Today we hear from Bookbabbler Pamela…

The Dragon Princess is an awesome bumper back of three tales of magic, action and true love.

Join Emma and Eadric as they battle against the odds to prove their love and determination to be together, all the while trying to rescue Eadric’s younger brother in No Place for Magic. Grassina will charm and amuse you in The Salamander Spell as she struggles against feeling neglected and useless and what it really means to go back home again. And of course, Millie, the Dragon Princess, who is determined to control her dragon nature.

The Dragon Princess is packed with adventure, mythical creatures like vampires, werewolves, trolls and fairies. It will charm and delight its readers with laugh-out-loud hilarity and sweet tales of true love. Not to mention having them on the edge of their seats at the epic adventures.

Thank you Pamela and thank you to Bloomsbury for sending us a copy to review.

Today we have a review for little ones, from Bookbabbler Wendy…

Please Bear’s Birthday - Avril Lethbridge & Diana Mather

This is a picture story book about good manners and is the second in the series. The first was Nice Bear Naughty Bear. This story is about Please Bear and his birthday party and what all the good and naughty bears get up to. It of course finishes, as all good parties do, with the birthday cake and the lovely line… ‘Soon the room is filled with laughter The Bears are happy … Ever after!

We have previously read Nice Bear Naughty Bear so my children were very pleased to receive Please Bears Birthday and instantly recognised the nice and naughty bears. The book starts with the Nice Bears Naughty Bears rhyme.

The style of the book is a page of writing and an illustration for each bear. The writing is in rhyme and these are simple and memorable. The illustrations are in a lovely watercolour style and very illustrative of the rhyme.

This is a lovely book to read to children and it is also a great way of discussing manners and my children use the term nice bear or naughty bear now when talking about behaviour.

Thanks, Wendy and thanks to Maverick Books for sending us a copy. It’s here for you to buy now..

Today we hear from one of our Parent Panel reviewers, Vicky..

Review of The Amazing Adventures of Scary Bones The Skeleton by Ron Dawson

When Sasha and Ben find an old box tied up with a red ribbon, they have no idea of what’s inside. To their great surprise out jumps a skeleton named Scary Bones. Contrary to his name though, there’s nothing scary about this fun filled and friendly set of bones and together the three of them find themselves on some fantastic adventures.

There are three books in the Amazing Adventures of Scary Bones The Skeleton series. Book one, The Lost Dog and Bone introduces the children and Scary Bones. Their new friend is in a bit of a predicament having had a bone stolen by a dog and unable to return home without it. Hunting for the bone reveals another strange occurrence. All the dogs have been stolen. To get back Scary Bones’ missing bone, they must first find who has taken the dogs and get them back.

The second. The Pirates Of  Brownsea Island sees the trio go on a swashbuckling adventure with fellow skeleton, Captain Cross Bones, the most hilarious tongue twisted pirate you could come across. Enemy Pirates have their eye on some hidden treasure, but Captain Cross Bones is determined to get to it first. As Sasha, Ben and Scary Bones get caught up in the battle, they face danger on the high seas and at the end of a plank.

Finally, in The Dinosaurs Of The Jurassic Coast, a day at the beach turns into an adventure when the children and Scary Bones find a doorway in the cliff face to a lost world. Things turn dangerous when they are chased by cave men brothers, Ziggy and Zaggy and some hungry dinosaurs all wanting to eat them. But there’s also a new friend to be found in the shape of super cute and friendly dinosaur Durdle Doorcus.

The Scary Bones series by Ron Dawson is fun from the very first page. Dawson has a naturally funny voice and his words twist and dance in a hugely entertaining and captivating manor. My daughter and I both had a good giggle many times at his fantastic turn of phrase. His characters are original and charming and there’s just the right amount of villainy and drama to excite and thrill. Our favourite was the second book in the series, Captain Cross Bones constant word muddling is hysterical and we both really liked the very sweet ending. At the end of each book is an envelope with a little surprise, which I thought was a lovely touch.

The books are described as being suitable for reading to children from aged 5/6 years old or to be read alone by older readers. My daughter is almost six and a very competent reader, and therefore insists on reading mostly herself.  With quite long passages of text and some complicated wording, she did find reading the books a struggle and it took us a long time to get through them. While the fun and lively language is a joy to read aloud, again the long passages and few illustrations made it a long process (although still enjoyable). I’d definitely recommend these books for children aged 8-10 who enjoy reading themselves. The action packed, humorous and original stories will appeal to both boys and girls and I’m sure the loveable Scary Bones and his fantastic adventures would enchant even a reluctant reader. I’m sure these books will be pulled off the shelves to be fully appreciated again in a couple of years time.

Thanks, Vicky. You can find out more at www.mulberrytreebooks.co.uk, and if you choose to buy them directly from there, the books will come signed and with free P&P. Alternatively, you can buy them from Amazon.

We’re reviewing for little ones today, and we bring you a new picture book, due out 1st August.

Ruby Nettleship and the Ice Lolly Adventure – Thomas Docherty

Ruby Nettleship is a magical little girl with a dream, and with the help of her ice-lolly stick, she makes her dream come true..

This heartwarming story features Thomas’ trademark nostalgic illustrations with fantastical twists. Written with his wife, Helen, this story introduces the reader to children with different abilities and social backgrounds.

The first thing to say is that this is a hardback book, which is always great for my daughter, as she does like to grab the book off me! The cover is lovely – sparkly and eye catching. The pages are beautifully illustrated, with bright colours and really fun pictures. As the lollipop stick’s magic takes hold, the pictures become more detailed and enchanting on every page.

The story is charming and perfectly mixes fairytale magic with the reality of a little girl wanting her rundown playground restored. It takes us on an adventure with Ruby where she gets to make a real difference in her neighbourhood, and it’s lovely to think that children’s dreams are like this and that they can influence change.

I do find myself drawn to this book at story time, as I love to look at the pictures as much as my daughter, and I’m still finding new details in each page that make me smile. Ruby Nettleship is a pleasure to read.

This is available to buy now, and thanks to Templar for sending us a copy.

We have our first ‘For Little Ones’ review today, from Helen on our Bookbabblers Parents’ Panel:

Fairy in Danger (Glitterwings Academy) – Titania Woods

I’ve seen these books advertised before and been dubious about them: there are so many fairy-related series out nowadays and titles seem to appear so frequently that I’m sceptical about the quality.  However, the reviews quoted from parenting and education magazines reassured me somewhat, and it turns out author “Titania Woods” is well-established teen writer Lee Weatherly, who has a couple of awards to her name.  I was also concerned that with this being the fourteenth book in the Glitterwings Academy series, it might be a problem that we hadn’t read any of the others.  I flicked through before reading it to my daughter, however, and found that it was fine – the story itself stands alone and any references to previous books, such as why the central character Twink has a particular nickname from her friend Sooze, are explained (although if that happens in every book it might get a bit tedious after a while!), so there is nothing inaccessible about coming late to the series.

Glitterwings Academy is a boarding school for fairies housed in an enormous tree, and the story centres around Twink’s discovery of a mysterious branch (room), very high up, that she has never seen before.  When she decides to research it for a school project she meets Shadow, a different kind of fairy, who isn’t a student at Glitterwings and who wants Twink to help out with a job.  This means breaking the school rules and sneaking out at night.  Should she go along with it?  And what danger lies in wait for if she does?

My daughter Erin and I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this together.  She’s 4, so it’s the first time we’ve read a book with chapters – as opposed to a whole, short, story – and we’ve been reading it one chapter a night (except for chapters 7 and 8 which had to be read together as the end of chapter 7 was just too tense to leave it there!).  She has found the story enthralling and looked forward to reading it each bedtime, laughing at the funnier characters such as Sooze, delighted by the magic elements (she loves anything to do with fairies so we were onto a winner from the start) and begging me to read on quickly during the tense moments.  For me the writing wasn’t fantastic – a bit clichéd in places – but it was interesting enough to hold my attention and I was genuinely taken by surprise at one point!  I particularly enjoyed the resonances of Malory Towers and other boarding school stories that I enjoyed as a child.

What I particularly liked was that there’s enough peril in there to make it involving and exciting but nothing upsetting or horrible, so completely appropriate for ages 4+.  Children who are reading independently could manage it themselves from about 6 I think, but with a 4-year-old there were a couple of things that needed discussing or explaining.  There is no indication of how old the fairies are supposed to be (only that they’re in the fourth year) so children of varying ages can relate to Twink and her friends.  The book itself is very much aimed at little girls – pastel colours and sparkly bits – so wouldn’t appeal to many boys, I don’t suppose, but I do like the fact that it’s a hardback (for the price of an average paperback) which makes it more durable.

Erin is already talking about getting more from this series and it’s been a great introduction to chapter stories as she’s keen to move on to her sister’s books now!

Thanks, Helen – great review. Fairy in Danger is new out this month, and has been added to our ‘For Little Ones’ section of the shop. Thanks to Bloomsbury Children’s Books for sending us a copy.

We’ve now got a Bookbabbler review panel for baby books through to books for 6/7 year olds. Our brilliant parent panel is made up of Helen, Keris and Vicki – welcome all! This means we’ll be working on our ‘For Little Ones’ page, bringing you reviews, new releases and old favourites for younger readers. If there are other parents out there who would like to get involved with this, then do drop us a line.

We strongly believe that the earlier you can get a child interested in books, the more likely it will become a habit that sticks with them. It’s a fine line between encouraging a love of reading and forcing a reading time that then becomes an unwanted routine of the day. Start reading to your child when he/she is just a baby or toddler, so that books become a fun part of every day life. Read our tips to encourage readers here.

We can’t think of a better way to kick this off than sharing some of our all time favourites with you. We’ve asked for some Bookbabbler input on this, too, and we thought about what we would put in a top 10 list for a first time parent wanting to know which books to get for their child – here’s what we would recommend…

The Tiger Who Came To Tea – Judith Kerr

Mr Men books – Roger Hargreaves

Mog the Forgetful Cat – Judith Kerr

The Jolly Postman – Janet & Allan Ahlberg

Room on the Broom – Julia Donaldson

We’re Going On  A Bear Hunt – Michael Rosen & Helen Oxbury

Funny Bones – Janet & Allan Ahlberg

The Gruffalo – Julia Donaldson

We’ve picked just 10 out there, but the list could go on and on. A few others worth a mention, that Bookbabblers have reminded us about – the That’s Not My…books, Where The Wild Things Are, Dear Zoo, Guess How Much I Love You and on and on. Check out our Facebook page for a few more ideas from the babble! We’ve added a new section to our shop – For Little Ones – where you can find our favourites there, along with more information about each of them. We’ll also add in to that section any future reviewed or featured titles. We are reviewing some books now, so we’ll be bringing you more For Little Ones soon..