded onto the tag junior but other books need to be downloaded through the leapfrog website. It is best to do this BEFORE your child sees the tag junior or their patience may wear a little thin waiting for you to do it It doesn’t take long, only around 15 minutes but a whole 15 minutes to a toddler seems like a lifetime!
MissB loves reading with the Tag Junior, she will sit happily at bedtime going through the books again and again bless her. She has already started pointing to and saying the words before touching them with the tag junior so I think it’s building up familiarity of words with her. She particularly enjoys that the tag junior says hello and goodbye to her and that it uses her name. It’s simple things like that, that really make something special to a toddler I find
As a parent it amazes me how good technology in childrens toys is nowadays. The reader automatically knows which page of which book it is on (provided you’ve downloaded the book). With products for children this good and stimulating, surely children will be growing up to be super clever in the future! It’s hard to explain in words how this product works so I’ve made a little video for you demonstrating the tag reader as this might help
I’m now going to order MissB the alphabet book and get ready to read book set as I think the Tag junior is so fab The starter set with the tag junior and a book sells for around £15-£16 currently on Amazon and the different books range between £8-£12 from what I have seen. I’ve included a few links to them on Amazon below
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1 year ago
MissB is obsessed with her Monstersaurus book, we’ve read it about a dozen times tonight!
Vegetarian Children’s Books
1 year ago
by DawnieBrown
in Veggie Life
As we are raising MissB and MasterB as vegetarians, I’m always interested in vegetarian books which are aimed at children and I thought I’d share a couple that I currently have in my library. There are more out there that I plan on ordering at some point and will share with you over time but these are the two that I have so far
Herb The Vegetarian Dragon – Jules Bass and Debbie Harter
“In a faraway forest live Meathook and his band of carnivorous dragons who love feasting on tasty princesses. There is one dragon who is different… Herb is a peace loving vegetarian who is prepared to stand up for what he believes in!”
What I like about this book, aside from the lovely illustrations, is that it doesn’t preach that every vegetarian is good and every carnivore is bad, it even says in the book “I give you a choice, I will not ask you to change your eating habits. It is your rightful choice to eat what you will”. MissB is probably a little young to understand it now but I’m hoping that in a year or so she will understand that she is like Herb the friendly vegetarian dragon and that being vegetarian is nice. I also want her to understand that people aren’t bad because they eat meat, it is their choice It is basically a book about accepting other peoples lifestyles and being open to change.
That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals – Ruby Roth
Now I personally find this book a bit hardcore. I certainly think MissB is too young to read it yet. It basically seems to focus on factory farms and describes what life if like for animals on these farms compared to how it should be for instance…
“Crammed into cages on factory farms,
chickens have no room to live. There’s no land
to explore, no dust to bathe in, no dirt to peck,
poke, or scratch. There’s barely space to
spread their wings.”
I’m very much against factory farming and yes I’m vegetarian but I personally think this book is a bit too militant. It doesn’t take into account the move towards organic and free range farming and that not all animals farmed for meat are kept in these conditions. I want MissB to know the truth about these things, not propaganda as I want her to be able to make informed choices when she older. But yes it’s a book I’ll keep in my collection and one day I’ll read it with her and explain to her about factory farming but I want her to also understand that it’s not always as bad as this book makes it sound
Stories of Motherhood Review and Competition
1 year ago
I love books of all kinds and so when I was asked if I’d like to review a copy of Stories of Motherhood, I was happy to oblige
“Stories of Motherhood is the latest title in the Everyman’s Library’s Pocket Classics series and is a wonderful collection of short stories celebrating all aspects of motherhood.”
I love this book! It contains 17 short stories ranging from over a century. Some that make you laugh, some that make you smile, some that make you cry and some that make you realise just how precious being a mum is. As all of us mum’s know far too well, finding time to sit down and read is a challenge at the best of times so the great thing about short stories is that you might actually get through them before the baby starts screaming again or the toddler breaks something else
“Authors include Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Munro, Willa Cather and Colm Toibin. Lydia Davis and Harold Brodkey explore dizzying encounters between young mothers and their newborn babies, while Colm Tóibín and Lorrie Moore portray adult children grieving for their lost mothers. Ron Carlson probes the forging of a bond with an adopted infant; Barbara Kingsolver gives us a sparring mother-and-daughter pair whose overlapping pregnancies lead them to common ground, and Aimee Bender offers a loopy fable of maternal connection in which a woman gives birth to her own mother.”
The book is hardback and it has one of those fab silk bookmark ribbons in it (I love these – means I don’t need to find a bookmark and I don’t loose my place when I have to get up for the 50th time in half an hour lol). The book looks lovely and is guaranteed to make any mother smile. If you don’t get it for yourself then I’d highly recommend it as a Mother’s Day gift, it will make a lovely keepsake
Stories of Motherhood is published on 8th March 2012 and will be priced at £10.99 (I found it available to preorder here on Amazon at £8.58!)
The publishers have kindly agreed to give away a copy of Stories of Motherhood to TWO of my lovely readers, I’m ending this competition a little earlier than I usually do on Wednesday 14th March at 8pm so that you will be able to receive your copy in time for Mothers Day
How to Enter
You can do all of the actions below or just 1 of them but please make sure you leave a separate comment for each action you take or your entries will not be valid & please make sure you leave a way of contacting you either email or twitter, Thank you x
* Leave me a comment telling me you’d like to be entered
* Like Me on Facebook http://facebook.com/kneesupmotherbrown (there is a link on the right sidebar!)
* Tweet the following “I’d like to win a copy of Stories of Motherhood @dawnie_brown in this lovely giveaway at http://alturl.com/xyztd “
* Subscribe to the blog via email (form is over on the right sidebar!) – please note if you were previously subscribed to the blog you will need to subscribe again as I lost you all when I transferred to self hosting 
Good luck! UK entries only please. The winner will be drawn by random.org on March 14th at 8pm x
Erin
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becky
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2 weeks ago
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1 month ago
