Celebrate fifteen years of ‘Dear Santa’ with this special edition of Rod Campbell’s Christmas classic with an extra sparkly gold-foiled cover. Join Santa as he wraps and packs the perfect present for each and every child. For generations, children have loved joining in with the simple text and repeated refrains, lifting the flaps to see … Continue reading Christmas Advent – Day 10 ‘Dear Santa,’ by Rod Campbell.
On the ninth day of book advent, my true love gave to me... a shiny gold edition of Ben Miller’s Christmas book! Jackson knows all about the flying reindeer; he knows about the elves and the secret North Pole workshop; he knows about the magic which allows Father Christmas to deliver presents around the world … Continue reading Christmas Advent – Day 9 ‘The Night I Met Father Christmas,’ by Ben Miller, illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini.
Any child of the eighties (and onwards) will be familiar of the tale of ‘Dogger,’ a beloved favourite toy who goes missing then reappears in the most unexpected of places. I am absolutely beyond delighted to be able to report that the legendary Shirley Hughes has created a magical new Dogger adventure: ‘Dogger’s Christmas.’ “It's … Continue reading Christmas Advent – Day 8 ‘Dogger’s Christmas,’ by Shirley Hughes
Today have a fabulously festive romp for your reading pleasure as little ones are encourage to help Santa find his pants! It’s Christmas Eve, the sleigh is packed and the reindeer are ready to go. But as Santa starts getting dressed to head out, he can’t find his pants! As his spare pairs blown off … Continue reading Christmas Advent – Day 7 ‘Can You Find Santa’s Pants?’ by Becky Davies and Alex Willmore.
As with all of Zommer’s gorgeously illustrated titles, wintery treat A Thing Called Snow,’ focuses on the beauty of nature and encourages readers to discover the wonders of the great outdoors. Fox and Hare have grown up together and become best friends but they have yet to experience snow. When winter comes, they are desperate … Continue reading Christmas Advent – Day 6 ‘A Thing Called Snow,’ by Yuval Zommer.
Emma Yarlett creates the most beautiful picture books so I was very excited to see that she’s created a rather wonderful Christmas story with fold-out letters and plenty of laughs. Every year, Santa gets thousands of letters full of Christmas wishes from children all over the world and he is usually able to find the … Continue reading Christmas Advent – Day 5 ‘Santa Post,’ by Emma Yarlett.
Today’s advent pick is a wry, clever and downright hilarious journey towards finding the real meaning of Christmas. The International Postal Service is in the red and this spells bad news for seasonal worker, Santa. He’s going to have make some cutbacks: reindeer hire and insurance is a major expense, and as for some of … Continue reading Christmas Advent – Day Four ‘Santa Gets a Second Job,’ by Michele D’Ignazio, illustrated by Sergio Olivotti, translated by Denise Muir.
This is a throughly beautiful and original explanation of how Father Christmas came to be. It is quite unlike any Christmas book I have read before - quiet, thoughtful and magical. The young boy and his family spend their lives moving from place to place as they follow their food. It’s hard to imagine life … Continue reading Christmas Advent – Day 3 ‘The Three Wishes: A Christmas Story,’ by Alan Snow.
If ever there was an excuse to buy the littlest bookworms a new board book to chew, surely Christmas is it? ‘Peas on Earth’ is a super-cute counting book featuring five very excited little peas! All the peas are getting very excited as the countdown to Christmas gets underway, with one popping off to visit … Continue reading Christmas Advent – Day 2 ‘Peas on Earth,’ illustrated by Lindsey Sagar.
If you are after a festive treat to officially kick off the festive season, you absolutely cannot go wrong with one of Alex T. Smith’s beautiful picture books. This year’s delight is a reimagining of a classic Christmas poem, borne from Smith’s inability to remember the original gifts celebrated in poetic form. Things start off … Continue reading Christmas Advent – Day 1 ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas or Grandma is Overly Generous,’ by Alex T. Smith.
It’s Chriiiisssstmaaass!!!! Well, almost. But it’s definitely time to start buying Christmas books for all your favourite people. So, without further ado, let me introduce you to ‘Billy and the Balloons.’ Billy was out with his dad selling balloons on Christmas Eve and was desperate to hold the bunch, but dad keeps telling him that … Continue reading Blog tour: ‘Billy and the Balloons,’ by Elizabeth Dale, illustrated by Patrick Corrigan.
I’ve recently been sent several beautiful new editions of classic children’s stories which I think would make excellent Christmas gifts for established fans or new readers. To stand the rest of time, these classic stories have to have a timeless appeal that will entertain future generations and the titles I’m about to show you will … Continue reading Pick a Classic for Christmas
You know when Nicola Davies releases a new book that it’s going to be something a little bit special. ‘The Dog That Saved Christmas’ looks at Christmas from an entirely different perspective and certainly made me stop and think. For Jake, Christmas is a terrible time of year. The lights are too bright, the decorations … Continue reading ‘The Dog That Saved Christmas,’ by Nicola Davies, illustrated by Mike Byrne.
The Snow Sisters series is sure to be a hit with fans of the Disney hit, Frozen. It features three sisters with special magical powers. They live in a castle on the island of Nordovia where their family has the important role of Keepers of the Light. The Silver Secret (Book 1) In the first … Continue reading The ‘Snow Sisters’ series by Astrid Foss, cover by Sharon Tancredi, illustrated by Monique Dong.
Watching The Nutcracker is a Christmas tradition from my childhood. Imagine my delight when this beautiful search and find book was delivered. One in a series of gorgeous, foiled hardback books bringing to life classic stories in a new and interactive way. When people think of ‘The Nutcracker,’ they often think of the ballet, but … Continue reading ‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,’ retold by Hannah Pang, illustrated by Federica Frenna.
Introducing a new frosty instalment to the ever-popular Unicorn Academy series. A huge hit in the school library and a perfect stocking-filler for all unicorn fans. Olivia loves being at Unicorn Academy, but can’t help but worry that her unicorn, Snowflake, won’t discover her magic before graduation day. The academy is buzzing with excitement as … Continue reading ‘Olivia and Snowflake,’ by Julie Sykes, illustrated by Lucy Truman.
Those cheeky gremlins are back in a flap-filled Christmas adventure. “It’s getting close to Christmas and there’s magic in the air... But beware of cheeky gremlins, who are hiding everywhere!” Christmas is coming and the gremlins are back and up to their usual mischievous tricks. Hiding in the Christmas tree, eating the turkey and blocking … Continue reading ‘Christmas Gremlins,’ by Adam & Charlotte Guillain, by Chris Chatterton
The dream team of children’s picture books are back with a suitably wintery Christmas book, ‘Snowball.’ Book Boy Jr. had been desperate to read this since spotting an advert for it at the train station! A lonely little snowball stands on top of a mountain and gazed down at the town below. It seems to … Continue reading ‘Snowball,’ by Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet.
A brand new wintry instalment in the sublimely fantastical Magic Forest series. Winter has fallen in the Magic Forest and its inhabitants are not happy - all the snow is ruining their prize-winning gardens. It is decided (following advice from Gnomedalf) that a team of five brave heroes (consisting of a unicorn, a fairy, a … Continue reading ‘Super Frozen Magic Forest,’ by Matty Long.
Library Girl and Book Boy 