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
Today is my stop on the blog tour for the awesome ‘A Witch Alone’ - the final (at present) instalment in the magical ‘The Apprentice Witch’ series. In addition to this review, you can also listen to me interviewing James about the series HERE on the Library Girl and Book Boy podcast. If you’ve ever … Continue reading ‘A Witch Alone,’ by James Nicol, cover illustration by Daniela Terrazzini – The Blog Tour!
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.
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.
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.
This bright and beautiful cloth book is going to make a perfect gift for a very special friend of mine who has just had a gorgeous baby girl. This is the fourth in a series of bright and stylish cloth books produced for Nosy Crow by Lisa and Edward. It comes in a handy gift … Continue reading ‘A Tiny Little Story – Christmas,’ by Lisa Jones and Edward Underwood.
Now I have a bit of a soft spot for Junior Catch-A-Doggy-Bone as he sent me my very first Christmas card of the year. Naturally I am very pleased to tell you all about his latest book: ‘Happy Howlidays,’ part of the Dog Diaries series. In his second book, Junior explains to his readers all … Continue reading ‘Happy Howlidays,’ by Steven Butler and James Patterson, illustrated Richard Watson.
I’m lucky enough to have been sent lots of lovely Christmas books to review this Winter. The Snow Rabbit’s glittery cover really caught my eye. Bear is always so grumpy. Will anybody ever manage to make him smile? When snowfall covers the woods, rabbit thinks he knows just the thing to cheer him up. Surely … Continue reading ‘The Snow Rabbit,’ by Georgiana Deutsch, illustrated by Alison Edgson.
Sometimes, the simple pleasures of Christmas can get lost amongst the flashing lights and tinsel of a modern Christmas. This joyful feel-good book helps readers pause and look around them. Bear is just settling down in front of a warm fire to read his book when he hears a loud tooting from outside. Upon opening … Continue reading ‘The Christmas Extravaganza Hotel,’ by Tracey Corderoy, illustrated by Tony Neal.
Library Girl and Book Boy 